Chap. 391 The Call On the Carpet

Raylan had led the way. The door to Evvelin’s office swooshed open and he stepped in. Jansen and K’ndar balked, both reluctant to come in any further.

Evvelin’s laser gaze went right past Raylan into their eyes. Nothing needed to be said. As one, they spun on their heels and didn’t quite run as the door swooshed shut behind them.

“Whew,” K’ndar said, once they were safely outside, “I’m glad she didn’t insist we stay. I didn’t want to be a witness to a mauling.”

“Same here. I couldn’t leave fast enough,” Jansen said, shaking her head. “I’ve had to witness some of her ‘little conversations’. She doesn’t yell, oh, no, quite the opposite. Every word is gently spoken but has edges all round. She scares the shoes off my feet when she has that look in her eye.”

It was so unnaturally quiet, he noticed. Did everyone see us land and Raylan dismount? I don’t see anyone now. Not like it was this morning.

“Did Raylan say anything when you met him?” Jansen asked, as they approached Raventh.

K’ndar shook his head. “He said, ‘Hello, K’ndar.’ That’s it.”

“‘Hello, K’ndar’ as in hey mate, good to see you? Or, ‘Hello, K’ndar’, I’m late to my beheading?”

K’ndar sighed. “The latter.”

“I thought it might be that. What happened to his friend?”

“I offered to return after dropping Raylan off and take him home. But he said no, he’d rather walk, he’s allergic to dragons.”

Siskin chipped at them from his perch behind Raventh’s head.

“Does he ride up there all the time?” she asked.

“Who?”

“Siskin.”

K’ndar, his mind awhirl at her sudden change of subject, said, “He does, when we’re flying, of course.”

“He saved us all a lot of time. Thank you, Siskin, you are the very best fire lizard!” Jansen said to the blue.

Siskin, always a sucker for praise, immediately launched straight up, then did a barrel roll, just for fun.

They laughed. “Sis, you’re such a ham,” K’ndar said, glad for the break in the gloomy conversation. I wonder how a part of a pig became a euphemism for the enthusiastic and ostentatious display when someone is the center of attention, he wondered.

Jansen looked up at Raventh’s eyes. They were a happy blue.

“What now?” he said to Jansen. He felt the chill return to his spine. “Is he going to be, um, dismissed?”

She rummaged around in her head, looking for precedent.

“I hope not. I can’t say what she’s going to do. I think she’s as surprised as I am, absolutely stonkered that Raylan shut off his datalink.”

“Honestly, Jansen, I used to shut mine off, remember I was always being told to keep it on.”

“And you were just out of the weyr, you were new and forgive me for saying this, far younger than the usual new hire. Raylan hired you for your display of raw and innate talent. He said later you were born a biologist.”

“Um,”

“Seriously, K’ndar. He’s always had a good eye for people like us. He hired me right off the mark, solely because I had a grasp of coding without a lick of training. I just knew, you know? It’s like my DNA was coded to code. I’m not going to boast, I’m far better at programming and coding than he ever will be. “Why waste natural talent?” he would say. So he was always able to forgive minor transgressions such as you forgetting to keep your datalink on.”

“Seems to me he was constantly harassing me about it.”

“Oh, yes, that’s true. And you learned.”

“Maybe not. I still have to remind myself to turn the bloody thing on in the morning.”

“I sometimes shut mine off when I’m in my quarters, I’m off duty and don’t expect to be called. Mind you, I don’t go anywhere, not like you dragon riders. But I promise it’d be on were I twenty klicks out in the wilderness without anyone knowing where I was.”

How sad, the thought racing through his mind, to stay here all the time? Never go anywhere? Like my family, like most people on Pern, who never leave their Hall or Hold. I am truly lucky to have dragon transportation to wherever I choose.

“He told Francie,” K’ndar said, defensively, “At least that’s what she said.”

“And she’s unconscious. If she had died, just imagine the chaos-not to mention the emotional upset,” she said.

“I can’t even begin to imagine it, other than Motanith going between. Even dragons grieve.”

“If it hadn’t been for you and Raventh, we’d never know what happened to her and Motanith.”

“She has three fire lizards, they would have told Raventh where and why.”

“Not everyone has a fire lizard,” she said.

“True, and even fewer have dragons to interpret.”

“Can I pet Raventh?” she asked, changing the subject again.

“He’d prefer a chin scratch, really,” he said. Jansen reached forward and began to scratch. Raventh shut his eyes and began to rumble.

“He’s PURRING?”

K’ndar laughed. “About as close as a saurian can to doing so,” he said.

The saurian. The animal on Woochick Island!

“Jansen, in all this, um mess, I forgot to tell you, I saw a new animal on Woochick Island.”

“Woochick Island? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of it, it’s not on the list of islands.”

“I just made the name up. A few months ago, me, Francie and Raylan flew out to this island, it’s just south of the equator and all by itself, not in the Eastern Island chain. The only way humans can get to it is by dragon. Ships don’t dare the reef. It’s the most amazing place I’ve ever been, and I haven’t had a chance to truly explore it. It appears to be totally untouched by humans. Even dragonriders can’t stay there for more than a few hours, between high and low tide. High tide, the only beach is meters underwater.”

“Why did you go there?”

“I wanted to do a little exploring. Motanith told Raventh that we were going and Francie immediately insisted she go with. She wanted to go snorkeling and catch a fish. The reef is incredibly beautiful, she said.”

“You call it Woochick? What’s that mean?”

“We saw this strange, wingless bird there. It had a call, woochick. So she called it Woochick Beach and I used it for the whole island. “

“No wings at all?”

“None that I could see, but I won’t swear to it. Obviously I haven’t dissected one, never mind caught one. It may have wings that are atrophied and hidden under its feathers. Evolution does things like that. A bird or a saurian on a small island that has no predators can lose their wings, or at least their ability to fly. They often get turned to some other purpose that helps the bird survive. In the woochick, it has at least one pair of bony arms!”

Jansen gasped. “Arms? With hands on the end? I’d love to see that! Why didn’t you capture one?”

He laughed. “I don’t know about it having hands. First of all, none of us had any idea the things existed. We went for a picnic, not a scientific expedition. Then, second, they can be dangerous. Francie’s bronze fire lizard attacked one and it jumped up as high as my head and slashed him with a very large and sharp talon on its hind legs. It even slashed my riding boot, it left an open gash as long as your hand. Nope, the little time I spent observing it tells me it’s as dangerous as any lion. I have no doubt its hind talons can easily cut a net to ribbons. I’d have to really think how to capture it. And third, I think the total viewing time was no more than five minutes.”

“Why didn’t you at least report it? Did you see one today?”

“Jansen. No to the second, and first, things have been crazy here lately. I wasn’t looking for the woochick. I went into the jungle to just see what it has. P’jar will want to see it, I didn’t recognize a single plant and the vegetation is as thick as the hair on a boathead. This animal came out of the undergrowth in front of me and stopped. It just looked at me, obviously, it had never seen a human in it’s life. But I did manage to get pictures of the animal before it turned and vanished.”

“Oohhhhhhh, K’ndar, I want to see them! and scan them into the computer. Turing may be able to identify it. But, but, I really don’t want to go back inside, not today, at least. My work station is just down the hall from Evvelin’s and I have no desire to cross her path today. Not when she looks like THAT. Raylan may just have been an appetizer.”

“I don’t either. It can wait until tomorrow. I need to get some lunch in my stomach, I have a feeling that once Evvelin is done with Raylan, he’s going to want to go to Cove Hold to be with Francie.”

She nodded, suddenly realizing that she’d been scratching Raventh’s chin all this time.

“I better stop scratching him before I take all his skin off,” she said.

Raventh laughed.

—————————————————————————————————–

I should have time to get some lunch, he thought.

Being in his quarters was a solace. Siskin chuckled as he flew up to his ledge. Sometimes this home of mine, so unlike the caverns I grew up in, is a haven, he thought. Just me and my family of Siskin and Raventh, here in the privacy of my weyr. I can still call it a weyr, even though it’s at ground level, it’s not a volcanic cave, and has electricity and running water. It’s still a weyr.

We’ll be taking Raylan to Cove Hold? Raventh asked.

Yes. Have you heard from Motanith?

She says Francie is awake. Her mind sounds like it always does.

Relief flooded his mind. That is good news!

He opened the refrigerator and took out the bundle of lunches Francie had made. I know her, there’s probably a meat pie in here, if nothing else.

Later on, he would wonder what made him stop and check instead of just reaching in to pull out one of the expected lightwood bento boxes.

He opened the pack and looked inside.

The boxes had been destroyed. All that was left was shards of wood along with pieces of meat pies.

What the? he wondered. I didn’t smash it or drop it. What in the world?

He hurriedly closed the pack. Something got in and ate everything, that’s the only thing that explains this. Something I might not want to get out, especially here in my weyr. I remember the teeko lizards getting out of my backpack in here, I don’t need THAT again. I’ll take it outside for a better look.

“Come with me, Siskin,” he said to the blue as he moved out through the pedestrian door.

Raventh trundled up to meet him at the dragon watering trough.

Something inside the pack?

Yes. I don’t know what it is.

Siskin perched on the rim, expectantly.

He opened the pack and gingerly turned it over. The detritus fell out, but nothing else. He shook it, hard.

Three elongated creatures fell out. He immediately saw they were insects, but of relatively gargantuan size. They each were as long and as wide as his two fists put together side by side, and had what appeared to be a thousand legs. Siskin immediately launched to pounce on one, but it was immobile. The fire lizard backed up, sneezing.

It stinks Raventh said.

Then he could smell them. Yes.

They’re dead. I think, he said, excitement at yet another new creature stirring his soul.

Or maybe not. I don’t know when they ate the wood and the food in the boxes. So they were alive at least for awhile. They’re tropical insects, they must have been stunned from the cold of between and then the refrigerator.

Do I have a specimen cage large enough to hold them?

Siskin sent an image of the locusts they’d caught on the steppe, what seemed a lifetime ago. He’d collected several into one jar, only to end up with just one very well fed one.

Thank you, Siskin, for the reminder. Okay, I don’t want them eating each other.

Ah. I have some of those vacuum tubes! In my office! Do I go back into the main building? My work area is just down the hall from Raylan’s office. With luck he’ll never know I was there. I need to do this soon. If they’re still alive I don’t want them warming up.

Be careful handling them. They may sting like the shellfish did to Francie.

You’re right. He retrieved his broom and dust pan and maneuvered the three insects back into the pack. One appeared to twitch as he did so.

Yeesh, they ARE still alive. I have to hurry.

Get on, I can fly to your building faster than you can runRaventh said.

He snuck quietly into his workspace. Thankfully no one else was in the office. He retrieved three vacuum tubes from his storage bin, and carefully emptied the pack on the floor. The three insects fell out. I’m not going to touch you, he said to them. So he shoveled one each into a tube, using the cap to push the insect inside. Then he activated the tube, hearing it exhaust the air inside. No air means if they’re alive they won’t be for long, he thought, and I can leave them here.

He hurriedly scribbled a note on each one, saying unknown insect, woochick island, and the date, and hurried back outside to join Raventh and Siskin.

Raylan exited the building almost immediately afterwards. He stopped short.

“You’re still here?” he asked. “I would have expected you to return to your quarters.”

“Um,” K’ndar, surprised, felt trapped. Does he know how much I know? What a strange question, why wouldn’t I be here? It’s almost as if he’s angry. I’m not to blame, Raylan, he thought.

“I was, then I returned because, well, I had some specimens,” he heard himself stammering. He took a deep breath. “Grab the bull by the horns, K’ndar,” his uncle Fland used to say in such situations.

Fine. You can tell me to bugger off, Raylan, but I have every right to be here, and I need answers.

“Do I still work for you? Are you still my boss?”

Raylan looked perplexed.

“Of course, why would I not be?”

“Well, um, I thought, what with, um, you’re being called in Evvelin’s office,”

“I see. I was wrong. She didn’t behead me or dismiss or fire me. Other than now being short several kilos of arse, I’m okay. Well, not okay. I’m pissed at Francie for going off like that, but more, I’m pissed at myself.”

“Raylan,” K’ndar began, then stopped at the look in Raylan’s eyes. It would be useless, and insubordinate for me to call him out for his transgressions, he thought. She didn’t shut off her datalink, you did. And I have an out.

“You know what, boss, you need to go be with her. I’ll take you.”

“Yes. Please.” He shouldered his backpack.

Raventh dropped a knee without bidding.

My word, he’s so much bigger than Motanith, Raylan thought. Motanith. When I see you I will drop to my knees and thank you for saving my wife.

K’ndar buckled Raylan in, then mounted ahead of him.

Launch, please? Cove Hold. He knew he no longer needed to push the dragonstones to Raventh.

Raventh rose into the warm air, searching for a thermal.

His stomach bitched. Damn. I still haven’t had lunch.