Chap. 70 The Equipment

Chap. 70  The equipment

The problem, D'nis realized, that once word got out that he was planning an expedition, that everyone wanted to go, too.

He had to say no. This disappointed a lot of wannabe explorers, but also inspired other riders to think of other places to go. 

K'ndar, D'nis and D'mitran had, first, flown to Landing to do more research. K'ndar specifically went to get more notebooks. The change was that now they were being charged for what used to be free.

"I'm sorry, K'ndar, but once word got out that there were notebooks available, they flew out of here faster than a green dragon," Elene said. "It seems everyone wanted one, and sometimes more, for free. We have to make money from the sale of books and now, notebooks. It's the only way we'll be able to keep printing books."

K'ndar nodded in understanding. This time, he'd come prepared.

"I understand, ma'am, I'm probably the cause of that," he admitted. 

"It's okay, K'ndar. Better we charge from now on. I'd bet my noon meal someone would try to sell them at a Market. Better we make the money rather than them. 

If you wonder why, well, making the paper involves things like harvesting the grass it's made from, bringing it here, curing it, pulping it, drying it, then forming it into sheets and only THEN can it be printed on for books. These days, people are paid for their work."

"As it should be, ma'am. Dragonriders are going to need to learn that. But even so, I have money and I brought it with me. So, I'm going to buy two notebooks, and maybe a book! I turned the 'Natural History of Pern' into our library at the weyr." He noted that the second copy of that book was gone. Someone must have bought it. He wanted a copy for himself. Maybe later, he told himself. 

Elene showed him the notebooks. A new style was much larger, with more room for drawing and mapping. K'ndar bought one of those and a smaller one, same size as his first one, for Lizard.

Then he began looking at the newest books. One caught his eye, "Pern Oceanography and Marine Biology." It smelled of newness. He riffled through it and saw pictures of creatures he only half recognized, like dolphins. There were creatures in the sea so utterly different than he'd ever imagined. It had a chapter on the sea wherries and other sea going avians. The book also discussed tides, hurricanes, plate tectonics, and other oceanic processes.  

'I have to have this, ma'am." he said, 'along with the notebooks."

She smiled, loving the need she saw in him, the urge to learn, learn learn.

She did the math and cut it a little. She was, after, the Master of the Library.

"That will be one mark," she said. "And I'll throw in these new pencils."

"I still have one," he said.

"Aye, but you always need more pencils. Here. And look at these. They're  a new invention, well, not new. New to us.  Try this one," and she handed him one. He took it, now accustomed to using one, drew it across a piece of paper…and instead of black, it came out RED!

"Colors!" 

"Yes. For now, we have a set of five: green, red, blue, black and brown. Once they find the pigments for other colors, like yellow or orange, we'll add those."

He held them for the treasure they were.

"Tell me, what are all these for?"

"Well, save for the oceanography book? Am I pronouncing it correctly?"

"Yes,"

"We are going on an expedition to map and survey the steppe."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I would so love to go, " she said, enviously.

"So does everyone else. D'nis has had to put a firm grip on the number so that we don't overwhelm my family cothold. We're using it as a base. But I bet in the future, lots of folks will be going out there. It's beautiful and wild. Like what it must have been when the ancients were here."

Elene said the words before she thought them through. It was, she later reflected, a desire she'd never known she had, until now.

"K'ndar, I've…I've never seen the steppe. Isn't that sad? I live so close, relatively speaking, and I've never been even to the southern range."

"Well, ma'am, you don't have a dragon. Or, I'm guessing, a horse? If it weren't for my being Impressed, I'd still be down there, having never seen the ocean and the only place other than my cothold was two or three trips to Singing Waters." 

He knew what was next, and he immediately formed his answer.

"Do you think, someday, you could," she began, hesitantly.

"Take you down to see it on my dragon? I would be honored, ma'am, very much so. Just say when, and we'll go. I should say that it's at it's most impressive in the spring, when it's covered in flowers and the birds are singing. That's a few months from now," he said.

Her smile reminded him of his mother. The thought panged him, yet very soon he'd be seeing her, and his family, for a little while.

"I will let you know, then. Thank you so much," she said.

Had he known how to do it, he would have bowed.

D'nis and D'mitran came out of the computer room, laden with maps, notebooks, and a wooden box.

"Here, K'ndar, give us a hand. Careful with that sextant, it's sturdy but we don't want to drop it."

K'ndar took the wooden box. "what's a sextant?"

"It is an instrument used in measuring the angular distance between objects, determining one's position by measuring the angle between the sun and the horizon, or another star," D'nis said, quoting from memory.

"Oh." K'ndar said, solely out of courtesy.

"It enables us to know our latitude. In this box is a little gadget that talks to the Yokohama. The sextant is old, old technology, and gadget is what people used to communicate with Aivas, for instance, knowing what their longitude was. The gadget tells us a LOT more information than just longitude. But I want to learn both ways, the old and the new. 

Between these two items, we shouldn’t have too much problem staying on our course and setting benchmarks. And if you think I am solidly confident in their use, that I know precisely what the data we collect will mean, you have been drinking. I'm comfortable now, but I hope I don't forget everything I've learned on how to use it once we're out on the steppe."

"And if we do forget, we can always follow the watercourse, or, tell our dragons to go home," D'mitran said. 

"That is another advantage of exploring with dragons," D'nis said. "They don't get lost."