Chap. 97 The DNA report

Chap. 97  The DNA report

K'ndar called out, "Hello, the clinic! Hello?"

Salish's assistant came out, wiping his hands.

"Hello, sir, Salish is in back, caring for a patient. How may I help you?"

"I was wondering if she got the results of a DNA test on a sample taken from my dragon," he said.

"Oh, you must be K'ndar. She's been waiting for you, come on in."

He followed the man into the back part of the clinic. Salish was treating a tear on a very old dragon's wing.

"Hello, K'ndar! I'm almost done," she said. One of the Oldtimers was standing by the brown's head, comforting him.

"These old fellas, their wing tissue gets so thin," Salish said, more to herself than to the others.

"There, that should do it," she said, handing her tools to her assistant. "Boil them good, please, I can pick up the trash here," The man nodded and departed. K'ndar went to help her pick up the guaze and she held up a gloved hand. 

"Thank you, but no thank you, K'ndar. I've taken to wearing these gloves more to protect everyone from transmitting bacteria. So far it's working."

The Oldtimer blinked at Salish. Like so many long time riders, his eyes had been affected by so many years of fighting thread and going between.

"Would it help if he flew more? He's not so interested in that, any more. And, I must say, I'm getting pretty stiff in the joints to even harness him, so it's my fault," the old man said.

"No, sir, I don't think it's your fault. It's just what happens when we get old. We consume less collagen, we don't work our muscles as often. Maybe you should go see Billek, our healer, he might be able to help you with sounds to me like arthritis. Well, dragons get arthritis, too."

"Never heard of no arthuritis, but, I'll do that, missy. Thankee much, I do love this old dragon of mine."

"I'll come by later on and check his wing, but I think he'll be fine," she said. She gave the old dragon a pat on the neck. "He's a fine one, I will say. You've done well by him." 

The assistant returned and opened the large bay doors, ones large enough to admit the largest dragons. The man and his ancient partner shuffled out.

She pulled her gloves off and dropped them into a bucket that smelled slightly of alcohol. 

The assistant picked the bucket up and left.

"So, K'ndar, Miklos did come through for us. First off, he didn't find anything bacterial or virally unusual in the sample that would cause me to worry," she said. "Raventh's young and strong, and his immune system is working just fine."

"I've been keeping an eye on the wound. It's healed up almost completely."

"That's never failed to amaze me, how fast dragons heal. That old bronze who just left? Even at his age, with a little care, that tear in his wing will heal fairly quickly, even it being wing tissue that has no blood. I mean ichor."

"So, come on into my office and I'll show you Miklos's report," she said.

Her office was small, cramped, packed to the rafters with tools of her trade and, increasingly, books. 

She needs a computer, or at least a data link, he thought. 

She picked up a piece of paper. 

"Francie's green lizard delivered this just a little while ago. It's amazing, how we've gone lifetimes without using the little things for courier, transport. It's so convenient. So fast, and now I can devote more time to healing dragons rather than begging for a ride on one," she said. 

"Which one was it?"

"Eggs, I don't know, K'ndar. Green."

He laughed. "Probably was Keeso, the other one, Sisi, can be lazy. Those are Francie's direct words, not mine."

"Anyway, he was able to get a bit of 'shark' DNA from the sample we took from Raventh. Using some old techniques, and a little help from the computer data base, he was able to produce a large enough sample to be able to at least identify what the 'shark' is."

"And?"

Salish grinned, relishing this moment. 

"Take a wild guess at what the shark is related to."

K'ndar hated guessing games, but he played into it, out of respect.

"A wherry?"

"No, silly, not even close."

"Oh, please, Salish, I was never good at guessing games, just tell me."

"Oh, you're no fun. Tunnel snakes."

"WHAT?"

"It's incredible, but it's true. The closest related living thing to those sharks are…tunnel snakes."

"Tunnel snakes. I…I just don't see it. I would have thought a wher, if nothing else."

"No, it would seem they predate just about everything, even whers. I'm guessing that they come from a time before there was even land. 

And I should probably say it the other way round, that tunnel snakes are related to the sharks, who are incredibly old, evolutionarily speaking. He's guessing they've been here for at least 30 million years."

K'ndar was boggled. His books had touched, lightly, on the evolution of Pern's creatures, but never would have thought such a mighty creature could turn into a tunnel snake.

But, he remembered, that's not how evolution worked. 

"Now remember, I said, related to. There might be some seagoing tunnel snakes that we've just never seen."

"I was just thinking that. I'm going to have to hit the books at Landing about evolution. It just seems so outlandish."

"No more outlandish than us humans, being upright, bipedal critters who have bad backs, can choke to death on a sip of water, and our knees should have been installed the other way."