Chap. 103 Planning the recovery

Chap. 103  Planning the recovery

Francie's arrival in the dining hall was announced by the tinkling of a small bell.

Of her three fire lizards, Coora, the bronze, was wearing a harness, bearing a tiny bell.

Siskin, who was roosting in the rafters, chirped. Sisi and Keeso, Francie's two green lizards, flew up to join him, but Coora perched on K'ndar's shoulder. He wheedled.

"Hello, little bronze, what have you here?"

Coora's eyes whirled orange, miffed that K'ndar didn't recognize him. He hopped to purposefully shake the bell.

"Oh! It's you, Coora! I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you. Where did you get that bell?"

The bronze chipped and shoved his chest out further. The bell was attached to a message pouch.

 "You have message…for me?" 

Coora peeped, his eyes whirling an affirmative green.

K'ndar removed a small piece of paper from the pouch. 

"WELL done, Coora, clever, clever boy. Thank you," K'ndar said, knowing the fire lizard wouldn't be interested in a treat from his plate-he was eating a salad. He unrolled the paper.

The bronze flew up into the rafters to join his weyrmates. Siskin was immediately envious of the bell. 

Hello, K'ndar! What do you think of this notification system? One of the kids in fire lizard training suggested we put a bell on a messenger lizard. Good idea, what? Your friend, Terylin, created the bells. She calls them 'pony express bells', but why a pony is involved, I don't know. Francie

He had nothing to respond to her message, but it was unnecessary.

A hand on his shoulder announced her arrival. She sat down across from him.

"Hello, Francie! I think the bell is an incredibly useful idea!" K'ndar said.

She grinned. "The kids are really eating the training up. They wanted to teach their lizards, most of them were upset that their lizards were being a nuisance, but they had no idea how to go about rectifying the problem. The kids are so excited, not only having a chance to train their lizards, but also to work with the Weyrlings as mentors. Already half of them are insisting they want to impress a real dragon," she said. 

"Hmm," he said, sipping at his klah. "Have you had anything to eat?"

"Nay, but that's alright, I had something before I left Landing this morning. And Hariko keeps the snacks coming to the training hall.  I'll get something in a few minutes. I am glad you're here, I want to discuss something with you."

"Go ahead."

"Raylan told me about your finding that big skeleton on the southern coast."

"Well, it was one of my exploration teammates who found it, B'rost."

"No matter. I hear the dolphins told you what it was?"

"Yes. Who told you, one of the kids?"

"Yes, it's all over the weyr by now. It's a 'deep diver'?"

"That's what the dolphins call it. What humans will call it, I don't know. Deep diver seems sort of…clunky."

Lindea came up to them. "Hello, Francie, you're not eating?"

"Girl, your boss keeps me fed more than I should be eating," she laughed.

"Lindea was with us, the second time we went to the coast."

"I see. Here's the situation. The people at Landing have the skull that you brought in and quite honestly, have no idea what it is. They would like to collect the rest of the skeleton, not only to do further study, but also to display it in the new 'museum' that's being established," she said.

"Ahhhhh, Jansen did say they were going to do that."

"They're trying to collect specimens of every creature on Pern, maybe not ever single insect, but the birds, the various wherries, the whers, etc. Even the creatures the Ancients brought with them…the felines, the pronghorn, and the rest."

Lindea gave him a meaningful glance.

He understood.

"It might not be complete," he warned, not wanting to bring up the neck bone. That was a part of the deal they'd made with the dolphins, and he had no desire to break that promise.

"That's alright. They expect some parts of the skeleton to be missing, buried, or so deteriorated as to be useless. If the skull is any indication, it's been out there for a while. Only because conditions there are usually so bitterly cold explains why it still exists. But still, they'd like to collect it so they can examine it, let the computers sniff it, and maybe explain WHAT it is, and whether the Ancients even knew it existed."

"And…?"

"Landing's folks would like to have the dragons bring the skeleton in. I can help, but I need to know the coordinates to give to Motanith," she said.

He thought about that. "The coordinates are no problem. We might even take a flight out there this afternoon," he said, "but Francie, the thing is huge. Did you see the skull? The skeleton alone must be at least eleven meters long, and that's what we can see on the sand. Who knows if there's bigger parts underneath?"

"Hmmm," Francie said, "I didn't think it was that big."

"Not that I'm not willing, and I bet B'rost would be willing to help, but it's a lot of the smaller  pieces that would prove problematic," he said.

Lindea sat down.

"Why not ship it?"

"You mean, on a boat?"

"Yes. It would be far easier to ship it, and if the skeleton is easily damaged, the pieces could be put in boxes with packing, like hay, or seaweed, to keep them from breaking up."

K'ndar looked at Lindea, askance.

"Those waters are pretty rough, Lindea, and I'm speaking from the point of view of a landsman," he said.

"Aye, you're right. But the shipwreck was caused by errors-and hubris-on the crew's part. If the ship stands out to sea far enough, the dragons can take the big pieces by air, and a crew could put in by small boat, take out the smaller pieces.  Because, if there's a lot of pieces, that's a lot of betweening for a dragon."

He nodded, thinking.

 "Maybe have the dragons take the big pieces out to the ship?" she asked. 

"I wouldn't want a dragon going too close to a ship, I'd worry it would get tangled in the ropes," he said, wincing at the thought. 

"Rigging," Lindea, a sailor to her bones, corrected.

"Rigging. It's too risky, in my mind."

Francie said, "I'd like to go see it, before we do anything. But…would it be possible to put all the pieces on a pallet or in boxes on the shore? And have the dragons transport the pallets over several days?"

Lindea and K'ndar both thought that through. 

"I think that could be done. There's enough big dragons, browns and bronzes, who could do the lift. For that matter, the golds would insist on helping, and they're the biggest of all. Remember the tree lift-the golds could have handled a tree by themselves, if we'd let them."

"You'll still need a ship," Lindea said, thinking of her brother. He was a newly made captain of his own ship, Arrow, and had always been the sort to take on a new adventure.

"Why is that?" Francie asked.

"Like K'ndar said, the coast is rough-and empty. There is NOTHING there, nothing to keep a team in the field; no water to drink, no food, no shelter from the weather. The people who will be digging up the skeleton, packing it on the pallets or boxes, rigging them for transport, they'll need a place to sleep, to eat, because I'm betting it will take, a week? Maybe longer? to dig that thing up without breaking it," Lindea said. 

Francie grinned. "This is what I love about life after thread, now…people brainstorming, working together to do things like this. That's an excellent suggestion."

"You'll need experienced sailors to get into the shore through that surf. Like K'ndar said, it's not a friendly beach, not like ours, here," Lindea said, her mind already turning with the logistics of the task. "That, and the weather turns like that," she said, snapping her fingers. 

"Where do we get the ship?" Francie asked.

"My brother, Braig, is captain of the Arrow. Fishing season is done, for now. I'd bet my boots he'd like to be involved with this. They'd be new waters for him, I'd get a chance to see him, and get back to sea for awhile. It's been a long time since I've been aboard a ship, and sometimes, I just miss it."

"Can Hariko do without you for a few weeks?" K'ndar said, only half teasing.

"I'll have to ask her. It may be I can only be gone for a few days, but, I'm not second in command, at least, not yet. And, for that matter, I'd bet my boots there's a dragon rider who'd be willing to fly me out there on a daily basis, should it come to that," she said, grinning at K'ndar.

"I can do that, my friend."

Then he turned serious.

"Francie, there is one big caveat to all this."

?

"The dolphins. They told us about how that big 'deep diver' was killed by humans. They were VERY upset when it happened, and have kept the existence of the divers secret from us. They were very hesitant about telling us anything about the divers. They are protective of them. They wouldn't tell us anything about the ship wreck or anything until we swore that we would never hurt a diver."

Lindea nodded.

"I've been a fisherman all my life, 'cept for now since living here. So I've been around dolphins for years. I've never seen the dolphins so ..so serious, Francie. They mean it, they don't want humans hunting, hurting or bothering the divers AT ALL. We promised them to never hurt a diver-but we can't make a promise for EVERYONE on Pern. I wouldn't be surprised if, the dolphins learn we know about them, now, that they may stop helping us humans. As it is, I was, well, ashamed that it was a fisherman who did the killing."

Francie nodded her head.

"I see. I will have to get with Jansen, Raylan and the field recovery folks…somehow we have to get the message out that these animals are not to be harmed or interfered with in any way. If it means not displaying the skeleton..well, I don't know. I just don't know, but I agree, I think the divers should be off limits to any sort of contact."

She tapped the table, thinking.

"Tell me, Lindea, in all your years fishing, did you ever have any dealings with sea raiders? Exchange information? Sell, trade, buy things from them?"

Lindea looked about ready to vomit.

"Are..are you joking? Never. Not once. Nor have any of the fisherfolk I know. We don't talk to them. We don't have a thing to do with them. They're…they're vermin. I'd sooner run my own ship aground before I'd warn a raider about an unmapped reef," she said, vehemently. 

Francie nodded.

"Lindea, I have to tell you, it wasn't a fishing boat, they weren't fishermen, the ones who killed the diver."

"They…they weren't? How do you know?" Lindea said, relieved-but puzzled.

"One of you dropped off a spear head? That was in the skeleton's hip?"

"Pelvis," said K'ndar.

"Pelvis?"

"Yes, we did. It's a called a harpoon."

"Well, Raylan turned it over to Jansen. She's a sharp one, she is, she can winkle out the most arcane bits of history. In this case, the harpoon had a number in it," she reminded them.

"Two thirteen!" the two said in unison.

"Aye.  Two thirteen. That was the number of an iron forger in the North. He had a small cothold on the coast, near Tillek Hold, so he was involved in the seafaring trade.   About seventy years ago, his cothold was attacked by sea raiders. They stole everything he had, to include his daughter, and beat him almost to death. Among the many things they stole was the harpoon. 

How it ended up stuck in the pelvis of a deep diver, thousands of kilometers from Tillek, we have no idea. Nor, until we get a better sense of the skeleton, do we know WHEN it happened. But I doubt, very much, that it was a fisherman who killed the diver," she said.

Lindea felt a sense of relief. 

"Thank you, Francie, for telling me that. It makes me feel a little better."

K'ndar added, "And, justice WAS served. By the sea."