Chap. 128 The Mystery Beast

Chap. 128  The Mystery Beast

Raventh backwinged and landed, gently, onto the caisson.

Nicely done

Well, I do have a passenger who's old

K'ndar dismounted and unbuckled Rahman. The old man gratefully took his hand, and Raventh made a knee as deep as possible. The astronomer gingerly stepped onto caisson.

He turned and patted Raventh's neck. 

"He's a nice dragon, K'ndar. That landing didn't so much as jar my bones."

"He likes you, sir, he's very careful of those he likes."

"Thank you, Raventh," Rahman said, reaching up to scratch the brown dragon underneath the chin."

Don't stop Raventh said, his eyes whirling blue.

K'ndar laughed. 

"He said, don't stop. He'll let you take his hide off." 

Rahman chuckled. Siskin chipped. He was perched just behind Raventh's head, holding onto the dragon's collar.

"Yes, I know, you too, Siskin," K'ndar said. 

"That's a nice collar Raventh's wearing, where did you get it?"

"My little sister made it. She lives at the Weyr. She made Siskin's harness, too, but he's not wearing it right now."

Siskin opened his wings and let the wind lift him Raventh's neck.

He projected happiness. This was much easier to fly in. 

The wind was not as powerful today as it had been in the past. Siskin began to sweep over the armored willows, hunting.

Rahman looked at the caisson with a critical eye. K'ndar could almost hear him thinking.

At their feet, the caisson was almost white with guano. But there was also scat, obviously not from an avian. He collected several of them, putting them into a collection sack.

"What a beautiful day," Rahman said, looking across the Strait to the other island. 

"It IS nice, today, the last time we were here, the wind was so strong you couldn't hear the other person talk. See the sea birds? They're all over the cliff face, both sides. I am surprised they can nest on a vertical face, in windy conditions, but …they are. They do." K'ndar said.

The sky was full of seabirds and wherries. The sun sparkled on the sea, far below. The white caps attested to the speed of the current. 

"I'm wondering, now," Rahman said, "if the people who installed this intended to put a wind turbine across the strait, or merely intended to put a single one on a post," he said.

"Don't know, sir. There's not one across from here."

Siskin began to whistle in alarm. K'ndar had only heard it once or twice. He looked behind him and saw-

EYES. Big ones.

His heart jumped in his chest. They were low to the ground, half obscured by the tangled limbs of the willows. 

Then they vanished. 

Siskin came swooping in, chittering.

He pushed an image of an animal into K'ndar's mind.

He saw that animal. He says it is moving towards where we are on this rock

"Sir, turn and look. There's something out there behind this caisson, in the willows. Low," he said. 

The old man turned.

K'ndar lifted his binoculars, hoping to see something. Those eyes, they are  too big, he thought, for us not to see the rest of it in  those low willows. Maybe they're not eyes. 

Siskin dived into the willows.

With a screech, the animal leaped out and ran right at them.

"It's that animal!' It's the same beast!" K'ndar shouted, excited. 

Siskin was hard on its tail.

"Siskin!" he shouted, not wanting the lizard to hurt it-or get hurt.

It leaped onto the caisson, racing between the two men and then launched into space.

"NO!" K'ndar yelled, running to the edge of the caisson, and stopping right at the edge, almost going over in his hurry.

His binos to his eyes, he managed to see the creature, fully expecting to see it plunging to its death in the sea.

But no!

The creature was gliding, a flap of its skin stretching between fore and hind legs. It billowed up above the back. The tail, flattened like a rudder, steered it confidently. He watched as it glided without losing altitude until it reached the island on the other side the strait. 

There it hit the vertical face and quickly scrambled upwards, disturbing hundreds of seabirds and wherries in its path. 

The last he saw of it was its tail as it gained the top of the cliff and vanished into the willows.

"Wow! Did you see that? It flew all the way across the strait!" he said.

I have to sketch it, right now, he thought, ripping his pack off his back to dig out his notebook.

"It was silver, like metal. Did you see, sir, SILVER. And those markings, I thought they were eyes, at first," he said, drawing hurriedly. No, this won't do. I have time, he thought.

"He looked black, to me. I saw the eyes, then they turned black," Rahman said, 'But then I saw it's true eyes. What we saw, they're markings on its skin."

"If only I'd had a camera!" K'ndar said, exasperated.

"Nay, K'ndar,"  Rahman said, "You wouldn't have had a chance. You're better off using your brain and memory. Sketching works, my lad. Make note that I think it changes color."

Siskin had landed on Raventh. K'ndar drew what he'd seen, before the memory faded or changed.

"Those markings, K'ndar. They were almost the same markings you see on the face of a tabby cat, just above the eyes. They're protective coloration, I think," the old man said, "Camouflage." 

"That was no cat, though."

"I agree. I wonder if, well, it's obviously not a Pern native. And I've never seen anything like it on the other continents, North OR South," Rahman said.

"Me neither. I wonder, maybe it's confined to this continent?"

"That would make sense. We'll have to see what Landing makes of it. That beast, he acted as if he knew exactly what he was doing."

"He DID! That was amazing, seeing him glide without wings," K'ndar said. He forced himself to slow down, turning to a fresh page to make a more careful drawing of the animal. As he did, he relived the entire sequence that lasted all of a few seconds. 

"I thought for a moment, oh no, he's going to die. But no!"

He saw something glittering in the sun where the animal had erupted from the willows.

It was a tuft of fur, clinging to one of the limbs. There was a little more behind the willow on the edge. It was fur. But fur unlike anything he'd ever seen. Or felt. It was soft, softer than anything, and it changed color as one moved it around. 

He scrambled back up onto the caisson to show Rahman. He held it tightly, as it was so soft that it threatened to blow away on the wind.

"It's fur, sir. I thought it was metal at first, it looked so metallic. But it's fur. Look, at this. It turns color, depending on how you look at it. This way, it's silver. This way, it's black."

Rahman looked at the tuft in K'ndar's fingers. 

"I need my glasses," he mourned.

 

K'ndar laughed. 

"No, sir. Here are my binoculars. They're a microscope, too. I'll hold the fur and you look at it with the microscope function. Here, move this wheel, here, to change the resolution." He kept a death grip on the fur.

Rahman gasped.

"Amazing," he said.

"What?"

"That the ancients could create such a versatile thing like this. We're so…so backwards now. How long will it take us to reach the same level they were at?"

Impatiently, K'ndar felt the need to steer Rahman back to the FUR, sir, the FUR. But he held onto his tongue. 

"Interesting. This fur. The hairs are hollow, they have no color in them. It's almost as if they were crystalline. No, no, they're not crystalline, they're of a structure I've never seen before. But then again, I'm an astronomer, I've never done much inspection of animal hair or fur."

He handed the binoculars back to K'ndar.

"Well, lad, I'm betting you'd like to get that sample…and your sketch! to Landing as soon as possible, eh?"

K'ndar wanted exactly that, but he'd been tasked to transport Rahman to the caisson, while the rest of the survey team was out working the baseline sampling.

"My job, today, sir, is to transport you. Wherever you choose to go. This…this was a bonus. I'm so happy I finally got a good look at that animal!"

 drawings by Khutulan. All rights reserved.

Chap. 127 Baiting the Trap

Chap. 127  Baiting The Trap

The dining hall was fairly crowded. Small and provided with trestle tables, one ate almost always elbow to elbow with others.

They'd sat down at the end of one of the tables, hoping to have it for themselves, but  almost immediately, a group of men-obviously seamen-took up the remaining spots on the bench seats. The team ignored them as they were strangers. But they could also hear the seamen's conversations amongst themselves. One man, in particular, seemed to take pains to sit close to Greta. Despite coming with the crew, he didn't engage in conversation with them. 

D'nis had finished his dinner and got up to take his plates. 

"I'm off, then. I'd like to get our data shipped tonight, so as to have a clean slate tomorrow," he said. D'mitran got up, as well. 

"I'd planned to do that anyway. Just needed something in the stomach, sir," He swooped up his plates. "Besides, I have a dragon who needs an oiling. That will take a while. You two coming?" he said, to K'ndar and Greta.

"I'm not quite done yet, we'll see you at the quarters," she said. 

K'ndar was about to leave as well when Greta gave a quick shake of her head. Then she inclined it to her right, indicating the seaman sitting not three feet from her.

Earth says Greta wants you to 'play along' with whatever she says Raventh said.

K'ndar nodded at Greta.

She says for you to open using T'ovar's name. She says, only use it once. She says, do not say Toric's name, either. What is this about?

I have no idea, but I understand. She has something planned.

He looked at her. What a wonderful thing, to be able to communicate via dragon, with no one able to overhear. 

"Any idea what happened to T'ovar? He's been gone for over a week."

"Ssssssssshhhhhhhh!" Greta hissed.

The man sitting next to her flinched but continued eating as if he was in his own world.  

"Not so loud," she said. K'ndar wasn't sure if that was meant really for him, or just part of the game he realized she was playing. 

She says the man sitting next to her strikes her as a spy. Maybe the same one who went through the bags.

Ah….

"Okay," he said, in a softer tone, "but I'm confused."

"I am too," she said. "I was waiting for him to come back, he left so suddenly, he said he was going to Landing. I've never seen a man so excited. You know what? I think he found an artifact." 

"Really?? He didn't tell US!"

Greta grinned, appreciating that K'ndar could play. 

"He didn't tell ANYBODY. Not on our team, anyway, or even Rahman. He just left."

The spy next to her flinched again. This time, as K'ndar was sitting across from Greta, he saw it happen. 

Tell Earth the man next to Greta is definitely listening, and he flinched when she said the word 'artifact'. 

She's listening, too.  What does 'flinch' mean?

I will teach you later

"Yes, I remember, now, he was acting strange. What kind of teammate keeps a secret from his team? Doesn't tell what he's found? You're right, he just left. Didn't even tell the boss. That pissed me off.  But I do remember the folks at Landing telling him all artifacts are to be turned into them.  And Rahman repeated it to him when he got here. So he knows. Did he go to Landing?" K'ndar said. 

"I don't know. He was so excited, said it was vitally important that he leave immediately. Now we've not seen him in a week. Not that I mind, he's a lazy jerk. I don't trust him. But, now I remember him telling one of the Sea Dragon's crew, our first or second day at Tillek, that he knew a couple people who might 'compensate' him well for 'anything' he might show to them."

"Meaning 'artifacts'?"

"Well, I doubt a rich man is going to buy a bunch of dead flowers, or dusty old rocks," she said, giggling.

"That's not right. He's supposed to turn any artifacts into Landing."

"I bet he didn't. He was pretty smug, always trying to impress me, you know? Men do that a lot, they think us girls are stupid, so they flash money. Or pretend to have "influence". That's what he was implying when he was boasting, that he had 'friends', rich ones.  I just thought it was all gas and ash from him, but now I know what he meant."

"What does it mean?"

"I'm just guessing, but I bet some rich man has already paid him, in advance, to get any artifacts he might find."

"Who do you think would do this? Buy an artifact?" although he knew very well who.

"I don't know, certainly I don't know anyone who would do such a thing." She tapped her fingers on the table, pretending to think. 

"He said something, something….oh!! NOW I understand what he meant, when he said that, by 'cut you in on the deal," she said.

K'ndar was floundering a bit, but played anyway.

"I…I've heard that phrase, but I didn't know what it meant."

"It means, he meant, if you or I found an artifact, to give it to him without telling anyone else, and any money he made from it, he'd give us some. Like a finder's fee, and he'd charge the buyer extra."

"But if he did find an artifact, he didn't tell you. Or me. So that means, he had no intentions on cutting anyone in on anything. Bet he still charges the buyer extra, though."

"Oh ho!! Hadn't thought of that!" she crowed.

"I tell you, though, I don't want any part of his 'deal'. It's theft. It's theft, it is. It's wrong, and even if he comes in with money in hand, I won't take a bit of it, and I'll report him. Artifacts belong to everyone on Pern, not some rich man." K'ndar said, getting heated.

"I'm with you. I hope he never comes back. He's a thief and a liar, and whoever is paying him for artifacts is, too."

A thought hit him.

Wanting to keep thieves and poachers away from the interior as far as possible, he asked,

"You're right. Although, I have to say, I don't think there's anything of any value out there.   We've certainly not seen a thing that says humans have ever been in the interior. Or even on Western Island. It's like they say, the Western Continent is nothing but sand and tunnel snakes.  Honestly, this whole survey has been pretty much a waste of time."

He winked at the girl.  

"Do you remember where he was when he found it? Because he left so quickly I never really heard where."

Now she was confused. Quick, Greta, quick. Think. Where would you direct a bunch of thieves looking for valuable artifacts, a spot where the only thing they could do is get dirty?

Ah.

"I do! It's hard to believe, but I saw him by the old latrine, the one they found had been dug before they built this observatory. I know how excavations work over the years. Things work their way out of the dirt if there's nothing to cover it. It's been unused for a long time, I know that. Maybe he used it, maybe he was just lucky, but maybe he found it in that old latrine. Because that's when he left, just like that, without explanation. Right afterwards."

 K'ndar laughed. "Well that settles it for me. I'm not digging up a latrine just on the hope there might be something other than shit in the bottom of it."

"Me, neither, but it tells you, doesn't it, just how much money an artifact can bring? That he'd actually go climbing down into a latrine, maybe even dig down a few meters or more, just on the hope of finding something?"

"Tells a lot about his character, doesn't it. All bad. Are you done?" he asked. 

She smirked. 

"I am. Come on, I have a lot of cataloging to do," she said, getting up.

They left the hall, but Greta pulled K'ndar aside into a corner of the building where one could see people leaving it. 

"Wait. I want to follow them when they come out, to see where he goes. We'll have to keep him from seeing us, though," she said.

K'ndar grinned. "I've a better idea," he said.

He called Siskin. 

The blue arrived, chittering. 

The seamen exited the dining hall, chattering away. The spy was behind them, a bit separate from the rest of the group. His body language suggested that, despite being with them, he  wasn't really a member of the crew. He looked around him, suspiciously, but didn't see them. 

K'ndar pushed an image of the man's face into Siskin's mind.

"Siskin. Follow that man."

Siskin LOVED this game. He chipped and whirred away.

"Quick, show me how to teach Roany that," Greta said.

"Push an image of the man into his mind. Tell him to follow the man. Siskin will show him, if need be, but Roany is just as quick as Siskin. Or have Earth explain it to him, but I don't think that's necessary. They're pretty smart creatures," he said. 

 Roany whickered, understanding immediately, then raced off to follow Siskin. 

"Won't they see them?" she asked.

"Hasn't happened so far. Humans seldom look UP, and Siskin stays far enough overhead that they don't hear him."

"This is going to be fun. You'll have to teach us how to do tricks."

"I can do that."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Siskin and Roany reported that the man followed the crew onto a supply ship. 

She was the Stella Maris.

Chap. 126 Pern's TSA

Chap. 126  Pern's TSA

K'ndar was pulling off his riding gear when something odd about the room struck him.

He was in the quarters assigned to the team at the Observatory. They weren't fancy, but the room was warm and clean. They'd not had a chance to deliver the samples they'd collected earlier in the week, and had been storing them in a pile of collecting bags at one end of the room.

That pile looked as if it had been gone through.

As there was no official housekeeping staff, everyone at the Observatory had tasks to complete in addition to the jobs they were doing. These consisted of tasks like sweeping, cleaning the latrine, helping in the kitchen.  None of the team minded. Cleaning up after themselves came naturally to dragonriders, who lived in small weyrs, unlike Holders and Crafters who, in many cases, had entire houses in which to live, and staff and drudges to do the menial work. The Lord Holders, especially, had large homes  carved out of mountain sides,  or entire caverns to call home.

He looked over the jumble of collecting bags and crates. They contained things he and Greta had collected: rocks, soil samples, plants, bird and avian feathers and skins, even some unusual things such as animal scat in small bags. They usually transported them all at once to Landing. 

He checked the collecting bags that he knew were his.

Within seconds, he realized they had been opened by someone other than him.

"D'nis, D'mitran, Greta, you too. Come here. Someone's been tampering with our collection bags," he called.

Greta rushed over, immediately upset. 

"My rocks!!"

D'nis and D'mitran had no bags, their jobs were strictly data collection, and all their samples were stored as data in their devices. They came over as he knelt to check his collection bags.

"What do you mean, tampered?"

K'ndar looked behind them, to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Then he said, quietly, "I always tie my collection bags with a weyrling's knot," he said.

The others, dragonriders all, could see immediately the cord had been knotted in something other than a Weyrling knot.

Greta checked hers. "Same here, I use a different knot but this one, and the ones on yours, are all the same. Someone untied our bags, then knotted then back up using the same knot every time. This one looks like a knot a seaman uses," she said.

"Is anything missing?" D'mitran asked.

"I don't know, I've not checked yet." He opened the one bag he knew contained plants.

He pulled them out, carefully. They'd wilted, but were still in good condition. "I'll have to check my notes, but it looks like everything is here."

Greta had dumped her bags, sorting the rocks out into piles that only made sense to her.

The four looked at the samples strewn across the floor.

"I'm like K'ndar, I don't think anything's missing, but I'll have to check my notes."

"The permanent staff here, they wouldn't bother with looking through our collection bags. This was someone who ..who was sent here to search our bags, looking for.."

"Artifacts," everyone chimed in.

K'ndar laughed, but it was a bitter one.

"Whoever it was, he can't have been too impressed. Plants. Dirt. Rocks. Even feces-certainly nothing they can't get from wherever they came from."

"I smell T'ovar. Or Toric," Greta said.

"Or both. Or it could have been a common thief. But I doubt the last. There's only the staff, they're scientists themselves, or workers. Why do it NOW? We've been collecting for weeks."

"Yes, but we had T'ovar with us, before," Greta said. 

"What about notebooks?" D'mitran asked

K'ndar felt a note of fear, then remembered that all his field notebooks were in his backpack, which seldom left his back.

"I keep all my field notes on me," K'ndar said, "Jenmay taught me that."

"Me, too," Greta said, "but even had I left them here, anyone who reads them is going to be mightily confused. Geology has its own language that is a beast to learn. That, and I use a code for myself. Most of my notes are totally incomprehensible to anyone but another geologist."

D'mitran moved to his bunk and was in the process of shedding his backpack when he noticed that his blankets had been moved. One of the things weyrlings did in training was make their beds, every morning, without fail, and in a certain way. Every dragonrider he knew retained that habit. You could tell, immediately upon seeing someone's bunk or weyr if they were a dragonrider.

"Check your bunks, folks," he said, growing angry, "They searched them, too."

"What in the name of Pern do they think we keep in our beds?"

"Notebooks. Letters home. Money," D'nis said.

"Like I keep personal things in my…………ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Greta said, with a suddenly wicked grin.

K'ndar heard it. He looked at her, an eyebrow cocked. She shushed him. "Tell you later, K. 'K?"

"Well, whomever it was, they searched this room thoroughly," D'nis said. 

"This wasn't done by a dragonrider, or if it was, he wasn't very careful to cover his trail."

The only other dragon rider they'd seen at Observatory had been T'ovar. 

"He didn't strike me as someone who was all that careful." D'mitran said.

D'nis snapped. "That's it. I'm going to have a chat with Rahman, right now."

"No, sir," D'mitran said. 

"?" D'nis said, unaccustomed to that tone in D'mitran's voice.

"No, sir. Team leader you may be, but you need-we all need a good hot dinner in our stomachs, and THEN-and only then-you can go and find out from Rahman who and what is behind this, if he knows."

D'nis began to protest. K'ndar and Greta moved to flank D'mitran on either side.

"What he said," Greta said, adamant. "Sir."

D'nis grinned.

__________________________________________________________________________

He was grateful he'd obeyed the team. He was much happier now with a good meal in him.

Rahman was leaning over a drafting table with an engineer, discussing the telescope.

"Ah, D'nis! I hope you've found a site?" he asked, hopefully.

"Sorry, sir, but no. We've gotten about 2/3rds across the western island and quite honestly, haven't found a thing yet that could feasibly host a telescope."

Rahman's face fell. "I'm…getting worried, D'nis, this telescope must be sited somewhere on the western side. You told me about the caisson, I think, if you're willing, I'd like to go see it tomorrow."

"No problem with that, sir, but I must remind you it's on this side of the strait. And while I don't know how telescopes work, that wind is ferocious. Who, how and why they built it, I don't know."

The engineer looked at him. 

"I've not seen it, either, but I think I know what they had planned for it," she said.

"What?"

"I think it was put in long after the original colonists built the weyrs, but before the Second Pass. By then, a lot of machinery that the Ancients brought was broken or useless. But they still must have had enough lift capability-maybe one of their last sleds with fuel-to bring in a lot of concrete. After you showed us the pictures and the measurements on your datalink, I was thinking about it, and the only thing I can think of that would require that hefty a base, in that specific location, is a wind turbine, to generate power."

The engineer in D'nis gawped. By the stars, yes. That made sense. Why put in a bridge if you couldn't live there? Or even GET there? But it would be the perfect spot for a turbine.

Rahman said, "You mean, one that spanned the strait?"

"Yes," she said, "You did say it seemed to be the shortest gap between the two islands. I looked at the Yokohama's photo of it, and it's about 1.2 kilometers across, not the three you indicated. Suspend a giant wind turbine across it, send cables to it, and you have power, for as long as the wind blows."

"But…we've found nothing on the other side," D'nis said.

"Maybe they ran out of lift. Maybe the person who designed it died. Or they lost interest when they realized it couldn't be done. Maybe their dragons weren't big enough to move all the material and tools needed. Maybe Thread began to fall. Maybe it wasn't feasible. Or maybe…maybe they actually did get it built, only to have it torn apart by the winds," she said.

"By the egg, I think you're right," D'nis said, thinking of how hefty the caisson was, but couldn't forget how strong the winds were. "I wonder…do you think we could ask the dolphins to check at the base of the cliff for wreckage?"

"Would any wreckage have lasted, in the water, for over two thousand years?" Rahman asked.

"That water is cold, sir, COLD. But no, I don't think it could, but…we could ask an oceanographer. Devon is one, she's on the Sea Dragon right now," she said.

"She's a smart lass," Rahman said. 

 The engineer rolled up her blueprints. "If you'll excuse me, sirs, I'm going to go get some dinner," she said.

"The fish is excellent," D'nis said.

"It usually is, sir, the fishermen keep us well supplied,"

"So, D'nis, what did you discover today?"

Thinking of the opal cave, D'nis was careful. 

"Not much, sir.  An ephemeral lake, covered with avians, and mud up to your knees. And the bugs! It can't be considered even habitable, not by humans, at least. The dragons refused to land on the mudflats, our green almost got stuck," he said.

"So it's no, then, and if I am correct, it's very, very far from the coast." 

"Yes, sir, and no way, not that I can see, that a wagon can get there. There's no water that didn't fall from the sky, nothing for an ox to graze, just…bugs. And mud," he said, hoping he looked rueful. 

Rahman was looking distressed. "There's got to be a spot," he said, worried.

"We'll keep looking. We've just about covered the interior and are making steady progress to the western coastline."

"That's fine, D'nis," Rahman said, "I'm sure you're right, but Landing is pressing for a site."

"Can't be helped, sir, and I'm certain they understand that it's unwise to just pick a spot and hope for the best. Maybe we should have started from the coast and just forgot about doing a survey."

"No, sir, there were competing opinions about THAT. The coastline has been investigated from sea, but they wanted, a survey like the one you did on the steppe to find if there were alternatives to a coastline location. You can't find water from shipboard," he said.

"That's true. I'm certain we'll find something, sir, it's a big island," D'nis said, then changed the subject.

"Sir, if you please, I have something to discuss with you, in private," D'nis said. 

Rahman looked at him, then said, "Let us go into the observatory. Only the telescope can hear us there."

D'nis had never seen it. It was huge. "And the new one is bigger?"

"By half. Aye. It will be sensational, it will," Rahman said, rubbing his hands in anticipation. He dragged his attention from the new telescope's abilities to the dragonrider. 

"So what is the problem, D'nis, because I can see it weighing on your mind," Rahman said.

I hope he didn't see it in conjunction with the cave, D'nis thought.

He told Rahman what they'd discovered in their quarters.

"This is disturbing, D'nis," the astronomer said, "I find it impossible to believe the permanent staff here is responsible. They just aren't that sort."

"I agree, sir, and we think that T'ovar is somehow involved. It didn't happen until after he was fired." 

"Aye," the old man said. "I thought that, too. But he hasn't been back since he was run off."

"Any new folks here? Maybe the Sea Dragon?"

"Well, I can assure you, it wasn't someone from that ship. She was here, oh, last week, but I know her captain. Despite her being T'ovar's stepdaughter, Captain Sheila is honest and forthright. She'd never condone that sort of activity. No, I think it may have been…well, the observatory is supplied by many different ships. It's contracted out, by Landing, and whomever is available and willing to take on the job, is the ship that brings in supplies. While you were out, we were supplied by a ship named, um, oh, I can't remember, but it makes no difference. Her crew is still here, I think, they're supposed to leave on the tide tomorrow morning," Rahman said. 

"Does anyone keep track of the crew while they're here?" D'nis asked.

"No, not any more than anyone has kept track of you or your team. They're just…here, and expected to do their job and leave us to our work. When it's a supply ship, the crew usually stays aboard, and come ashore to unload and eat in the dining hall. Oh, of course, there's the usual interaction between the seamen and the staff, it's not like they're confined to their ship. They'll be walking on the beach, or swimming, or fishing from the shore.

 In my case, I seldom have any interaction with them. Most crews are eager to leave. This place is all business, there's not much in the way of '''entertainment'' for a seaman. We don't even have alcohol here. But I can say that in this particular case, the ship has been here, oh, two days, maybe three. I've been busy, you see," Rahman explained.

"I know, sir, and that information is helpful all in itself," D'nis said.

"D'nis, we don't have a steward here, but I will let the staff know that someone has been in your quarters where they have no business. I hope you let Landing know, and I will make an official report. We'll make sure this ship….oh, WHAT is her name, it will come to me-doesn't contract with Landing ever again."

"Thank you, sir. We plan on leaving for another day of surveying after breakfast. I'll meet you there, at the dining hall?"

"That will be fine, D'nis. If you please, I'd like to ride with K'ndar, if he's willing. He's a good lad, and has transported me in the past," Rahman said.

"I know. And you're right, he's a good lad. But now, he's a man."