Chap. 130 The Mistake
It was hard to believe the survey was done, K'ndar thought.
They'd been at it long enough for him to adapt to the cold, northern climate.
Well, maybe not adapt, but at least get used to it. Still, he was ready to go
back to Southern's warmer climate. And sleep in his own weyr, and talk to his
friends, and read. Write.
But there were things that needed doing before they left.
They were grouped in the small room that had served as their quarters.
K'ndar was going through his field notebooks to make sure
he'd annotated all his samples correctly.
They're such a mess, he thought, thinking of his clean
notebooks, waiting for transcription. I haven't had the time to transcribe them
all.
"I want to make sure we have everything squared away
before we leave for good," D'nis said, "although I have to admit,
most of my work seems to be dealing with the staff here at Observatory #1 for
the moment. I don't think I'll be leaving today, or if I do, it will be late.
That's not even taking the time zones into account. But if you all are ready to
go, feel free."
D'nis turned to D'mitran. "I'm ready to go, all my data
is in my datalink," D'mitran said. He was eager to get home.
"Greta?"
"I'm good, sir, all my rocks and soil sampled are
packed and ready to go."
"I've enjoyed having you on my team, ma'am. You've
shown me that a good geologist is invaluable to a survey team," he said to
the girl.
"Thank you, sir," she said.
You're a better scientist than B'rost, he thought, but
B'rost is still young, and brash. Maybe he'll settle down, but unless he's
changed in the time we've been here, he's still pretty scatterbrained at time,
like a young puppy. Never fearing to dash in, damn the possible consequences.
B'rost rides Rath, a blue-like
dragon, like rider
D'nis laughed in his mind at his dragon's comment.
"Your plans after turning in samples to Landing?"
She grinned. "Well, sir, if you don't mind, and if
there's room, I think I'd like to spend some time at your weyr," she said.
"I've heard so much about the steppe…I'd like to see it. And the jungles."
"That would be great!" K'ndar said, liking her
greatly.
"Get with Hariko when you get there, she's our
headwoman. Shouldn't be any trouble, we've plenty of room. At least we did,
last time I checked," D'nis said.
"K'ndar?"
He'd been sifting through his notes, one last time.
"The skeleton is packed safely, and all my samples are
ready…but I just noticed that I forgot to completely fill out the data on one
of these bags," he said, "I wrote down 'blooming species unknown,'..and
then nothing. What?"
He opened up the corresponding sack.
"Oh, no!" he said, dismayed.
"What?"
"Something got into this sack, and ate all the plant
samples! I KNOW I collected plants, but look!" He shook the bag upside down. A handful of
withered bits of leaf and a few denuded stems fall to the floor, along with a
handful of tiny black…droppings?
A crawler fell out of the sack. Befuddled, instead of skittering
away like the six legged creatures usually did, the creature just sat, stunned.
Crawler by Todd Cameron Hamilton. See citation below |
Siskin crowed and pounced on it, killing it immediately.
"See, you little beastie, what happens when you crawl
into sacks uninvited?" he said to it as it went down Siskin's throat.
Siskin peeped, his eyes whirling an uncertain orange.
"No, I'm not angry, little one," he said, scratching the fire lizard.
"Good lad."
"Was it an important sample?" Greta asked.
"It was," K'ndar moaned, his notebook open to the
page, "it was a species entirely new to me, and to make matters worse, I
didn't fully annotate the data. I must have been distracted. I'd never seen
this flower before."
He shook his head in irritation. "Not much use, then…no
notes and no plants."
"It's only 8 in the morning at Landing, you still have
all afternoon here," D'mitran said, "Do you think you could find it
again?"
"Oh, aye," he said, "I know exactly where I
found it, it's fairly thick there."
"Think it's still in bloom?"
"I don't know. I doubt it. But then, I don't know a thing about the plant."
"But it still can be collected, right? So, you have
time, go get it now. I'm sure you annotated the cairn, you built a cairn,
right?" D'mitran asked.
"Of course, see, it's…oh. I must have forgotten to draw
THAT, too," he said, embarrassed at his flub, and flipping through the
pages. "Gads, I'm such a wherry…but I did sketch the rocks. Yes, I have the coordinates," he said, not
sure if he remembered building a cairn…well, wait, he remembered taking one
apart. Why hadn't he drawn it? "If I go now, I can be back in, oh, half an
hour, and this time, the plants will be fresh," he said.
I know where it was,
too, and so does Siskin Raventh said.
"So, go. We can wait for you if you like,"
D'mitran said.
"No, that's okay, you and Greta go on ahead. I
shouldn't be too long behind you, by the time I get to Landing, you both should
be all done with turning in your samples and data."
D'nis got up, wishing he could go, too. But as leader, he
still had a meeting with the observatory folks before he left.
"Right, then," D'mitran stood up, ready to board
his Careth and go home, "I'm off. Greta?"
"Right behind you, sir," she said. Roany whickered…he
loved going places.
"I'll be late coming in. D'mitran, if you would, let
M'rvin know why I'm held up." D'nis said.
"Aye, sir," D'mitran said.
"Before you go, I'd like to thank you all for your hard
work and dedication. You three are good scientists and make a great team. You
made my job that much easier. Thank you," D'nis said.
The three chorused their your welcomes.
__________________________________________________________________________
Everything was securely packed onto Raventh's harness.
Siskin was in his regular spot, right in front of K'ndar's saddle.
We're going back to
that spot, yes?
Yes he thought,
pushing the coordinates into his dragon's mind.
They came out of between
amidst a great cloud of birds and wherries. Oh, yeah. It's the wetlands, he
thought, there's the rocks. I HAD built the cairn, then-I must have, I did, I
broke it up.
Everything is still
wet. I don't want to land on the ground Raventh said.
DON'T. It's not worth
it, especially as we're alone. Just land on the boulders, like last time
The soil was covered with a multitude of tracks. He could
even see where they'd walked, the prints almost filled with water seepage. Nope,
if it's still this wet, after all this time, then no way do I want my dragon
putting his weight on the soil. I won't go any closer to the water, it's too
wet for me. The plants…they're behind me, I remember.
Siskin chittered and flew off.
"Not too far, Siskin," he called. He saw the
plants he wanted, further back from the marsh.
Amazing, he thought, they're still in bloom.
A cloud of insects flew up when he walked through the
vegetation to get a good sample. He brushed them away, but they were too
numerous. A flock of tiny birds, with wings like scythes appeared, drawn to the
cloud of insects his steps were flushing from the vegetation. One flew just
ahead of his nose, close enough for him to hear its wings. They're not afraid
of me. It really must be they've never seen a human before.
K'ndar filled the collection bag full, and this time
included several small plants that he'd not seen before. They're right here, right
underneath the bigger ones, why didn't I collect them? What was I thinking? I'm
usually not so scatterbrained.
Then it all came back to him. I broke up the cairn because
this is where we found the opals.
He turned around. Yes. That cave, right there. He walked
over and looked in. The sunlight filled
up the mouth, this time, it seemed to go further back in, illuminating the
walls.
They were glorious, a riot of color. Oh, my.
This is where you
found the skeleton, and the pretty rocks
Yes
At his feet were the raw opals they'd dropped. The cave was loaded with them.
He paused.
Should I take some?
Why not?
Well…I don't know why
not. It doesn't seem…fair to the others.
Can the others come
and get some?
We never said we'd not
come back, we just…put them back. I think…I think because we didn't want to
look greedy to the others.
What is 'greedy'?
It's complex, but it
is partly when you take something that you don't need and someone else needs
it, and you take it just to keep that person from getting it.
Like food?
Um…yes. Like food.
Greedy is when I eat something and someone else doesn't have any food, and I
eat it all without sharing, just because I can.
You are not that way.
No, I'm not.
Can you eat the rocks?
No, not directly. I
can sell them and buy things with them, though.
Like the horse? You
felt badly because you couldn't buy the horse. I don't understand why humans
have to 'buy' things, but I know how you felt. Sad. I don't like you being sad.
I was sad. But it's
okay, now, Francie said I could ride him any time I want. I just haven't had
the time.
But it's okay if the others
come get the rocks, yes?
Yes, there's many
here, more than I can ever use. But I just…I can't explain it.
I know when I am
hungry, I get something to eat. If Siskin wants some, I let him eat from my
kill. I let other dragons eat, too, because there's always more if I want more.
Is it like that?
It is. And we agreed
to keep this place secret, but didn't say anything about not picking up more. I
am trying to talk myself into it.
If you don't take them
all, what harm is done?
None.
You want to take more
rocks. So take some. Maybe you can buy something for someone else. But I think
what I feel from you is that you want them because they're pretty.
Yes.
He was sure that someday, the others would be here to
collect some opals.
Someone has. I can
smell dragon.
!
One of us?
Yes.
Who?
All of us dragons. Siskin
and Roany. I can smell you, and the
others. I can smell them as if they just left.
Huh. We humans have very
poor sense of smell. How long does scent last?
It depends. In the hot
sun, it goes away fast. If it's windy, it gets scattered, but we can still smell,
a long way, if we're downwind. It doesn't last in water, at least not to us.
I don't know about dolphins, I don't know if they can smell in the water. Scent
will hang just above water, like fog. In
damp, the scent sticks to plants. I can't fit into the cave but Siskin says
it's damp in there, so the scent lasts a little longer, because there's no air
moving around.
Yes, I remember it
being a little damp. But it's been a month! And it should be a lot drier now.
It should have gone
away by now. I can even smell the skeleton. It is much too fresh to be a month old.
He looked at the floor of the cave. He could see their
footprints, just as clear and clean-edged as if…
By the stars.
He rushed out to dart a glance at where the sun was in the
sky. It was early afternoon. The avians were still here, the water was the same
level as it had been before. The flowers were still in bloom.
Oh, shards.
Raventh. I think we
timed it. I think we are back here on the same day we were here a month ago.
For once, his dragon was speechless. Then, fumbling, he said, I have never timed.
Only Ruth can tell "when" as well as "where" he is.
Fear rose in his throat, but then subsided when he realized,
they were okay. He'd never jumped back in time. While time traveling wasn't forbidden,
per se, it was only because it was unenforceable.
But it was extremely risky, even dangerous. He was very aware of riders who'd
timed it…and never returned. Like that boy from the future.
No one will know.
Don't tell anyone. Not
even another dragon
I won't. But it didn't
hurt, and we're okay.
That's just it. We're
okay, but..it was my mistake. I need to be much more careful with my
coordinates from now on. You make me double check from now on, okay?
Okay.
He collected a few
more raw opal rocks, tucking them into his shirt. Then he picked up the cairn
rocks and created the original one. I don't want to make this mistake again, he
thought.
Sketch it. Make the
notes.
Thank you, Raventh, for steadying my mind and my hand.
He sketched everything, wondering at the same time how many
scientists had the opportunity to go back in time to gather more data?
I Will Be More Careful from now on, he promised himself.
He closed the notebook with a snap.
Call Siskin. Then, we
go to Landing, and I know what time it is there. Then we go home.
Check your
coordinates! Raventh said, chuckling.
K'ndar laughed.
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Illustration of crawler by Todd Cameron Hamilton, The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern,
2nd edition, 1997, Del Ray/Ballantine Books, pg. 12.
2 comments:
So where does timing it lead?
Um...what do you mean?
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