Chap. 266 First Symposium

Chap. 266 First Symposium

K’ndar pulled nervously at the front of his best shirt.

The room was filled with important looking people. He’d first seen some of them at the harvest, grubby and sweating. Today they were almost unrecognizable, having cleaned up. The change from being just another farm hand to a return to being a scientist was jarring. He had to forcibly drag his attention back to the situation at hand.

No one noticed him, giving him the odd sense of both relief at his anonymity, and yet a bit of rejection. He moved further into the room and then stood with his back to the wall to just watch and listen.

“Keep your mouth shut and your ears open,” his uncle Fland had told him as he left for weyrling school, “you’ll learn a lot that way.”

In this case, Uncle Fland, there’s so many conversations going on at the same time I can’t hear a thing, he thought.

Lefsa was at the back of the room, next to a table loaded with baked goods and pitchers of what was probably klah. She was chatting with another woman, her hands animatedly describing her actions on an invisible project. A very tall man entered, shouting, “Morning, Raylan!” Lefsa turned, saw K’ndar, and waved.

He waved back. She motioned for him to join her.

The room was dominated by a large table, with bench seats on either side. Raylan, the Science Division chief, was sitting at the head. The tall man bent over to speak with him. The man was very animated, acting as if he was the bearer of incredibly important news. Raylan’s eyes had a look of patient resignation. They said, Oh. You again.

Never do I want to be in that position. I’m happy to be small dragon in a very big weyr, he thought.

Lefsa’s friend ambled off. Lefsa smiled happily as she poured herself a mug of klah and picked up a cookie.

“Hi, K’ndar!! Look at this spread! Here, want a cookie?”

“Um...is it okay?”

She sputtered, crumbs flying.

“Okay? What do you mean? It’s for us here at the symposium. Of course it’s okay, you wherry!! Here! eat it. There’s lots of them.”

He took the cookie. Oh. It was the type with little rocks masquerading as dried grapes. He abhorred them. He pretended to nibble at it. Lefsa turned to pick up another and he hastily stuffed it in his pocket.

“Symposium? Wow, it’s not just a meeting with Raylan?” he asked, hoping she hadn’t seen him reject the cookie.

She laughed. “Steppe boy!! It’s An Official Meeting of Scientists, but everyone’s been referring it as ‘naming that weird beast day.’ It’s where everyone who did any research on the animal is to give a report on what they’ve learned about it.”

“Report? A report? Um…..” K’ndar began to panic. He hadn’t been told he had to make a report to a large group of people. “I thought I was just inputting data, not..not...”

“Yes, your report,” Lefsa said. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“No! I’d just as soon say the name I’ve decided on and leave,” he said, sweating. “This atmosphere is a bit too rarefied for me. I have no idea who most of these people are.”

She shook her head. “I know some of them. I think this sort of thing is new, it’s the first one I’ve been to. Oh, here comes Jansen. Hello, girl!”

The computer tech said, “Hello yourself! Hi, K’ndar!”

Jansen looked over the table of goodies and reached for a small handpie. “Oh, I love these things,” she said. She took a bite, rolling her eyes in appreciation.

“Try the raisin cookies,” Lefsa said, “they’re great.”

Jansen shook her head. “Oh, no. I can’t stand those things. They look like crawler turds.”

K’ndar burst out laughing, feeling better that he wasn’t the only one who thought that. And now he knew the name of them. He’d never seen a raisin until he joined the Weyr and after trying one once, had avoided them.

Lefsa grimaced, looking stricken.

“Oh, how do I thank you, Jansen. Now I’ll never be able to look at a raisin without thinking of that,” she mourned.

Jansen bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Sorry.”

She turned to K’ndar. “Not eating, K’ndar?”

“Um..I’m a bit too nervous right now,” he said, “all these people here! They’re strangers, and that always put me off my feed.”

“High strung, what? Like a good racehorse,” Jansen said. “Not that I’ve ever ridden one! But it’s okay. I happen to know them all, but it’s because they usually come to me for my computer skills.”

K’ndar began to relax in his friend’s presence. I AM like a horse, at times. Not that it’s a bad thing, he thought. He resisted the urge to stroke his neck, like he’d do for a nervous horse. The thought made him grin, and he relaxed even more.

Jansen munched on her pie, and between bites, asked,“You’ve figured out what to name the beast, as we’ve been calling it?”

“I have, but now that I think I know what’s going on here, I am not so set on it. I hope I’m allowed time to listen to the others. I had no idea I was expected to report anything. I thought it was a quiet little meeting with Raylan, give him my reasons for the name, and then going back to work. I feel like bolting out the door.”

Lefsa grinned. “K’ndar. Don’t worry, okay? I’ll help you, but you don’t really need it. If you’ll excuse me? Nangela just came in, I want to talk to her before the meeting starts.” She left.

K’ndar fished the crumbled remains of the cookie from his pocket. Jansen raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged apologetically. “I can’t stand these things, either. I didn’t want to hurt Lefsa’s feelings, she insisted I’d love it. Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone in loathing raisins.” He put the pieces in a compost bin. Jansen giggled.

“I hear you, but K’ndar, Lefsa’s got a tough skin. It wouldn’t have hurt her feelings to say what you think. You should do that with everybody, as long as you do it with empathy,” she said.

“Okay. I’m still nervous, though. I don’t know what to say, now, I’m afraid I’ll sound like a moron.”

Jansen touched his arm, gently. “It sounds complex, K’ndar, but like she said, don’t worry. I wrote up the order of who’s reporting, and you’re fairly down the list. Just be yourself. There’s not much you can provide, I don’t think, other than what you found on your extra curricular trip to the jungle.”

He flushed. He’d almost forgotten it!

“You know about that? You know about Raylan calling me, wondering where I was? He was mad. He thought I’d just taken off like a weyrling sliding out of a task so he could go flying.”

Jansen nodded, chewing thoughtfully.

“Yes. And it’s not that bad. I’m one of only a few people who knows. Raylan, Jomoke, and Grafton, of course Grafton should know! Believe me, no one else knows, or, honestly, cares. I only know because, well, K’ndar, I’m on the computer all day. Raylan had me track down your little ‘chat’ with Jomoke that night. I’m sorry, K’ndar, I’m not usually the type to listen to what people say on their datalinks. I usually just link it to Raylan and then go about my business. I have to hear the first words just to know I’ve got the right call, and it’s almost always someone’s whinging. If I had to listen to every call I’d go insane! But Raylan was pissed, I seldom have seen him that way. And when he said that it had something to do with you and Jomoke, I...well, I heard what was said. And it pissed ME off.”

K’ndar gulped.

“I thought he would fire me.”

“No, no, K’ndar. By the time you’d explained yourself, it was obvious you’d been sent on a wild wherry chase. Now, mind you, Raylan doesn’t share things like that with others. He’s the boss, he doesn’t have to explain his actions to us, his subordinates. But this time, I couldn’t help it. I know you well enough. You’re not the type to just go off like that on some whim, out of the clear night sky. You even signed out on Flight Ops board! That’s not the action of someone who’s sliding out of work. K’ndar, you were tricked into leaving. I don’t know why, although I have a suspicion. No matter, Jomoke was wrong. And everyone involved knows it.”

“Has anything been done to him? I wanted to hammer him.”

“I doubt you’ll need to do a thing. Raylan referred the matter to Grafton. That’s one of Grafton’s jobs, you know. He’s a good man, quiet, fair. But he’s not a man to cross, believe me. I’d rather take a beating than face up to Grafton as a judge.”

K’ndar remembered his talk with Grafton. He could easily see that being on Grafton’s shit list was NOT something anyone in their right mind would want.

She took a sip of klah and searched the crowd for Jomoke. She didn’t see him.

“I’m not seeing Jomoke, yet,” she said, “but he’ll be here, I’m sure, he did the reproductions of the beast, and I admit they look great. But I don’t believe he’ll be allowed any input anything other than technical.”

K’ndar sighed. “Thanks. That makes me feel better. I have never been one for confrontation, but I was ready.”

“I don’t like them, either, K’ndar. But here at Landing, if you’re a scientist, you have to be prepared to defend your conclusions. And, human nature being what it is, that seems to always bleed over into every day social interactions. There’s always going to be someone who takes the opposite tack and challenges you to defend it, usually just on account of because. Sometimes I think we’re like dogs, always jockeying for alpha.”

She brushed her hands clean of a few clinging crumbs. “If I ate those every day…” she shook her head.

“Most of the data today will be considered ‘preliminary’, except for the DNA. Miklos- well, I shouldn’t steal any of his thunder, but I doubt he will actually show up. He’s got a journeyman, now. She’s quite young but she’s good, she understands DNA and that whole sphere. How she can tolerate working next to Miklos I have no idea. Those who understand DNA will probably be fascinated, the rest of us will go to sleep. It’s extraordinary, K’ndar, this beast, from what Miklos says, it’s completely new to science! It’s its own beast! Lefsa insists it should be put in a whole new genus, and she’s the taxonomist.”

“It’s not anything?”

“Well, of course it’s something. It’s obviously native to Pern. It’s a saurian. But it’s not related to anything we know of, so far. There is NOTHING in the database of any creature like it. The mammals brought here from Earth and Vulcan are all live bearing. There were a few snakes, which of course are reptiles, on Earth that were live bearing. But there’s never been a live bearing Pernese saurian that bears live young.”

“Am I right in guessing it was live bearing? I’m not so sure, now, I sorta regret jumping to that conclusion. I think it is, but I’m not up on anatomy or physiology. So it’s conjecture, Jansen.”

“YES, K’ndar! Spoken like a skeptical scientist! Which is precisely the reason for this symposium. What is this critter? I don’t know. Miklos says the DNA indicates it’s extremely old, not this specific specimen, obviously, but the genus itself has existed for millions of years longer than fire lizards. It may even, I know this is bizarre, but it may be a relic of live bearing creatures that later went extinct. Meaning, egg laying came AFTER. We just don’t have enough fossils!”

“A friend of mine, B’rost, says we don’t have many because Pern is so volcanic.”

“I believe him.” She shook her head. “Ah, well. As for the beast, I intend on adding it to the museum. You are almost singlehandedly creating my exhibits for me, the big ones, at least. My museum! It’s actually coming to fruition, and thanks to you, it’s already got some big draws. You have to come see it, K’ndar, I’ve been going at it hammer and tongs to get it going, working on it after work, even on rest days. It’s been a headache and a labor of love at the same time.”

“I didn’t mean to interfere with your free time,” K’ndar said.

“No, no. It’s not like that at all. I WANT to be the curator of the very first museum on Pern! No one else wants to do it, and keep this secret, but I am enjoying it. This beast will be yet another addition. Oh, look, here it comes, now.”

Two teenaged boys made their way through the crowd, carrying a wooden platform with the animal Rand had turned in. It was standing on the hind four legs, its forefeet extended, the claws looking even more wicked than when he’d first examined them. The creature’s jaws were open, showing the fangs. It looked alive, he thought, which is impossible. He subconsciously wiped his hand on his shirt. The smell that had contaminated his other shirt, and the room he’d examined it had dissipated, but he’d never forget it. He imagined he could still smell it.

“How did it get to look like that?”

“That’s not the real beast, K’ndar. It’s a replica, a ‘model’. While most of Landing was out harvesting, Jomoke took the beast apart layer by layer and the tissues are in cold storage, for now. The skeleton-that will be coming in shortly, I think, is made of remolded cow bone. The real skeleton is gently being cleaned by the fabulous little crawlers and bugs that can get into every nook and cranny. Given enough time and warm weather, and they’ll have it completely defleshed. But it takes time. And stinks in the meantime.”

“It’s incredible, how lifelike it looks. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Nor have I. But Jomoke, apparently, has been doing stuff like this since he was a kid. He said he’s prepared little things, like crawlers, avians, even a quorl. This is the biggest he had ever done, he said.”

“Is there a name for this craft? Skill?”

“The ancients called it ‘taxidermy’, K’ndar. They would use the real animal, I guess, take the skin off, tan it, I think, or preserve it somehow, and put it on a wooden frame shaped like the real animal.”

“It looks alive, almost,” K’ndar marveled, “It must have taken hours to just draw the bones, the muscles, and I bet there were measurements? How did he do this is such a short amount of time?”

“We scanned it. There’s a big scanner in one of the storage buildings that we’ve never used since Landing opened up. We didn’t even know what it was until just recently. It had centuries of dust on it. It took a day to clean it up, then another to dig in the database to learn how to activate it, then an all nighter for the computer to gently coax it into working. It’s not like the smaller scanners, this thing was built for BIG things.

Manhandling that stinky carcass onto the scanner was a job all on its own. Your experience with it was ample warning. The two men who came to your bay to pick it up? One said he felt so sorry for the way you smelled, but he wasn’t going to let it happen to him. He said to tell you ‘thank you for the warning’ she said, laughing.

“You’re welcome, I think,” K’ndar said, grimacing. “It wasn’t purposeful, believe me. I had to get rid of the shirt, I washed and washed my hand with hydrogen peroxide and still smelled. I was smart enough to work in your cold room, otherwise I would probably have had to sleep outside for a week. My fire lizard though, he went crazy over it.”

She giggled.”Well, you saved the staff of Landing a stinky fate. But anyway, the scanner generated a three dimensional record of everything inside the beast, all the organs, the skeleton, even the nervous system. Jomoke was able to read it and created the replica from claws to jaws.”

“I hate to give the yob any credit, but he certainly did a good job.”

“It probably would have taken him weeks the old fashioned way. He’s good with a computer, not as good as me, though!

And the scanner itself, K’ndar, it’s like an artifact all on it’s own. First off, it said the beast is nowhere in its memory. Nor is it in the database. No one has ever seen it before. Best of all, K’ndar, the scanner itself is a treasure trove of data. Someone, thousands of years ago did a lot of scanning and then just stopped entering it. Probably when they had to evacuate when Mt. Garben burped? I don’t know. Once the database and the scanner started to talk, the scanner almost begged to download. It took an entire day for it to finally empty its memory! There’s reams of data, it will take months to get through it all. That’s my next project, digging through it. It’s a lot of work, because of the changes in our world, but it’s just the sort of thing I love to do. Now I know how you felt when you discovered the artifacts that we’re all using now., and now, an artifact from the Ancients right here at Landing!”

A second pair of teens entered, carrying a platform with a mounted skeleton.

“Whoa. Look at that spine…” he said.

“Funny, that’s exactly what Nangela said. She’s over there with Lefsa. She’s an anatomist, well that’s one of her talents. They worked together on the beast. You’ll hear from her, too. Better go find your seat, K’ndar, I think they’re getting ready to start the symposium.”

“I think I’ll stay here at the back of the room,” K’ndar said, “I don’t think I’ll have much to report.”

“K’ndar. No. There’s a space set for you at the table. See the name slates? There’s Lefsa’s. Yours is probably closer to the front. Just look for the slate with “K’ndar” on it.”

“But..”

She took his arm. “K’ndar. This is one of the things scientists do, okay? You have some experience with this beast. Just relax, look at Raylan if you must, because he’s the one you are reporting to, not everyone else. Just say what you found, what happened, that sort of thing. After you’re done, people will ask you questions. Most of them will be intelligent ones, and so just pause, think, and answer. If you don’t know, say so. There is absolutely no shame in saying, “I don’t know”.

Doubt filled him. “Just..talk?”

“Just talk. If you think too much, you’ll get lost, so just talk to Raylan. If you’re like me, you get a little nervous talking in front of people. Don’t even ask me to sing solo!! I can’t get the words out of my throat, never mind sing! But if I’m in a crowd that’s singing...it’s easy.”

“Are all these people here because they had something to do to the beast?”

“Oh, my, no. Most of them are just curious. They saw on the schedule that a symposium is being held and are taking it as excuse to leave their work. So they might not hang around for the minutia, I guarantee you, once the discussion of the skeleton or the nervous system begins, never mind the DNA, they’ll leave.

Oh, there are a few who will hang on, hoping to be able to take some bit of credit for your find, no matter how tiny or insignificant it may be. Sort of “I remember my great great grandmother seeing one of these beasts” sort of thing.

Sometimes it might even be true, but like my mom used to say, “don’t boast about the fish you haven’t caught yet.”

If you want, K’ndar, you can always leave after your report. Just finish it up with “Are there any questions? and if not, politely depart. In this case, though, most of them will likely just eat these fabulous cookies and stand around attempting to sound as if they know what they’re talking about. Which they don’t, because frankly, there’s more we DON’T know about this animal that what we do.

I do have to warn you, that there will be someone who either tries to make you look stupid, or will ask you something so incredibly stupid you will probably think he’s taunting you. For instance, see that tall bloke, bending Raylan’s ear?”

Even from across the room, K’ndar could see the man was wearing on Raylan’s patience.

“That’s Fleming. He may try to spook you, he’s very impressed with himself but he has NOTHING to do with biology, not a bit. He’s the one who tells Council how many ships are in various ports. But he’ll probably interrupt you when you’re reporting, just to rattle you. It’s his way of attracting attention to himself, but everyone here knows he’s just a bag of wind. If he does come after you, just think of him as an annoying bug that you are too polite in public to give him the swatting he deserves.”

She let go of his arm and motioned for him to sit. His name was on both sides of a small bit of slate. Along side it was a datalink, the screen blinking to show it was live. There was a small notebook with a pencil alongside. There was also a mug, turned upside down.

“Where are you sitting?”

“I’m going back to my office, I’m running the datalinks from my desk. They’ll be recording everything that’s said or reported. You’ll be able to replay it later, it’s automatically going to your datalink, which, I see, you didn’t bring. K’ndar!”

“I know, I know. It’s in my quarters. I keep forgetting to bring or use all these...these toys. I really AM a provincial yokel, I guess.”

She gave him a light punch. “No, you’re not, you’re a good scientist and a nice bloke, all round. Raylan’s pushed Fleming off and is about to start the meeting. Remember, just report, relax, don’t let anyone haze you. I can’t wait to hear what you plan to name it, and I hope they take your suggestion.”