Chap. 414 The Fence’s Advice
The healer removed her stethoscope earpieces.
“He’s gone,” she said, with a sigh. Talking with Grafton helped me, she thought. “Don’t worry, Ma’am,’ he’d said, “Landing is full of all sorts of specialists. I have a feeling your necropsy will be done without you having to touch a scalpel.”
The dragons in the meadow all keened in one, sorrowful cry. Anyone who knew anything about dragons knew their cry meant that a dragon had died.
Siskin, Fafhrd, and Francie’s trio of fire lizards, perched in the tree just above the blue’s body, made mournful notes that no one had ever heard before.
The dragonriders all stroked the blue’s head one last time.
“Blue dragon Sorath,” P’jar said, “you were brave and devoted. Many mates and full gorge to you in the beyond, Sorath.”
“You didn’t die alone,” K’ndar said to the blue, “we might not have been your master but we are here.”
The boy began to sob, his tears dotting the dragon’s skin. The girl searched fruitlessly for a flower to put on the dragon’s neck, and settled for a set of pretty red leaves.
Francie couldn’t bring herself to say anything. How could a dragon rider just desert?
K’ndar called Jansen on his datalink.
“Have you seen L’ichen? Do you have any idea where he is?”
“K’ndar, no, you’re not the only one wanting to know where he is. There’s four division chiefs out looking for him.”
“Four Chiefs? FOUR?”
“Aye. The trap Data set up for the datalink transmission during the shutdown caught it again this morning. It’s L’ichen’s datalink. And Chief Elene JUST sent me a message, she said a backpack was found outside her library. She’s going to bring it here to open it, but I think we all know who it belongs to.”
“Where did L’ichen go? He sure in shaff isn’t here to comfort his dragon in its last moments. Francie and I both sent our fire lizards out to search, they didn’t see him. It’s like he’s gone between without a dragon.”
“No, no one has a clue where he is. The lad who was his escort saw him heading in the opposite direction of the dragon meadow. It’s astonishing how fast news travels. I’ve been pinged a dozen times with people wanting to know whose dragon died. I know it was Sorath, just by how old L’ichen looked, never mind what you and P’jar said. Oh, wait!
My terminal has just pinged me. Don’t hang up on me, K’ndar, I still want you to..oh, boy, I need three sets of eyes. Hello, Topo!”
K’ndar heard her talking to a man he knew only as Landing’s Anatomist, the one who’d examined every creature, alive or dead, that he’d brought in.
“Jansen. There’s a dead dragon in the meadow,” he heard the man say.
“Yes, sir, please, tell me how you know this? Were you there?”
“No, no, but my son was assigned to Escort a dragon rider named L’ichen. That lout ran him off as soon as he was out of sight of the library.”
“I know, I was there when he rejected the girl who was next in line for escort duty. She was sent out instead with the visiting Weyrlingmaster. That boy is your son?”
“Yes.”
“Topo, he’s such a nice boy. When L’ichen snubbed her, she went back to their table and told your son she’d been rejected. Oh, Topo, it was so sweet. Your son gave her a big hug before he took L’ichen off.”
“He’s a good lad, Jansen. He’s your typical ram jam, jump first without checking the water depth boy, but he’s also kind, considerate, and generous. He heard two dragonriders tell Chief Elene that L’ichen’s dragon was deathly ill, that a healer was with him, and instead of going to the dragon, L’ichen went the other direction! And I know that the dragon has died. To me, it sounds like he’s abandoned the dragon, like that woman who abandoned her horse and her horny dog?
“Uh…I would think so. Sorry to say, the dragon is now just a dead animal.”
“YES. But a DRAGON animal, Jansen. Ma’am, I’ve been a butcher-I can’t use that term lately without people flinching, but I apprenticed as a butcher, and it’s why I was hired to be Landing’s Anatomist. I love the job, I love the work. I’ve cut up every creature humans brought here and the animals that K’ndar brings in. I hope he never brings in another speartooth but it was absolutely an incredible learning experience. Do you know the speartooth’s ribcage can expand and contract, well, never mind. The one animal I’ve NEVER dissected, not even seen its skeleton, is that of a dragon. No one alive today has. No one even in the past did. They don’t die where we can examine them. They go between before it gets so bad they can’t fly.”
“I know that.”
“Jansen, I need to necropsy that dragon. It’s vitally necessary. The only dragon anatomy and physiology I’ve ever learned was from the outside of a live dragon who wasn’t too happy with my poking and prodding. The data I collect from how its organs are laid in reality, rather than a wild ass guess, is more valuable than I can ever explain. I need to cut the poor beast open, extract the organs, photo or draw how they’re laid out, I need to do tissue samples and ultimately, I need to have the skeleton cleaned, like the other creatures that your dragon riders have brought in.”
“Uh…”
Topo pressed on. “What is this lout going to do with a dead dragon? He’s already decided. I can’t grasp the utter heartlessness of that man. I suspect he doesn’t have one. To just walk away from a partner like a dragon, even a horse or a dog, without even a last pat and a ‘there’s a good lad’, is a person we don’t want here at Landing.”
“I agree, and..”
“Jansen, he’s abandoned the dragon. It is now a dead animal on Landing’s property. Something needs to be done with it soon. I’m betting the scavenger wherries are already circling, they have the most incredible sense of smell. By nightfall, it’s going to attract whers and those little scavengers I’ve never seen as anything but shadows in the night. Whers won’t really hurt us but the dragon meadow is far too close to homes for comfort.
I insist, please, allow me to collect this scientific and physiological data. I’ll have the herdmaster tow the carcass to the specimen lot, where the speartooth was. I’ll do a necropsy, a tissue sampling, all that. Then the scavengers can go to work cleaning the skeleton. The whers won’t bother with coming into the cantonment. My stars, Jansen, it’s a windfall for science. Please, Jansen?”
Jansen began to laugh.
“I promise..”
“Topo, PLEASE SHUT UP and let me get a word in!” Jansen shouted.
Topo clopped his jaw shut. K’ndar, hearing the whole exchange, was about to interrupt when Jansen beat him to it.
“You don’t have to convince me. In fact, you’ve solved the problem that has been dumped on my desk because Chief Raylan is out hunting L’ichen. The dragon healer is here. She was with the dragon to the very last. Right now, she’s talking to Grafton because she says the same thing, a necropsy is what needs to be done, this is an opportunity too valuable to pass up. But she cannot bring herself to cut the poor thing up. She needs someone to do it for her. For us.”
The man was struck dumb by his good fortune. He finally said, “Really?”
“Yes. And I think you and she both have a golden opportunity to further the research on the one species that has allowed our civilization to persist.”
The man cheered.
“It’s legal? You’re okay with it? She won’t have to do a thing, other than observe and take notes and photos. In fact, that will help me a LOT in training my apprentices, they’ll be doing the hard work and I’ll be directing the harvest, and the healer can do all the write up, that’s honestly the most important part. Oh, what a great day!”
“Well, not for the dragon,” she said.
“No, Jansen. I agree it wasn’t a good day for the dragon, but he’s beyond suffering now. He’s given all dragons the most precious gift: knowledge that will help us humans better care for and understand them.”
Jansen swallowed, her heart hurting. But her mind was convinced.
“Yes. You’re right. As for your question of it being “legal”? The charter doesn’t say a thing about abandoned ‘property’, although I feel terrible referring to any intelligent animal like a horse or a dog as just ‘property’. The creatures we live with, the wild things, too, aren’t ‘just’ animals, they’re sentient beings. That being said, abandoned property becomes Landing’s. Chief Raylan isn’t here to make that decision so it’s fallen onto my desk. I just worry that I’m breaking a rule.”
“Jansen,” K’ndar interrupted, “As a dragonrider, I say, you are right that it is no longer a sentient being, but a dead animal. Its owner has absconded leaving the decision up to you, in this case.” If it comes to your having to explain to the Council why you made this decision, I’ll attest on your behalf. But I seriously doubt the Council will find any problems with this decision. I’ve never seen Lords D’nis or T’balt so angry and I swear, if P’jar catches L’ichen first the results aren’t going to be pretty. L’ichen didn’t give a damn about his dragon and killed him with neglect.”
“Me too, Jansen, I will be at your side, defending your decision,” Topo cried. “Thank you. Thank you. I’m collecting my tools, my apprentices, the team, and will head out there within the hour.”
Before K’ndar was able to talk to Jansen, she was interrupted again.
“Jansen? I brought that backpack I told you about,” he heard Chief Elene say.
“K’ndar, wait a moment, please?” Jansen said, “Chief Elene is here.”
“You have K’ndar on the datalink?” Elene’s voice said.
“Yes.”
“He needs to be here. Please.”
“K’ndar, I…”
“I’m on my way.”
——————————————————————————–
He saw the backpack on Jansen’s desk.
“On my way here, I realized that L’ichen, like any dragonrider, never mind any scientists, never goes anywhere without his backpack,” K’ndar said. “He wasn’t wearing it while at your desk, Chief.”
Elene nodded. “One of the lunch crowd brought it to me. I was going to turn it in to Lost and Found, but my gut said to open it, if for no other reason than to find out whose it is. But I thought it wise to bring it here with witnesses.”
“And who does it belong to?” Jansen asked, already knowing.
“I have no doubt it’s L’ichen’s,” Elene said.
She pulled out a pair of worn and dirty socks, a small ditty bag with what probably contained personal care items, and a pair of worn gloves. A small hand shovel, a folding loupe, some pencils, and a measuring tape followed. At the bottom was a trio of notebooks.
“That’s it?”
“Oh, no, there’s more.”
She removed a square wrapped in a cloth. Unfolding it revealed a framed piece of plexiglass with a winged insect inside.
Jansen touched it. “This doesn’t feel like glass. I’ve never seen this, this stuff.”
“What is the creature inside?” she said, handing it to K’ndar.
“I don’t know. It’s obviously not from Pern. It looks a little like our flutters but with fewer wings.”
“LOOK at it’s color,” Jansen said, “It’s blue, but not like any blue I’ve ever seen.”
“There’s a label on the frame,” Elene said, “It’s too small for me to read.”
“I’ll scan it and see what the database says,” Jansen said.
K’ndar went scrolling back in his mind. “It’s, um, I think it’s called a ‘butterfly’, which is probably the base name for our flutters. I remember seeing drawings of butterflies in, of course, one of DR Plank’s books about the creatures he encountered on Terra, Aldebaran and Vulcan. It’s from Terra, I’m sure of it. My word, it’s beautiful.”
“Can you read the label, K’ndar?” Elene said.
“Better yet, I’ll have my datalink scan it.”
The database responded within seconds.
Label reads: Catalog number TIL517 private collection of DR Plank.
Item is a Terran butterfly, an arthropod of the Family Lepidoptera. Label identifies it as a Morpho butterfly, Morpho menelaus. Called morpho due to the scales on the wings change the butterfly color from blue while in flight to brown while resting, to camouflage it from predatory insectivores.
Specimen is encased in plexiglas.
Wingspread is listed English measurement = 8 inches
Specimen was collected in Costa Rica, Central America, Earth, and preserved for the collection of DR Plank.
Butterflies and Lepidoptera in general were declared extinct in the wild. Specimen was grown in captivity.
For several moments, they all looked at each other, trying to fathom the presence of the specimen on Pern.
“How in the world did L’ichen get this, this butterfly?” Elene said.
Jansen shrugged, then looked at K’ndar.
“DeeArr lived here on Landing, but for how long? If his books are any indication, he moved around a LOT. Maybe L’ichen found it?”
“I’m absolutely baffled to see this,” Jansen said, “And I’d be lying if my brain isn’t jumping up and down saying THIS belongs in my museum.”
“Well, Jansen, I have to agree with you,” Elene said, “It deserves to be seen by our people. What a lovely thing, a ‘butterfly.” Did they eat butter?”
K’ndar’s turn to shrug. The thought hit him, “DR Plank lived here, at Landing. If he left with the others I don’t know, but being a biologist, like he was, I know I’d find a place for a treasure like this.” I will never tell anyone of how I got my opals, he thought, there’s only two people, now, who know where, and Lord D’nis and D’mitran won’t tell. They’re valuable, but I keep them as they’re beautiful. Like this morpho.
“He probably lived in one of the buildings that hasn’t been opened yet,” Jansen said.
“Yes, but, where?”
A thought went racing through Jansen’s mind, but it refused to come out. Something to do with Data, something to do with Data.
“I would think,” Elene said, “That somehow L’ichen knows where it is, he’s going here and there in time and all over Pern, stealing things, like he was at a Market day shopping for carrots.Judging on his appearance, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s gone all the way back to colonization to steal this.”
“Knowing what I do about him now, I don’t doubt it,” K’ndar said.
Jansen put the butterfly aside. You are going in my museum, no matter if L’ichen comes back or not. I’ll even pay for it.
““Um, let’s see what else is in that pack,” K’ndar said.
“Those socks stink. Put them on the floor, please?” Jansen asked. K’ndar picked the socks up and thought, how can a sock be heavy? but his attention was drawn by the next thing Elene pulled from the backpack.
It was a metal case, about the size of the notebooks in the backpack.
On the cover was a metal tag, engraved with the words:
“Logbook of Yokohama Pilot 1LT James R. Cook, Tranquility Base, Luna.”
They looked at each other, stunned.
“Do we open it?”
“It doesn’t look like it can be opened,” Jansen said, “It looks to be sealed shut. But, if it’s a logbook, that probably means paper, and I think we should hand it off to Acquisition. They have the vacuum chamber that will keep it from disintegrating once it’s opened.”
“I want to read it,” Elene said, “I AM Landing’s Historian as well as Chief Librarian.”
“I do, too.”
“If it survives opening, I’ll have the Printers scan it into the database and then print it,” she said.”
Elene put it on the desk gently, as if the very motion would break it.
“What’s next?”
She pulled out three notebooks.
“These are the notebooks I’ve given him when he’s brought in full ones,” she said.
“Didn’t he give you a couple in the library?”
“Yes, but these are thumbed, not worn or turned with muddy fingers. They don’t look as if he’s had them in the field.” She opened one up and flipped through it, quickly at first, then slower and slower as she read some of the entries.
“This one isn’t data collection data, it’s a personal diary.”
Jansen picked up a second one and flipped it open. “This one is, too. It’s got some data, but mostly personal-my word, it’s a record of his travels.”
“NO, really?” K’ndar said, picking up the third, and opened it to a random page. And read the dates.
“You’re right. This one says, I can’t believe my eyes, but it says the date 1615. He went back in time to 1615! It says what he collected, who he talked to, my word, he’s been all over time!”
Elene looked troubled. “We knew that. This just validates it. Here, put the three notebooks together, open.”
“Lay them out in order of wear, not chronological order, I don’t know if he tracked that or just the times he went to.”
They flipped through the pages. Most of it was just writing, although there were some drawings.
“He’s no artist,” K’ndar said, proudly.
“Much of this in this first book is mostly the conditions. For instance, “Much snow today, Honshu is a bust. Saw my target in one of their halls. It will fit. Will return when the weather improves.”
And on this page, “Got run off by Wanderers, had to wait until dark to get something from their cook caravan. Sorath chased their dogs off.”
“True. And, look. Look at his handwriting. I’ve seen his data many times, it’s always been small and very neat, like this first one. Then the second one, this page says Fourth Pass, Northern, High Reaches, so that’s a long ways back. There’s names of Craft Halls, Holds, even Weyrs! but his codes of what he took mean nothing to me. But look. At the beginning of the third notebook, he’s beginning to have trouble staying within the lines. Look at the handwriting. It’s getting worse and worse, it’s shaky, like he can’t control his hands very well. The last page shows, it’s more like scribbling than actual handwriting. And the words, he’s not writing in full sentences like in book one. He’s just jotting information down. And he’s repeating himself, as if he’s having trouble remembering what he did. This last page? I can see the date, oh my word, he was here during the shutdown.”
“That has to be due to his physical condition,” Jansen said, “He’s an old, old man now.”
A folded slip of paper was somehow connected to the page.
“I feel a bit sneaky, like I’m reading someone’s personal journal.”
“Well, we are. But he left it. If he returns, of course we’ll give back the pack and the journals, but the other things? Nope. I won’t let him have them back. They’re PERN’s, not his. And I suspect he’s done this many times. Where do the things he steals go? I bet, to some rich Holder or Crafter who wants something from our past. If nothing else, these books are damning evidence of artifact theft, and the Charter DEFINITELY covers that,” Jansen said.
Elene pulled the note out and, unfolding it, handed it to Jansen. “Maybe scan this? Right now? I think this needs to be put in the record immediately.”
Jansen did so.
Scanned and saved. Display document?
She said yes.
No names were on it.
DON’T use your datalink, especially during the shutdown. I know you don’t believe the Butchers were anything but a story to scare children, but I was ten years old when that starship came through and they were very real. It scared us all. I’m alive, we all are alive because we obeyed Landing’s shutdown.
I warned you about using your datalink during the shutdown. Did you forget that I told you the database was set to stop all transmissions? That’s why you couldn’t reach the Yokohama. Don’t be stupid and tempt fate. If you ping again, the computer will catch it. And then they will hunt you down for artifact theft. You have often said you consider the people of the past to be stupid solely because of the time they lived, but I assure you, they were not.
It’s why I’m writing this rather than sending to you via datalink. If they catch you they will read everything you ever sent from your datalink.
Your acquisitions from your last collecting trip were very much appreciated. Lord Hansar was impressed. His payment for your last acquisition is now in your account under your real name.
He is now interested in acquiring a dagger that is displayed in Landing’s museum. He is convinced it is beskar steel. If it is, it is worth more money than all the items you have acquired put together. If there was a buyer for it, you could easily buy an entire Hold.
That’s the problem. Finding someone in the galaxy to buy it, and as we have no interstellar trade, it is, essentially, worthless. Other than the fact that it’s probably the sharpest dagger you’ll ever have. However, what Hansar can’t comprehend or refuses to believe won’t hurt him. I will not dissuade him and you shouldn’t either. If you do acquire it, I will tell him that there is a third person interested in buying it, making it into a bidding war. The ‘third buyer’ will drop out after his highest bid, making it very lucrative for us.
Lord Mortin is interested in some of the items you described from your last trip. He wants two items from the warehouse. One is a preserved specimen called a morpho butterfly.
The other is the fossil in the warehouse. He wants it, badly, before it is discovered when the warehouse is opened. When we discussed this you indicated you did not believe your dragon could carry such a large item, but I know that a dragon can carry anything he thinks he can. He doesn’t know, and I won’t tell him, that the skull is said to be a replica, not a real fossil. It makes no difference, he wants it as a trophy for his Hold and I admit, just from the picture you took of it, is both a stunning and terrifying thing all in one.
The opals you brought made a lot of money. Again, your payment is in your account. Don’t bother with diamonds anymore, no one is interested in them. I am forced to give them away as rewards to the kids who work for me at the markets. Opals and sapphires, they’re the money makers.
Personally, I would love to have the mural in the warehouse, but as it is far too large to remove it, never mind carry, I will have to do without. I am happy with the benchmark boulder you brought from the initial exploration of Pern. Cleaned up, it is a wonderful addition to my small collection.
The kid I sent the first time to get it never returned. I will admit that it was early days in my profession and I was cheaping out, hiring a braggart kid with more bravado than sense. I won’t make that mistake again, and it’s why, so far, I’m happy with you and your skills. The kid didn’t listen to me. I’m sure what happened was he went to acquire it and was caught in a Thread fall. That’s the problem with the kids these days, they didn’t live through Thread fall. Like you, he never saw Thread. So, like your doubting the Butchers flyby, he ignored my warning. There’s an old saying, “he who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it.” He was definitely not a student of history. Don’t make the same mistake.
Stay discreet.
“I’m calling Raylan, right now,” Jansen said.