Chap. 290 Message from Healer Hall

“They’ve been gone for what, a week?

“About that. I didn’t keep track, K’ndar. At the time, I had no idea how important knowing where they are would be. I was just glad they were gone. As for when did they leave? Not soon enough, but, you know how it is here, one day blends into another. As long as I keep track when my tithes are due, I really don’t care what day it is. Or what month. The beasts and the seasons are my calendar.”

Mardriss watched as K’ndar finished harnessing Raventh.

“Hopefully the grass is dry enough that I’ll be able to track them,” K’ndar said.

Mardriss shook his head in frustration. “I should never have accepted their team as barter. I’ll flay them alive if they’ve neglected my oxen like they did theirs. If they listened, they won’t push the team too hard. I would say, then, they should make about ten kilometers a day at the most. If they listened, they’ll follow Wher Creek.”

K’ndar scoffed. “If they listened.”

“Yeah.”

“So, I should be looking about seventy klicks out?”

“That’s a good guess.”

“I think what I’ll do, then, is go between a hundred klicks out, turn around and fly back. Raventh needs the work.”

“How will you know you’ve done a hundred kilometers?”

“Remember, we staged the expedition from here. Me, D’nis, D’mitran and B’rost.”

“That’s right, but how…”

“Cairns, Mard. I left all my field notebooks at Landing, but that’s okay. I memorized the cairns. We surveyed every hundred klicks. We took coordinates and I made cairns at every stop.”

“Notebooks. Sometimes I wonder if things like your datalink, and paper aren’t making people lazy in their heads.”

“Trust me, that’s already being addressed at Weyrlingschool, if not other places.”

“All this nonsense due to a couple of greenhorns,” Mardriss said, grimly. “I swear, from now on, I’ll keep strangers at dragon length.”

Daryat came up behind him. “Mardriss, that’s, that’s ungrateful. “

“Mum, I can’t help it. If they’ve killed Nattana, it will take all of us to keep Sandriss from killing them, and I do NOT want to lose TWO of my family. If our livestock are all infected, we’re going to lose our arse.”

Their mother grimaced. “I know, and I’m not apologizing for them, but we had no idea, and they did need our help.”

“And we gave it, and look where we are, now. Locked down with no end in sight and a sick baby up at Healer Hall.”

Siskin warbled a hello. K’ndar looked up to see Sandriss’s two fire lizards overhead.

“Mard! Look! Those are Sand’s lizards! The bronze has a message tube!”

Daryat whooped-then stopped, wondering if they bore bad news.

“Here, lad, there’s a good one, come to me,” K’ndar coaxed the bronze. Siskin chittered a hello to the gold.

She hissed at him.

Siskin harrumphed and returned to his perch atop Raventh’s head.

The bronze alighted. K’ndar carefully removed the message. This one was on paper.

He looked with trepidation at his mother and brother. Daryat started to wring her hands, unconsciously.

“Go on, K’ndar, read it.”

For one long moment, he was afraid to. Then he unfolded the message.

Good news, everyone, Nattana is alive and getting better by the day.

“SHE’S ALIVE!!” he cried.

All three fire lizards bolted at his shout, and Raventh flinched.

Warn me, next time!

Sorry.

Daryat started to cry with joy. From behind her, he heard cheers, and the cothold began to run towards them.

He continued reading.

The bright sparks here have taken what seems liters of blood from us. But it’s so they can make a vaccine. Natty is the only survivor out of seven, I’m told, and so far that seems to be all. They are working night and day on the samples to make a vaccine. Me and Liana have both tested negative. They want us to stay another day or two, then, can you come pick us up? B’rost dropped off cookies and insisted Cooky be told he didn’t take a one. He will be returning to the cothold today.

Thank you threefold for sending Pony to Natty. That helped her tremendously. We knew when she started crying for her Pony that she would live.

He handed the message to his mother. She read it, twice. “By the stars, I’ve lost weight, worrying,” she said. She passed it on to the others.

Mardriss looked better.

“Call your boss, K’ndar, tell him about the ship they came on.”

________________________________________________________________

“Thank you, K’ndar, I’ll have Fleming jump on chasing down any information on the Imp. Give me a second to type this to him.”

Raylan paused. K’ndar could hear the voices of people behind him in the Science Division at Landing.

“Done. It’s been crazy here, despite the lockdown. I think every healer on the planet has been taking blood samples. They’ve not missed a one here. Healer Hall is splitting the samples, sending half of each one here. Between the two labs, they hope to elucidate the genome of this virus. Miklos! I’ve never seen him so animated. He is racing to beat Healer Hall to fully reading the genome.”

“Have them check Landing’s cows, too, sir, and the horses.”

“Why?”

“A family of settlers came into my brother’s cothold here, with a team they drove all the way from Lemos. We believe it was their toddler who gave the virus to my niece. She had to go to Healer Hall, Raylan, she looked so bad. She was hot as a torch.”

Raylan was silent for several beats. “Oh, K’ndar. I’m so sorry. My condolences to your family.”

“Thank you but, Raylan! I just got a message from my brother. She’s still alive! She’s getting better! My brother and sister in law are with her up at Healer Hall right now. And B’rost is up there, now, he took blood samples from all of us AND the cattle and horses.”

“How ironic, K’ndar, that your niece is involved. I’m glad she’s going to make it. But the settler’s child died?”

“No, sir. Not as far as I know. Soon as I sign off with you, I’m heading out onto the steppe to find them.”

“They left the cothold? Despite the lockdown?

“Yes, sir. The lockdown hadn’t been called until after they left. And I suspect they would have ignored it, IF they’d heard of it at all.”

“Where did they go? For that matter, what were they doing?”

“The stars only know, Raylan. My family and our hands all say that this man and his wife were the most unlikely, unprepared, inexperienced set of greenhorns, with this big dream of settling on the steppe. They about drove their team almost to death, they seem to have no concept of how to care for animals, never mind how to survive in the wilderness.”

“And they had the disease then?”

“I don’t know. Raylan, I don’t know how a virus works. So I’m guessing they had the disease but didn’t know it. At least, they showed no symptoms. B’rost thinks it originated in their toddler, and they’ve been wandering across East Northern, spreading it. That’s what his backtracking map says. And it wasn’t until after they left that Nattana fell ill. A few days, maybe two?”

“Hmm,” Raylan said, “delayed incubation period?”

“Again, sir, I don’t know what I don’t know. What I DO know, though is how grateful my family is, how thankful I am to you for releasing me to take them up north. I really believe had I not taken her to Healer Hall, she would have died.”

The thought made his guts run cold.

Of course, K’ndar. It’s family. Work can wait. Not like we can do anything like a survey here anyway. We’re as locked down as anyone.” He was silent for a moment. Then, “You said cattle? Are bovines showing symptoms?”

“Not so far. B’rost said that as far as anyone knows, so far, the only victims have been humans, meaning mammals, no native Pern animals seem to be affected. He said there’s ample historical precedent for interspecific transfer of diseases.”

“Ah. Only mammals. No wonder they’re calling for checking the dolphins.”

K’ndar heard Raylan’s datalink buzz. “Hold on a minute, K’ndar, I’ve got an all hands note-ah. ‘All healers, take samples from mammalian livestock.’”

“That’s B’rost’s work. He’s really risen to the occasion,” he said. “He’s proving to be a far better scientist than I would ever have expected.”

“He’ll deserve some sort of award, although what, that might be, I can’t imagine,” Raylan said.

He heard Raylan’s datalink buzz again.

“Any station with information regarding transport ship Imp out of Keroon, report. Any station, contact the crew of the Imp for blood samples.”

Both their datalinks buzzed.

Attention, Lemos Hold, Igen Hold, Keroon seaport, Southern Hold seaport, Singing Waters Hold. Please report any information of the following people:

Origin: Lemos Hold. Landren, male, 35 years old, Dor, his wife, 30 years old, daughter of 8 years, name unknown, boy child, approximately two years old, name unknown. They were last seen at Southern Hold with a team of oxen and a Wanderer built wagon. Do not harm them or attempt to apprehend them. They have not committed a crime but are suspected to be carrying the virus. Advise them to obey the planetwide lockdown. Upon location of these people, Healer Hall will send a team to aid them.”

Funny, they didn’t say that the settlers were or had been at my cothold, he thought.

And yet another buzz, the message this time only on K’ndar’s datalink.

“K’ndar. Don’t launch just yet, I’m returning and want to join you in finding the settlers,” It was from B’rost.

“Okay,” he sent back.

“Sounds like Healer Hall believes these settlers to be the source. They’ve not had another case reported since they locked down the planet,” Raylan said.

“That’s comforting.” He did the math in his head. Maybe Nattana WAS the last one. I have to find those people. Have to.

“Aye.”

There were several long moments of silence. It was amazing, he thought, that he could be talking with Raylan through the thin air, despite his boss being so far away.

“How are YOU doing?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You DO work for me, remember, even though you’re on an unplanned leave. Sleeping in until noon?”

For a moment he wondered if Raylan was serious. Then, judging by his tone, he decided the Division chief was teasing.

“Aren’t you?”

Raylan laughed. “I wish. I’ve not had a full night’s sleep since the lockdown. Everyone wants to know when can we resume movement, thinks I know, and they want to know at two in the morning.”

“Rank has it’s privileges,” he snarked.

“So it would seem,” Raylan sighed.

“I’m doing fine, sir. No one sleeps in on a working horse cothold. I’m back to doing KP in the kitchen and mucking stalls when I’m not riding horses.”

“Poor lad. We’re well, too. Our dragonriders are being kept busy, though, there’s a lot of back and forthing between here and Healer Hall. Not people, samples.

Healer Hall is splitting every sample that comes in, we get half, they get half, to see who can come up with the complete genome elucidated. Once they have that, they’re half way to creating a vaccine.”

“They’re looking at the DNA?” Did viruses even have DNA? He knew that viruses were unlike anything else in the universe.

“I believe so, but it may also be RNA and I’d be lying if I said I knew the difference. But Miklos does. By the stars, I’ve never seen that man so animated. He’s actually SPEAKING, interacting, he’s determined to be the first one to read out the viral genome.”

“Whoa,” K’ndar said, “Miklos! The first time I met him I believed he was deaf, and I’ve never heard more than two words from him. So now he’s talking? It must be like saddling your horse and he turns and says, ‘No, if you don’t mind, I’d much rather stay here and eat.”

Raylan laughed, and K’ndar heard the fatigue in his voice.

“Sir, B’rost just sent me a message saying he was being released by Healer Hall but only to my cothold, and he is going to help me search for the settlers.”

“Don’t scare them, K’ndar, right now, they’re the most wanted people on Pern. If they spook, we may never find them.”

“Yes, sir. I know. Although if they’re as far out on the steppe as I think they are, the only way they can disappear is on dragonback.”

He heard Raylan’s datalink buzz.

“Blast. Fleming says there’s no records of a ship named the Imp.”

“Huh. That’s strange. That doesn’t sound right, maybe they’re raiders?”

“Maybe. Although I find it hard to believe a raider would actually let those people disembark with their heads and money.”

“My brother said they were charged to disembark, can you imagine?”

“Covers the port fees, I guess,” Raylan said. “That’s egregious, though. Maybe the Imp IS a raider ship. If she’s not in the database it certainly smells like they’re illegal.”

Harve hove into his mind. I forgot that I gave him a datalink, so long ago. Where does the time go?

“Sir, give me a minute. The crew of the Serengeti might know of it. Remember Harve? He’s a fisher. The seafolk have their own culture, I’d be surprised if they hadn’t heard of the Imp. How do I put you aside, oh, there.”

“I remember Harve. Good kid, he’ll go far. Don’t cut me out, K’ndar, do you mind if I listen in?”

“By all means, sir.”

Far out to sea, the waves glittering with a million sparkles of light, one of the Serengeti’s crew off watch came on deck. Serengeti was racing along, the wind ballooning her pyramid of sails as she flew before it.

“Hi, there, Harve!! In the tops, there, Harve! That strange toy of yours is calling for you.”

“What?” The teen looked down from his perch high above the deck. He didn’t notice that the mast was describing big circles on the cobalt sky. Far below him, one of the crew was holding his datalink.

“The toy, the toy the dragonrider gave you. It’s calling your name.”

“My name? Oh, the datalink!”

“Whatever you call it. Want me to send it up to you?”

“Please! I’m in the middle of a splice,” Harve called.

Within moments, the datalink soared to his perch in a canvas bucket.

“I’ll give it one more try, Raylan.”

“Give it a few minutes, K’ndar, sometimes people don’t carry them around. Someone I know seldom carries his,” Raylan said, his voice light.

“This is Harve, who is calling me?” he heard Harve’s voice.

“Hello, Harve, it’s K’ndar.”

“K’ndar! By the sea, hello! You’re the first person to talk to me on the datalink! I almost forgot to push the little picture on the screen.”

“That’s great! I’m sorry I’ve not called earlier, but, we’re all busy. I wish I could chat, but you know about the lockdown, don’t you?”

“Lockdown? Oh, yes. We’re to quarantine because of a new disease, aye? The datalink sent me a message a few days ago and said so. We’re about 150 klicks off of Southern Boll, inbound to Nerat with a hold full of fish. Once we offload we’re supposed to stay in port until further notice. So I’m sorry, K’ndar, but I can’t offer you a fresh fish right now.”

“That’s okay, Harve, but even if I weren’t on lockdown, I’m at my home cothold.”

“Once we got the message, we told the dolphins. They said they already knew about a disease. Can they catch it?”

“I don’t know and I hope not. Right now I think it’s just in humans. In fact, that’s why I am calling. Did you hear the names of the people Healer Hall is looking for? They shipped a wagon and a team of oxen from Keroon to Southern Hold on a ship named Imp. Landing has no record of a ship named that. Have you ever heard of it?”

There was silence on Harve’s end, save for the booming of the sails, the whooo of the wind in the rigging, the singing of an unseen woman far below his perch, and the overwhelming sound of the sea.

“Harve? Are you there?”

“I am, K’ndar, but I’ll have to clean my mouth out after saying that name. Aye, everyone knows of the Imp.

There’s no surprise there’s no record o’ her. They’re one step below raiders. They’re smugglers, K’ndar. They’ll cheat their own mothers, given half a chance. They’ve never reported a cargo because they don’t want the harbormaster inspecting their bill of lading or watching them unload. They don’t want to pay the port fee. I’m astonished they actually docked at Southern. Usually they pull up in a tiny cove, meet with landsman who takes the cargo and keeps his mouth shut. Her captain’s a thief and her crew brigands. How those people got off her without having their hair lifted or their money stolen, I have no clue. That one ship gives the rest of us honest seafolk a bad name. Don’t ask Cap’n Disko, or me, or anyone who’s a decent seaman to have any truck with the Imp.”

He heard Raylan whistle, softly.“That’s all I need to know, K’ndar,” he said.

“Thanks, Harve. I knew you’d know. That’s all Landing needs to know, you’ve been a great help. For now, I have to sign off, but when this lockdown lifts, I’ll head up there for some fresh fish.”

“Bring some of those bubbly pies from your Weyr? And don’t tell Cooky I’m wanting a pie from someone else’s galley. If she hears of it, she’ll feed me nothing but fishbait for the rest of the season.”

K’ndar laughed, liking the boy greatly. “Your secret is safe with me, Harve.”

“Thanks. And don’t say a word to the Imp about us. The less they know about us, the better.”

“Worry not, Harve. Thank you.”

He signed off. That is one good kid, he thought.