"We'll get our turn, lovey," Sebell said softly. "I promise you that. Master Robinton is as eager as we are, but there are more urgent priorities."
Menolly gulped back disappointment and looked helplessly at Sebell.
"I must leave now," Fandarel said." We are going to see how to reconstruct that power station, Aivas, and dragonriders have gone to bring my nickel-cadmium batteries, as you call them."
"Does Master Facenden understand how to connect them to the auxiliary power points shown to him?" Aivas asked.
"Yes, I made certain of his comprehension. He will also construct a cage to keep the unwary from touching the fluid or the wires. Come, N'ton, if you'd be so good as to assign dragonriders to take us up the river to the dam site." Fandarel wheeled about and strode down the corridor, N'ton beside him. Both ignored attempts by those waiting in the hall to stop and quiz them. Sebell gestured for Menolly to take one of the stools before he called Lords Oterel, Sigomal, Toronas, and Warbret to enter. Oterel pushed his way in first, wearing a triumphant expression that faded as he looked about him in bewilderment. When all four were in the room, Sebell introduced them to Aivas.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances, my lords," Aivas replied courteously. Menolly noticed that his deep voice was subtly deferential. "Soon this facility will be enlarged so that larger audiences can be accommodated."
Sebell caught Menolly's eye and winked at her. Both appreciated Aivas's smooth tact.
"You can see us?" Oterel asked, still looking around for something, Menolly wagered, that he could recognize as eyes.
"The visual sensors are registering your individual presences. You will most certainly be recognized again whenever you return."
Menolly hastily covered her mouth. It wouldn't do for Oterel to see her grinning at his confusion. This Aivas was half-harper. How did it know just how to deal with the old bore? Had Sebell warned it?
"You don't have any eyes," Oterel said querulously.
"Optics are the eyes of a machine, Lord Oterel."
"I understand that you knew our ancestors, Aivas," Lord Sigomal said while Oterel floundered over the implication that eyes were somehow inferior. "Can you tell me who mine were?"
"Lord Sigomal," Aivas replied, sounding genuinely apologetic, "no input has been received on such specific details. A list of the names of those settlers who removed to Fort Hold is being prepared and will be made available to anyone who requests a copy. Your own Hold Records probably detail who established Bitra. However, you may be pleased to know that your province was named for one of the shuttle pilots, Avril Bitra."
Menolly wondered at the odd clipped delivery of that information. Aivas had an incredibly flexible voice, capable of amazing dynamics and nuances. Maybe Master Shonagar, the Hall's eccentric voice teacher, could be pried out of his domain to hear such a Wonder.
"Lists of ancestors are the best you can do? That isn't going to be much use to us!" Oterel exclaimed in keen dissatisfaction.
"In your case, Lord Oterel, it is reasonable to assume that Tillek was either established by or named for Captain James Tillek, the captain of the Bahrain, a man of considerable acumen and talent as a seaman and explorer."
Oterel began to swell with importance.
"Regretfully, Lords Toronas and Warbret, your Holds were established long after input ceased. Would it be possible to add your Records to the information files of this time period? That would further the understanding of the structure of a Hold. There is so much that must be gathered before what you have created here on Pern can be fully appreciated."
Just then Master Wansor walked in and, mumbling over the page he was reading, stumbled into the seated Warbret. Profusely apologizing, he was confronted by a glaring Oterel, who accused him of barging in on Lord Holders.
"I've only one small question, but it is extremely urgent," Wansor said in his gentle, contrite voice. He took a breath to deliver the question.
"Master Wansor, you need only place the paper on the plate for it to be read and an answer given," Aivas reminded him most courteously.
Menolly raised her eyebrows. Few people paid Master Wansor the consideration his true abilities deserved.
"Oh, yes, I keep forgetting," Master Wansor said. Excusing himself, he wove a path past the stools to the control board. A round, little, unpretentious elderly man, he had to bend over to see with his weak eyes where to place the paper. The panel glowed more brightly. "Ah, yes. There!" And he patted the paper into position.
"Lord Toronas, your Hold was obviously named to honor the memory of Admiral Paul Benden," Aivas said, while several lightning flashes on the panel suggested to Menolly that Wansor's paper was being attended to simultaneously. Then, to the amazement of all, the main screen displayed the image of a fine looking man, his face full of character. A man to trust, Menolly decided. Then she was stunned by the realization that Aivas had known and talked to that man, so long dead and so long remembered. "A fine man, Admiral Benden," Aivas went on. "Holding the settlers together, always encouraging, preserving them through considerable trials to establish a safer haven in the Northern Continent."
"And I'm related to the admiral?" Toronas asked, rather more humble in his request than Oterel. "Our earliest Records are impossible to decipher."
As the Lord Holders awaited Aivas's reply, Menolly noticed Wansor's discreet departure.
"It is entirely possible," Aivas said, "even likely that you are a direct descendant. Four children were recorded to the marriage of Paul Benden and Ju Adjai. Perhaps if you bring in your Records at some later date, they can be deciphered. A program is available that utilizes a special light which can often restore lost words and phrases."
Enthralled, Menolly listened as Aivas dealt with both Sigomal and Warbret, as cleverly and in as personal a fashion, catering to their self-images.
Then Jancis, Piemur, and Benelek hovered uncertainly in the doorway, each clutching several sheets. Piemur rattled his to get Sebell's attention; the Masterharper deferentially told the Lord Holders that Aivas must be consulted again and politely gestured for them to leave.
Oterel grumbled, but Sigomal rose readily enough and took the old Tillek Lord by the arm. "It's stifling in here, Oterel. Far too stuffy for comfort. I don't know about you, but I intend to search out those Records and then see what this Aivas thing can tell me. Come along now."
"He manipulates them like so many string-dolls," Menolly told her mate in an undertone after he had escorted the Lord Holders into the hallway.
"Master Robinton had advised that tact and flattery might be required," Aivas replied. "Especially for those who cannot be accommodated with a lengthy interview."
"How did you hear me?" Menolly asked, dismayed that Aivas had overheard her whisper.
"Master Menolly, you are sitting beside a receptor. Whispers are clearly audible."
She caught Sebell's amused glance. He might have warned her about that.
"Don't distract Aivas, Menolly," Piemur said, arranging his papers on the plate.
"Master Menolly is not a distraction," Aivas said mildly. "Next page please, Piemur."
"Could you really read those old moldy Records?" Menolly asked.
"The attempt should be made. The ink that was used to write the Records you were kind enough to bring last night is of an indelible type that will yield to certain techniques available to this facility. Outside manual assistance will be needed, however, to prepare the documents before they can be scanned. That is a project which has been put on hold."
"On hold?" Menolly was delighted by the unusual but descriptive phrase. "How explanatory!"
Then she heard the sounds of movement in the hall and saw a file of people, laden with cartons, striding purposefully toward her. She saw F'lessan and F'nor among them.