I don't know, Ruth replied in a strangely subdued, uncertain tone. Is this Aivas thing good?
"I believe it is," Jaxom answered, briefly considering his reply. "I think it will depend on us, the use to which we put the information tire Aivas can give us. If it rids Pern of Thread. . ."
If it can, that means dragons won't be needed anymore, doesn't it?
"Nonsense," Jaxom said more sharply than he had intended. He threw his arm around his dragon's neck in quick reassurance, caressing Ruth's cheek and leaning into his shoulder. "Pern will always need dragons. You could do a lot more useful and much less dangerous things than sear Thread out of the skies, believe you me! Don't you fret for a single moment about our future, my friend!"
Jaxom wondered if F'lar, Lessa, and F'nor had heard from their dragons on that score. But he knew that such a worry would not be the important issue to them. The dragonriders were totally committed to ridding Pern of Thread. Everyone knew that F'lar had set that as his life's task.
"No, Ruth, don't you worry your heart out over that. Threadless skies are, I fear, a long way off in Pern's future! Aivas may know a great deal more than we do about Oort Clouds and planets and things, but it is only a machine that speaks. Talk's cheap."
Still soothing Ruth's cheek, Jaxom looked out over the settlement that his ancestors had once inhabited. There were unsightly mounds in every direction where buildings had been greedily excavated only to prove disappointingly empty. How ironic that the real treasure should be nearly the last thing to be uncovered. Incredible that the treasure should prove to be the agency that unlocked the truth to their past. Would it be the key to their future? Despite his reassurances, Jaxom harbored some of the same doubts that made Ruth fretful.
Maybe it was wrong for F'lar to wish an end to Thread, if it inevitably meant an end to usefulness for dragons. And yet, to see the last of Thread, in his own lifetime...More importantly, to be able to improve life on Pern with the vast store of knowledge Aivas said it had-surely that was for the good of all?
Just then he saw lights coming up in some of the buildings that the excavation teams were using as dormitories. It was not yet dawn, but obviously there were many others who, like Jaxom, had slept little that night, restless with all the history and incredible moving images churning in their minds.
And what of Aivas's promise of help? It? He? Referring to this-this entity-as an 'it' seemed impolite. The masculine voice was so rich and lively. Yet Aivas called it/himself a machine, the product of an advanced technological culture and, for all its knowledge, an inanimate device. Jaxom felt more comfortable thinking of Aivas as real, as real as his own flesh-and-blood self.
It was then that Jaxom realized that he was going to have to revise many previously accepted concepts. That could be hard to do. The familiar was so comfortable. But the thought of the challenge brought a thrill to Jaxom -the incredible excitement of a future he could not have imagined just two days before, when he and Ruth had helped Piemur and Jancis excavate this one building out of the hundreds here. He didn't feel tired-he felt exhilarated.
"It's going to be exciting, Ruth. Think of it that way, as an exciting challenge." He rubbed Ruth's eyeridge with his knuckles. "We could both use a challenge, something new. Life's been getting dull."
You'd better not say that to Sharra, Ruth advised.
Jaxom grinned." She'll be challenged, too, if I know my mate."
Ramoth, Mnementh, Canth, Lioth, Golanth, and Monarth are coming, Ruth said, his tone brightening.
"Reinforcements, huh?" Jaxom gave the eyeridge one more stiff drubbing. "Company for you certainly."
Ramoth is grumpy, Ruth said, his tone suddenly wary. Canth said that lights were burning all night in Lessa's weyr, and Ramoth had long conversations with all the other queens. He sounded anxious.
"Don't worry, Ruth, please. It's going to work out. This is just a new beginning, just as our Impression was! Though nothing could ever be better than that day was for me!"
Ruth raised his head, his eyes altering from a murky shade to a happier blue-green.
The incoming dragons were circling, their faceted eyes vivid green and blue points against the dawn-gray light. As they back-winged, their hind legs poised to take the impact of landing, Jaxom was just able to discern that each dragon carried extra passengers. Some of the dragons waited only long enough to let their passengers dismount before they launched themselves again, disappearing between when they had gained sufficient height. The others settled down to wait while their riders and passengers headed for the administration building.
Jaxom sighed and gave Ruth an affectionate farewell slap before slipping back down the dusty slope to greet the new arrivals. When F'lar, Lessa, and Master Fandarel reached him in the doorway, Jaxom informed them that Aivas was resting.
"Resting?" Lessa demanded, halting so abruptly in midstride that F'lar had to sidestep to avoid barging into his slender weyrmate.
"The solar panels run out of power," Jaxom replied.
Master Fandarel looked both aggrieved and incredulous.
"But-but Aivas said that he could provide twelve different stations."
"Lower your voice, please, Master Fandarel. Master Robinton's still asleep." Jaxom kept his own voice low as a hint to the others. "I brought Sebell and Menolly and the Records Master Robinton wanted Aivas to see. Jancis and I got as far as the sixth Turn before Aivas turned off. He says he'll be all right again after a few hours of sunlight."
"So we get here in the middle of the night and it isn't working?" Lessa said, disgusted.
"Now, there is much we can do while we await his revival," Fandarel said soothingly.
"What?" Lessa demanded. "I don't want people bungling about in the dark caves, you know. And it's scarcely the time to start reassembling this facility. F'lar and I have questions for Aivas. It's one thing to be promised a miracle, quite another to produce it. In courtesy, we should allow the other Weyrleaders to see and hear this Aivas for themselves, for I assure you," she added at her drollest, "they didn't believe what had happened here. And if they come and there's nothing to see..." Her voice trailed off ominously.
"I hardly believe it myself," F'lar remarked with a wry grin at Jaxom. "So I can't fault others."
"There are more than enough glowbaskets to illuminate the caves," Master Fandarel said in his approximation of a whisper, "and the dawn is not far away now. My craftsmen can begin to assemble the items Aivas said it needs. Where are those sheets Aivas made? Bendarek is fascinated by my description of printed sheets emerging from a wall. He's just coming up the hill now." Clearly Master Fandarel entertained no reservations about accepting the Aivas's offer to restore his Records to legibility.
"Where are Sebell and Menolly?" Lessa asked, peering down the corridor toward the Aivas chamber.
Jaxom chuckled. "They're getting some rest. Aivas wouldn't even talk in front of them."
"Why not?" Lessa asked, surprised. "We told him they were coming."
"But they're not on the list. And while I'm a Lord Holder, and Piemur's a harper, we had no Weyrleader present."
Lessa frowned.
"That's exactly what we stipulated, Lessa," F'lar said. "I can trust someone that is scrupulous about obeying orders. Particularly something as potent as this Aivas."
A bass rumble startled them, and it took a moment to realize that the noise was Fandarel's chuckle. "It is the function of a machine to do what it is designed to do. I approve."
"You approve of anything that's efficient," Lessa said. "Even if that isn't always sensible."
"We've lived too long with dragons," F'lar said, grinning down at his diminutive weyrmate, "who understand what we mean, even when we haven't said it."