"I didn't know Article Fourteen, Jamson," said Paulin, "Dereliction of Duty by Lord Holder".

"Can you give me a print-out on that, Clisser? Perhaps we all should have our memory refreshed on that point."

"Certainly," and the Head of the College made a note in his folder. "In your hands tomorrow."

"So your system's still working?" Tashvi asked.

Copies of the most important official doc.u.ments were made in quant.i.ty by my predecessor," Clisser replied with a relieved smile.

I've a list if you need any... handwritten but legible." Paulin cleared his throat, calling them to order. "So, my Lords Holder, should we proceed against Chalkin?"

"You've heard him. What option do we have?" M'shall wanted to know, glancing about the table.

"Now, wait a minute," began Jamson, scowling. "I'd want to have incontrovertible proof of his inefficiency as a Lord Holder as well as his failure to respond to this emergency. I mean, impeachment's an extreme step."

"Yes, and Chalkin'll do everything he can to slide out of it," Bastom said cynically.

"Surely there's a trial procedure for such a contingency?" asked Jamson, looking anxiously about. "You certainly can't act without allowing him the chance to respond to any charges."

"In the matter of impeachment I believe that a unanimous agreement of all major Holders and Leaders is sufficient to deprive him of his position," Paulin declared.

"Are you sure?" Jamson asked.

If he isn't, I am," Bridgely said, bringing one fist down firmly on the table. His spouse, Lady Jane, nodded her head emphatically.

"I haven't wanted to bring it up in a Council before," Bridgely began.

"He's very difficult to confront at the best of times," said Irene, setting her lips in a thin line of frustrations long borne.

Bridgely nodded sharply in her direction and continued.

"He's come as near to bending, or breaking for that matter. What few laws we do have on Pern. Shady dealings, punitive contracts, unusual harsh conditions for his holders."

"We've had some refugees from Bitra with stories that would curl your hair," Jane, Benden's Lady Holder said, wringing her hands in distress. I've kept records."

"Have you?" Paulin said. "I'd very much like to see them. "

"Autonomy is a privilege and a responsibility, but not a license for authoritarianism or despotic rule. Certainly autonomy does not give anyone the right to deprive his const.i.tuents of basic needs. Such as protection from Threadfall. "

I don't know about going so far as to impeach him. I mean, such an extreme remedy could have a demoralizing effect on all the Holds," said Jamson, his reluctance deepening.

"Possibly..." Paulin began.

"Not being prepared for Thread will certainly demoralize Bitra!" Tashvi said.

Paulin held up his hand as he turned to M'shall. "Please give me specific instances in which Bitra Hold has failed to supply the Weyr."

"Jane, I'd like to look at the records you've kept."

"I've some, too," Irene added.

Paulin nodded and looked round the table. "Since his dereliction of primary duty in regard to preparation against Threadfall could jeopardize not only his own Hold but that of his neighbors, I feel we must examine the problem as quickly as possible and indict him..."

Jamson jammed up an arm in protest, but Paulin held up a placatory hand. "If, that is, we do find just cause to do so. Just now, he was acting as if he'd had too much of Hegmon's new wine. "

"Ha!" was Irene of Benden's immediate response, a cynical reaction echoed by others around the table.

"We cannot allow personal feelings to color this matter," Paulin said firmly.

"Wait til you read my notes, " was her wry answer.

"And mine," added Bridgely.

"But who could take his place?" Jamson asked, now querulous with anxiety.

"Not a task I'd like so soon to Thread," Bastom admitted.

Paulin grimaced. "But it may have to be done."

"Ah, if I may," and Clisser raised his hand. The Charter requires us to find a suitable candidate from the inc.u.mbent's Bloodline" he began.

"He has relatives?" Bridgely asked, mimicking surprise and consternation.

I believe so," Franco said, "beyond his children. An uncle If they're of the same Blood as Chalkin, would that be an improvement?" Tashvi wanted to know.

"They do say a new broom sweeps clean," Irene remarked.

"I heard that Chalkin did his uncle out of succession by giving him an isolated hold."

"He got him out of the way fast enough, that's sure," said Bridgely. "Some mountain hold, back of beyond."

"All of Bitra is back of beyond," Azury of Boll remarked, grinning.

A replacement is not the most immediate concern," Paulin said, taking charge again, if we can persuade Chalkin that all of us can't be wrong about Threadfall."

Zulaya this time snorted at that unlikelihood. "He'll admit he's wrong only when Thread is eating him... which might solve the problem in the most effective way. Bitra's in the path of the first Fall."

"Remiss as Chalkin appears to be," Jamson said, "Bitra Hold may be better off with than without him. You don't learn the management of a Hold overnight, you know. "

Paulin gave the High Reaches Lord a long look. "That is very true, but if he hasn't even told his people that Thread is coming and he opened up his hands to show dismay at such an omission. That's a dereliction of duty right there. His prime duty and the primary reason for having a Leader during a crisis. As a group, we also have a responsibility to be sure each of us is performing duties inherent to our rank and position."

Zulaya shrugged. "It'd serve him right to be caught out in the first Fall."

"Yes, well," and Paulin rattled papers. "I'll accept reports of malfeasance and irregularities in his conduct of Bitra Hold. "

"We'll do this properly, gathering evidence and making a full report on the problem. Now, let's finish up today's agenda. "

Kalvi, you wish to broach the subject of new mines?"

The lean hawk-nosed engineer sprang to his feet. "I sure do. We've got fifty years of Fall and we're going to need more ore: ore that's closer to the surface than the Telgar deposits. "

"Thought they would last us a millennium," Bridgely of Benden said.

"Oh, there's certainly more ore down the main shafts, but it's not as accessible as these mountain deposits which could be worked more efficiently." He unrolled an opaque plastic map of the Great Western range where he had circled an area beyond Ruatha's borders. "Here! High-grade ore, and almost waiting to leap into carts. We'll need that quality if we're to replace flame-thrower equipment. And we'll have to. He said that with a degree of resignation. I've the personnel trained and ready to move up there - which I'd like to do to get the mines going before Threadfall starts. All I need is your OK."

"You're asking to start a hold up there? Or just a mine?" asked Paulin.

Kalvi scratched the side of his nose and grinned. Well, it'd be a long way to travel after the shift is over, especially if the dragons are all busy fighting Thread." He unrolled another diagram. One reason I've backed this site is that there's a good cave system available for living quarters as well as coal nearby for processing the ore. The finished ingots could be shipped down river.

There were murmurs among the others as the project was discussed.

"Good thing Chalkin left," Bridgely remarked. "He's got those mines in Steng Valley he's been trying to reactivate. "

"They're unsafe," Kalvi said scornfully. "I surveyed them myself, and we'd have to spend too much time shoring up shafts and replacing equipment. The ore's second rate, too. There isn't time to restore the mine, much less argue with Chalkin over a contract. You know how he can be, haggling over minor details for weeks before he'll make a decision." He contorted his long face into a grimace.

"If you," and he turned to the others at the table, grant this permission, I'll have a chance to noise it about the Gather this evening and see who'd be interested in going along in support capacity and necessary crafts."

"I'll second it," said Tashvi magnanimously, raising his hand.

"Good. Moved and seconded. Now, all in favor of the formation of a mining hold?" Hands shot up and were dutifully counted by Paulin.

"Chalkin's going to say this was rigged," Bastom remarked caustically, and that we drove him out of the meeting before the subject came up.

"So?" Paulin said. "No-one asked him to leave and he has a copy of the agenda same as everyone else." He brought his fist down on the table. "Motion carried. Tell your engineer he may start his project. "

"High Reaches Weyr," and he turned to G'don. "Telgar," and he included K'vin now, "can you supply transport?" Both Weyrleaders agreed. If a new hold was to be established, as many riders as possible from their Weyrs should become familiar with its landmarks.

"There won't be that much extra to protect against Threadfall," Kalvi said, with a grin for the dragon riders. "It's all underground or within the cliff caverns. We'll use hydroponics for fresh food from the start."

"Any more new business?" Paulin enquired.

Clisser raised his hand, was acknowledged and stood, glancing at the a.s.sembled: falling into his lecture mode, K'vin thought.

"Lord Chalkin's att.i.tude may not be that unusual," he began, startling them into attention to his words. "At least, not in times to come. We, here and now, are not too distanced from the events of the First Pa.s.s. We have actual visual records from that time with which to check on the approach of the rogue planet. We know it is a rogue because we know, from the excellent and exhaustive reports done by Captains Keroon and Tillek, that the planet was unlikely to have emerged from our sun. Its...o...b..t alone substantiates that theory since it is not on the same ecliptic al plane as the rest of Rukbat's satellites.

"I am a.s.siduous in training at least six students in every cla.s.s in the rudiments of astronomy and the use of the s.e.xtant, as well as being certain that they have the requisite mathematics to compute declination and right ascension and figure accurately the hour circle of any star. We still have three usable telescopes with which to observe the skies, but we once had more." He paused.

"We are, as I'm sure we all must honestly admit, losing more and more of the technology bequeathed us by our ancestors. Not through mishandling," and he raised a hand against objections, but from the attritions of age and an inability, however much we may strive to compensate, to reach back to the same technical level our ancestors enjoyed." Kalvi grimaced in reluctant agreement to that fact.

"Therefore, I suggest that we somehow, in some fashion, with what technology we have left at our disposal, leave as permanent and indestructible a record as possible for future generations. I know that some of us," and Clisser paused, glancing significantly to the door through which Chalkin had so recently pa.s.sed, "entertain the notion that our ancestors were mistaken in thinking that Threadfall will occur whenever the Red Planet pa.s.ses Pern. But we can scarcely ignore the perturbations already obvious on the surface of our planet the extreme weather, the volcanic eruptions, the other cosmic clues.

"Should it so happen in centuries to come that too many doubt - not wishing to destroy a flourishing economy and happy existence - that Thread will return, all that we have striven to achieve, all we have built with our bare hands," and dramatically he lifted his, "all we have around us today," and he gestured towards the music faintly heard outside the Hall, would perish.

The denials were loud.

"Ah," and he held one hand over his head, "but it could happen.

"Lord Chalkin is proof of that. We've already lost so much of our technology. Valuable and skilled men and women we could ill-afford to lose because of their knowledge and skills have succ.u.mbed to disease or old age. We must have a fail-safe against Thread! Something that will last and remind our descendants to prepare, be ready, and to survive."

"Is there any chance we could find that administration building then?" Paulin asked S'nan.

"Too close to Threadfall now," M'shall answered. "And it's going into the hot season down there which makes digging anything enervating.

"However, I most emphatically agree with Clisser. We need some sort of a safeguard. Something that would prove to doubters like Chalkin that Thread isn't just a myth our ancestors thought up."

"But we keep records... " said Laura of Ista Weyr.

"How much plasfilm do you have left?" Paulin asked pointedly. "I know Fort's stock is running low. And you know all that happened to our Repository."

"True. But we've paper" and she looked over at the Telgar Holders, Tashvi and Salda.

"Look, how can we estimate how much of forestry acres will survive Threadfall?" Tashvi asked, raising his hands in doubt.

I've the timber jacks working non-stop, cutting, and the mill's turning out as much lumber and pulp as it can."

"You know we'll do our best to protect the forests," K'vin said, though privately he wondered how good their best could be since even one Thread burrow could devastate a wide swath of timbered land in minutes.

"Of course you will," Salda said warmly, "and we will stockpile as much paper as we can beforehand. Old rags are always welcome." Then her expression sobered. "But I don't think any of us can know what will or will not survive. Tarvi Andiyar's survey when he took Hold indicated that most of the slopes were denuded. Ten years before Threadfall ceased, he had seedlings in every corner of the Hold, ready to plant out. We were just lucky that natural succession also occurred in the three decades after the end of First Pa.s.s."

"That is yet another item we must record for future generations," Clisser said.

"The ultimate how-to," put in Mari of High Reaches.

"I beg pardon?"

"What to do when Threadfall has Pa.s.sed is even more important than what to do while it's happening," she said, as if that should be obvious.

"We've got to first survive fifty years..." Salda began.

"Let's get back to the subject," said Paulin, rising to his feet.

"The Chair concurs that we ought to have some permanent, indestructible, unambiguous, simple way to antic.i.p.ate the rogue planet's return. Has anyone any ideas?"

"We can engrave metal plates and put them in every Weyr, Hold and Hall where they're too obvious to be ignored," Kalvi suggested. "And inscribe the s.e.xtant settings that indicate the Pa.s.s."

"So long as there's a s.e.xtant, and someone to use it accurately," Lord Bastom said, "that's fine. But what happens when the last of them is broken?"

"They're not that complicated to make," Kalvi replied.

"What if there's no-one trained in its use," Salda put in.

"My fleet captains use s.e.xtants daily," Bastom said. "The instruments are invaluable on the sea."

"Mathematics is a base course for all students," Clisser added, "not just fishermen."

"You have to know the method to get the answers you need," said Corey, the Head Medic, speaking for the first time.

And know when to use it., Her profession was struggling to maintain a high standard as more and more equipment became unusable, and unusual procedures became erudite.