The people of Pern live on the Northern of two large continents
in cave systems named Holds. They came to this planet in three giant
space ships trying to escape their old world. The plan was to set up an
pastoral colony where people could live without fear of crime. Seven
years after landing a strange organism like rain started falling from the
skies. This organism, which they called thread, ate everything and
anything it touched and could only be killed by drowning or burning. The
people put up a valiant defense and bio-engineered, from the indigenous
fire-dragonets (Fire-lizards), a large beast capable of flaming thread mid
air (Dragons). A volcanic eruption near landing forced the colonists to
move to the Northern continent and into the safe cave systems. They
fought off thread for the rest of the fifty years of the pass and expanded
during the two-hundred year interval. This is what happened
two-hundred and fifty seven years after landing.
This gather at Fort Hold was especially attractive to the Lord
Holders and Weyrleaders for not only was there to be a meeting but
the vintners had made a new bubbly wine they called chardonney.
Also the Weyrleaders would be discussing the first falls of thread.
All of the Lord Holders had prepared and warned their people of the
impending doom. They had all cleared brush from around their holds
and had carefully stored food to live out the fifty years of the pass.
They had expanded back into the cave systems to provide ample
space for the livestock that would have to be sheltered. That is all but
one of the Lord Holders had made the necessary improvements to
live through a pass. Lord Chalkin of Bitra hold did not believe that
thread would ever fall again and had therefore not even told his
people that thread was expected in the near future. The Weyrleaders
were outraged by this as well as all of the other Lord Holders and
several were looking for ways to make him do his duty or force him
out of office. Even more disconsolating was the immoral way that
he treated his people. He had increased their annual tithes and never
really gave anything back to them. He even charged the people he
hired for the food they ate and the fuel to heat their rooms.
At the college in Fort Hold Jemmy, an above average
student, is trying to find an indisputable way to predict when a pass
will start. The people of Pern do not want this same situation to
ever repeat itself. Therefore several of the best scholars of the
Northern Continent are looking for several methods to instill in
future generations the tell tale signs that herald the return of thread.
When Iantine set out to Bitra hold he had only planned
on staying seven days then he would take his fee and leave.
The contract stated that once he had completed four satisfactory
miniatures of Chalkin's children he could leave. The key word
was satisfactory, he had been forced to paint a full twenty
portraits to meat Lord Chalkin and his ladies idea of satisfactory.
During this time he had almost frozen to death because he had no
money to pay for firewood and the blankets he had been given
was mere tattered rags. Now he still couldn't leave because he had
been snowed in, with the closest date he would be able to depart
would be in a sevenday. He forms a contract with Lord Chalkin
to do his and his lady's portraits so he won't have to pay for his
food, shelter, etceteras. After painting Chalkin and his lady to their
standards, he takes his sixteen mark fee and leaves. While trying
to make his way out of Bitra he almost freezes to death and is
picked up by P'tero, a young blue rider from Telgar Weyr.
Once at the Weyr K'vin, the Weyrleader and Zulaya, the Weyrwoman,
decide they must take action or risk more people like Iantine falling
to Chalkin's wrath While the dragon riders fly off to warn Chalkin's
people throughout Bitra Hold the Lord Holders search for a way to
remove Chalkin. While looking over the charter, that acted as a book
of laws on Pern, Lord Pualin, of Fort Hold, discovers that if a majority
can be reached amongst the Lord Holders and Weyrleaders they can
impeach Chalkin. A meeting is held of all the Lord Holders, with the
exception of Chalkin, and the Weyrleaders. After taking a vote there
are still two hold out Lord Holders. Meanwhile many of the people
of Bitra begin to flee from their holds fearing the damage thread could
cause on their unprepared homes. Lord Chalkin is forced to close his
borders making all of the fleeing denizens wait along the main arterials,
many freezing or suffering from the brutality of the guards.
Meanwhile, back at the college, while looking through the old
records Jemmy remembers the ancient formation of Stonehenge from
back on Terra. What if they put rocks on the heights of all the Weyrs?
When looking from a so called "finger" rock through the hole in the
"eye" rock, if one saw the red star bracketed by the eye rock at the
winter solstice, a pass would be imminent. He put his plan into motion
with only two more weeks until winter solstice he would have to work
quickly.
The Weyrleaders felt that yet again they were being forced to
take action against Chalkin and rescue his freezing people from
vengeance of the crazed Lord and his guards. They capture the
misbehaving guards and take the residents back to the Weyrs where
they can be properly cared for. Throughout this Iantine continues to
make sketches of the pitiful people in their wretched conditions. These
sketches and a quick glance by one of the remaining Lords turns him
against Chalkin. But the last Lord, Lord Jamson, of High Reaches
hold still feels that hold autonomy should be maintained and that
everyone was exaggerating what had happened way out of proportion.
He refuses to even go and take a look at the surviving refuges and
instead tells the plaintiff Lord Holders and Weyrleaders not to
confront him on this matter again. After talking with Lord Jamson's
oldest son, and acting head steward, they come up with a way to
get around Lord Jamson's hidebound tendencies. If they force him to
take up residence in the warmer climate of Ista Island his son can
takeover all of his father's former duties resulting in the impeachment
of Chalkin. Early the next morning the Weyrleaders as well as the Lord
Holders fly in to Bitra Hold and take Chalkin away. They reinstate his
nephew as Lord holder and take Chalkin back to stand trial. After a
hasty trial Lord Chalkin is sentenced to exile on one of the uninhabited
islands off just off the Southern Continent. He is taken there, dropped off,
and never heard from again.
On the winter solstice the engineers finally complete the
Stonehenge type rocks on the top of all the Weyrs and then go off to enjoy
the festivities of the Turn's end celebration. The first two expected
threadfalls would be over the Southern Continent then two more would
strike on the western side of the Northern Continent. The first fall in
the North came down as black dust for the weather had been too cold
for any thread to survive re-entry into Pern's atmosphere. The next fall,
over High Reaches Weyr, was exactly the same although the riders
searched endlessly for any viable thread. The third fall would undoubtedly
be live because of heating temperatures throughout the eastern part of
the continent where it would fall. The Weyrs would take two hour
rotating shifts so that everyone would get a chance at their age old enemy.
The fall turned out to be quite easy to fly with no major injuries or
irregular clumps that made it much more difficult to fly. Afterward
B'nurrin, Weyrleader of Igen, remarked "Look at it this way, we've
only 6,649 more falls to attend, give or take a few, before it's all over
for another 200 years."
The finger points
To an eye Blood-Red
Alert the Weyrs
To sear the thread