Captain Luccio of the Council Weyr Queens' Wing and her dragon, Acciaroth, wheeled over the great central bowl of Council Weyr as the rest of her flight of queens, bronzes, and browns slipped away one by one to find weyrs or friends or work that needed doing. The Weyr looked about as she would have expected any Weyr to be less than an hour after two bad mating flights: exhausted and shell-shocked dragons and their riders, injured dragons being tended and women and Healers running back and forth from weyrs, greens and blues flicking in and out on errands, and general chaos as the bronze riders, usually the backbone of a weyr, were largely unable to function.
Luckily, the measures taken to limit Ivy and Archith's first flight meant that most of Council's queens and bronzes had been out of range, so they would likely not need to beg relief from another Weyr. Weyrwoman Mai and Laoth had already peeled off, presumably to find the Weyrleader, but Luccio had been around Weyrs long enough to know to look for the people who would actually know what was going on. She circled once, but didn't see Charity of the Lower Caverns; presumably she was still with Ivy, or busy elsewhere. She did see a great green dragon, as large as most browns, sprawled across the ground as if she'd simply collapsed there, and her rider leaning half-exhausted against her, still wearing fuzzy bed-slippers, as he spoke to one of the journeymen healers assigned to the Weyr. Acciaroth landed beside her without Luccio even having to speak.
B'ters, Sueth's rider and masterhealer, sent the journeyman away with a few words as Luccio dismounted and smiled grimly at her. "Oh good, you're back. I take it you've heard the news."
Luccio shook her head. "I got the basics through Acciaroth, but you know how dragons are with remembering details."
B'ters blinked. "Didn't R'shid fill you in? He told me he was heading straight back to his wing."
Luccio blinked. "R'shid? But he's been with us all morning. How would he have the details?"
"You sure he was with you all day?"
"...Yes," Luccio said.
"Ah," B'ters replied.
"Ah," Luccio replied. "I take it he was also here?" Wingleader R'shid and bronze Darvozeth did have a habit of knowing things they couldn't possibly know and being places they couldn't possibly be. Most of the Weyr had learned early on that there was no point in asking for explanations or for any more information than he was willing to volunteer, because it wouldn't do any good.
"Yep," said B'ters. "I suppose I do need to fill you in then. Good news first?"
"Why not."
"Well, if you got the basics, you know that the Denarian Weyrleader decided it would be a good idea to bring Shiela and Lascieth here without warning while Lascieth was only a week or so out from her own flight. Lascieth apparently rose over the Hold only a few minutes after Archith rose. The good news is that we got a warning early enough to keep the queens separated and both flights were successful; both the queens are reported fine except for more or less the expected sorts of scratches and strain. Archith's already back at the Weyr."
"Ivy?"
"Physically fine. And K'caid and Yeth managed to keep all the riders away from her weyr; didn't even have to knife anyone." He shrugged. "Mentally? She's as well as could be expected. Charity's still with her. She's a resilient kid and older than her age, and I think with Archith fine, she'll do okay. All of the younger bronze riders are fine, too. One of the green riders took care of C'los, I think." He smirked. "Nobody's seen them since the flight, but nobody's heard either of them calling for help."
"Well, that's wonderful news," Luccio said. "In fact that's far better than anyone should have expected with two queens rising. And good for C'los; I've been thinking he'd go far. So why all the long faces?"
B'ters rolled his eyes. "Well, the older bronzes, starring our revered Weyrleader, and Eb and Blackstath, who ought to know better, got in a fight with each other halfway through the flight. I suspect they were more interested in that than actually catching the queen."
"Ah," Luccio replied. "That unfortunately doesn't surprise me as much as it should."
"I hear you, sister," the masterhealer told her. He shrugged. "On the upside, that might be the main reason both the queen flights worked out. If any of them had decided to go for Lascieth instead of ripping up each other..."
"Any of the bronzes badly hurt?"
"There were some pretty serious scratches and tears, especially after Archith decided to cut right through the mess and half of 'em got distracted. Blackstath tore up Merlinth's wing membranes pretty bad," he added, sounding rather more satisfied than he should have. "That's when R'shid showed up over the Weyr - told us the bronzes were fighting and we needed to get all the blues and greens out there for ambulance duty, but if we went now, we wouldn't have to call any other help in."
Luccio nodded. In principle, any Weyr on Pern would have sent their queens and bronzes to help if a mating fight went wrong. In practice - with the state of cold war and icy politeness that was currently in play between most of the Weyrs' leaders - having to call in help would have given the other Weyr an excuse to move against Council and probably played right into N'codemus's hands. Even calling to the Council queens and bronzes, on their flight exercises over the eastern ocean, would have been been heard by queens in other Weyrs and given them an excuse to move in.
"And then R'shid popped right back out, you know how he does, so we got the flights together as fast as we could. Sueth brought in Merlinth," B'ters added, giving his dragon a proud thump on the shoulder, and she opened one eye and gazed lambently over him for a moment before drifting back to sleep. "He's probably the worst off of the bronzes; he'll be out of commission for a couple of months at most, but he'll be flying again pretty soon. Dragons heal fast, and I suspect L'try won't mind a few months to concentrate on things other than Thread."
Luccio snorted. "No, I imagine not." L'try had never been among the bronze riders who got his joy from the danger and adrenaline of flying for their lives against Threadfall.
"Most of the other bronzes should be back in trim in a week or two at most," B'ters told her. "Boboth and Damocleth jumped over to the Hold to help with Lascieth; reports are that Boboth flew her."
"Boboth?"
"He has this thing going with Lascieth, I wasn't too surprised," B'ters said. "You never noticed?"
"No, of course Boboth flew her, if he'd stop bothering the greens long enough to put the effort in I'm sure he could fly anyone he wanted to," Luccio said. "But what were he and H'ry doing at the Hold? We missed him at the training, but I assumed they went off to one of the places H'ry goes to sulk; I did not think he'd be irresponsible enough to stay around the Hold."
"You know H'ry," B'ters said. "He's almost as good at being where he isn't supposed to be needed as R'shid is."
"And about as likely to give a straight answer," Luccio sighed.
"H'ry was the one who got a warning through to the Weyr that Lascieth was going to rise," B'ters said. "If he hadn't been there--" he shrugged. "Anyway. The bad news is that when it was obvious Lascieth wasn't interested, Andurieth headed off in Archith's direction. Eb had M'chael and S'nya in place to run interference, so he didn't make it, but--" B'ters winced. "Amoraccieth and M'chael got torn up pretty bad. The Hold's masterhealer and a couple of the dragon healers are down there now, but they're going to need a couple of queens to airlift Amoraccieth back to the Weyr."
Luccio nodded and relayed the command through her dragon; Accarioth sent back word that Laoth and Liberteth were already taking care of it. "How bad is it?" Luccio asked.
"Bad." He shook his head. "From what S'nya said, I think they'll both live, and if we're lucky, and M'chael actually listens to medical instructions and takes it easy, Amoraccieth might even fly again. Dunno about fighting thread, though."
"Damn," Luccio cursed. "Of all the people we couldn't afford to lose. Tell me he at least took that bastard Andurieth down with him."
"Damocleth showed up once the mating flight over and handled it," B'ters said. "S'nya and Esperaccieth are fine, and Damocleth just needs some basic patching up, he's on his way back to the Weyr since M'gan didn't want him to risk between until a healer had seen him. As for Andurieth-- I don't know what N'codemus was thinking!" he burst out. "From the reports I've got I don't think his rider was even trying to hold him back. Dammit, it's not meant to be an equal partnership! Damocleth had to rip his wings up pretty bad before he'd go down, and then Damocleth had to drop him. He'd've been hurt a lot worse if a bronze hadn't popped out of between just in time to catch him."
"R'shid?" Luccio asked.
"Probably," said B'ters. "Didn't say anything though, of course, but it's the sort of thing he'd do. Andurieth won't be flying or going between for awhile either." B'ters very pointedly did not suggest that Council queens airlift the Denari dragon up to the Weyr, and Luccio chose not to mention the possibility either. He could enjoy the hospitality of the Lord Holder, or he could get some of his own people to take him back to Denari. Which likely would require several shifts, and possibly begging for help from another Weyr. It was a wonderful prospect.
"How are their riders?"
"Preliminary report through one of the Hold fire lizards is that they're more or less okay, but you know how fire lizards are," B'ters said. "I sent back for the Hold's Harper to give me a more detailed report as soon as he could. And -- ah, here it is now."
Luccio blinked as she heard the deep, penetrating sound of a message drum start to boom through the stones of the Weyr. Even Sueth opened her eyes and perked her head at the sound of it. "You asked them to send it through the drums?"
"Shhh," B'ters said, "I don't want to miss this," as the standard cadences rolled out: From Chicago Hold to Council Weyr: do not pass on: healer to healer.
The Harpers' drum codes were used for messages where precision and speed were important and using dragons or fire-lizards as message-carriers was inconvenient or inappropriate. What it was not used for was anything private: only a few dozen Master Harpers knew every single drum code, but a lot of people knew the basics, and probably half the Weyr could translate what was currently coming through.
The Bronze Rider, the weyrwoman, and the Lord Holder are bruised and strained but healthy the Drums reported. Wait, Luccio thought, and the Lord Holder?
Acciaroth thought an amused About time! at her, but Luccio shelved her usual commentary on dragons and gossip as another phrase came through: Denari Weyleader healthy but-- Luccio had to wrack her brains a bit to translate the last phrase, which she had not heard very often, as passed out drunk.
B'ters was slouched against his dragon again, smiling broadly. "Yep, I asked them to send it through the drums."
"Half the Weyr can translate the drum codes," Luccio repeated to herself.
"And many of the Holders," B'ters said brightly. "It's a shame we couldn't send a dragon rider down to get the report, of course, but with all the aftermath of two mating flights, well, that's what the drum system's there for. I wonder what N'codemus was doing, getting drunk while his bronze was flying after a queen?"
Luccio found herself smiling, slowly. "You've gotten a lot better at the politics since you Impressed a dragon, B'ters," she told him sincerely.
"Well, I had to," he said, as Sueth angled her great head around and nudged at him. "This great lummox certainly wasn't going to. Yes, I know you're hungry," he added to the dragon, "You're always hungry, you're nothing but a stomach with wings. No, I don't think the bronzes are done at the feeding ground yet, you're going to have to try to be patient."
"Go take care of your beast, B'ters," Luccio said. "That's an order. She can chase off a few bronzes if she has to. Acciaroth and I can take care of things here for now." But, as she watched the two of them fly up and out of the ring of the Weyr, she couldn't help but repeat, softly, "For now."
For now, Acciaroth told her, casting a great golden shadow over her, and as long as we have to.
I've tagged this fill before, but I know nothing about the canon of Pern. I think I've placed the wrong pairing tags. What are the pairings in this fill?
I've been tracking this and I've just gone back and reread the whole thing, and now I just kind of want a sequel (not that it's not great as it is, just that I want to know what happens next).
I actually intended that Senior Queen at Denari is Imarieth, with Weyrlady Tessa, but N'codemus wouldn't have risked them on a stunt like that (well, he would totally have risked them - N'codemus and Tessa are generally working against each other except during mating flights - but he wouldn't have risked his Weyrleadership, at least.) Though there's certainly a possibility that at some point, somebody will decide it's a good idea to trade H'ry to Denari. :D
There is a small possibility of a sequel! (Involving a Holder woman named Karrin upsetting everybody by Impressing a brown) but I am not sure it will ever get finished.
I love Pern crossovers, and this one is the perfect reason why. Love it! So many great details - all the rider/dragon pairings, Marcone protective of Ivy, weyr politics, and the perfect ending: "Yep, I asked them to send it through the drums", heee. ♥
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timeasmymeasure
Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-05 06:52 am (UTC)Luckily, the measures taken to limit Ivy and Archith's first flight meant that most of Council's queens and bronzes had been out of range, so they would likely not need to beg relief from another Weyr. Weyrwoman Mai and Laoth had already peeled off, presumably to find the Weyrleader, but Luccio had been around Weyrs long enough to know to look for the people who would actually know what was going on. She circled once, but didn't see Charity of the Lower Caverns; presumably she was still with Ivy, or busy elsewhere. She did see a great green dragon, as large as most browns, sprawled across the ground as if she'd simply collapsed there, and her rider leaning half-exhausted against her, still wearing fuzzy bed-slippers, as he spoke to one of the journeymen healers assigned to the Weyr. Acciaroth landed beside her without Luccio even having to speak.
B'ters, Sueth's rider and masterhealer, sent the journeyman away with a few words as Luccio dismounted and smiled grimly at her. "Oh good, you're back. I take it you've heard the news."
Luccio shook her head. "I got the basics through Acciaroth, but you know how dragons are with remembering details."
B'ters blinked. "Didn't R'shid fill you in? He told me he was heading straight back to his wing."
Luccio blinked. "R'shid? But he's been with us all morning. How would he have the details?"
"You sure he was with you all day?"
"...Yes," Luccio said.
"Ah," B'ters replied.
"Ah," Luccio replied. "I take it he was also here?" Wingleader R'shid and bronze Darvozeth did have a habit of knowing things they couldn't possibly know and being places they couldn't possibly be. Most of the Weyr had learned early on that there was no point in asking for explanations or for any more information than he was willing to volunteer, because it wouldn't do any good.
"Yep," said B'ters. "I suppose I do need to fill you in then. Good news first?"
"Why not."
"Well, if you got the basics, you know that the Denarian Weyrleader decided it would be a good idea to bring Shiela and Lascieth here without warning while Lascieth was only a week or so out from her own flight. Lascieth apparently rose over the Hold only a few minutes after Archith rose. The good news is that we got a warning early enough to keep the queens separated and both flights were successful; both the queens are reported fine except for more or less the expected sorts of scratches and strain. Archith's already back at the Weyr."
"Ivy?"
"Physically fine. And K'caid and Yeth managed to keep all the riders away from her weyr; didn't even have to knife anyone." He shrugged. "Mentally? She's as well as could be expected. Charity's still with her. She's a resilient kid and older than her age, and I think with Archith fine, she'll do okay. All of the younger bronze riders are fine, too. One of the green riders took care of C'los, I think." He smirked. "Nobody's seen them since the flight, but nobody's heard either of them calling for help."
"Well, that's wonderful news," Luccio said. "In fact that's far better than anyone should have expected with two queens rising. And good for C'los; I've been thinking he'd go far. So why all the long faces?"
B'ters rolled his eyes. "Well, the older bronzes, starring our revered Weyrleader, and Eb and Blackstath, who ought to know better, got in a fight with each other halfway through the flight. I suspect they were more interested in that than actually catching the queen."
"Ah," Luccio replied. "That unfortunately doesn't surprise me as much as it should."
"I hear you, sister," the masterhealer told her. He shrugged. "On the upside, that might be the main reason both the queen flights worked out. If any of them had decided to go for Lascieth instead of ripping up each other..."
"Any of the bronzes badly hurt?"
"There were some pretty serious scratches and tears, especially after Archith decided to cut right through the mess and half of 'em got distracted. Blackstath tore up Merlinth's wing membranes pretty bad," he added, sounding rather more satisfied than he should have. "That's when R'shid showed up over the Weyr - told us the bronzes were fighting and we needed to get all the blues and greens out there for ambulance duty, but if we went now, we wouldn't have to call any other help in."
Luccio nodded. In principle, any Weyr on Pern would have sent their queens and bronzes to help if a mating fight went wrong. In practice - with the state of cold war and icy politeness that was currently in play between most of the Weyrs' leaders - having to call in help would have given the other Weyr an excuse to move against Council and probably played right into N'codemus's hands. Even calling to the Council queens and bronzes, on their flight exercises over the eastern ocean, would have been been heard by queens in other Weyrs and given them an excuse to move in.
"And then R'shid popped right back out, you know how he does, so we got the flights together as fast as we could. Sueth brought in Merlinth," B'ters added, giving his dragon a proud thump on the shoulder, and she opened one eye and gazed lambently over him for a moment before drifting back to sleep. "He's probably the worst off of the bronzes; he'll be out of commission for a couple of months at most, but he'll be flying again pretty soon. Dragons heal fast, and I suspect L'try won't mind a few months to concentrate on things other than Thread."
Luccio snorted. "No, I imagine not." L'try had never been among the bronze riders who got his joy from the danger and adrenaline of flying for their lives against Threadfall.
"Most of the other bronzes should be back in trim in a week or two at most," B'ters told her. "Boboth and Damocleth jumped over to the Hold to help with Lascieth; reports are that Boboth flew her."
"Boboth?"
"He has this thing going with Lascieth, I wasn't too surprised," B'ters said. "You never noticed?"
"No, of course Boboth flew her, if he'd stop bothering the greens long enough to put the effort in I'm sure he could fly anyone he wanted to," Luccio said. "But what were he and H'ry doing at the Hold? We missed him at the training, but I assumed they went off to one of the places H'ry goes to sulk; I did not think he'd be irresponsible enough to stay around the Hold."
"You know H'ry," B'ters said. "He's almost as good at being where he isn't supposed to be needed as R'shid is."
"And about as likely to give a straight answer," Luccio sighed.
"H'ry was the one who got a warning through to the Weyr that Lascieth was going to rise," B'ters said. "If he hadn't been there--" he shrugged. "Anyway. The bad news is that when it was obvious Lascieth wasn't interested, Andurieth headed off in Archith's direction. Eb had M'chael and S'nya in place to run interference, so he didn't make it, but--" B'ters winced. "Amoraccieth and M'chael got torn up pretty bad. The Hold's masterhealer and a couple of the dragon healers are down there now, but they're going to need a couple of queens to airlift Amoraccieth back to the Weyr."
Luccio nodded and relayed the command through her dragon; Accarioth sent back word that Laoth and Liberteth were already taking care of it. "How bad is it?" Luccio asked.
"Bad." He shook his head. "From what S'nya said, I think they'll both live, and if we're lucky, and M'chael actually listens to medical instructions and takes it easy, Amoraccieth might even fly again. Dunno about fighting thread, though."
"Damn," Luccio cursed. "Of all the people we couldn't afford to lose. Tell me he at least took that bastard Andurieth down with him."
"Damocleth showed up once the mating flight over and handled it," B'ters said. "S'nya and Esperaccieth are fine, and Damocleth just needs some basic patching up, he's on his way back to the Weyr since M'gan didn't want him to risk between until a healer had seen him. As for Andurieth-- I don't know what N'codemus was thinking!" he burst out. "From the reports I've got I don't think his rider was even trying to hold him back. Dammit, it's not meant to be an equal partnership! Damocleth had to rip his wings up pretty bad before he'd go down, and then Damocleth had to drop him. He'd've been hurt a lot worse if a bronze hadn't popped out of between just in time to catch him."
"R'shid?" Luccio asked.
"Probably," said B'ters. "Didn't say anything though, of course, but it's the sort of thing he'd do. Andurieth won't be flying or going between for awhile either." B'ters very pointedly did not suggest that Council queens airlift the Denari dragon up to the Weyr, and Luccio chose not to mention the possibility either. He could enjoy the hospitality of the Lord Holder, or he could get some of his own people to take him back to Denari. Which likely would require several shifts, and possibly begging for help from another Weyr. It was a wonderful prospect.
"How are their riders?"
"Preliminary report through one of the Hold fire lizards is that they're more or less okay, but you know how fire lizards are," B'ters said. "I sent back for the Hold's Harper to give me a more detailed report as soon as he could. And -- ah, here it is now."
Luccio blinked as she heard the deep, penetrating sound of a message drum start to boom through the stones of the Weyr. Even Sueth opened her eyes and perked her head at the sound of it. "You asked them to send it through the drums?"
"Shhh," B'ters said, "I don't want to miss this," as the standard cadences rolled out: From Chicago Hold to Council Weyr: do not pass on: healer to healer.
The Harpers' drum codes were used for messages where precision and speed were important and using dragons or fire-lizards as message-carriers was inconvenient or inappropriate. What it was not used for was anything private: only a few dozen Master Harpers knew every single drum code, but a lot of people knew the basics, and probably half the Weyr could translate what was currently coming through.
The Bronze Rider, the weyrwoman, and the Lord Holder are bruised and strained but healthy the Drums reported. Wait, Luccio thought, and the Lord Holder?
Acciaroth thought an amused About time! at her, but Luccio shelved her usual commentary on dragons and gossip as another phrase came through: Denari Weyleader healthy but-- Luccio had to wrack her brains a bit to translate the last phrase, which she had not heard very often, as passed out drunk.
B'ters was slouched against his dragon again, smiling broadly. "Yep, I asked them to send it through the drums."
"Half the Weyr can translate the drum codes," Luccio repeated to herself.
"And many of the Holders," B'ters said brightly. "It's a shame we couldn't send a dragon rider down to get the report, of course, but with all the aftermath of two mating flights, well, that's what the drum system's there for. I wonder what N'codemus was doing, getting drunk while his bronze was flying after a queen?"
Luccio found herself smiling, slowly. "You've gotten a lot better at the politics since you Impressed a dragon, B'ters," she told him sincerely.
"Well, I had to," he said, as Sueth angled her great head around and nudged at him. "This great lummox certainly wasn't going to. Yes, I know you're hungry," he added to the dragon, "You're always hungry, you're nothing but a stomach with wings. No, I don't think the bronzes are done at the feeding ground yet, you're going to have to try to be patient."
"Go take care of your beast, B'ters," Luccio said. "That's an order. She can chase off a few bronzes if she has to. Acciaroth and I can take care of things here for now." But, as she watched the two of them fly up and out of the ring of the Weyr, she couldn't help but repeat, softly, "For now."
For now, Acciaroth told her, casting a great golden shadow over her, and as long as we have to.
Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-05 11:09 am (UTC)The Secretary
Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-05 01:44 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-05 01:41 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 03:42 am (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-05 07:24 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 02:34 am (UTC)More so since if all the players are who I think they are, H'ry is now the Weir Leader of Denari.
*sporfles*
Oh, that isn't a disaster in the making at all.....
Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 03:40 am (UTC)I actually intended that Senior Queen at Denari is Imarieth, with Weyrlady Tessa, but N'codemus wouldn't have risked them on a stunt like that (well, he would totally have risked them - N'codemus and Tessa are generally working against each other except during mating flights - but he wouldn't have risked his Weyrleadership, at least.) Though there's certainly a possibility that at some point, somebody will decide it's a good idea to trade H'ry to Denari. :D
Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 03:41 am (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-06 10:48 am (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 03:38 am (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-07 06:03 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-03-23 03:38 am (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2011-06-10 07:45 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2012-03-13 09:28 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2012-03-26 08:51 pm (UTC)Re: Pern crossover: Queens High (5/5)
Date: 2013-08-17 08:18 am (UTC)