Post-Aivas

In a post-AIVAS Pern, it couldn't be said that everything was perfect. For nearly a century there was debates and fighting against the "abominations" suggestions and renovations. As new generations were born never having known anything but electricity supplied by water and sun, and books made easily by a printing press, the debates died down until there was a generation born that if asked what they thought of the "new" way would have answered, baffled, "But it's always been this way, hasn't it?"

Time went on and Pern kept to what their ancestors had wanted - a fairly low tech world. No pollutants, no advanced weaponry - just what AIVAS had given them. Computers were kept to Landing, except for one in every major Hold connected to Landing to keep a copy of every Record. With the printing press, books became easy to make, and finally the Harper lessons on how to read were less wasted. With the electric power making some jobs easier, there was even a bit of time to read said books. Overall, things changed, but it was still Pern. The dragon population stagnated with five Northern and five Southern Weyrs and scattered small Weyrholds. With Thread gone, riders did other things - including being a neutral voice in Hold and Craft arguments.

Eight hundred and thirty four turns after AIVAS, when the Southern continent was just beginning to look a little full, disaster struck. The dragonriders and the Starsmiths both watched the sky - but even warning and watching couldn't prepare for this. They couldn't watch every inch of the sky at the same time - and this one slipped by until it was too late. On what would later be called Month 2, Day 14 of Turn 0 of Pern after the Meteor (0 AM) a large object came down from space, and crashed directly onto Landing, sending dust into the sky to obliterate the view of the sun.

After the Meteor

The meteor - what would eventually begin to be capitalized as it was the Meteor - caused quite a bit a damage on it's own, destroying the major place of information holding and gather and the center of many communication networks. And then with the dust that blocked the sun, everything cooled down very quickly. Those living closest to the north and southern ends of the planet died first - what little sun that did filter through the dust didn't warm anything much, but warmed the equator enough that the ocean didn't totally freeze over in the middle. For five turns, the dust remained, slowly settling and warming the planet back up bit by bit. By the time the sun cleared the sky again [5 AM], many plants and animals had been totally wiped out, or were so close to extinction that only humans kept them alive. The humans left were fiercer, more protective of the little they had. The smarter ones - especially those who had studied at Landing - had known some of the possible effects of the the Meteor, and some plant species had seeds left in their hands, or buried in the earth, waiting for the first good rain.

Where there had once been ten full Weyrs and scattered Weyrholds there were now three queens, one old and near death, her breath rattling in her throat. She managed nearly two dozen eggs before she finally went between - over half were duds. The two queens left were both fairly young, and related by an older bronze who had been adept at Flying queen's but whose rider had been not quite so adept at pleasing queenriders and had been transferred many times to appease angry Weyrwomen. The dragons were better off than some species, and the riders counted themselves lucky to have survived the long freezing turns, as did every human, fire-lizard, and watch-wher that had survived.

The Meteor was not done with Pern yet. It remained as a large rock in the middle of a crater, and all this time, while the dust was in the air, something had been traveling with it. Now the dust had settled - and it had settled on people, animals, plants, and over all of Pern. It took the form of a plague. In humans, there were a particular pair of genes that usually occurred in women that it went after. In the next fifteen turns, this plague would kill off 90% of the female human population, from baby girls to old women. It didn't kill all of them directly - some would survive only to die from secondary infections on their weakened body. Others would simply survive - but something had changed within them fundamentally. The children of these women - and some men who had half of the pair of genes - who survived through the plague would have something different about them. For some it was inside - that boy lifted objects with his mind, that one gave people the slightest empathic push. People tended to ignore those if they could, knowing they needed every human they could. Others it was harder to hide, and harder for people to look at them as human. Wings, fur, scales and hide - for the most part they were looked down at. In rare cases, there were fanatics - but outwardly mutated or not, no one touched a girl child.

Girls had become precious. As more and more females were killed off, they were kept at home. They were kept out of danger, and what they learned was what they would need to learn for a good husband. No one hit a girl, and many were spoiled in some ways - but had strict restrictions on everything dangerous. There were so few girls around and so many men that any unmarried man would court and woo and offer half his fortune for a wife. If the girl's relatives liked him well enough, he would be allowed to take her as wife. But laws about how to treat women became, if anything, stricter.

The Weyrs became one Weyr - not so much as an agreement as that it happened that way when one of the young queens caught the plague and died [11 AM]. The other queen was settled in what would become Ierne-M'genathril Weyr; Ierne for its placement and M'genathril after a bluerider who saved the entire Weyr. The plague picked off the dragons as well, although in a slightly different way: it didn't seem to care if one was a green or a blue, a bronze or the remaining gold.

With everyone randomly dying, it was harder to take note of some of the strange things, and with communication now dependent on ships (or the rare fire-lizard) it sometimes took months to realize that sometimes ships hadn't returned, their message undelivered... or that sometimes, someone swept out to sea never swept up later as a body. Without the communication between Holds, it looked like a minor incident or tragic accident here or there, nothing at all to worry about. Just like how the Meteor, once having no one around it at all, now had tiny holds that had been build around the base. While there had been nothing left in Landing, since the crash some of those closest had treated the Meteor... oddly. It had brought disaster upon them - and to those who came near it, there was a thought among them that something that could cause such destruction could do so much more, if only it were treated with the proper respect. Pern had never seen religion before - but though they hadn't the name for it, that was what the Meteor was becoming.

Month 7, Day 18, Turn 24

Dear Sayaen,

It's hard to find the words to say all that I feel. When I see you all I can see is a young man now. It's hard to think that the teenager in front of me is the little brother when you visit me. I can't say any of the things I want to. Upon that Hatching day four turns ago, new colors began to hatch into the world, and the old colors had changed. With these changes came my beautiful Tavarith. Black, but she was all the queen the Weyr had. She was the hope of the Weyr - but I didn't know that. All I knew was that she was beautiful, and mine... and then I was gone, into nightmares and sleep.

When I woke up, it seemed like that had happened an instant ago, that Tavarith would be a Hatching. But she wasn't. She was gorgeous and gigantic and an adult, on her second clutch. I loved her, but she had changed so much - and so, apparently, had I. Not physically, I had already been a women grown… but when Flights happened, my body forgot my mind was asleep. How do you think it would be to wake up and believe you had never even touched a man, and to have your dragon tell you there is a child of yours running around somewhere? It's impossible to believe - it has been four turns for you, but even now only a few months to my mind.

The world has changed - I went to sleep with a Weyr struggling to survive but as normal as anywhere else on Pern. I awoke to something that has been changed by the world changing around it. A book all about worshipping the Meteor that nearly killed us all is popular in the Holds. The fire-lizards are awash with different colors... as are the dragons. Holdless are running rampant, destroying some holds, and leaving us to clean up their mess and gain watch-whers that have the same problem. I looked out my ledge one night, and there was a watch-wher that was silver patrolling.

The new animals and effects that some of the new creatures have caused... its so new to me. It's hard to keep my head above it all. The change that just four turns has made is amazing and you who have grown with it don't see it. If it weren't for Tavarith I don't know where I would find the courage to get out of bed. But I do - and as it is, I have spent too much time on this letter that I don't even know if I shall ever give to you. Little brother - I don't know when I'll catch up to time. But I am glad that, older as you are, you are a steady influence in my life, free from the politics the Weyr seems filled with. It is difficult to catch up to being the proper Weyrwoman I should be - but I will do it. I will make sure this is one home that we never lose.

Love, your sister,
Raeya, rider of Black Tavarith
Senior Weyrwoman of Ierne-M'genathril Weyr

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