Lorana peered down at the top of the unit and grinned. “The sequencer has
located a common gene among the bacteria it’s sampled.”
“What’s that mean?” Salina asked.
“In this case, I programmed the sequencer to look for a common gene
sequence that we could use to prevent the bacterial infection,” Lorana
replied. She held up a textbook, gestured to the middle cabinet, which was
now open and stocked full of books, and then said, “This book here
showed me how to do it.”
“So we have a cure?” B’nik asked. Lorana turned to see the Weyrleader
standing in the doorway.
Lorana hesitated before replying. “I can’t say for certain,” she told him. “It
looks promising, but I haven’t tried to work out how to build the defense into
the dragons.”
B’nik gave her a puzzled look. Before Lorana could draw breath to explain,
M’tal, Kindan, and Ketan arrived.
“Did we miss something?” M’tal asked.
“Lorana’s found a cure,” B’nik said, barely restraining his excitement.
“Perhaps we should all get comfortable and let Lorana tell this once,”
Kindan suggested as he brushed by Ketan to find a seat and turn it toward
Lorana and the workbench.
So Lorana began her explanation again. She told them what she’d seen in
the microscope, how she’d learned to get the sequencer to search for
matching gene sequences that could be used to block the bacteria, and
how she’d found one.
“How does what you’re doing connect with that?” Ketan asked, gesturing to
the diagrams on the walls. Lorana followed his gaze and her face fell.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. She walked around the bench and over to the
wall to peer at the diagrams. “These are diagrams of the dragons’ genes
for lungs, breathing, and lung protection,” she said after peering at them for
a while.
“Was it meant as a clue?” B’nik asked, rising from his chair to study the
diagrams himself.
“Could be,” Ketan agreed, standing beside B’nik and peering at the gene
maps in turn. He looked to the right. “But what’s this?” he asked, pointing to
the second map. “It almost looks the same.”
Lorana peered at it for a moment. “It’s the map for the same areas on the
fire-lizards.”
“Perhaps we were to construct a cure for them, too,” Kindan murmured.
“They’re almost identical,” B’nik remarked. He peered closely at the two
maps. “No! Here’s something different.”
Lorana looked back and forth between the two maps. “I think that codes for
size,” she said after a long silence.
“So there’s really not all that much difference between the two,” M’tal said.
“I can’t understand why they’d bother to draw both maps.”
“Perhaps we do have to find a cure for the fire-lizards,” Ketan mused. “After
all, it seems like what affects them, affects the dragons, too.”
“So if the fire-lizards ever get sick again, the dragons will get sick, too?”
B’nik asked. “But why hasn’t this happened before?”
“Because it takes time for bacteria to mutate,” Lorana replied distractedly.
She was looking vaguely at the diagrams without really seeing them. “After
a while, the parasites that kill will have to mutate into symbiotes.”
“Symbiotes?” B’nik repeated blankly.
“Germs that live in harmony with their host,” M’tal explained. “Like the
bacteria that flourish in our gut.”
“Or on our skin,” Ketan added. “We have bacteria that help protect us from
infection.”
“But it seems like people are always getting sick,” B’nik said. “Well, not so
much the dragonriders, as holders and such.”
“It comes in cycles,” Lorana said in agreement. She thought of all she’d
learned about mutations and genetic codes. She sighed and looked at
Salina.
“We could cure this illness, but what about the next?” she asked.
“The next?” B’nik asked nervously.
“Don’t worry, it probably won’t happen for another hundred Turns or more,”
Kindan said reassuringly.
“But it
will
happen,” Ketan pointed out. He looked at Lorana. “And then
what? Can we preserve these rooms for our descendants?”
“I don’t think there’ll be enough genetic material left to build a cure,” Lorana
replied. “In fact, I think there’ll be enough for four doses, at best.” She
paused. “Of course, there is the watch-wher cure.”
“Pardon?” M’tal asked.
Lorana bit her lip before answering. “One of the vials was specially
marked,” she told the others. “I read about it this morning. It was made by
Wind Blossom herself, just before her death. It was meant only to be used
as a last resort.
“It would turn a watch-wher into a dragon,” she said. Her face clouded as
she continued. “What I gave to Arith was a mixture of all four.” She sobbed,
“That’s what killed her!”
“You don’t know that,” Salina said firmly. “She was sick.”
“She would have died without it,” Ketan added. His words and expression
reminded her of his loss—and Salina’s.
Lorana found herself caught in a strange, sad bond with the two other
ex-dragonriders.
The mood was broken as the sound of footsteps echoed from the corridor
into the room.
“Lorana!” Tullea screamed, crashing into the room, her eyes ablaze.
“You—so clever! How dare you? There were five stillborn in Minith’s clutch!
Five!
”
She advanced on Lorana, hands raised in outrage, fury obvious to all.
Unconsciously, M’tal, Salina, and Ketan put themselves between the two
women. Kindan moved himself around Lorana, to block her from Tullea’s
view.
“You!” Tullea turned to B’nik. “What are you going to do? You let this
happen!” She turned her fury on him, slamming her fists into his chest.
“Tullea, Tullea, what’s wrong?” B’nik asked.
“Did you
hear
me? Five of our eggs never hatched! How can we hope to
replace the lost dragons if the eggs don’t hatch?”
“Hatched? She clutched already? But the others?” B’nik asked, startled.
“They were all right?”
“Yes,” Tullea snarled, staring past him toward Lorana. “No thanks to you,
I’m sure!” She turned back to B’nik. “I want her turned out. I don’t want her
in my Weyr. Send her back to her people.”
“
We
are her people, Tullea,” Salina said, drawing herself up proudly.
“She stays with the Weyr,” M’tal added.
“Hmmph!” Tullea said. “Neither of you are Weyrleader here!” She turned
back to B’nik. “She should go before she kills more dragons.” Viciously she
snarled at Lorana, “Dragonkiller! You should be
between
with your dragon
and all the others you killed—”
“Tullea!” B’nik shouted, grabbing her and propelling her out of the room.
“That’s enough!” Brusquely he manhandled her from the room.
“But five, B’nik! We lost five!” Tullea wailed as her voice faded in the
distance.
There was a moment of silence while the others collected themselves.
“I’m sorry, Lorana,” Kindan told her. “I was hoping we could shield you from
that.”
M’tal nodded sternly. Then he stopped and looked up at Ketan. “When did
Minith clutch?” he asked.
“She hasn’t,” Ketan replied, his face showing his surprise.
“That’s it!” Lorana exclaimed, oblivious to the others. “We must build a
shield.”
Salina turned to her. “A shield?”
“To slow down the parasites,” Lorana explained. She looked at the others
and then turned to the larger map. She grabbed a marker and circled
several choice spots. Frowning, she crossed out one or two.
“Look, as long as the dragons share this much similarity to the fire-lizards,
any disease that affects the fire-lizards will affect the dragons,” she
explained.
“Only if the fire-lizards get near the dragons,” Ketan objected. “And now
that they’ve been banished, what’s the likelihood?”
“True,” Lorana agreed. “But some day they might come back, and we can’t
be sure if the dragons couldn’t just as easily pick up diseases from other
Pernese organisms.”
“I suppose,” Ketan allowed reluctantly.
“But if we can change this, right here,” she said, pointing to her circle again,
“then all the bacteria and viruses will have to mutate before they can assault
the dragons.”
“You want to change the coding of the START sequence?” Kindan asked
incredulously. “Will it work? Can you do it?”
“Well, there are enough unused sequences in the PNA,” M’tal observed
thoughtfully.
“And we don’t have to change them all,” Salina added.
“No,” Ketan objected. “I think we should change them all.”
“But that would only work with new dragons,” Kindan objected. “Today’s
dragons have this START sequence.”
“I think we can do it,” Lorana said. “We’ll have to build a mechanism to
convert all the dragons’ genes and hormones to use the new START
sequence—”
“We could probably insert a change so that it occurred during cell mitosis,”
Ketan suggested. Then he frowned and added, “And meiosis.”
“But not the START sequence,” Kindan objected. “The STOP sequence.
That way any retrovirus will just code in junk that will be rejected.”
They spent the rest of the morning discussing the solution. By lunchtime,
they had agreed on the approach. The problem now was the actual
execution.
“We’re going to have to produce a short-term solution, too,” Salina pointed
out. “It won’t do any good to prevent future infections if the current one isn’t
stopped.”
“Of course,” Ketan agreed, wondering why Salina had raised the issue.
“Do we have enough of the basic material to construct both changes?” the
ex-Weyrwoman asked.
“I don’t know,” Lorana replied. “Let’s start by looking at how much genetic
material we’ll need to code the protection of the lungs.”
The others agreed and they started another round of long discussions,
which didn’t end until hours later.
“By my calculations,” Lorana said, “we can do it, just barely.”
“But there’ll only be enough for one dose,” Ketan said.
The others nodded glumly.
“There’s no other choice,” M’tal said finally. “Let’s do it.”
Lorana carefully set up the sequencer. “Get the vials,” she told Kindan.
“Just the red, green, and blue ones.”
Kindan looked at the vials and saw that each had a colored dot drawn on
them. “How did you find out which one was which?”
“I ran a small sample through the sequencer,” Lorana told him.
“The yellow is for the watch-whers?” Ketan asked. Lorana nodded.
Kindan returned with the vials. Lorana slowly emptied each one into the
hopper on the top of the sequencer.
“Are we sure?” she asked the others, her finger hovering over the ‘Start’
button.
“Do it,” Ketan said.
Lorana pushed the button.
“How long until it’s complete?” M’tal asked.
“About four hours,” Lorana replied.
“And then what?” Salina asked. “When will we know if it works? Who should
we give it to?”
Lorana shuddered, knowing the answer.
Salina’s eyes widened. “Minith?” she asked.
“She would be best,” Lorana said. “If she hasn’t clutched already, then the
immunity would be passed on to her eggs.”
“She can’t have clutched yet,” M’tal replied. “We would have known. Tullea
must have had a bad dream.”
“What would happen, though, if the cure didn’t work?” Ketan asked.
“She’d be no better off than she is,” Kindan said.
“Possibly worse,” Lorana corrected. She met Ketan’s eyes. “If we’re wrong,
she could easily die like Arith.”
“She is the last queen of Benden, I won’t permit it!” Tullea exclaimed when
they found her in the Weyrleaders’ quarters later. She and B’nik were eating
a late night snack. “Isn’t it enough to kill your own dragon?”
“Tullea, she’s trying to help,” B’nik said scoldingly.
“Fine, let her try it on your dragon,” Tullea snapped.
“If we give the cure to Minith, it will be passed on to her eggs,” Salina told
her. “We only have the one dose.”
“And Benden has only the one queen!” Tullea snarled in reply.
“Yes,” Lorana agreed. “Minith is Benden’s last hope.”
You say my eggs will live, if I do this?
Minith asked Lorana.
I hope so,
Lorana replied honestly.
I can do this,
Minith told Lorana.
“No!” Tullea jumped up, scything toward Lorana with her nails. B’nik rose
and clutched her, keeping her from striking Lorana. “No, I won’t let you! You
are not Minith’s rider! Minith, go
between
! Now!”
No,
Minith replied firmly. Tullea’s eyes widened in surprise.
I am Benden’s
last queen, it is my duty.
“Minith says she will do it,” Lorana calmly informed the others.
“No,” Tullea protested. She turned to B’nik, pleading, “You can’t let her. She
killed her dragon and now she wants mine!”
This is our only hope,
Minith said. From her weyr, she bugled loudly. Her
sound was interrupted by a sharp cough.
This is
my
only hope.
“She’s right, Tullea,” Lorana said.
“We’ve tried everything else,” Ketan agreed.
Minith ducked her head in from her sleeping quarters.
What do I have to
do?
“I will inject you with this,” Lorana said, holding up a syringe.
“Well, do it then,” Tullea growled. After it was done, she speared Lorana