Part 8 (1/2)
”Someone could have come and had a look-see,” Sheledon said.
”Oh, come now, Shel,” said Bethany, as amused by his sudden switch for he had always derided the Tubberman Tube Theory. ”Pern isn't rich enough for anyone to bother about.”
”So the precious records said, but I think that was to save face.”
”They should have checked on us to see how we were faring. They got awfully proprietary about the Shavian colonies that were the basic reason for the Nathi s.p.a.ce War.”
”That was over three hundred years ago, Shel,” Bethany said in her patient teacher-tone.
”And it is totally irrelevant to now,” Sydra added. ”Look, the loss of the computers is undeniably a blow to us, but not something we cannot overcome.”
”But all that information...” cried Clisser, tears coming to his eyes.
”Clisser, dear,” and Bethany leaned across to him, patting his hand gently, ”we still have the best computers ever invented...” and she tapped her forehead, ”and they're crammed full of information: more than we really need to operate - -”
”But... but, now we'll never find out how to preserve vital information-like early warning of the return of the Red Star.”
”We'll think of something,” she said in such a confident tone that it penetrated Clisser's distress. And briefly he looked a trifle brighter.
Then he slumped down in even deeper despair. ”But we've failed the trust placed in us to keep the data available.”
”Nonsense!” Sheledon said vehemently, cras.h.i.+ng one fist down on the desk-top. ”We've kept them going past their design optimum. I've read enough in the old manuals to appreciate that. Every year for the past fifty has been a miracle. And we haven't, as Bethany says, lost all. A gimmick from the past has failed, like so many of them have. And we're now going to have to bypa.s.s the easy access to data they provided and sweat through books! Books! Books that we have in quant.i.ty.
Clisser blinked. He shook his head as if mentally rejecting a thought.
”We have been planning to ignore much of the old data,” Bethany said gently. ”What was most important to us...” and her hand indicated the Pern of the present, has been copied well, most of it,” she amended when Clisser opened his mouth. ”If we haven't needed it up to now, we never will.”
”But we've lost the sum total of human...” Clisser began..
”Ha!” Sydra said. ”Ancient history, man. We've survived on Pern and it is PERN that's important. As Bethany said, if we haven't needed it up to now, we never will. So calm down.”
Clisser scrubbed at his skull with both hands. ”But how will I tell Paulin?”
”Didn't the lightning affect Fort, too?” asked Sheledon and answered himself. ”I thought I saw a work force on the solar heights.”
Clisser threw both hands up in the air. ”I told him we were checking the damage.”
”Which is total?” Sheledon asked.
”Total!” and Clisser dropped his head once again to his chest in resignation to the inevitable.
”It's not as if you caused the storm or anything, Cliss”, Bethany said.
He gave her a burning look.
”Was the system being run at the time?” Sheledon asked.
”Of course not,” Clisser said emphatically, scowling at Sheledon. ”You know the rule. All electronics are turned off in any storm.”
”And they were?”
”Of course they were.”
Bethany exchanged a look with Sheledon as if they did not credit that a.s.surance. They both knew that Jemmy would work until he fell asleep over the keyboard.
”I tell you,” and Clisser went on, ”everything powered went down. It's just luck that the generators have all those surge protectors, but even those didn't save the computers. The surge came in on the data bus, not the power lines.”
”Which were dying anyway. They were now dead, really, truly dead,” Sheledon said firmly. ”Rest in peace. I'll go and tell Paulin if he's who you're worried about.”
”I am not,” and Clisser banged his fist on the table, worried about Paulin. ”And it's my duty to tell him.”
”Then also tell him that our new teaching techniques are in place and that we've lost nothing that future generations will need to know,” said Sydra.
”But... but how do we know what they might need to know?” Clisser asked, clearly still despairing with that rhetorical question.
”We don't know the half of what we should know.”
Bethany rose and took the two steps to the beverage counter.
”it's not working either,” Clisser said in a sharp disgusted tone, flicking one hand at it, insult on injury.
”I shall miss the convenience,” she said.
”We all shall miss convenience,” said Clisser and exhaled sharply, once again combing his hair back from his forehead with impatient fingers.
”So,” said Sydra with a shrug of her shoulders, ”we use the gas-ring instead. It heats water just as hot, if not as quickly.”
”Now, let's all go and get a reviving cup, shall we?” She took Clisser by the hand, to tug him out of his chair. ”You look as if you need reviving.”
”You're all high on last night's success,” he told them accusingly, but he got to his feet.
”As well we are,” said Sheledon. ”The better to console you, old friend.”
”Clisser,” Bethany began in her soft, persuasive voice, ”we have known from our reading of the Second Crossing that the artificial intelligence, the AIVAS turned itself off. We know why. Because it wisely knew that people were beginning to think it was infallible: that it contained all the answers to all Mankind's problems. Not just its history. Mankind had begun not only to consider it an oracle but to depend on it far more than was wise. For us. So it went down.
”We have let ourselves be guided too long by what we could read and extract from the data left to us on computer. We have been too dependent. It is high time we stood squarely on our own two feet...” She paused, twisting her mouth wryly, to underscore her own uneven stance, ”...and made our own decisions. Especially when what the computers tell us has less and less relevance to our current problems.”
”You said it, Bethany,” agreed Sheledon, nodding approval with a little quirk of his mouth.
Clisser smoothed back his hair again and smiled ruefully.
”It would have been better if this could all have happened just a little -” and he made a s.p.a.ce between thumb and forefinger, ”later.”
”When we found what we need for the dragon riders You mean, a fail-proof system to prove the Red Star's on a drop course?” Sheledon asked and then shrugged. ”The best minds on the continent are working on that problem.”
”We'll find a solution,” said Bethany, again with the oddly calm resolution of hers. ”Mankind generally does, you know.”
”That's why we have dragons,” Sydra said. ”I could really murder a cup of klah.”