Power Lines Read online

  That gentleman had a good long look at the wondrous colors and forms that were shortly obscured by the thickening mist. A slight smile curved his finely molded lips, and then he closed his eyes.

  Sean and Yana, shoulders and thighs touching, experienced an overwhelming sensation of relief and total relaxation, of reassurance and goodwill: a sense of great achievement, although relief was the dominant feeling.

  When the mist dissolved at last, leaving the lambent glow of the rocks in their splendidly delicate colorations visible, the relief still remained. Then all the participants turned their attention to Phon Tho Anaciliact.

  He rose from his lotus position with the special gracefulness of someone well accustomed to such a maneuver and smiled at them.

  “This planet is self-aware in a manner I have never before encountered. It is an entity, a being with consciousness, and as such deserves the protection which is my prerogative. While it insists that it is no longer indentured to Intergal, it honors the obligation of life and will redeem itself in due course.” Then he turned to Clodagh. “You are named as one minister to its needs, and you, Sean Shongili, are another.” Then he looked curiously around, first at Sinead, then Bunny, until his glance settled on Yana. “Ah, yes, it is you, Colonel Yanaba Maddock, whom I take with me to the headquarters of CIS to verify certain particulars in my report. As soon as communications are repaired, I shall give an interim report to my superiors, but in the meantime, I am authorized to evict the incumbent authority as inimical to the Subject Sentience. You who have lived long on Petaybee are requested to remain. I fear there may be some hardships yet for you to undergo until a proper authority can be framed to deal with such an unusual Sentience and the needs of its inhabitants.” His lips curved with wry humor. “But you are welcome, it would seem,” he said, smiling at Clodagh, Sinead, Aisling, Whittaker, Johnny, and Sean, “for without you, the Sentience would never have become truly aware of its potential.”

  “And just what is that potential, Messer Anaciliact?” Marmion asked with one of her more radiant smiles.

  He gave a shrug, opening his hands. “It is—boundless, it is—unchartable, it is—unfathomable, it is—”

  Yana’s pent-up nerves of the last few weeks released in a short guffaw. “I think what Messer Anaciliact is trying to say is, ‘whatever.’ ”

  The Sentience gave a tremor that might have been a laugh but certainly concluded the current interview.

  “What songs we’ll make of this, huh, Bunny?” Diego whispered as people turned to file reverently from the cavern. Bunny smiled in agreement, just as a peculiar echo rang through the cavern. It repeated not the last words of Diego’s sentence, nor the first word, but the middle ones. As they turned to listen, the cavern played rainbows on its reflective surfaces and the echo sang back to them, in a voice neither Diego’s nor Bunny’s nor that of any human being they knew, “Songs we’ll make, songs we’ll make . . .”

  Books by Anne McCaffrey

  Decision at Doona

  Dinosaur Planet

  Dinosaur Planet Survivors

  Get Off the Unicorn

  The Lady

  Pegasus in Flight

  Restorree

  The Ship Who Sang

  To Ride Pegasus

  Nimisha’s Ship

  Pegasus in Space

  THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS

  Crystal Singer

  Killashandra

  Crystal Line

  THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN® BOOKS

  Dragonflight

  Dragonquest

  The White Dragon

  Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

  Nerilka’s Story

  Dragonsdawn

  The Renegades of Pern

  All the Weyrs of Pern

  The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

  The Dolphins of Pern

  Dragonseye

  The Masterharper of Pern

  The Skies of Pern

  By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:

  Powers that Be

  Power Lines

  Power Play

  With Jody Lynn Nye:

  The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern

  Edited by Anne McCaffrey:

  Alchemy and Academe

  GROWING PAINS

  He didn’t notice when he first heard the slithering sound, a soft rustle followed by a dry whispering crackling noise, as if paper had fallen—or leaves. Then he felt something slide across the toe of his boot and curl to brush his pant leg, and as he turned back to the cave entrance, he saw that a thick net of greenery had replaced what he had hacked away a bare hour before. He tried to kick off the vines clinging to him, succeeding only in embedding the thorns deeper into his ankles.

  Feeling an edge of panic, he jumped, hopped, and ran, hacking as he went. He never saw the root looping down from the ceiling to lash itself around his throat while another knocked him to the floor.

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  A Del Rey® Book

  Published by Ballantine Books

  Copyright © 1994 by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  http://www.randomhouse.com

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number. 94-6631

  eISBN: 978-0-345-45753-0

  v3.0