Telling All the News

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 1st May 2007

Characters: Fog, Jesten
Description: Jesten tells Fog that he is retiring and who the new Captain will be.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 3, day 24 of Turn 4

"Two letters for you, Jesten," Barr said, looking into the pilothouse and handing over the small pile of folded papers. "Good of them to bother these days."

Jesten thought so too, though there were many more dragonriders now, so perhaps moving letters from one part of the continent to another wasn't such a hardship. Certainly few of them could not know where the long Nettleweed river was, so it wasn't too much of a problem to deliver letters to any of the minor holds or cotholds along the banks. After that the riverboats would see to the further distribution of the letters, as well as picking up the very rare one addressed to their crew.

As his brother disappeared Jesten nodded to the pilot. "I'll be down in my office," he said, pulling open the door and heading down the stairs to the entrance to the balcony that ran around the whole of the crew deck. One step from the landing to the balcony, another into the office through the first door on his left.

Nominally it was the Captain's office. In reality everybody used it and it was rare to find it empty - or tidy. Jesten grunted a hello to the currernt occupant as he sat down at his desk.

Forlon, commonly known as Fog amongst the rest of the crew, nodded back at Jesten, "Any for me?" he asked, noticing the letters the other man held in his hands. Fog by name and by nature, he had earned the name through no fault of his own, but he was dense and the name suited.

"Do you know anybody who writes to you?" Jesten grumbled as he set the two letters side by side. One was from Lineal and the other was in a hand he didn't know.

"Well, no.." Fog shook his head, "So I guess there's none for me, then."
He bent his head and once again applied the dirty rag to the even dirtier cog that he held in his hand. "But, on the off-chance I _might_
get one, one day, I do know people," he muttered, half to himself.

He really didn't see why his uncle should seem so surprised. He had spent time landbound, after the accident. And the healers had been friendly....

Jesten wanted to ask where his nephew had got the piece of machinery he was working on, but decided against it. If something stopped working on the riverboat he would at least know where to look for the problem.

"Well, if anybody writes to you, I'll bring the letter along right away.
But this one's from Lineal. About coming back to the river." He couldn't help but feel anxious as he pulled open the seal on his son's letter. The boy had been away from the river for so long now and had made himself a family in some distant place. Why would he want to come back? To the there-and-back life on the river and be responsible for the riverboat and the family, and even the likes of Fog? He could feel his heart pounding as he scanned the words. "He's coming back," he breathed, putting a hand to his chest to calm his heart. "Fog, your cousin's coming back."

Hmmm. Lineal, he hadn't seen him in too many turns to mention, but he was family so it meant he didn't have to get _used_ to having him around. His hand fidgeted with the almost clean cog, rubbing harder, but not really aware of what he was doing, an unconscious reaction to the news. Fog looked up at his Uncle, "When?"

"Middle of next month," Jesten answered absently, still reading the letter. "He'll be the Captain after I'm gone, you know."

"You'll still be on board though." He had heard the talk about the boat, that Jesten had had enough. "So it won't be much different really, just Lineal'll be yellin' at me, and not you." Fog shrugged.

"I might not be around," Jesten warned, finding the admission easier to make to Fog than to the others. "But yes, I suppose Lineal will yell at you just like I do." Sometimes he thought Fog wouldn't know what to do if things changed. "And Lineal's bringing his family. A w-weyrmate and son and daughter."

Which -

He picked up the second letter and opened it, his eyes dropping to the signature. Three signatures. His daughter-in-law and the two grandchildren he had never seen.

"You're not going to be here?" Fog dropped the cog and rag into his lap, not even noticing when the cog slid down his lap and onto the floor. He missed the remainder of what Jesten had said, and focussed on the fact the Cap'n may not be there, at all. His face showed his shock, and dismay at the news.

"My heart's getting old, Fog. That's _why_ the Sungazer needs a new Captain. Somebody young who can muster up a good-sized yell for you when you need one."

Fog gave a little chuckle, "Aye Jesten, I do need one occasionally, but, it just won't be the same having Lineal here doing it. Will he like me
- as I am now, do you think?" His main worry was how people took to him these days. He knew he had changed a lot, but wasn't exactly sure how.

"He's _family_ Fog and so are _you,_" Jesten said in gruff reassurance.
"But he'll have to get used to everybody again. He's been away for twenty-five Turns."

"Does he have a wife? Kids?" Fog liked having kids around, but sometimes they could be a pain. He hoped they weren't too old.
Sometimes... the passengers had kids with them, and the older ones looked at him strange. It made him uneasy.

"His wife is ... Rahona. She grew up in River Bluff Weyr, with dragons. And they have two children. Nalin and Lihona."

"She grew up with _dragons_?" Fog's eyes lit up, he loved the dragons, and wished they could see more of them, but it was a rarity. Too often the only time the dragons came close enough to the boat, was when there was Thread, and it was too dangerous to be out to watch them then.

Jesten didn't look up from the letter the woman had written him. "Yes, at a Weyr."

"Two kids, huh?" He stopped to process that thought, and once again hoped they were old enough to like him, but not too old or too young that they felt uncomfortable around them.

"Nalin, my grandson, is eight Turns old, and my granddaughter, Lihona, is six."

"Nalin and Lihona, right." Fog nodded, not too old, and not too young.
He could look forward to them coming, they shouldn't find him too -
strange. "So when are they coming?" Fog bent to the floor, and picked up the cog, looked closely at it, before picking up the rag again and giving it a rough swipe across the cog, removing some perceived dust.

Though the details were committed to memory, Jesten still read over his son's letter, enjoying seeing the words he had hoped for. "Early next month. They'll meet us at At the waypoint." So day 9 or 10. Thirteen or fourteen days away. Jesten got to his feet, folding the two letters and slipping them into his pocket. "I'm going to tell the crew. You coming, Fog, or are you busy there?"

"I have to get this cog back to Barr, then I'll be up." he swiped once more over the cog, and then looked up. "You gonna tell'em about you quittin'?" he asked guilelessly.

Jesten thought that most of the adults knew, but Fog was right, it was time everybody knew. "I'll be telling everybody _all_ the news."

Last updated on the May 6th 2007

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Telling All the News