The Worst Possible Outcome

Writers: Ames, Eimi, Suzee
Date Posted: 28th March 2013

Characters: D'ale, Kenza, U'kaiah
Description: U'kaiah has a less than successful meeting with K'ale's parents
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 28 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: K'ale

D'ale

D'ale met Kenza as they both got to U'kaiah's door. He wasn't sure
what this was all about for all Torerath had told him was that the
Wingleader wanted to see him. He nodded, smiled, and waved her through
the door ahead of him.

"After you."

"Thank you," Kenza replied, wondering what this particular meeting was
about as well. "Something up with the wing?" she asked as she entered
the office.

"Not yet," U'kaiah said, arms crossed thoughtfully over his chest as he
was slowly pacing from one side of his office to the other. "But we
need to start planning now how to deal with only a few replacement
riders coming in from Onnyth's Clutch. It will leave holes that will
take months to fill."

"Alright," D'ale entered right after Kenza and stood behind her.
They'd barely had any chance to enjoy their son's success so he hadn't
really thought of this event in that light as yet. "Surely it won't be
_that_ bad." His hand went to the small of Kenza's back to show his
support of her however she decided to respond.

Her first reaction was indignant. She wanted to retort with some
scathing remark, yet, all too often they'd seen this in the past. She
knew the clutch would be smaller, but still her heart wanted to defend
her son. "Perhaps it won't be so bad in the end. _All_ the clutches
have been larger since the Fall began, so we can assume that even
Onnyth's new clutch will be larger than we'd have expected." She
paused, then gave U'kaiah a narrowed eye glance. "Besides, small
clutch or not, I'm _proud_ that our son," she glanced to D'ale, "and
Imalkyth outflew all the others." She gave a slight snort and a rather
knowing smile as she added, "Perhaps what we need work on
strengthening up our bronzes, so they _won't_ be outshone in the
future." She couldn't resist the chance to jab a bit at her friend,
knowing he wouldn't take it personal.

He certainly didn't take it personal, but it was obvious that his
Wingthird was letting her personal feelings overshadow reason in this
matter, and his icy glare told her to watch herself. If his look didn't
warn her, his tone certainly did. "Imagine, greenrider, that a full
Clutch was on the Sands and a large stone from the ceiling came crashing
down and smashing half the eggs. Would you consider _that_ to be 'not
so bad'? Because _that_ is exactly what has just happened!" His glare
turned on D'ale as well, warning him not to make the same mistake in
judgement the mother of his son had just done. "Short of the gold dying
in Flight, this is the _worst_ possible outcome of a Flight! How _dare_
you belittle the troubles of this Weyr just because it involves your
son!"

"Now wait one second U'kaiah," D'ale said without heat. He'd seen the
man in one of his rages but this one was uncalled for. "What _exactly_
is yelling at us going to accomplish. What's done is done and we need
to figure out how to work around it. Not spin in circles laying
blame."

"And not that it matters to this conversation, we _will_ be happy for
our son and his lifemate." There wasn't a glimmer of backing down in
his stance. "I get it... it's bad. You're angry. Now, what can yelling
at Kenza do to change that one little bit?"

"I don't give a flaming turd if you're happy for your son or not. It's
not his fault. It was the that stupid gold who should have known
better. But I will not have a disaster to the Weyr _mocked_ by my own
Wingthird." And the fact that D'ale stood up for her just made it
worse. Would he have done so had it been anyone else? Were his
emotions also clouding his common sense? "I will remind you, D'ale, you
are _my_ Wingsecond, not hers. I have allowed you both to serve under
me because up until now you have been able to keep your history in the
past. But I will tell you both now, let your feelings for each other
over come your reason and judgement again, and a change _will_ be made.
Is that clear?"

She wanted to slap him. Her eyes darkened with anger that he would
accuse her of letting things cloud her judgement. Her nostrils
flaring, Kenza took a deep breath. She wanted to rant at him, remind
him that she had been doing this far longer than he had. Still she
waited. Seconds seemed to tick by as she just stared at him. Then, her
voice calm but cool, Kenza spoke, "If you think that I have _ever_, or
_would_ ever do _anything_ to harm this wing, this Weyr or Pern
itself, then you, U'kaiah are a sharding fool. I nearly gave my life
for Pern, and I'd do it again to save even one life on Pern, including
yours. If you, even for one _second_ think otherwise, then perhaps I
don't belong as your Wingthird after all." Her words hadn't been
shouted, though inside she was seething. He'd insulted her in ways far
deeper than perhaps even he realized. Being a dragonrider was her
_life_, her duty and she would die for it just as any other. Kenza
knew she couldn't continue as his Wingthird if he doubted that truth
about her for even the briefest moment in time.

U'kaiah crossed his arm over his chest, not backing down under her stare
for a moment. "I never accused you trying to harm the Wing, did I,
Kenza." He turned to D'ale. "Nor did I ever accuse your son of
anything." Working the problem at hand was hard enough without
imagining new ones. "What you both need to understand is that you are
two of the very few people who have anything to celebrate about this
outcome. Have you forgotten that since this Pass began, we have _lost_
more goldriders than we have gained? We haven't had a gold egg on the
sands in _Turns_, and the only way we can get more is for bronzes to win
the Flights. We should be filling our Weyr, not merely patching holes.
We can't go on like this, Kenza. We can't fly Fall after Fall after
Fall for the next fifty Turns, or we're _all_ going to die. We should
have enough riders that we can rotate them, give them a break, give them
a chance to heal before they're thrown back up in the sky."

The Wingleader placed his fists on the desk and leaned forward. "I want
my riders to live. I want my _sons_ to live. Don't forget, I have
children too. I am trying to keep my people alive, and if your parental
pride is going to lead you to try to make light of the situation rather
than find solutions to the problem, then you are no help to me. Be the
proud parents on your own time. That's your business. But when you're
acting as my Wingsecond, or my Wingthird, your pride needs to be left at
the door. Is that understood?"

She hadn't liked his tone, but she _did_ understand his message. "Yes,
perfectly," Kenza replied. She looked to D'ale this time, her anger
finally diminishing. She wasn't angry at U'kaiah or anyone in
particular. Yet, she'd heard much of the same from the others. It
_wasn't_ going to be the best outcome for the Weyr, yet all she'd
wanted to hear from the others around the Weyr first was a small
recognition of her son's accomplishment.

"We all want the riders _and_ our children to live," D'ale's reaction
was more of a puzzled frown. He wasn't certain why U'kaiah had felt
the need to throw in matters that didn't even apply to this
conversation. "I'm concerned about the Weyr and if you don't want me
to show pride in my son while you're around you're going a little too
far. I can keep the two concepts separate. Yes, this isn't good for
the Weyr, but at the same time the dragons choose, we comply. Sounds
to me like if you want to yell at someone it should be Onnyth not us."
He leveled his gaze. "If you want to discuss a strategy then by all
means lets discuss."

"Oh, why, thank you for giving me your permission, D'ale." U'kaiah was
getting tired of being lectured by the two people in his Wing he was
supposed to be able to rely on. Just who was Wingleader here? "It's
obvious neither one of you will be much use to me until after this
fiasco has played itself out. I'll do it myself. Dismissed, both of
you."

D'ale stood a moment longer staring at U'kaiah. He'd heard stories but
he had never had that famous unreasonable temper directed at him
before. There was no reasoning with him in this stated.

"Fine," he said and turned to usher Kenza out ahead of him before she
could say anything more. U'kaiah didn't want to hear what was going on
in his head right now anyway.

Last updated on the April 1st 2013

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The Worst Possible Outcome