Another Chance, part 10

[sylph_fics]

Title: Another Chance, part ten
Co-writer: merfilly
Fandom: DCU/Pern Crossover
Characters: Slade Wilson, Dinah Lance, Roy Harper, Dick Grayson, Vic Stone, the entire cast of Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
Word count this part: 4,722; 51,192 words total
Warning/Notes: You all know us. You know our OTPs. Hopefully by this point you know who's in the verse. We still really hope you enjoy it.
Note the second: Any "misspellings" or altered words are deliberate, in order to mimic language drift, and no disrespect is intended towards the canonical birth culture of our favorite redhead and brunette.
Note the third: Um. We have an issue or two with McCaffrey. Sorry?

part one

part two

part three

part four

part five

part six

part seven

part eight

part nine


Dick cursed under his breath as the sleds reached the projected location of the Threadfall, straining his eyes to see if he could spot the silvery stuff that should have been right on top of them... Thank god it was Drake's turn to have the highest elevation this flight. He more than half wished Roy was with him, where the hell was—Chakano chirped on his shoulder, straining his head north. His winged friend would probably vanish to the ground crews before long, but for now, he was with him in the sled.

"Drake, look north!" he called over the squad band. "It's north, at least... damn, I can't tell."

"Zi'll chart it, Grayson. Right now—good, Force is on getting us extra help and groundcrew. That's on track for Bordeaux, everybody. Hit it and let's get north now, stay together."

//And Calusa. Damn, how are we going to handle that?// Dick didn't say a word, though, just took the sled's acceleration to as close to max as Drake was putting his, keeping their squad together as they raced to deal with the latest this damn stuff had thrown at them. He spared a moment to be glad it was Theo that had called it in, she had a no-nonsense mind to her.

He lost himself in flying as smart as he could, in keeping his gunner right on target for the falling Thread, and his focus narrowed to nothing but the sky in front of him and the warning hum of the proximity sensors when the rest of the squad came a shade too close.

Halfway through the Fall, Drake's voice cut through his concentration. "We have to swerve around the Tubberman stake, all. Here's your course—don't argue with me!! It's not my call!" he snapped before he let go of the mike.

//...apparently, like that. Oh, Drake's pissed.// He didn't like the idea of leaving Thread falling anywhere, either, and he wanted to hear the legal justification for putting Mary and the kids in danger later. But for right now, they had Fall to fly. Everything else had to wait until it was over.

***

Well after the Fall was over, Dick was in the main kitchen with the rest of his squad and saw Ned Tubberman come running in. He hadn't ever talked to the young man much, but in a population as small as theirs, it was hard not to know everyone, and Ned had taken his father's disloyalty harder than he really should. It wasn't his fault, after all. Ned came up beside Drake and pulled at his sleeve, trying to drag the squad leader to his feet, voice raising as he pleaded with him. "You saw it. I know you did. Come on, Drake, you've got to come tell them!"

The answer of 'tell them what?' was obvious on his lead's face even before Drake spoke. "Ned, we don't even know what we really saw," Drake temporized, rubbing a hand over his face.

"Yes you do. Come on, Drake..."

Dick listened intently even as Ned kept trying to drag Drake out of the room,"I didn't see anything!... No... I don't believe what I saw. I can't. Green... but your father'd stopped you fla--" the conversation trailed off as the pair left, nearly leaving Dick with a mystery that would have eaten at him for days.

Ned paused outside the door as faces and connections clicked, though, turning back inside to look at Dick. "Grayson... you're tied to Lance, right?" He looked at Drake then, out in the hall. "Tell him, so Lance can verify or deny!"

Dick left his mostly-finished plate to join them outside the cafeteria, not wanting to draw any more attention to whatever the heck was going on than Ned already had."Slow down; what's going on?"

Drake shook his head, shrugging a shoulder puzzledly. "Tubberman's still got grass on his stake."

Ned nodded quickly, explaining. "He stopped me and mom from flaming it, and the grass on one patch is still green and thick and there!"

Dick cocked his head, thinking. "Real grass that we brought with us, or one of the hybrids?"

Ned looked at Drake, then back at Dick when the senior shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Either way... the possibility..." Dick shook his head, stunned, as they started heading for Admin. "Dinah hasn't found anything like that... but they won't breach stake autonomy to send her in there over your father's wishes, Ned."

Those words made Ned look positively ready to rant, before he just deflated, and slumped his shoulders in defeat. "He won't request to be heard, either, or let someone else in."

Dick thought about it for a second. "...your mom has hold on that land too, though. Would she ask?"

Ned looked up and then shook his head. "She doesn't go against dad. But maybe I can convince one of them..."

Dick could think of a few only-vaguely-legal ways to get answers out from this, but all of them would have put Ned in one hell of a nasty position. "...I'm sorry, Ned. I know Dinah's going to want so damned bad to know how he did it, but..."

"I'll try. I promise, I'll try. Because that...that could mean so much for all Pern!" Ned blurted out fervently.

"Yeah. It would. Even just the surety of grass for the horses and cattle that we wouldn't have to put shutters over... Maybe I'm wrong about Admin. Maybe they'll decide the need's too great. Give them a shot, Ned. It can't hurt to try."

"I will!" He looked to Drake, who nodded, pledging at least his testimony.

Dick left both of them to go to that and went to see if his plate was still there, and help with the cleanup if it wasn't.

***

Dinah glanced up as Dick got in, freshly showered from her own ground crew duty, and smiled at him. "Good flying!"

"Thanks, Dinah," Dick replied with a smile, then found himself a perch next to her. Sean and Sorka were on vet duty this shift, and Roy either wasn't back yet or had decided to stay over with them. "...there's going to be one heck of an ethical quandary in Admin tonight. Damn am I glad not to be part of it."

"Oh?" She reached over and gave him a light squeeze on his hand, reminding herself he was really still there, like Roy and Slade. For a woman who had an aversion to physical contact, her family was something she needed to touch to be sure of, a trait she had not even really noticed in herself.

Dick sighed and wrapped his fingers around her hand. "It's Tubberman. Somehow he's made some kind of breakthrough down there, and Ned and Drake saw it. So... I don't know which side of the law they're going to come down on, but after making us avoid his place..."

"They what?" Dinah's voice went cool and quiet. "They endangered the whole of Pern for the sake of shunning one man who went mad with grief?"

"Oh, good. It's not just me and Drake that're pissed off," Dick said with relief, as Hope came to curl around Dinah's shoulders, her eyes whirling towards dark orange.

"The xenobiologists still haven't solved the issue of shells to thread ratio, leaving us with an un-found cycle of life theory, we have spots of land that are still barren from at least the previous cycle of this, and they're willing to let it fall unchecked on a stake as large as Calusa?" Dinah's fury was a quiet thing apparently, as her voice never rose even as she ticked off every point of the colony leaders' stupidity. "And he's made some breakthrough that might help us all, but they're too concerned about the shunning to do anything?!"

Dick slowly slid his hand up her arm to cup behind her elbow, looking into her furious blue eyes with a shiver. He'd never actually seen her truly angry, and it wasn't something he really wanted to see again. "Di, I agree with you. And I think Drake had a screaming argument with them in the middle of Fall. But yeah, that's pretty much it."

She took a breath and let him bring her fury down, let him be the calming presence for her, before she stood up to go put on her work clothes. If this was being debated at Admin, she was going to be there, to demand access to whatever Ted Tubberman had found, for the good of them all.

***

When the door opened and let the small figure in, Slade could see instantly that Dinah was not happy. He'd gotten some of the story from Dick earlier, before the young man passed out on Roy, but now... she practically radiated her fury.

He wound up having to hold her as she flung herself into his arms, a spirit of defeat too strong in her after what she'd heard at that long meeting. "They refused. I can't go get samples, I can't contact him... He has to repent his actions like we're some forsaken religious barbaric civilization or something! Something that could be so important to all of us...."

He wrapped his arms around her a little more closely, shaking his head. "...stupid of them. After that idiocy of blocking the flight from protecting the rest of his stake--like he doesn't have enough farmland for serious burrows to have started?"

She nodded, clutching hard at his arms and holding on. "I just hope..." She cut herself off, looking up at him with her jaw set in the determined line he so loved. "If he found a way, I'll find one. I have to."

"I know you will, Dinah. We're already making huge strides, just with what you've already found."

She pressed close, and added a little nuzzle that told him she was more than ready for bed, for him to hold her all night, and for this day to be over. He knew, as she did, that come the morning, she'd be back to work full-tilt, trying to find what Ted had to make the land defend itself.

***

Slade had been relatively restless lately. Despite every attempt to put the stress aside like a good soldier usually could, he had spent the night before without sleep. Rather than just waste the time, he had taken it on himself to sketch out the designs of potential housing arrangements for the dragons--if they truly hatched--and for their riders, based off the notes Roy had from helping on the project.

Since it would do no good unless green lighted by Admin, as it would use some resources targeted for other projects, he decided to head over and see if the Governor was in. Dealing with her for practicalities was often easier than trying to go through the Admiral.

Part of the restlessness, he knew, was the franticly impatient wait for all the dragon eggs to hatch out. Their fire lizards had driven Dinah to distraction, along with the wilds that still checked on her, about the idea of the eggs being nearly ready. Late this afternoon, Roy had finally caught on that was what the humming was about, and went to pull Dick off the flight line for their place on the sands. They were the right age, had already bonded to fire lizards, and had high empathy ratings, for un-augmented humans, making them as suitable as Sorka and Sean for the chance. Both of the boys had argued against the age cap, pointing out Dinah's intense rapport with the wild ones that she never impressed, but Pol and Bay insisted the design notes called for younger riders.

He reached the governor's office, and her young aide shook her head as soon as he came in the door. "The Governor's at the hatching site, if you were looking for her directly..."

"Thank you, miss." Slade nodded with a polite smile and headed out that way, thinking it would be nice to see the kids anyway and find out how many eggs had cracked.

As he reached the hatching site, Dick waved at him from the hot sands, standing between Sorka and Roy.

The hum of the firelizards crooning vibrated against his chest and in his eardrums--//nine-hundred-something harmony...//--as he came over to them. There were obvious gaps in the double-ring of the eggs, and far over to his right... Slade took in the sight of five of the male colors, all dark bronze and brown, with one lone, shining gold beside them. Some eggs rocked vigorously, while others barely moved, drawing comments from the xenobiologists.

"Looks like they maybe, finally, stopped bolting that meat?" Roy said, looking over at the six pairs of hatchlings-and-riders.

"Maybe," Sean said, shrugging a shoulder. "Wind Blossom looks as sour as ever, over there," he added, his usual opinion of Kitti Ping's granddaughter on display.

Dick glanced at Slade, "What brought you? Roy barely let me see the shuttle off safe before he was dragging me in here."

Slade shook his head. "Guess it's too hard to sleep with you four kids underfoot," the big man teased. "I brought housing plans over to show the Governor, for all of the dragons that hatch." He looked over at the beasts, all gangly looking and hardly as graceful as Major had been.

Dick cocked his head, leaning to see if he could get a look at the plans.

Sorka smiled over at Slade, her hand on Sean's arm. "At least someone's thinking about where to put them once they get too big to be inside--somehow, I think that got overlooked, even by us that should have known better."

"Call it a hazard of my profession, Sorka." Slade unrolled the designs, which borrowed heavily from the idea of the shutters, given how much the little lizards loved to sun. The bigger ones were just as likely to want the sunlight on them. "Figured Boll might be reasonably interested."

Dick nodded, and ran his fingers over part of the design as the four of them talked it over for a few more minutes, before Slade headed towards where the governor was standing--with the admiral, possibly unfortunately. She looked up at him with a quick, curious tilt of her head. "Good afternoon, Slade. How are your boys doing with this?"

"Doing just fine. They've got the patience of saints." That it came from being able to freeze and remain perfectly still through an attack by enemies was not something he needed to say to either of them. "I brought some designs for potential living quarters for the hatchlings and their riders."

"Shall we step back over to somewhere you can spread them out, then?"

"If you don't mind, Governor." If the Admiral followed, so be it. It had been the Admiral's inability to bend the military idea of discipline to a civilian situation that led to the miscall in Tubberman's case, he thought. Benden, however, seemed more interested in the conversation between Pol and Wind Blossom--and the the hatching of another gold. Boll willingly followed him over to look at the plans--and then approved them almost wholeheartedly.

"It wouldn't require much change, other than in size, than the prefab specs we created for the farm shutters... privacy is a little less than in houses, but with the nature of the fire lizards, I think that's going to be something we need to desensitize the riders too anyway," Slade explained as they walked.

The governor cocked her head to the side, clearly not understanding what he meant.

"Oh that's right...I'm sorry ma'am. I forget you don't have one of the fire lizards." He smiled with that openness so many of the fire lizards partners had, the one that defied all the tragedy of their lives. "Our little friends break down a number of conventions on privacy, given how open their emotional sharing is. They... don't much care for barriers."

"Oh... my. Perhaps it's no wonder I have never impressed one."

Slade smiled softly, as he always did when he thought of just how he had come to have a wife. "Ma'am, you were lucky enough to find a match without being pushed. Some of us needed it."

That made her nearly flush and smile up at him. "Thank you." She looked back at the slightly rocking eggs, and sighed softly. "There are probably other things I should be doing--like taking these plans of yours to where they'll do some good."

"It'll keep, Governor," Slade said diplomatically. "They won't grow up overnight, no matter how much some will wish it." He turned back to the sands. "They are our future."

"True," she said quietly, and headed back towards her administrative partner.

The heat wore on them through the evening, and food and drink were brought for both the candidates and the members of their families that had come to watch. He wasn't surprised when slim arms wrapped around his waist late in the evening, as the fast tropic dusk was hitting.

He shifted, drawing her around into his lap. Major and Hope both dropped into hers once she was settled, twining possessively around one another while still managing the croon of greeting. Dinah smiled at them, then at her husband, before she looked at the pairs of bonded dragons and riders with something akin to true awe.

She'd been settled in his lap only a few moments when three new shells broke--brown and two golds--and a sudden flurry of activity and loud creeling complaints of hunger disturbed the human quiet. Slade looked over as one of the newly-impressed announced the name of their hatchling, surprised.

"You weren't here," Dick said quietly, "When Marco impressed, we found out they're true telepathic, not just empathic like the little ones. And apparently they definitely have opinions on their names."

"And on food, " Sorka commented, just as quiet, as the noise continued until the newly-hatched were fed to their satisfaction.

"They are loud critters," Dinah said. "Bad as Hope was, that..." She looked down at her fire lizard fondly. Hope cheeped dismissively, but nuzzled at her hand after a moment.

Slade chuckled, "I had noticed that," he agreed with her about the volume that the new hatchlings had, shaking his head. "So, not only will they be getting empathic information, but someone talking in your head... I think I might pass anyway," he said softly to his wife.

"Huh?" came from where the younger members of their family were draped across a raised pallet next to theirs, Roy's voice, rough with drowsiness... and an odd level of contentment, in Slade's view.

"Easy, my boy-o...back to sleep. Yours aren't hatched yet," Dinah told him, reaching out to pet his hair gently.

Roy shifted, pushing into her hand. "So sure, Di? Ye'ii, I haven't felt this warm in years..."

Slade considered that, and looked out at the eggs. "Maybe they're too warm? Not hungry enough?" he questioned, getting an idea that it was only hunger pushing the dragonets to hatch.

Sean pushed himself to sit up, at that, and then headed across the sands to talk to Pol.

Dinah thought about it for a moment, then reached out to Hope. Using the hair-thin link to her fire lizard, she 'listened' intently for the unhatched eggs, trying to sense if so many weren't hatching out because the dragonets weren't feeling the hunger impulse until too late. Hope made a low noise... Then agreement and negation mixed together as the sense that that was possibly what was wrong with some of them mingled with the sense that some of them were ...just not-there.

Dinah closed her eyes, briefly, and then rose to go to Pol, right behind Sean. "Hope says they're not all lost yet," she said softly, grieving for the lives that had not made it. "But the ones that are left... we made the sands a little too warm. They aren't noticing the hunger early enough to have the strength to get free."

Bay gasped at that, and her eyes shut as she reached for Mariah... then she nodded as she received the same answer from her gold. "Could we shift them onto pallets, too? Would it help them? Or would it do too much damage?"

"Yes. Pallets so that they're not quite so warm," Sorka said, having followed Dinah over. "And if we could convince our friends here to project the idea of food at them, to stir the hunger," she suggested from her vast experience with the fire lizards thanks to her and Sean's fair.

Dinah nodded in agreement, reaching up to stroke over Hope's ridges. "Have the potential riders walk around the eggs--I know their feet will get hot--but they might find the one calling to them already. Roy's the reason I noticed... he's feeling one already."

Sorka turned to go back to Dick and Roy, tugging both of them to their feet as Sean went across the way to wake some of the others. Once they were up, they started pulling the pallets they'd been laying on over to the eggs, carefully lifting the hardened, heavy shells in pairs up onto them. As the pack of young people started to move the eggs, the fire lizards attached to them swooped down to shoulders and other perches, their high voices raising in an stronger chorus, now.

Dinah felt the wash of relief come over her, as both Hope and the wild ones watching from afar decided things were better. She nestled back into Slade's arms, watching their boys with the pair of eggs that had drawn them. Roy had settled against his, talking in low tones as he stroked the shell. It was an image she wished she had a holopic of, to be honest.

It was only moments before Catherine Radelin-Doyle cried out in ecstasy as the shell cracked and a dainty gold burst from its shell, making all of them hope that more would hatch soon. Time stretched on... and shortly after midnight, the shell under Roy's hand shuddered violently.

Roy came fully alert then, his breath making a hiss as he sucked it in. "That's it... come on, come out... I want to see you..." Roy encouraged, moving away only what he needed to to let the egg have room to crack. He had a surge of panic; what if the dragonet really didn't want him? What if he wasn't the right partner? What if the little hatchling dismissed him, wandered away to someone else?

The egg shuddered again, and then wing-talon tips and nose-tip pushed through the shell.

"Brown...I knew it..." Roy whispered, his doubts fading slowly as the creel of hunger came just behind the widening of the hole around the nose. A shudder of wing and nose and push of front claws and the brown stood free of the shell on the pallet, looking up at him with whirling green loving eyes.

~I am Brileth...~ whispered into his mind, and Roy found himself completely lost in the gaze, in the feel of someone who would always be with him, someone who would never leave him, never go away and not come back like they had promised to.

Trouble settled on his shoulder, paw on his ear, and cheeped in warning, that the baby dragon was hungry, and that helped shove Roy into motion, grabbing the bucket that had been brought and feeding Brileth his share of fresh meat. "Bri...my own Bri..."

~Yes. I am very hungry... oh. Oh this is good!~

Dinah had awakened fully at the first warning from Hope, and she watched with her back straight, her hands clasped tightly. Only now did she let the tears show, now that Roy had his friend safely hatched.

Dick had been kneeling next to the egg that spoke the strongest to him, but turned around to watch Roy start to feed the brown //Always, with him...// hatchling. He was still close enough to his egg that when it rocked, it actually bumped him, almost throwing him off the pallet with its motion.

"Well hi there," he said with a snort as he caught his balance, barely. He twisted around to look at the egg instead of his partner, since it so obviously wanted his attention. Just like Roy had, he shifted back away from the egg enough to let it move and hatch. "Okay... hi, there. Come on.. you can do this, it's okay. There's a whole big world out here for us to check out..." Excitement built in him, excitement and intent, though he could feel the hunger pulling under it.

This egg, unlike Roy's, wasn't showing any sign of truly breaking in any one place. As it rocked and jumped, striated marks formed all along the shell until the whole thing looked like a hard boiled egg that had been rolled carefully to break the shell without actually flaking off. Then, with one more solid bang of the wings unfolding and neck lifting, the whole shell seemed to jump free of the bronze dragonet who creeled imperiously for food and then looked Dick square in the eye. ~I am Shareth,~ he announced, ~and I am very hungry.~

Dick shuddered as he met those red-flecked green eyes, feeling the absolute love and faith, the bond that would never be broken between them from the demanding young bronze hatchling speaking into his mind. "Alright, alright, let's feed you then," he said, feeling that soul-deep bond and the push of need behind it. He turned to reach for one of the cooled baskets of meat placed close by, and started working on feeding his dragon with Chakano making low, delighted cheeps in his ear. The hunger still twisted low in his body, but not like it had with his firelizard... not quite.

Slade shook his own head from where he was standing, watching with no little pride, to see both his boys reach this goal—and then another egg began to shake. Not just any, but the one Sean stood so close to. Slade watched as Sean dropped to his knees beside the egg, reaching out with a low moan in his voice to pull the bronze hatchling closer.

Sorka, quick as ever, broke from her place near one of the other eggs to get a basket of meat into Sean's hands, as Sean looked up at her, a more open look on his face than Slade had ever seen. "His name's Carenath, Sorka, he knows his name!"

Sorka knew Sean would hate to hear it, but she didn't think she'd ever seen him more...masculinely beautiful than in that moment, and her love for him, her thoughts of the future and their coming child, swelled up in her in a tidal wave threatening to overcome her...yet, she realized suddenly, she was needed, needed at the egg that was calling her to it.

She smiled down at him for just a moment, then turned as the shell broke completely, quick and urgent, and the golden female moved towards her, chittering impatiently until they reached each other, and she looked down into those orange-shot green eyes. She fell into the exultation of that moment, and it was almost painfully good as her dragon, her partner, spoke to her. ~I am Faranth, Sorka!~

~Yes, you are,~ Sorka breathed within her mind, and knew, no matter what, the history of their new home had just turned for the better.

On the edge of the sands, Slade held his wife tighter as he watched the four of his kids make the bonds that one day, would be the difference between mere survival and truly making Pern their own.


part 11

Comments

[stalinglim.livejournal.com]

Bebe dragons!!!! EEEE!!! do love. Loooove, love love. *grins*

And I think I got everything, ladies... if I didn't, I still enjoyed, so no loss! :)

Lovely story.

[senmut]

Baby dragons rule like crazy!

And I'm glad! Thank you very much!

[ilyena_sylph]

*grins* Baby dragons rule so hard. Especially these. I am so glad that you enjoyed them.

There wasn't a whole lot in there that wasn't just them, so yay!!!

Thank you. (and Anne)

[darkdanc3r.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh I love it! I saw little bits of Roy's Impression when you were writing it, and I loved it, but Dick's... oh beautiful work, my loves!

And I very much enjoyed how Dick's Shareth was so pushy.

[senmut]

Roy is a poor little boy at times...but Dick's pushier side is reflected in his dragon.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[ilyena_sylph]

*grins* I am so glad!!! Roy... Roy hurts me sometimes.

But Dick... Dick of the Titans is bronze to his soul. And Shareth is everything he should become.

[loopylouise123.livejournal.com]

Don't worry Dinah, if Tubberman can make a breakthrough then so can you.

Also, BABY Dragons! *grins*.

I just loved the descriptions of the bondings, though Roy's was very touching.

[ilyena_sylph]

*giggles* Dinah thinks so, too! Thanks.

Oh, the hatchlings are about ten kinds of adorable.

Roy and his self-esteem issues can be so difficult to deal with. But Filly did a marvelous job with him.

[senmut]

Dinah's bound and determined to do SOMETHING to save her world.

And the baby dragons are precious...while Roy about panicked ME while writing that bit.

Thank you!

[amarin-rose.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I hope there's more to come - I still want to knwo what Tubberman did, and how Dick and Roy and Sean and Sorka learn to ride, and what happens with Sean and Sorka's baby.

[senmut]

There will be more eventually! Promise!

We're going to take it through the end of the novel we're riffing on!

Thank you!

[ilyena_sylph]

Oh, there will be more.

We've still got roughly half a novel to go! *grins*