Sidra Weyr Pre-Search Search File Hatchlings Weyrlings Adults
Tayika studied the object with pride and held it up. Yes! It was perfect; she’d put it together back the exact same way she had taken it apart! It was perfect! She stared at the lens and made a mental note that it was spotlessly clean because of her hours of work. All of the lenses were spotlessly clean. The rust had been cleaned from all the springs and other objects inside the weird-shaped box.
“Now, if only the film are all still in good shape!” She said to herself and ran to the opposite room and grabbed one of the three 1 X 1 X 2 foot boxes and ripped it open. Yes! They still had to be in good shape! They were still in their own boxes. She quickly pulled one of the smaller boxes out and went into a darker part of the room.
If she’d read correctly the, then she would have to take this out in a darkened place as well, and to develop the film, she would need the things in the other two boxes.
She fumbled for fifteen minutes, trying to figure out how to put the film in and finally got it. Then she went out to her mother and father, who were sitting on the couch. “Hey!” She cried and they looked at her, startled. She snapped a picture and laughed.
“Tayika! You got it working!”
“I told you I would! They left sufficient-enough notes for me to follow. They said that they weren’t supposed to bring these kinds of things in their notes because they were going to go primitive. I suppose that maybe we’re more primitive now then they had wanted us to be?
“Anyway, they had brought a few things they shouldn’t have brought and now we get to see what our ancestors of old Terran were able to do!” She went around, snapping a few more pictures of everything, including grumpy Watch-Whers, a flying blue dragon, the Red Star, an unaware gold flit laying her eggs, a firelizard mating flight, a broody golden dragon getting blooding herdbeasts, and a few other things. Then, she ran back inside and followed the instructions implicitly; she wanted these pictures to turn out!
After many hours of carefully following the instructions, she was ready to show off the pictures to others. Everything she had needed had been in three boxes, kept in the family for a couple thousand years, and ready to be opened now! She showed the pictures to her parents first.
“Those are beautiful!” They said and then laughed when they came to the picture of them with surprised looks on their faces. “Wow, you could treasure these moments forever! I wonder why our ancestors ever wanted to be rid of cameras?” Her mother asked but Tayika shrugged. “I’m glad our family kept them!” She said. “There is more film, but I want to save a few rolls so the mastersmith and see if he can make more. Because once the film is gone, we can’t make anymore without knowledge.” She said sadly. “And I’d hate to loose something like this.” Her parents agreed.
“I’m sure that if the mastersmith can’t, that you will be able to Yakima, you have a brilliant mind that you should share with everyone. Why don’t you go show these to a few other people?” Her mother said and Tayika ran of eagerly. The first person she showed was her best friend.
“Alema! Look!” Alema startled by her friend’s excitement, turned around to face her.
“What?” Then she saw the pictures and gasped. “You drew those?” She asked in shock and snatched a picture of the golden firelizard laying her eggs.
“No, the camera printed them onto a piece of film which I put inside this camera here and then when I finished taking pictures, I developed the film and…that’s the one of my parents! Isn’t it wonderful?” Tayika was nearly dancing, her brown almond-shaped eyes flashing with excitement.
“Wow!” Was all Alema could say.
“Here, let me take a picture of you, I loaded another thing of film up and I have a couple more in my satchel.”
“Does it hurt?” Tayika laughed and shook her head.
“Nope! It doesn’t hurt at all, you can take a picture of me first if you want!” She said.
“Okay! What do I do?”
“Put your eye up to this thing and look through it then make sure that you can see my head in it.” She said.
“Ah!” Alema gave a cry of dismay. “It only shows the top half of your body, is that bad?”
“No, no. Just as long as you can see my head.” She said and posed, sticking her tongue out at the camera and smiling at the same time. Alema laughed and snapped the picture.
“Hey, can I take another one? This is fun!” She said.
“Yeah, take as many as you want, I have more film left!” She said. Alema giggled.
“This is so much fun! Wait, I know! Lets get someone to take a picture of us together!”
“Yeah!” Tayika nearly jumped with excitement and stopped the next person to walk by. “Hey, can you put this thing to your eye and then press this button? But make sure you can see our faces!” She said, the boy took the camera hesitantly, not understanding what the excitement was about an oddly shaped hard box. Nevertheless, he did as he was asked and cried out with surprise when it made the click, nearly dropping it.
“Here, wait! Let us take a picture of you!” Tayika said and made him stand where he was. “Do something weird or something, pose.” She said. “Oh! I have an idea!” She said and dragged Alema and the boy behind her. “Hey, do you mind if I take a picture of your bronze and this boy and you together?” She asked the first dragonrider. He looked at her for a minute before his eyes glazed over for a minute while he conversed with his dragon.
“Alright.” He said slowly. “Go ahead.” The boy nearly fainted from shock when he got to shake the dragonrider’s hand with the Bronze’s head down beside him. Tayika had to back up a bit to get the bronze’s head and everyone in the picture, but she finally got it right and took the picture. “Okay, that was the last picture. I’m going to develop the film and then I’ll show it to you two tomorrow, okay?” She said and ran off with Alema. She had a good memory of what people looked like, so she didn’t need their names, and the dragonrider had been wearing Cincanta colors, so she knew he was from thisWeyr.
“Alright, the room has to be completely dark, he have these weird lights…and they are weird, believe me. They are something called flashlights, and you push a button and it clicks on and off. They said in the notes that they couldn’t have real electrical lights like they should, so the pictures most likely won’t turn out as good as they used to on old Terran. Anyway, they really hurt your eyes after a while, and are this kinda red light…it’s weird. Come and I’ll show you how I develop them.” She said and led Alema into the darkened room.
“Whoa, my eyes need to adjust.” Alema said quickly before stepping into the room, but Tayika hurried in.
“Shut the door behind you when you come in.” Tayika said. “I’m going to see if I can get someone to make these chemicals so we can develop more pictures more often.” She said. Little did Tayika know that her pictures were going to be sought after by many.
The next day, Tayika had sent several rolls of film to the mastersmith and asked if he could figure out how to make more of those. He said he’d try and figure it out, but wasn’t sure how well he could do and that the rolls of film were very odd indeed. Then she got another idea…what about the current Weyrleaders? She bet they would love to have pictures of them to treasure for as long as they could! So she went and asked them, explaining to them exactly what she meant and showed them the pictures she had already taken.
When they agreed Tayika quickly snapped several pictures of them…afterall, they deserved many pictures, being weyrleaders as they were. Then she offered to take pictures of their dragons with them as well and this seemed to excite them more. She passed the boy and other dragonrider on her way and gave each of them their own copy, their faces lit up with pride.
“Tayika! I’ve been looking all over for you!” Alema came running up to her friend, but made sure she remembered courtesy and bowed tot he weyrleaders. Her eyes were wide with excitement.
“Want to help me take a few pictures of the weyrleaders and their dragons? She asked Alema. Alema nodded her head vigorously, excited that she should have such and honor to be able to take the pictures of weyrleaders.
That night, Tayika was wide-awake developing the pictures she’d taken of the weyrleaders. She was too excited not to, and Alema joined her, and they pointed at one picture of the weyrleaders when they had accidentally tripped on their way to meet their dragons. Not exactly a graceful picture and Tayika wondered if they would want that one as well, but developed it anyway.
The next day, Tayika was extremely tired but she, with Alema, hurried to find the weyrleaders.
“Ah, Tayika, Alema, are our pictures finished?” The Weyrleader asked and the girls whirled around to face the Weyrleader.
“Yes sir!” Tayika said and handed him the pictures. The Weyrwoman came up beside her Weyrmate and looked at the pictures with him. Tayika held her breath when they came to the picture of them tripping, but they laughed and pointed at the picture much as the girls had.
“Don’t let anyone else see that one.” The Weyrwoman said, still smiling. Tayika breathed a sigh of relief. They spent the most time looking over the ones with their dragons. They were about to hand them back when Tayika shook her head.
“No, no, those are yours. I have doubles if you ever need them for anything.” Tayika said. “Those are for you.” They departed, the weyrleaders still looking at the pictures and smiling over them.
“Well, I hope the mastersmith finds out how to make more film.” Tayika said. “I have a few roles left, not counting all the ones I sent to the mastersmith.” She said.
“I’m sure he will, and maybe he can make more camera’s.” Alema said excitedly. “You are so lucky your family kept those things.”
“And more chemicals like the ones I need to develop the pictures.” Tayika added. “I know I’m lucky. It’s too bad not many more things form Old Earth survived.” She said.
“Earth?”
“What our ancestors called the plane they lived on before Pern.” She said and sighed. “If only we had pictures of Old Earth we could have the dragons fly between to it.” She said.
“Yes, but have you ever thought about why Earth hasn’t visited us?” She asked. “I have, ever since you found that camera and started talking about our ancestor’s planet.” Tayika thought about it momentarily.”
“My ancestors never say anything about it in their records.” Tayika admitted and sighed.
“Hey, Tayika, wait up there.” Tayika and Alema both paused and turned around to face the bronze dragonrider Tayika had taken the picture of before the Weyrleaders. He caught up with them and smiled. “I’m glad I could find you.” He said. “I appreciate the picture you took of my bronze, the boy and I.” He said.
“My pleasure.” Tayika replied happily.
“Well, that’s good, because I think you should take pictures of the hatching when the eggs hatch! Take pictures of the hatchlings and their bonded!” He said. Tayika’s eyes widened with excitement.
“That’s brilliant!” She said. “I have a few rolls left which I’ll save for the hatching!” She said. “I can’t wait till the clutch hatches! This is going to be fun! And their expressions will be captured forever!”