3261-3511 12 Pass and Interval

At the start of the 12th Pass, the People of Pern again thought there was not going to be Thread. They did not remember the hardships of the last Pass, because they had lived for three generations in riches and without fear. The Dragonriders knew better. Being long lived due to their contact with dragons, there had only been two generations since the Pass, they still had the storys in the colective memmories of their dragons.

When the first fall of the pass arrived, none of the Holders were ready. Thousands died in just one fall, and the others all fled their homes for the long abandoned stone holds. Their lives, once lived in riches and regality, were turned upside down. Young ladys who had never lifted a finger had to learn to cook and clean, and had to be married off to replace the lives lost as soon as possible.

The pass served as a much needed wake up call for the pernese. They took the dragonriders for granted and disobeyed the teachings of the past and lost enough lives to start listning again.

The old Holds were in desperate need of repair, so even though the riders did their best, many more lives were lost before the Pass was over.

In the 12th Interval, people were more reserved, taking time to thank every rider they met, and speant much time rebuilding the Holds. The Weyrs themselves were becoming worse for wear, not from being neglected, but from 3500 turns of use.

During the Interval, Genecrafters again worked to improve on the designes of the dragons. Many new types were made, but most failed, either from poor design or they were sterile and they could not fix it.

Types included Yasmith, a great green and Gold female who could breath fire and was the size of the largest Queens. But she was sterile, so did not reproduce. Another was Boroxth, a brute of a Blue, with stamina to catch a Gold Queen, but he did not pass on his traits, all of his offspring being normal cannon.

10 turns before the pass, one aprentice genecrafter stumbled apon the recepie for reversing serility that had been used so long ago to make greens firtile. He decided to use it on the super-rare blacks, who were sterile. Only three were adults at this stage, and so he had to modify it to flip the switches in the Silver Queens and the Garnet and Guilded Females. He injected every one of these, to change the genetic material fot any black offspring. When the next Black was hatched, he stood to impress himself. When the black matured, he flew a Green, and to everyones surprize (besides the Genecrafter Rider), the Green laid a Black egg. From then on, Blacks have been able to Sire and lay clutches.

One turn before the 13th Pass, the Genecrafters were set to release another set of eggs. Everyone though that they would be duds, like every other type they had released... but on the first day of the 13th Pass, they hatched...