"Yes, as Fortine says, we cannot escape some infections. We must prevent a second viral infection. It can recur. Here. Now. As doubtless it does periodically on the Southern Continent. We know to our sorrow that it only takes one carrier. We can't let that happen again, Tirone. We have neither the medicines nor the personnel to cope with a second epidemic."

"I know that as well as you do," Tirone said, his voice rough with irritation. "So? Do those precious Records of yours say what the Ancients did?" He gestured at the thick Records on Capiam's desk with a contempt based on fear.

"Mass vaccination!"

It took Tirone a moment to realize that Capiam had given him a candid answer.

"Mass vaccination? The whole continent!" Tirone made a lavish sweep of one arm, glaring at Capiam. "But I've been vaccinated." His hand went to his left arm.

"That immunity lasts only about fourteen days with the sort of serum we can produce. So you see, our time is limited . . . and might even be running out in Igen and Keroon unless we can vaccinate everyone and anyone who might harbor the virus. That's the challenge. My Hall provides the serum and the personnel to vaccinate; yours keeps Hall, Hold, and Weyr from panic!"

"Panic? Yes, you're right about that!" Tirone jerked his thumb in the direction of Fort Hold where Lord Tolocamp still refused to leave his apartment. "You would have more to fear from the panic than the plague just now."

"Yes!" Capiam put a great deal into that quiet affirmative. Desdra had moved perceptibly closer to him. He wasn't sure if her intention was supportive or defensive, but he appreciated her proximity. "And we have to proceed with speed and diligence. If there should be a carrier in Igen, Keroon, Telgar, or Ruatha . . ."

The vulnerable angry look in Tirone's eyes reminded him of his own reaction when he had had to admit the inescapable conclusions drawn from the four references Fortine, and then Desdra, had reluctantly shown him.

"To prevent a second epidemic, we must vaccinate now, within the next few days." Capiam turned briskly to the maps he had been preparing. "Portions of Lemos, Bitra, Crom, Nabol, upper Telgar, High Reaches, and Tillek have not had contact with anyone since the cold season started. We can vaccinate them later, when the snow melts but before the spring rains, when those people begin to circulate more freely. So we have to concern ourselves with this portion of the continent." Capiam brought his arm down the southern half. "There are certain advantages to the social structure on Pern, Tirone, particularly during a Pass. We can keep track of where everyone is. We also know approximately how many people survived the first wave of the flu and who has been vaccinated. So it comes down to the problem of distributing the vaccine at the appointed day. As dragonriders are vulnerable to the disease, I feel we can ask their cooperation in getting vaccine to the distribution points I've marked out across the continent."

Tirone gave a cynical snort. "You won't get any cooperation from M'tani at Telgar. L'bol at Igen is useless-Wimmia's running the Weyr and it's a mercy Fall is a consolidated effort. F'gal might help."

Capiam shook his head impatiently. "I can get all the help I need from Moreta, S'ligar, and K'dren. But we must do it now, to halt any further incidence of the flu. It can be halted, killed, if it does not have new victims to propagate it."

"Like Thread?"

"That is an analogy, I suppose," Capiam admitted wearily. He had spent so much time arguing lately, with Fortine, Desdra, the other Masters, and himself. The more he presented the case, the more clearly did he feel the necessity for the push. "It takes only one Thread to ruin a field, or a continent. Only one carrier is needed to spread the plague."

"Or one idiot master seaman trying to stake a premature claim on the Southern Continent-"

"What?"

Tirone took from his tunic a water-stained sheaf, its parchment pages roughly evened.

"I was on my way to see you about this, Master Capiam. Your healer at Igen Sea Hold, Master Burdion, entrusted this to my journeyman. I wanted it for an accurate account of this period."

"Yes, yes, you badgered me on my sickbed." Capiam made to take the book from Tirone, who reproved him with a look.

"There was no floating animal, no chance encounter, Capiam. They landed in Southern. Burdion was quite ill, you know, and during his convalescence he read the log of the good ship Windtoss for lack of anything more stimulating. He's been in a sea hold long enough to know sailing annotations. And he said that Master Varny was an honest man. He logs the squall, right enough, and that did send them legitimately off course. But they ought not to have landed. Exploration of the Southern Continent was not to be undertaken until this Pass was over. It was to be a combined effort of Hall, Hold, and Weyr. They were three days in that anchorage!" Tirone punctuated his remarks by stabbing his finger at the journal in such a way that Capiam couldn't see the page properly. Then Tirone relinquished it to his grasp, and Desdra sidled up to look.

"Oh, dear, oh, dear, how very presumptuous of Master Varney," Master Fortine said. "But that means this is not a case of zoonosis,

Capiam, but a direct infection."

"Only if there were humans in the Southern Continent," Capiam said hopefully.

"The log entries do not suggest there are!" Tirone sank that possibility.

"Indeed the Records concerning the Second Crossing are clear on that point."

"Are we sure," Desdra asked, "that they were in southern waters?"

"Oh, yes," Tirone said. "A seabred journeyman harper confirmed that the positions correspond to the Southern Continent! He said there wouldn't be any place shallow enough to anchor anywhere short of the landmass of the continent. Three days they were there!"

"The log says"-Desdra was reading-"that they had to jury-rig repairs to the sloop after it was damaged by a storm."

"That's what it says," Tirone agreed sardonically. "Undoubtedly they did make repairs, but Burdion added a note"-Tirone produced a scrap that he flourished before he read it-" 'I found fruit pits of unusual size in the unemptied galley bucket and rotten husks of some specimens which were unknown to me though I have been many Turns in this Hold.'" Tirone leaned toward Capiam, his eyes brilliant. "So, my friends, the Windtoss made a premature landing. And look where it has landed us!" Tirone threw his arms wide in another of his grand gestures.

Capiam sank back wearily in his chair, staring at the maps, flicking his careful lists with his fingers.

"The log may shed light on certain aspects of this, my good friend, but also warns us against that projected return to the Southern Continent. "

"I heartily agree!"

"And it reinforces my conclusion that we must vaccinate to prevent the spread of the plague. And vaccinate the runners as well. I really hadn't counted on that complication."

"Look on it as a challenge?" said Desdra dryly, her hands kneading at the tense muscles of Capiam's shoulders.

"Not one which I think our unofficial Masterherdsman is capable of answering, I fear," said Capiam.

"Would Moreta know? She was runnerhold bred, her family had a fine breeding hold in Keroon . . ." Even the brash Masterharper paused, knowing of the tragedy there. "She did attend that middistance runner at Ruatha Gather. That was the first case to be noted here in the west, remember."

"No, I don't remember, Tirone," Capiam said irritably. Did he have to cure the sick animals of this continent, too? "You're the memory of our times."

"Surely if we have a human vaccine, we can produce by the same methods an animal one," Desdra said, soothingly. "And there's Lord Alessan, who certainly has enough donors. I did hear, did I not, that some of his runnerbeasts survived the plague?"