When the Federated Sentient Planets
learned that Pern was still
populated, over two thousand years after being told that the colonists
had perished to the mychorriza spores, the now very different FSP had
to know how they had survived all those years with limited technology.
With the revelations about dragons and grubs, an expedition to Pern was
irresistible. No one knew what to expect, as no colony had ever been
isolated from FSP contact for so long.
It was decided that the
expedition would treat the situation somewhat like a First Contact. No
one knew if the Pernese survivors had retained the knowledge of their
origins, though obviously they knew something, because they had used
the engines of the old colony ships to change the orbit of the
wandering planet to halt future incursions of the mychorriza on their
planet.
A team was gathered of the
finest specialists known, and they were sent to establish contact
 with
the colonists' descendants.
Locating the only area suitable for shuttle landings and sufficiently
far from any known colony settlement, they established a camp,
officially known as Alpha Base. After the removal of the FSP from Pern
the defectors that stayed behind were allowed to keep Alpha Base open
with the new name of Alpha Hold.
Alpha Hold is located 50
kilometers from Dawnsisters Weyr, it resembles a small city more than a
hold with sterile laboratories, meeting halls, a Dragon landing area,
and fully contained living quarters, schools and play areas for the
families of the remaining FSP defectors.
The Study Team leader,
Cassaundra McCree, has been named Lady Warder until the such time as
her son Kelaun is old enough and fully trained to take over the role of
Holder. Nearly every member of the Military Team returned to the FSP,
most of the defectors came from the Study and Tech Teams.
The hold played an important
role in the recent disasters being the primary means of determining
approximately when and where asteroids would hit. The hold escaped any
major damage and helped with housing those left homeless or injured.
|
