written by Anne McCaffrey
published in 1993
short story in the Dragonriders of Pern series
short story
Years after the first dragon–rider couples move out of Fort Hold and establish Fort Weyr in a nearby volcanic crater, young queen dragonrider Torene leads the establishment of another draco-human community in a crater far to the north and east, the most distant habitable region. The leaders of Fort Weyr, Sorka Hanrahan and Sean Connell, authorize three new Weyrs at once, but the northeastern is first, named Benden Weyr for the Pern colony's founder and leader, Admiral Paul Benden.
The action at Fort and Benden Weyrs continues in Dragonsdawn by showing more of the earliest development of Pern's interspecies society.