When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they didn’t come by itself: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize Pern’s oceans while their human partners settled the vast continents. But disaster struck. The deadly silver spores known as Thread dropped like rain through the sky, and as human being colonists’ dreams of a new, idyllic lifestyle shattered right into a eager struggle for survival, the dolphins had been forgotten. Now, decades afterwards, as the dragonriders of Pern prepare to full the momentus task of ridding their world of Thread permanently, T’lion, a young bronze rider, and his friend Readis, child of god, the father Holder of Paradise River Hold, speak to the legendary “shipfish.” So that as the dragonriders grapple with the finish of a time, T’lion, Readis, as well as the dolphins encounter the beginning of a fresh one: reviving the bond between property- and ocean-dwellers – and resurrecting the dreams of the first colonists of Pern.