Anna nodded. “Humans have a saying. If you love something set it free, if it comes back to you, it’s forever yours. If it doesn’t, it was never meant to be.”
Jatlo picked up a kapedo. “You wish to press the rinds?”
“As long as they get pressed, I don’t care who does it.”
Jatlo turned to Anna in obvious shock. “You would part with ten percent of your kapedo oil?” He asked in an awed voice.
“Of course, I know you’ve processed pretlo tonight. That stuff makes a mess, a slimy, sticky mess. To me that means you earned the right to process or press whatever you want. If you want to do all of this, I will gladly go home.” Anna asked hopefully.
Jatlo stammered. “No... No... We will do it together. We already processed more tonight than we normally see in a week.”
“Tonight was a good harvest?” Anna asked. She started grabbing gesar and stuffing it down the appropriate hole.
Pealo walked over and picked up three nets. “Tonight was exceptional. Having a pack-runner always helps.”
“A fast pack-runner easily triples the harvest.” Krea said.
“I didn’t realize it made that much of a difference. Do you harvest tomorrow in the cool?”
Krea nodded as the chief boomed out. “Northwest 3 tomorrow people.” The chief walked over to Anna. “Thank you, pack-runner, it was an excellent harvest. I see you filled your nets well. You are not what I expected Phwolfe. You like to run?”
“The running feels great. I wish I could carry more.”
“More you say. I stand amazed at the amounts you carried. You took a kapedo every run, didn’t you?” Anna nodded. He smiled sadly and sighed. “Most no longer possess the strength to carry kapedo at all. Let alone run while carrying one.”
“Have the vitamins that Liso, Tava, and Desvren passed out helped?”
“Some. But, we absorb best through natural foods such as leka, greal, korftu, and takosund.” He shrugged. “Will you come tomorrow?”
Anna nodded. “Yes.”
“Come half an hour early and I will show you how to throw steel.”
“Thank you, Chief.”
“My name is Sato. Everyone, may your blood stay strong.”
The chorus came back. “May your blood never weaken.”
At eleven thirty-four, they finished processing the last of the harvest and signed off. “Thank you, I sincerely appreciate the fact that you stayed and helped me.” Anna bowed low to them. “May your blood stay strong. See you tomorrow cool.” She said as she headed out the door. She automatically started running.
Anna ran to Desvren’s cabin and took a shower. As she tried to pull her pants onto her still damp legs, she thought of an idea. She ran to East 1.
She had to feed a pair of her pants into the supply processor to get the concept across. But, in the end it worked. She had a pair of stretchy, snug pants with denua fiber woven throughout them for strength. The notion lay in the pockets on each calf and thigh that wrapped from the side to the front, into these pockets slid rigid plastic contoured containers. She made snap down straps for the lids. Best of all, her knife sheaths strapped on right over them, leaving them still easily accessible and secure. Anna figured, if she used the smaller nets, she could fit two in each calf pocket. The thigh pockets should hold two regular nets each. She ordered up four of the small nets and four big boxes. She wanted to be ready for tomorrow night. She decided that was enough and headed home.
Desvren already lay asleep in bed when Anna got home. She ate a snack then curled up beside him. He shifted in his sleep and pulled her into his arms. Anna nuzzled up to his neck and drifted off to sleep.
Anna woke up thrashing. No. No. No. Her mind screamed. Desvren sat up beside her and waited. Anna looked at him. He appeared calm which meant these feelings belonged to her, not him.
What had startled her? Her mind struggled to understand the lesson Desvren just tranced to her. Anna drew her knees up to her chest, buried her head in her hands, and tried not to cry.
The Golsidan species possessed three sexes; male, female, and neuter. Male sperm fertilized the female eggs. The females carried the fertilized eggs for a month. At that time, the males retrieved the eggs during sexual intercourse. Afterwards, the males carried the fetus in their tail womb for thirty-five months. Every human females dream revenge. The neuters used their healing ability to help direct the fetus’s growth, insuring the health of the child. The neuters happened to be infertile males, exactly the same as the males in every aspect, except for their inability to father children. And they always made up half of any tai’twain pair.
Anna sobbed into her hands. Her Desvren, her tai’twain was a neuter. She’d agreed to mix her blood with Golsidans since she possessed the rare human genetics that allowed this interspecies breeding. They’d discovered her through the eggs she donated thirty five years ago.
For forty-two human years they searched and found only three human females with the right genetics. So far, only Anna decided to join the Golsidans and bear children. But, Desvren couldn’t give them to her.
Desvren began to rub Anna’s back. His mind caressed hers. There is more. He said. Anna tried to recoil and hide. Nothing bad will come of this. Special rules exist for when a female and neuter become tai’twain. He talked to her mind to mind slowly, so she understood every implication.
Desvren felt no fear about this. He knew it wouldn’t separate them in any way. Male and neuter tai’twain become comrades and the best of friends. They love each other as brothers. They defend each other to the death if necessary. Neuters tend to be introverts and get offended and aroused to aggression easier. Males behave in a more gregarious, outgoing, and relaxed manner. They willingly defend their children, but seldom stand up for themselves. When male and neuter tai’twain they balance each other, melding into a better form than either finds possible to achieve alone.
Female-neuter tai’twain reaches a deeper level. Everything from the male neuter bonding plus, physical love exists in it. A connection to destiny occurs in female-neuter tai’twain which doesn’t in male-neuter tai’twain. My people revere this link to the future. Our legends tell us and our bodies proof it to us, we have breed with humans before.
The legends say that this interspecies breeding always occurs between a human female and male Golsidan and the human always tai’twains with a Golsidan neuter. About one in three thousand tai’twain pairs happens to be female-neuter only two human-Golsidan tai’twain pairs have existed before in our entire history. We make the third such pairing.
People may question our bond at first. But, they’ll honor it when they realize it’s true. The captain thought only sex existed between us. When you showed him your willingness to fight to keep me, he saw the depth of our bond. The Phsatorae plans to keep us together.
Anna’s mind stalled on one word. She tried to hide her surprise, her wonder. But, mind to mind meant nothing stayed hidden.
Desvren threw back his head and laughed. Yes, sex! His mind crowed. Yes, us. Golsidan neuters take part in and enjoy sex. We just lack the ability to father children. We actually get sought out more as sexual partners than the males. With us, sex occurs for the pleasure. With the males, it involves child bearing and contracts. In unsure times like these, the males go without. But, the neuters always remain popular.
But we’ve never... Anna’s mind stammered. Desvren turned her and pulled her onto his lap.
Our circumstances prevented it, love. First, you were dying when we brought you here. Your body went into shock from the transport. Plus, we replicated you at the same time. We left the replicated you on Earth, so your family received some closure. We barely saved you. Then, I needed to recover from healing you. I planned on taking advantage of you earlier today. But, the captain showed up. Desvren kissed Anna’s neck slowly, tenderly, sexily. He began to nibble his way up to her ear.
“Hmm… Des, what about our temperature differences? You said human skin temperature causes damage to Golsidan
skin.” Anna managed to say.
The Isadi Suit, his mind whispered. I keep it on. It can handle temperature differences of a much higher extreme.
But Des what about you....
Des threw back his head and laughed again. Oh, that you… happens to love heat, the hotter the better.
That comment proves that you are one hundred percent male.
Des turned Anna’s face and captured her lips. His kiss turned hot, arousing. They became a tangle of lips and tongues. Hearts pounding in rhythm, chests heaving, blood rushing hot and strong. Des’s mind slid against Anna’s. His hands pulled off her shirt. His mind whispered. Love, oh love, we have waited so long.
They loved like a hot and fast ride on thunder, a slow slide into cool water, a lightning strike, electrical, uplifting, empowering, and a homecoming all at once. Anna felt Des’s passion as she felt her own. His heart pumped her blood. Her lungs pulled in his air. Then, flight, the heights they reached together, the soaring power, and the floating drift back down.
Anna definitely understood why the neuters got sought out as lovers. Pleasure described it only because no word more fitting existed.
Des chuckled against Anna’s neck. We have a long time before morning, love and I want to experience many things with you. He guided her to slow gentle rise, followed by a loving so tender, she wept.
Anna caressed him teasingly her fingers drawing patterns along his muscled chest. She tenderly placed butterfly kisses along his brow, down his cheek, and across to his ear. She stroked him lovingly along his sides, across his belly to his thighs and all the way down to his toes. Then, the slow return up, tracing patterns on his thighs, and ah… morning still waited far enough away.
CHAPTER 5
KP Duty
Anna woke up thinking of elliptical orbits, planet conjunctions, gravity wells, and asteroid belts. Navigational hazards, huh… oh, her spacemanship training had begun. Desvren sighed beside her and Anna felt him slip even deeper into sleep. Anna got dressed, ate her breakfast, and left an assortment of fruit and vegetables on the bedside table for Des. She headed to the garden. She wanted to see if those pants worked along with some other things.
Anna felt amazed when she walked into East 1 and really looked around. With the exception of the savti, she’d harvested over half of the garden already. Good, she planned on doing a lot of modifications to her gear today.
Anna’s first run showed that the plastic inserts slopped too much up and down in the pockets. So, she made really wide center straps with eight snaps on each thigh pocket and four for the calf pockets. The second run showed that that solution worked. Then, she sewed a couple of D rings on the top and bottom of the thigh strap which allowed a full net to snap on the front of each thigh pocket without interfering with the knife sheaths.
Next, Anna started in on the backpack. She stripped it down to the frame. She added extenders on the bottom. She didn’t have to worry about it rubbing on a tail. She lowered the waist belt onto the extenders. The belt now rode on her hips instead of above her belly button. She secured the pack onto the extended bottom. She lengthened the pack height so that it ran the whole length of the frame. She put more snaps and bungee cords on the sides for securing nets.
Anna tried to make a run. She found that although she still felt no weight, she leaned way out of balance. She needed to stress her stomach muscles to keep from falling over backwards. Running only got accomplished at a severe forward lean. After one mad tumble through an unseen gesar bush, she temporarily boycotted everything faster than walking.
When all else fails, read the directions her brother Andy always told her. It actually happened to be good advice. Anna accessed information and looked up pack design. Low and behold, she found an accordion belly pack that opened up as weight got put in it. Originally designed for use with Cansifels that carried in Isadi blood, it looked feasible to and for her.
Unfortunately, no Cansifels lived on board. The domestic mammalian like species made a great pack animal capable of carrying seventy percent of their body weight. They also had the ability to defend themselves with carnivorous teeth and retractable claws. They didn’t often get taken on shipboard voyages because to stay healthy they needed a large breeding population. They bonded at birth to the scent of the person who vowed to devote the majority of their time to the raising, training, and partnership of that particular Cansifel. They remained loyal till death to their keeper and often protected, obeyed, and worked with the blood kin of their bond-mate. Anna looked forward to seeing these animals when they returned to Golria.
Anna typed in a query about making the pack out of denua fiber. Yes, it could be done. But, the pack would only have a two week usage period before the fibers lost the strength to self fold. Good enough, she could put the old pack into the processor every two weeks to be recycled. She took a couple of measurements to get the right size for the belly pack and ordered it up.
Anna put the belly pack on and off she trotted again. This time she felt stable when she ran. She found it easy to shift her weight and balance from side to side and front to back. Then, she decided to secure a big net to the front of the belly pack which held the kapedo so that her hands remained free. It also put her off kilter again to the front this time.
Anna made a denua cloth extension for the top of the backpack with plastic fingers that stuck in the top of the pack frame and held the cloth top open. That put her just a little bit tipped to the back. Not a lot, but, enough to be noticed at a run. If she strapped a really large kapedo on the belly pack, it became almost unnoticeable.
Anna remembered seeing some weird looking tomahawks in the armory. Information showed her that their handles folded over and got locked straight with a sliding twist ring. She ran down to East 8 and got a pair of the folding tomahawks and sheaths. Then, she sprinted back to East 1. She secured the sheaths to the back of the belly pack. They wedged against her stomach and stuck out just enough on the sides of the pack to be reachable. A thick T-shirt kept them from chafing her.
Once again in balance, loading turned into an odd routine of one net in the back, one net in the front, one net on each side of the backpack, two in back. It took a while. But, she learned a way to load herself that kept her stable. By the time, she got the routine down she’d eaten twice and finished harvesting the garden except for the savti tubers.
When Anna processed the last load from East 1, the digital said seventeen after three. Over two and a half human hours remained before the hot, which happened to be the Golsidan equivalent of a nap time. She wanted to try to get into a Golsidan sleep pattern.
The mewu damage in the garden irritated Anna. They really needed to be trapped somehow. She kept seeing them skittering away under bushes and into their holes. But, they moved too quickly to hand net.
They measured only eight to seventeen centimeters long. Maybe mouse traps, the snap traps used too much metal in them though, especially with it currently being in short supply. Sticky traps? Since she just harvested all their food supply and the acid the savti tubers secreted turned them into an impossible mewu meal that meant any fruit bait should work.
If Anna got them used to eating in one place, then put sticky traps around that spot, catching them became a good possibility. The traps needed to be sticky enough to hold the mewu. Plus, heavy enough so any partially stuck mewu couldn’t drag the traps off. Also, she needed a way to get the mewu off the trap to process them.
Anna went back to information. The supply processor easily fabricated denua fiber into a sheet with weight and strength more like a board than cardboard, much too heavy for mewu to drag off. Gesar double boiled glue held even in vacuum and extreme temperatures. But would the glue prevent her from getting them off?
Ahh… The glues only weakness happened to be direct immersion in hot or cold liquids. This caused cracking and loss of cohesion. The records stated thirty-four degrees as the cold exposure barrier. Dip it in ice water? Could mewu swim? They moved so fast, Anna wouldn
’t be able to catch them, if they got away.
Anna read up on mewu’s. Cold water immersion caused them to go into shock and lapse into a coma. Bingo! But the board also received damage from being plunged into water the information panel said. Water submersion caused the board to lose its fiber cohesion but covering it with a thin coating of plastic protected it. Gesar double boiled glue stuck to any surface. So, a plastic coating solved the problem finalizing the design for the mewu trap.
Anna accessed the commodities screen. She needed to trade for plastic and glue. She planned to harvest more denua. She got a horrible wake up call. Only fifty percent of the denua she already harvested came up as listed for sale. The denua got recorded on commodities because it possessed no nutritional value. It either got used, piped directly to commodities, or put into storage cubes. Nothing that needed labor to be produced was available. Anna scrolled back. Shit! Nothing had been available for over six annuals.
No dyes. No glues. No metals. No delicacies like broiled takosund, leka, mewu eggs, or fried renkumon wings. No baked goods like tienara biscuits or gesar flatbread. Not even the flour, so that the possibility of making the breads yourself existed. No roasted savti, fried savti, or roasted tafru. No catronu oil or gesar syrup. No fresh nuts or berries, not even any real crushed lysordi leaves to make tea.
Geez, the Golsidans used these items to make hobby goods, and to give as special treats, birthday and tai’twain gifts. If she had to endure six annuals with nothing special, Anna wouldn’t qualify just as demoralized or depressed, she’d be bonkers.
Anna switched to the arts page. This seemed to be even worse. No new art sales or postings had occurred within the last thirteen annuals. She found out that Cima. Friendly, smiling, helpful Cima happened to be a gifted tapestry weaver. Liso the medic who helped save her, used to make framed carvings out of denua board, glue, and a lot of delicate hand work. Sato qualified as a master metal smith. Jatlo used to make colorful braided and weaved rugs. Desvren at one time designed and cast metal figurines of intricate detail that easily fit in the palm of your hand. The Golsidans expressed themselves through their arts and crafts. This arts page acted like a gallery, where the Golsidans displayed their craftsmanship. Oftentimes, they wished not to sell the art, but only to show it off to earn admiration and appreciation.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 7