Anna hurt when she woke up. Between the knife throwing and working hard her muscles screamed at her. She stumbled her way to Des’s cabin and took a long hot shower, stretching repeatedly. Eventually, she felt better, got dressed, and trotted to East 2.
Anna wanted to consolidate everything and finally decided on East 1 as the stockpile spot. She started nothing new but instead concentrated on finishing everything being processed at the moment.
By the time, Anna strained, bottled, sifted, weighed, packaged, and transferred everything to East 1, the clock face read seventeen seventeen. She called the medic quarters and asked for Liso. She listed the various products to him and explained that she thought it would probably take over an hour to witness. She offered five pounds of unripe greal, two pounds of korftu nuts, a bottle each of gesar syrup and catronu oil, and a pound each of roasted and fried savti as a witness fee. Could he witness and find another medic willing to witness? Yes, he wanted to witness and also bring along a second witness. She promised to call him with the set time after conferring with the Phsatorae.
Anna contacted Sato and offered to up his witness fee, if he stayed for the whole thing. He knew the amounts involved and agreed. She planned to also pay him for the knife throwing lesson once everything got verified. He sounded most excited about the bottle of first boil gesar glue. He promised to wait for her to inform him about the time of the verification.
Anna took a couple of deep breaths before calling the captain’s suite. She felt quite sure that he’d be pleased about products to go on to commodities, but she felt unsure about his reaction to such an early morning call.
“I have some goods to go on to the commodities page and I need to set up a time for verification with the Phsatorae.” Anna said to the lady who answered the communication.
A gasp and then, “I’ll put you right through.”
Anna waited nervously until Jao got on the line. “This is Anna Phwolfe, Phsatorae.”
“Phwolfe has anything gone wrong?” He sounded concerned.
“No, sir, I think something went right. I need to set up a verification time at East 1 center processing room, Phsatorae. I have some commodities to list and the witnesses lined up. It’ll probably take an hour or more.”
“I saw you used the center processing station the other warm. Verification always goes quicker than you planned. Let’s see, how about one o’clock?”
“That sounds perfect. Thank you.” Anna hung up then called Sato and Liso and told them the verification time. She pulled Marfi’s chair in front of the door and sat down to wait. She fell asleep almost instantly. Thank goodness, Sato showed up first and woke her up.
“Pack-runner Phwolfe finally runs out of energy, hmmm…” Sato teased.
“Pack-runner Phwolfe is exhausted, Chief. Unbelievable, how easy that greal harvested, it felt like harvester heaven. It can’t be like that all the time.”
“No, it’s because it hasn’t been harvested in annuals. All of this seasons harvest still hangs on the vine, waiting to drop, the same with the korftu.”
“I can’t do that every night, Chief.” Anna smiled wryly.
“None of us can pack-runner.” Sato smiled back at her. “But, it turned out to be quite a shift.” He sighed.
“What kind of workday are you reminiscing about Chief Sato? I haven’t looked at the cool numbers from yesterday yet.” The Phsatorae asked.
Sato shrugged. “To be honest Phsatorae, neither have I. I am still recovering from them.”
“Recovering, are you ill?” Liso asked as he rounded the corner into the hall and walked up to Sato. He looked Sato up and down with evident concern.
“Never been better, medic Liso. Plus, we have some goods that should help us all.” Sato smiled widely.
“Thank you for coming, Liso. I wanted a medic here. Tava you’ve agreed to be the third witness.” Tava nodded and smiled. “Okay, let’s do this.” Anna got up and hit the door release, even Sato gasped when he saw the center mounded with goods. It looked impressive piled in one spot with the carts from East 3 and 4 lined up against the wall ready to be loaded.
“I thought the easiest way to get through this was to do the fifty-fifty split as we go along. We divide the product onto labeled carts and the Satorae carts then get pushed wherever you want them to go Phsatorae.” Anna turned to the Phsatorae who stood frozen in the doorway looking stunned.
He took a step into the room and turned to stare at Anna. “I figured you probably made some gesar syrup and other items.”
“I made five shelves full, somewhere behind all of this.” Anna stood up on tiptoe to see over the pile. “Yep, there they sit three shelves in.” She pointed to the gesar syrup.
“How did you get all of this?” The Phsatorae walked up to the counter.
“The cool shift kicked ass last night, big time. Sato watched while I went over the rail. All of the greal and korftu still hung there, waiting to be picked. The whole shift, every single one of them, stayed over and helped process this.” Anna swung her arm out towards the pile. Liso and Tava stood staring at the unripe greal.
The Phsatorae blinked. “You went over the rail?”
Anna nodded.
“Over?” He motioned jumping with his hands.
Anna nodded again and shrugged. “It needed to be done.”
“But why would you voluntarily do that?” The Phsatorae looked truly confused.
“The people need this.” Anna motioned to the unripe greal. “People like Marfi who stayed until everything got finished last night, suffering in pain the whole time. They need the korftu and unripe greal, especially the unripe greal. They also need leka and takosund, but I haven’t figured out how to get that yet. This will help though.”
Tava spoke up. “Our invalids require fresh fruit or they will continue to weaken and eventually die. She is right. It needed to be done. They need leka and takosund also. But, this will keep them alive until someone figures out how to get it. I invoke a direct emergency buy on the Satorae share of this bounty. The medics know where it’s most needed. We will distribute it justly, fairly, and most importantly speedily.”
Liso stepped up beside Tava. “I second that direct emergency buy on the Satorae share. Our invalids need this now.” His voice sounded urgent.
“Let’s get it to them, then.” Anna went and grabbed two carts. “Witnesses, Phsatorae do any of you object to using labeled carts to distribute this? Anna picked up a couple of tags and marked one with the Satorae ideograph and the other with the Wolfe ideographs.
They chorused agreement.
“Okay then, two pound containers of unripe greal, twenty to go to the bottom level of cart Satorae, twenty to go to the bottom of cart Wolfe.” When she finished loading the first cart, Tava looked stricken. Anna knew he wanted to dash off with it to the invalids, but as an agreed to witness he needed to stay. She turned to him. “Medic Tava, if you call Desvren, he could bring this to Healer central and put in a request for a crew of volunteers to deliver the carts.” Tava dashed over to the communications board.
To give him some time, Anna went over and ordered lysordi tea for everyone. Des delivered the first cart to the medical center. By the time the second cart got finished, four volunteer medics stood waiting for it.
The Phsatorae proved to be wrong. It went no faster than Anna thought it would. When she handed Sato the last of his witness fee, the clock read seventy-eight after two. Over three human hours got used up to complete the verification. Holy catfish, Anna didn’t want to have to do this very often. She still needed to put what she wanted to keep of the Wolfe portion in the supply closets and food coolers and bring what she decided to sell to the commodity depot and sign it in.
No empty carts remained in the room. The Wolfe portion laid spread out on every available surface in case a recount became necessary. Thankfully, they hadn’t needed one. Anna looked at the counters piled high with bottles, containers, and bags of fruit. With a weary sigh, she went back to work.
/>
She planned to use the second boil gesar glue, so that started to go into the supply closet. She stopped. She could easily make more, if she needed it and plenty of other people wanted some. She kept seven and put the rest aside for commodities.
Anna ran to East 5 and grabbed a cart. She’d do this a cart at a time, starting with the easy stuff. She got a label and marked the cart commodities. Thirteen bottles of second boil glue went onto it. Next, she kept five bottles of the first boil glue to use as a trade or gift item, leaving fifteen bottles for the cart. The gesar syrup made a great trade item. She kept fifty bottles and put seventy on the cart. The korftu nuts shelf life lasted almost as long as the glue. She kept one hundred and twenty-six pounds and placed a hundred and eighty onto the cart. The cart’s load looked shaky stacked up in a huge pile. Anna got nets and strapped everything down with them. Then, she pushed the cart slowly to the commodities exchange depot.
The place stood empty of both people and product, the lock gate wide open, the counter totally bare except for the covered information consoles, and every cart and shelf swept free of every last item, crumb, and mote of dust. Anna called the Phsatorae from the communication board. They connected her to Jao and she explained where she was and what she wanted.
“You want to what? But why? You would be better off keeping it and using it in trade. The exchange only gives you credit for what you sell. And nothing exists for you to buy.”
“I know, Jao. But there will be if you get someone down here to let me sign this stuff in. Des and I could never use all of this. I’m not letting this stuff go to waste. It needs to go to those who need it. Is someone available to come down here? I think it will take the rest of the warm to do this, one cart load at a time.” Anna shuffled from one foot to the other. She felt foolish standing alone in the eerily-silent, hollow-shelled warehouse, especially since so much work waited for her to finish it.
“You could always pack it in, Pack-runner Phwolfe.” The Phsatorae teased. “I’ll ask for volunteers and send them down immediately.”
Within ten minutes, six eager beavers stood at the commodities counter. Anna signed the tally for the first cartful and then asked. “Can a couple of you come with me? If we used more carts the transfer would go quicker.”
“You have more to list?” Tista asked.
Anna nodded. “A lot more. Did the Phsatorae warn you that this might take a couple of hours?”
He turned to his friends. “I’m going to go help her. I’ll grab a cart from here. He went and got one and then followed Anna down to East 1.
“Tista, do you have any idea how long roasted or fried savti stays good? I plan on keeping it in a cooler.” Des’s lessons hadn’t taught her about food longevity.
“Fried savti stays good for nine to twelve days. Roasted savti keeps for seventeen to twenty days. Why?”
“I don’t want it to go bad, so I need to figure out how much to keep. I like the roasted more than the fried. How long does catronu oil stay fresh for?”
“When sealed, catronu oil lasts for a good fifteen annuals or more. You need not store it in a cooler. It keeps best at room temperature. It tastes better that way.” Tista’s lips cracked open into a wide smile.
“What about unripe greal when in a cooler?”
“You have unripe greal?” Tista’s smile grew even wider when she nodded. “In a cooler, it stays unripe for about twenty days. Then, it ripens in a couple of days.”
“Thank you Tista. Here we are. I want to keep twenty pounds of the fried savti.” Anna pushed twenty pounds aside. “Let’s load the rest onto the carts.”
Tista swallowed hard. “All of this to the exchange?”
“Yep, I’ll keep thirty pounds of the roasted savti. That leaves a hundred and ninety-six to go to commodities. Let me put my portion in the cooler.” When Anna came back, Tista seemed to snap out of his shock. He helped load the carts, smiling the whole time. “After this, we need to start on the unripe greal.”
“How much of it do you have?” Tista asked.
Anna waved a hand at the center station. “Ah… if I remember right about eleven hundred pounds. I plan to keep about fifty pounds to use in trades.”
Tista choked on air, sputtered, and then blinked profusely. Why did Golsidans blink so much when they got nervous?
While Anna signed in the two cartful’s, Tista pulled two of the other fellows aside and carried out a whispered conversation. This time, she left the exchange with three helpers following her. She wondered how long it’d take for the word to spread to the rest of the ship.
When they returned, a line of people stood waiting. Tista looked at it, shook his head, and shouted. “We bring unripe greal to sign in. Let us ahead and you can purchase it.” The people parted like the red sea for Moses and then they closed behind them like blood hounds on the scent.
Anna saw a familiar face. “Cima, you come to buy?”
She shook her head and leaned close to Anna. “I come to sign on to the purchase list for denua and oesla dye. I saw you have them.” She smiled. “How long before they are finished?’ She whispered in an excited voice.
Anna leaned even closer. “They are in the boiling pots now.” She thought for a second. The dye bottles only held three ounces each. “I offer a witness fee to you and Jatlo. When the dye gets finished, if you witness verification, you each receive two bottles of denua and one bottle of oesla. You both worked on the greal dye so you’ll each get a portion of that later. I’ll do the first straining on the greal dye, before this warm ends. Do you accept my offer?”
Cima threw her arms around Anna’s neck. “I accept. Now, I can buy yarn made from the soft fiber of the denua you harvested.”
Anna nodded “There’s plenty of soft denua right now. The tough fiber is disappearing quickly though.”
Cima smiled. “Everything will sell very fast. It has been a long time since we could buy. We all own many, many credits.” Everyone around Cima nodded.
Each time they came back, Tista announced that they brought commodities to list. The people let them through, glancing into the carts, and smiling widely.
When they finished, Anna thanked Tista and his friends. They waved as Anna pushed her empty cart away. She strained the greal dye and set it back on to boil again. Then, she went home and collapsed into bed.
Thankfully, Des woke her up when he came in, because she had forgotten to set the alarm. She reached up and set it as she watched Des stock the cooler. He climbed into bed carrying korftu, unripe greal, and lysordi tea. He set it all on the bedside table, and pulled Anna into a hard enthusiastic hug.
“The unripe greal is what the infirm needed. Marfi experienced no pain when she woke late this warm. She came straight to medical central and told us. She kept waking up craving unripe greal and kept eating it. She ate over three pounds of it already. She still craves it and continues to eat it. Her pain went away totally. We plan to work in shifts distributing the greal. We already delivered four pounds to everyone on the invalid and restricted list and a pound to everyone else. It will take days to divide it all up. But, it is what the people needed.” Des hugged her again and his arms squeezed her tight against him as his ribs shook.
Anna caressed him mind to mind with her love for him. He sighed and leaned back against the headboard. “Now you eat. You need to stay strong.” He ordered, then proceeded to force feed her half a pound of unripe greal and a quarter of a pound of korftu.
The korftu tasted okay. But that greal, how could anyone crave it? Her lips and gums stung from its bitter flavor. It put green granny smith apples to shame. Anna protested vigorously, trying to refuse the horrible stuff.
She got an evil glare, an “I am medic and I order it” reply, and the rest of the greal stuffed down her throat. Finally, Des finished torturing her. He took one long look at her, and broke out laughing. “You will like it better when you wake up.” He promised. He slid Anna down into the bed, curled up beside her, and they both fell asleep.
/> Luckily, he was right, sort of. Anna woke up, before the alarm clock went off feeling great. She still disliked greal and experienced no cravings for it. But, she might try another piece later. Hopefully, it tasted more palatable in small portions.
Anna ran to Des’s cabin for a shower. Then she went to Northwest 3 and pushed the first lysordi branches cart to East 1.The bark went into the supply processor and the pulp went into the plastic processor at the central station. She needed to feed the branches in through a chipper that would make any homeowner cry in envy. It chopped, sliced, and diced the branches as you feed them in. They went from branches to salt granular sized cubes in a matter of seconds.
Anna ended up having enough branches to fill the plastic processors in East 1 and one and three quarters of one in East 2. Each plastic processor took two days to make two hundred and twenty liters of new plastic. The plastic got piped directly to the supply processors which utilized it to form anything you asked of it.
All of the dye pots stood waiting for their second straining. Anna carefully and fully rinsed the strain system between colors. When she finished that, she went to the supply processor and ordered another set of targets.
She searched information and got the measurements for the actual spacing of the nodes on those takosund taken thirty-nine annuals ago. She ordered the appropriate length ropes and glued them between the targets. Four live-sized mock-up takosund lay wrapped around the central station and stretched out into the garden when she got done. She nearly pissed herself. Even the small six point three meter looked scary. The big ones gave her the shakes. She sat down abruptly in the garden pathway.
She felt very glad that she harvested that unripe greal yesterday because after seeing these, she was going to be doubly, triply careful about going over the rail. Ignorance definitely counted as bliss. Unfortunately, her ignorance had just vanished in a blast of terror. She ordered up four dozen plastic coated boards for her mewu traps, finishing up the plastic in supply. However, right now, mewu seemed much closer to the size of critter she wanted to hunt.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 10