Anna put on her packs. She needed simple work. She saved five pounds of overripe gesar, the oesla tassels, and the kapedo rinds. Everything else she slid down the processor holes. East 2 was about half harvested now.
With about a human hour left, she accessed information and checked the commodities exchange page. Cima had been right only five hundred pounds of unripe greal remained. Everything else was gone even the denua fiber. Anna checked the order lists. These orders only lasted for a month. If no one filled them in that time, they automatically got withdrawn. Orders for everything from more roasted and fried savti, to a few hopefuls who asked for leka, mewu eggs, and broiled takosund scrolled across the screen. Anna looked at the savti orders again. She thought that the almost nine hundred pounds on the market would have filled the orders. But, then again, that got split up between three hundred and fifty-seven people on board.
Less than three pounds per person and those three pounds stayed good for nine to seventeen days depending on whether it happened to be fried or roasted. Fried and roasted savti equaled a Golsidan junk food. A very healthy junk food compared to what humans ate, but still it counted as their rather nice, inexpensive, and tasty junk food.
Plus, the Golsidans needed to gain weight. The quicker they gained it, the sooner she’d be released from kitchen duty. She definitely needed to make more fried and roasted savti. Anna went to dig savti in East 1 and put out the mewu bait. She got a nice bonus. She found first one, then another communal mewu egg nest. Why they put their nest so close to something they found inedible like savti tubers she didn’t know. But still it worked in her favor.
The eggs measured a little bigger than peas, about the size of blueberries. They shined with a gold-tinted, yellow color. The nests spread out deep and wide. The more dirt Anna pushed aside, the more eggs she found. Since the mewu were so overpopulated, she took them all.
Anna rinsed them off, weighed them, and packaged them in two ounce containers. They were a delicacy and fairly expensive. She ended up with three hundred and twenty six containers, almost one for every person on the ship. She needed to ask Des if the medics would want to do an emergency on them. She doubted it. They lacked many vitamins, but possessed a lot of fat. Then again, nothing from the Satorae share even made it to the exchange. It either got taken by the medics as a direct emergency or by the Phsatorae as a command emergency. What the Phsatorae took ended up being evenly divided amongst all, to prevent a few from buying more than their fair share.
Anna managed to fill all the fryers in East 1 with savti. Then, her time ran out. She grabbed those mind boggling mock-ups and ran down the hall with them dragging behind her. Luckily, she met up with no one which kept her from scaring them to death.
Cool shift took place at Northwest 2, today. Anna checked the electrical field, before she went into the garden room. She spread out the mock-ups. She weaved them amongst and around the bushes and plants. She wanted it as realistic as possible so she lined them up in a naturally random pattern preventing easy shots. She planned on running different circuits and paths as she took her shots to get used to shooting at all sorts of angles.
Sato entered in the middle of her first run. He waited until Anna stopped and then asked. “You spread out the targets?”
“Sort of, I made mock-ups. I glued the targets together with rope sections of the appropriate length between the nodes. I now possess realistically proportioned takosund to aim at.” Anna grimaced and pointed at the nearest one.
Sato walked over to it and swore. It happened to be the first time Anna ever heard a Golsidan swear. Sato sounded fairly creative as he cursed at the thirteen meter.
“The biggest one looks even scarier. If I feel insecure about the layout, I won’t go over the rail. Northwest 3 was safe with no branches in that whole section strong enough to let a large takosund across. Maybe a four to six meter could squeeze over, but nothing really huge. We could have held a four to six meter off long enough for everyone to get to safety, but not these fellows.” Anna pointed at the seventeen and twenty-one meter mock-ups. “I refuse to go over the rail and end up with these guys following me back.”
Sato nodded.
“Sato, how do you take out something like that if it comes at you on ground level? They raise their heads when they attack, making the nerve node shots impossible to take in a face to face confrontation.”
Sato swallowed hard. “I read the records and listened to the historical and traditional tales because I was too young to be part of the last hunt here on the Ladreti Khwa. Takosund attack what they see. You take out their eyes and move. They try to wrap, where they last saw you. You need to trick them to take them on the ground. Hunting from tree level always turns out to be the safer option.”
Anna nodded. “Take out the eyes and move. Tomorrow, I’ll make mock-ups of their heads and aim for the eyes as well.”
“I never would have thought of these. They seem almost too realistic even with just a single rope standing in for their spine. It shows the length of them, the spacing of the nodes. This will be a good practice. Often in the histories, the hunters miss one or more of the nodes. They sometimes leave behind takosund with a couple of working nodes.”
“Doesn’t that just mean they die slowly? If you hit the top node and braincase, they can no longer eat, right?”
“Yes, they die slowly. Or worse, other takosund kill and eat them. It just leaves an easy source of food for the big takosund to finish off.”
“Something to avoid doing whenever possible. Sato, I wondered why Golsidans never hunt with guns or lasers?”
“About four hundred annuals ago we made a trial of hunting with firearms. You need to understand that we Golsidans often take Cansifels on our planet-bound hunting parties. A Cansifel’s scales are strong enough and their reflexes quick enough to either totally avoid or deflect a stray knife or arrow. But, they find it impossible to avoid a bullet or laser fire by speed. If they get hit in a vulnerable scale area, they end up dead or severely injured. Plus, gun and laser fire generates a lot of collateral damage to the jungle. The types of metal used to make arrows and knifes causes no harm to plant life. But the metal that allows a bullet to fracture into lethal pieces happens to be poisonous to both plant and animal life. Plus, stray laser fire simply kills anything without heavy shielding, including fellow hunters. Both the trials of firearms and lasers failed because of safety concerns. Even if they managed to pass for operation on the planet we couldn’t use them. Stray fire could cause irreparable harm to vital ship functions.”
“I considered the not being usable on a spaceship, but still wondered about the absence of firearms in your culture. Thanks for explaining it to me. I appreciate all of the information and time that you give me.”
“I like spending time with you. Desvren is my best friend. I’d like you to consider me a friend also. Why do you wear your pack for practices?”
“Because if I ever meet up with these beasts unexpectedly, it will happen when I’m wearing the pack. I get used to moving, jumping and throwing with the pack on to prevent it from interfering when I need to fight. And by the way, I already consider you to be my friend.”
Sato’s eyes sparkled with golden flecks as he smiled widely. “Let’s hunt mock-ups.”
They hunted. They ran. They jumped. They threw steel. Neither one of them missed. But, often no shots lay open for them to hit. The length between the nodes prevented them. They found that leaping right over the takosund sometimes caused the bend of its body and the angle of the jump to negate a clear shot.
They stopped and conferred. Anna asked. “Sato, if you severe the spine what happens to the nerve node?”
Sato shook his head sadly. “Nothing, but it manages to immobilize them from where you sever the spine to the next nerve node down.”
Anna nodded. “Wouldn’t that be better than nothing? The small dead section would slow them down and stop them from wrapping with that part of their body.”
“Yes. We may hav
e to kill them piece by piece with the more protracted movement making it easier to hit a nerve node.”
“So, if no node shot lies open, take a spine shot. As high up the spine as possible to immobilize a big section of it, right?”
Sato smiled. “Yes, that sounds like the best plan, let’s try again.”
They ran. They jumped. They threw steel. They found shots every time. Not the ideal shots, but still shots. As they practiced, they improved. They learned which way to angle their jumps to get the highest spine shots. They learned how to land and bounce to the side to get a shot at the next node down.
They improvised. They tested theories. Finally, they ran out of time. They bundled up the remaining mock-ups and carried them out to forestall scaring anyone. Anna hid them in the back of the supply closet. She decided that rope was always handy to have. She coiled a couple of lengths and slid them on each side of her pack under the bungee cords and snaps to keep them from interfering with the snapping on of nets. At the last second, she decided to stuff one in the bottom of her belly pack. Better too many, than too few.
Everyone showed up, even Marfi. “It’s good to see you.” Anna gave her a hug and felt that Marfi’s pain had indeed disappeared.
“I am stronger today and I wish to work.” She smiled at Anna. “I want to get more greal.”
“If the area looks secure I plan to jump rail, but only if it’s safe. We’ve got enough greal for a week or so. If we need to, we can wait until we harvest Northwest 3 again which gives me a safe place to jump rail in.” Anna shrugged.
Marfi nodded. Anna felt pleased to see everybody who heard her nodding. They understood her reasoning.
Anna volunteered to be pack-runner again and got agreed too. They ended up with seven processors including Shalo, who decided it was worth his while to stay on processor seven.
Anna told him seven happened to be a lucky number and he laughed. “No, three is the lucky number.” It always came down to three or multiples of three with Golsidans, male-neuter-female their number for prosperity, luck, and fertility.
“We go.” Sato announced.
Anna ran out and around everyone, up the ramp, loped over to the border wall, and jumped up onto the rail shelf. She walked the whole section from one border wall to the other. She was shaking when she reached the other end. This was a very dangerous section.
Not just a dangerous garden to jump rail in, but to be in. The trees grew close to the rail, too close. Five limbs not only reached the rail, but crossed it. Real big limbs sized large and heavy enough for huge takosund to cross on.
Sign of takosund pervaded the area; bark rubbed smooth in some spots from powerful winding bodies, and deep scratches from trailing gripping arms. Two of the limbs that crossed the rail showed sign.
For all she knew, there could be takosund hiding here right now. Anna jumped off the rail, and ran to Sato. She motioned for him urgently. He ran and met her part way.
“There is a lot of takosund sign. Five big limbs cross the rail. Spread out far enough apart to make it impossible to watch them all. This is a very dangerous level, Chief Sato.” Anna’s shoulders shook as a wave of fear surged through her.
“We are supposed to pick in our ordered garden. We need to harvest. We can’t just ignore our job.” Sato sighed with frustration.
“I’ll let you harvest in one of my sections. I haven’t even opened the doors in East 3. But I know the electrical field works, so it is safe. You could harvest there.” Anna nearly begged.
“We need permission from the Phsatorae to switch gardens.” Sato closed his eyes for a second. “This level is dangerous enough to bother the Phsatorae?”
Anna nodded and touched Sato’s hand. She showed him what she’d seen on the rail. This level might already have Takosund on it. Her mind screamed.
Sato shuddered. “Your first run, you unload, on the way back out you touch Jatlo. You show him all you have seen. You tell him Crew Chief Sato wants him to call the Phsatorae and request permission to transfer to garden East 3. You tell him he needs to have permission by your second run or we evacuate without it.”
Anna nodded and turned. She hurried through the harvest. The earlier that she ran, the speedier their retreat could be. She wished she hadn’t enlarged her packs now. It seemed to take forever to fill them. Anna ran quicker than ever before. She screeched through the door into the processing room, sliding sideways. She unloaded quickly, grabbed Jatlo’s arm on the way out, and opened her mind to send to him.
Jatlo jumped with shock. “Do you see?” Anna asked verbally. He nodded. “Do you agree?” She asked desperately. He shuddered and nodded again. “I’ll come back as soon as possible. I plan to run as fast as I can go.” He shooed her out.
Anna reached second level screaming, hollering at the top of her lungs. It was said that takosund disliked noise. Anna made as much of it as possible. “Fulls, fulls, does anyone have fulls?” She yelled. She picked fast and furious, adrenaline allowing her fingers to fly. Finally the second run, this time she slid through the door and bounced off the center station as she cornered.
Her eyes searched for Jatlo’s. He nodded and said. “Yes, that is a good idea.”
Anna bent over and shook her pack empty. She dumped her nets and pockets in the middle of the floor. “Jatlo, please explain to the others. I run.”
Anna sprinted as fast as possible. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough. She came up onto second level howling. “Sato, Chief Sato, I carry a message from the Phsatorae.”
Everyone turned and stared at her as she trotted through the bushes. Then, she saw Sato kneeling over a groaning Brema. Anna saw movement to the right, a low movement.
Anna screamed. “Sato behind you!”
The takosund was too close. Sato needed help. In her mind, Anna heard a wolf call distant and deep. A friend was cornered. The tomahawks seemed to jump into her hands. Anna growled as she ran. This Wolfe possessed big teeth.
Sato whirled and managed to get off two shots. The takosund’s head loomed over him and weaved from side to side. He took out both of its eyes. But he refused to leave Brema unguarded. He bellowed. “Evacuate to the garden room!” The takosund hit him high in the chest and went into a twisting wrap. Sato stabbed his knife into the braincase to keep it from biting him. But, it had him totally wrapped and helpless within seconds.
In Anna’s mind, a wolf howled in rage. It bared its teeth, its ruff standing on edge, and its claws dug into the dirt as she ran. Anna angled her attack. When she leapt, the wolf sprang with her. Her first tomahawk took the open shot to the top nerve node. At least, Sato would be able to breath now. Her second tomahawk severed the spine between the second and third nodes. Anna pulled two knifes as she landed, bounced back, and hit the second and third nodes.
Dasie saved her. “To your left!” He screamed both verbally and mentally.
Anna leapt to the right, twisted in mid-air, and threw steel. She hit the eyes. The second she landed a tail tried to wrap her. She didn’t know which takosund it belonged to. But, she left her commando knife in its spine.
Anna went to the air again. She threw whenever she got a shot, spine or node. She kept moving, jumping, running, leaping, bouncing. Finally, she hit the last node. The two takosund lay bleeding and twitching, dead.
Anna ran to Sato. He gasped for air, his mouth gaping wide. She touched him and pulled away before his pain overwhelmed her. The takosund had cracked all of his ribs and he was broadcasting pain and fear.
“I’m sorry, friend.” He went unconscious. “Dasie help me get this thing off Sato and Brema.” Together they freed Sato and dragged Brema out from under the takosund. “Brema, can you run?” Anna asked.
Brema struggled to his feet and nodded. His left hand dripped a steady stream of blood. Anna took off her pack, pulled off her t-shirt, and cut it in half. She wrapped half of it tightly around Brema’s hand, staunching the blood flow. Her mind touched his. Go as fast as possible and get someone to call for the medic
s. Tell the crew we need ten to twelve volunteers to carry Sato in. He’ll live, if he gets help. We need to get him to safety. Run fast, friend. May your blood stay strong. Brema took off at full speed.
Anna turned to Dasie and reached for his mind. Help me make a stretcher. She mentally showed him what she meant. They cut some staff sized limbs with their machetes. They weaved them together with all her nets and one rope. Dasie helped her roll Sato gently and slowly onto his side, and push the stretcher under him. They carefully rolled him back down and strapped him onto the stretcher with another rope.
Anna touched Dasie’s mind again. She handed him her remote for the door to the process room. Go to the process room; get someone on the electrical field. When you signal by opening the door and yelling, they turn off the field. The stretcher spans too long of an area, carrying it across will get us electrocuted. When the stretcher reaches the other side you open the door again, and they turn the field back on. She handed him two of her knifes. “Go, run fast.” He ran.
Anna guarded Sato. She put her packs back on, pulled her knifes from the takosund, and wiped the blood off them with the remains of her t-shirt. Holy crap! Those takosunds were big! The mock-ups had shown the length of them, but not the girth. At its top node, the biggest one encompassed too large a space for her to wrap her arms around. How was she going to get them to the processing room? She refused to leave them here for the other takosunds to eat. No way! Anna picked up the big one’s tail and pulled as hard as possible. It moved about four inches. Keeping a grip on it felt like the hardest part. Anna pulled her last rope out of her belly pack. After some thought, she tied it around the takosund at the fourth node, wrapping it around the gripping arms to keep it from slipping. She laid the rope over her shoulder, and pulled. She dragged the takosund a couple of feet, before her hands slipped on the rope. She took off her backpack and tied the rope around the frame. She looped the rope around the shoulder straps to reinforce them. She just got her pack back on when the volunteers ran up onto second level, twelve of them screaming at the top of their lungs.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 11