“Can we postpone the feast?”
“Yes, for a couple of days.”
“This can be done, if the feast gets scheduled for six days from now.”
“What must we do? The feast is essential for the morale of the people.” The Phsatorae said.
“It will take a lot of cooperation between Satorae and Wolfe.”
Gurlesc stood up to his full height. “We will cooperate. The traditional feast must take place.”
“All right, Phsatorae, I propose that first we put aside the verification and witnessing for the feast preparations. Everything I verify gets split fifty- fifty with Satorae. So if for the next six days it all goes directly to the feast. The food will end up being half Wolfe and half Satorae. Does that proposal sound acceptable?”
“Yes.”
“Now, I need to ask a couple of questions. Are you sending the harvesting crews back on to the second levels?”
“No!” Elder Kolel exclaimed. “We plan to do as you proposed and harvest only the garden rooms with functional electrical fields.”
Anna nodded. “Where is the feast traditionally held?”
“In one of the great halls, North, South, West 4, or East 4 which resides in your ownership for a month.” The Phsatorae answered.
“Is East 4 great hall ready for a feast?”
“Any Heroes Hall we choose needs to be cleaned. They each possess a dozen center stations, supply closets, and coolers.” Said Gurlesc.
“I propose that we use East 4, simply because as the nearest to the Wolfe sections holding my gardens, it saves me the time and energy spent hauling stuff across the breadth of the ship.”
“That sounds acceptable and makes good sense.” Said Kolel. “We agree to that.”
Anna took a deep breath. “I propose that we make a trade of sorts. I provide the gardens East 4 through 8. You provide the labor of the cool crew. If I use them in those gardens to harvest and prepare, not process the food, I’d only need to take those carts to the feast hall and process them. I know heat exposure poorly affects your people therefore I won’t ask them to process on a central station. But simply doing the preparation; scrubbing the savti, peeling and cutting the gesar, harvesting the catronu and oesla, and loading it onto the carts leaves me free to roast and fry the savti, press the catronu, make gesar flour and syrup, and put the fresh oesla in the cooler.”
The Phsatorae and Elders pulled into a circle. They didn’t need to talk. They minded each other. It only took a couple of minutes. “You may use the cool crew for five days in gardens East 4 through 8. But their safety and welfare becomes your responsibility.” The Phsatorae said gravely.
Anna nodded. “I appreciate your cooperation and I will keep them safe. I also ask permission to make some runs on Northwest 3 second level.” Des stiffened beside her.
“Why do you ask this?” Gurlesc asked.
“A feast needs korftu nuts. Northwest 3 second level is safe to a fast runner. The wide spread limbs placed well back from the rail keep takosund from getting onto the second level. I plan to put a barrier over the first level entrance, making it possible to stop on the walkway and visually inspect it. If it remains undamaged, I’d know that at that time no takosund reside on the second level because the barrier prevented them from going up the ramp.”
Gurlesc spoke up once more. “It sounds as if you intend to make Northwest 3 a secure and safe second level. But, I doubt if you can ever make going over the rail safe.”
“In time, I hope to by hunting the takosund down to less than five meter specimens and an acceptable population. For now though, I ask only for volunteers from the cool crew with sharp eyes to keep watch while I harvest. Having watchers makes it safe for me to harvest, if anything gets spotted I simply jump back to the safety of the second level.”
They grouped together again. This took even less time before the Phsatorae announced. “If you use only volunteers, harvesting over the rail at Northwest 3 is acceptable.”
“Okay, it sounds like I need to get to work and make this a feast to be remembered. Could you please contact the uninjured cool crew members and ask them to meet me at East 4 at nine o’clock this cool?”
“I will.” The Phsatorae promised.
“But what about the honor gifts?” Gurlesc pleaded. The Phsatorae groaned.
Anna took a deep breath. “Elder, could you please explain the honor gifts to me?”
“Customarily, they typically take the form of items like cloth, dyes, trade items, and in the case of the hunter a made gift.”
“How many of them do we need and to who are they gifted?”
“You with advice from others more experienced than yourself, make the decisions about the gifts because the feast is held in honor of the hunter and the volunteers. The hunter makes a list of those deemed worthy and then the Phsatorae and the hunter agree on acceptable gifts. The clan who benefits from the hunt supplies them and hands them out at the end of feast day.”
“I propose you allow me the same things as we agreed to for the feast. You allow Wolfe to bypass the verification and witnessing for these gifts. I’ll have the cool crew help prepare what I need to make dyes. We’ll harvest as much denua as possible and utilize the supply processors to turn out cloth and yarns and package the extra in food trade items left over after the feast gets prepared for gifts. Is that acceptable?” The Elders nodded.
“Phsatorae, I’m going to need to meet with you once the processors finish with the takosund. I want us to go over the reports and lists of everyone, who volunteered for the processing. Who volunteered the most time? Who processed the most? Who took on the messiest, most disagreeable jobs? Who was the most experienced takosund processor? We need to go over all of that and decide on acceptable gifts. Also, we need to figure out if we possess enough time to get the gifts ready.”
“I’ll gather the needed reports into one file and meet with you here in the hot; the day after the processing gets finished.” The Phsatorae smiled and bowed.
“Thank you. I don’t mean to be abrupt or rude. But only five days remain to prepare for a feast, so I need to get up, get dressed, and go to East 2. It sounds like we’ll need the dyes I started there so I want to go strain them and set them to re-boil.”
“They will be appreciated.” Jao bowed, turned, and shooed the Elders out closing the door behind him.
Anna turned to Liso and Tava who still sat on the bed, because they hadn’t dared to interrupt the discussion by leaving. “Liso, Tava could you pass the word to the healers for me? I want all of the invalids and restricted to attend the feast. They need the food the most. Please, somehow get them all to volunteer, doing the easiest jobs for the least amount of time acceptable. Get them there, somehow. I don’t know if it’s customary or not, but I plan on sending the volunteers home with broiled takosund. If the Phsatorae disagrees, I’ll take it out of the Wolfe portion. The infirm and restricted need that takosund more than anyone else. The feast presents the quickest way to get it to them.”
Tava and Liso nodded. “We’ll talk with Creana and find a way to get them all to volunteer.”
Anna nodded. “Thank you, Liso. Thank you, Tava.” They got up and rushed out. She turned to Des. “What’s wrong? Something still bothers you.” She got up to get dressed.
Des watched her. “I dislike you going over the rail. I know it is necessary. But after seeing those takosund, I detest the idea. When you go to Northwest 3, I go with you. I intend to watch with very sharp eyes.”
Anna climbed back onto the bed and kissed him. “Thank you, love.”
Des smiled and whispered. “I mean to love you this hot. We need to make time for us. This hot, I plan on taking a lot of time.” He smirked.
“I want to do some taking of my own, love.” Anna kissed him again and then inched away. “This hot or else I’m going to tie you down and have my way with you.”
“I like the sound of that plan. Use my belt that lies right there on the middle shelf.” Des smiled w
idely as he pointed.
Anna threw a pillow at him. “I’ll catch up with you this hot.” She promised. “There’s so much to do.”
“Yes, but we will soon have more strong people. The greal already made a big difference. The takosund will help even more.”
“Des, would mewu eggs help?”
“Mewu eggs, I love mewu eggs. They do possess a high fat content to put weight back on the real thin. But takosund and greal will help put weight back on them too.”
Anna nodded. “Catch you later sweetheart.” She blew Des a kiss and trotted out. She hit the corridors at a run. She ran to East 2 and carefully put the dyes through the strainer. The denua red looked so deep and rich, and it still needed one more boil. After she rinsed the strainers, she piped in the oesla. Anna usually disliked yellow. But, the golden hue in this dye made it beautiful. It looked like melted gold mixed with a brilliant sunrise. After straining the dyes in East 1 and 3, she packaged the fried savti. She put it on a cart and rolled it to East 4’s Heroes Hall.
The huge center processing room echoed with her footfalls. Anna trotted over and accessed information. First things first, she queried the system. Is East 4 Heroes hall functional? Yes. Could an honor feast be held here in six days? Yes, but the hall needed to be cleaned and the center coolers idled empty so the food needed to be stocked.
Anna sighed. Okay, she had expected that. Could an estimate be given for the amounts of food needed? Yes, but data needed to be entered for the estimates to be accurate.
Anna proceeded to answer a lot of questions about the number of guests and those honored. When it started asking portion sizes for warm and mid-warm meals, hot snack sizes, and cool main meal portion sizes, Anna knew she needed help. She called Healer central.
“May I help you? Is this an emergency?”
“No emergency, just an inquiry. This is Phwolfe and I need some information on the best portion sizes to set up for the honor feast. I don’t want to underfeed the people or serve portions large enough to make them ill.”
“Please hold Phwolfe, I’ll get someone to help you.”
He must have run, because his breathing sounded loud on the line. “Phwolfe, this is Fienu, Sato’s tai’twain. I can help you. For the first warm meal you want three quarter sized portions, for the mid-warm you want…” He went through the whole list with Anna. He even answered the queries on dietary fiber, carbohydrate, protein, and natural sugar percentages of each meal.
“Thank you Fienu, please give my regards to Sato. You both plan to come to the feast, don’t you?”
“Yes, Sato would crawl there if necessary. But he’ll be well enough to walk by then. Do you think you have enough time to prepare?”
Anna sighed and then took a deep breath. “I intend to give it my best shot. The cool crew has been assigned to help harvest for the feast, making it possible, I hope.”
“Both Sato and I heard your call Phwolfe. But, he was too injured to move and I couldn’t leave him.”
“Of course, I understand and agree. You needed to stay with Sato. Tell him I’m sorry, but I probably won’t get to see him until the feast. I’m going to be very busy. May your blood stay strong.”
Fienu replied with feeling. “May your blood never weaken, pack-runner Phwolfe.”
Anna rang off and looked at the compiled list of needed food. This looked difficult. She needed a colossal amount of savti for both the feast and to be used as a trade item in honor gifts.
Anna hit East 1 at a run. She thought about pushing a cart right into the garden room. But her guts clenched at the thought. A voice in her head told her not to use the carts in the garden. She tried to figure out why she wasn’t supposed to and came up with no clear answer.
Anna shook her head in frustration and went over to the communication board. She called up Healer central and asked to speak to Des. Des came to the phone even faster than Fienu had. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just needed to ask you a question.”
Des’s sighed over the line. “Okay, I will try to answer it.”
“Why do I feel like I’m not supposed to use the carts in the gardens?”
“You feel that way because your agri-farm lessons taught you to avoid damaging the ground vines. We always use either pack-runners or Cansifels to carry produce, because the ground vines seldom flourish. If the ground gets packed down too hard by rolling wheels or a constant pathway, it stops the vines from growing there. On Golria, open clearings where ground vines grow appear very rarely. The jungle trees always reseed the clearings crowding the ground vines out. We need to treat the vines with care or they will die out completely.”
“But Des, the trees can’t crowd the vines out of the garden rooms, first, or second levels. Plus, didn’t the garden first get started by planting it with cuttings?”
Des sounded hesitant. “Yes, they did. The shallow soil depth does prevent trees from developing a root system in the garden rooms, first, or second level. The overabundance of mewu keeps the soil well tilled to keep it from becoming packed down too hard. But the carts can’t be used on Golria. Only denua, catronu, and kapedo ground vines got planted on the Ladreti Khwa. Dozens of rarer flowering vines growing on Golria get used to make perfumes, soaps, and rare spices. They are too valuable to risk damaging.”
“I can understand that. Do I need to get anyone’s permission to use the carts in the garden rooms?”
“I think you hold the right to choose for yourself about the garden rooms you own. We, Golsidans, are almost rigid in how we do things within our trades, because we have been passing on knowledge through trance lessons for over a millennia, which means that everyone has learned the EXACT same things for generations. You will find it much easir to be innovative and try NEW things than we will. Always talk to us about your reasoning for wishing to try something, and be willing to have patience with our timidness, and we can learn and do new things together. I recommend you talk to the Phsatorae and explain why you want to use the carts.”
“Thanks Des, I’ll call him.”
“Don’t tire yourself out, remember our plans for this hot.”
Anna smiled. It felt good to be young again. “Catch you later, love.”
“Trust me. You won’t have to catch me because I’m not running away.” He rang off with a laugh.
Anna called the bridge and spoke to the Phsatorae. She explained that she thought using the carts would save a lot of labor, increase the harvest, and if used properly cause minimal damage to the ground vines.
“While not traditional, we planted none of the rarer vines on the Ladreti Khwa so feel free to do whatever you wish in your gardens. Thank you for informing me of your intentions. I’ll talk with the Elders and recommend the use of carts being allowed in the Satorae garden rooms, on first and second levels. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. This could greatly increase the harvest. If approved, Wolfe will get credited with ten percent of the increase in harvest. May your blood stay strong.”
“May yours never weaken.” Anna replied as the Phsatorae rang off. After some deep thought, she decided not to use the carts in East 1. She wanted to avoid damaging them; only scrubbing ridded savti of its pervasive acidic skin. She dug with a passion, filling all of the nets and bags from the supply closet. She emptied them on to the central station, some beside each sink, and then she rinsed the nets and bags to rid them of any lingering acid.
She did push the carts into East 2. After she harvested two cartful’s, she found that the denua blocked the cart from going further. Well, they needed denua for cloth, yarn, and the barrier. She filled one cart with denua and then fed it into the supply processor. She pulled out the boards, she’d had made for the mewu traps. She ordered up some boxes, then went back and hacked more denua. She used the boxes for the denua, stacking them beside the supply processor. Twenty-six full clothes hamper-sized boxes lined the processing room walls and paths weaved throughout the garden, when she went back to harvesting strictly food. She
lined the full carts up, two beside each processing station. She borrowed the carts from East 3 and ran up to East 8 and got the ones from there too. When all the carts were filled up, she started packing the nets and bags with savti.
Anna found two more communal mewu egg nests. She washed them, put them in trays, and pushed them down to East 4 Heroes’ Hall. She put them in the little individual serving dishes, covered them, and put them in the cooler. With only thirty minutes left in the warm, she ran back to East 2 and dug savti enthusiastically. At four fifty, she stopped and ran to Des’s cabin for a shower. She didn’t want to be late for her plans this hot.
Anna beat Des home. She called up their lunch and spent the time waiting by accessing information. She wanted to get some leka for the feast. A Maleka hive existed about a hundred meters out from Northwest 3 which happened to be a long way into takosund territory if you needed to climb limb to limb, especially with no watchers. Takosund could be hiding in the trees. What if you came to a spot with no limbs? Plus, how would you get to the Maleka hive? Set in a small clearing the hives hung suspended fifteen to twenty meters above ground level.
Wait a second, what did they hang from? Anna queried information and nearly yodeled for joy. The hives lowered from and connected to a rail system. The rail system placement allowed for the removal of overgrown tree growth and also shifting of the hives if another section needed them. Such a transfer required movement by hand though, not remote.
How was the rail system accessed and traversed? Anna queried. An electronic tour guided her up ramps and ladders, and through narrow rooms, all of them placed in Environmental Control. She checked the measurements. She could fit through them with a full pack.
Des came in through the door and Anna exclaimed. “Des look what I found; I might be able to...”
Des rushed over and put his fingers on Anna’s lips. “Later, love.” He nuzzled the side of her neck.
“Yeah, hmm...” Anna agreed.
Much later, Anna lay half asleep curled up against Des when he asked. “What did you want to show me?”
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 13