“Honor spots?”
“Haven’t you figured out the seating arrangements?”
“No, I didn’t know I needed to. I haven’t entered the hall yet. Because the work in the central stations, gardens, and packaging room kept me busy.”
“Would it be all right if I come down to the hall, show you the presentation room, and help you with the seating arrangements?”
“Please yes, thank you. When should I expect you?”
“In ten minutes, I will meet you at the packaging room.”
“Thank you, Elder Kantuia.” Seating arrangements, what next flowers? Anna groaned. She refused to tell anyone about that human wedding tradition. No way, was she going out into takosund territory to pick flowers.
Anna rearranged the top-level baskets. She pulled out the dyes, the gesar syrup, cloths, yarns, korftu nuts and gesar flour. Now, everything fit in the basket with extra room for the takosund. The special gift was that supposed to go in the basket or on the table? She needed to remember to ask about that too. She was holding Brema’s gift in her hands when Kantuia entered. He walked over and pointed to the gift. “What’s this?” He asked.
Anna set it on the table. “My special gift to Brema.”
“Is this a wolf like in your sending?”
Anna nodded. She turned the colored plastic sculpture. “See the injury on his front left leg, the blood on his paw. This represents Brema. Hurt, injured, bleeding, but still running for the good of the pack.”
Kantuia studied the wolf. “Wolves run while injured?”
“As predators, they sometimes get injured by their prey; elk, pronghorn, Whitetail deer, or moose. Fast running animals often five or ten times bigger than an individual wolf. The prey kicks with their feet and gouge with their antlers. Wolves often get cut, sliced open by the hooves of their prey.” Anna shot mind images to Kantuia as she spoke.
“Amazing!” He pointed at Dasie’s wolf. “And this one goes to whom?”
“That one goes to Dasie. The watching wolf, wolves often sun themselves on ledges or use them as lookout spots. Places where they keep a watch out for prey or for other predators.”
“Very interesting! I need to show you the presentation hall. Come this way, please.” He walked out.
Anna grabbed the basket holding the non-perishables and carried it out into the hall with her. “Is there another entrance to Heroes’ Hall? The central station room still holds a lot of heat, right now. I wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
“Yes, the main entrance lies one hall over and is where we usually greet people at the door. The hall holds numerous small rooms. The people disperse among the rooms, talking, gathering together, relaxing, and resting. At the meals, we all swing through central, pick up the platters and head to the eating hall. We return to central to get our individual portions, the takosund, leka, and mewu eggs, and go sit in the eating hall. We use no servers. After the meal, we all help clear the table and send the dishes through the wash system.” He talked as they walked down the hall.
“How is it that decades have passed since a feast or takosund kill and yet everyone knows what to do?”
Kantuia laughed. “We know because we are an old people. I am two hundred and four. The Phsatorae is ninety-three and Desvren is forty-five. Your rejuvenation puts you at about fifty Golsidan annuals. The medics told me that age-wise that equals about twenty for a human. We have more days in our annual and hours in our days than your people do. Even with longer chronological annuals though, we age much slower than your people do. We equal about half or a third the age of a human born at the exact same time.”
“Is that why a child’s raising clan often becomes a point of dispute in childbirth contracts?”
Kantuia nodded. “It takes thirty to forty annuals to raise a child at much expense. The clan needs to supply food, shelter, training, and Isadi Suits. In difficult times like our past two generations have faced, many clans refuse to raise children, because of the expense. Our father birthrates dropped by sixty-nine percent in the last two generations. Plus, our fathers now bear fewer children. The last generation’s fathers birthed two to six. This generation, seventeen percent of our males gave birth to one child when historically eighty-six percent would have borne ten to fourteen. Traditionally, many of our young people have colonized other planets, while the older generations stayed on the home-world. While the colonized worlds have managed to keep their populations from severely depleting, we would have already died out on Golria if our species wasn’t so long-lived. As it stands, we are an old people with a severely dwindled population. This ship received damage on the way to earth. We have worked for twenty-five annuals to repair it and still need five or six more to go before finishing it. Why, because we lack the necessary people. This is a clan generation ship built to carry and support thirty-five hundred to five thousand people. It now carries only three hundred and fifty-seven.”
“I failed to realize that your population had dropped so.”
“We dislike talking about it. The old like myself, find it unpleasant to think about all the things that no longer exist. While the young like the Phsatorae and Desvren happened to be born after the changes had already begun. I tell you this to help you understand. We desperately hope that you plan to mother many children. Your children will inherit the capability to endure temperatures that we can’t. Our males want this for their children. They want their children to experience the freedom that they never had. We need a way to free ourselves from our dependence on Isadi Suits or we will die out.” There seemed to be a horrible sadness about Kantuia.
“Desvren and I discussed some of this. We wish to wait until Wolfe is decided and until some food stores stand in reserve. We want our children to have enough food and arts to give them joy in life.”
“Has Desvren discussed fathering the children with you?” Kantuia gently asked as they stopped in front of the doors.
Anna nodded. “He said a way exists.”
“Yes. But I wonder if our males will volunteer for it.”
Anna smiled. “Des has already gotten three offers so far.”
“Really, truly volunteers!”
“Volunteers, the one I spoke to said he wished his child to have a better temperature tolerance and no need for an Isadi Suit. He sees that I possess these traits and wishes them for his child.”
“This is excellent news, Phwolfe.” Kantuia opened the door.
Heroes’ Hall proved to be just that, a hall full of heroes, rooms upon rooms with tapestries, sculptures, and paintings all depicting Golsidan heroes. Waterfalls, fountains, and streams wove their way through the hall, looking and sounding absolutely beautiful.
The presentation hall lay under a domed ceiling that held an ever-changing star view. Nebulas, galaxies, and globular clusters appeared on the ceiling, stayed a couple of minutes and then faded away, only to be replaced by another stunning panorama. Anna’s neck started to ache from staring at it. She pulled her gaze away. Darn it all, why did she have to work?
Kantuia saw her wistful expression and smiled. “In the Explorers hall, no better view than the stars exists. Now, the hunter needs to sit here and the top-level here. How many are on the top-level?”
“Four.”
“Put them right here.” He pointed.
Anna sat some of the non-perishables in front of each spot to mark them.
“How many are on the other levels?”
“Twenty-five on the cool shift level, twenty-two special volunteers, and three hundred and twelve volunteers.”
“Now, when the presentation starts you greet people at the door. Desvren will stand on one side of you, the Phsatorae on the other, and the Elders behind you. The Elders show the people to their seats. If you wish, I can work out the rest of the seating arrangements with the other Elders. You, as hunter, have already done more than your share.”
“I don’t know the appropriate way to sit three hundred and fifty-seven people. Please if you and the othe
r Elders feel up to doing this I’d greatly appreciate your help.”
“We will take care of it. You’ll find the platters you need for the top level in the closet on the other side of that waterfall.”
“Thank you. Kantuia, should the special gifts to the top-level be on the table, or in the honor baskets?”
“They go in the honor basket, wrapped in cloth if possible.”
“I can do that. Thank you again. May your blood stay strong.” Anna bowed and turned.
Anna finished the top-level gifts. She ran by their room. She dug through her boxes of books. Yes, jackpot Desvren had grabbed her embroidery too! She threw it in her pack and ran to East 1. She went back to work on her last gifts, making slow but steady progress on them.
Anna stopped at four fifty and ran back home. She wanted to avoid another feeding of greal. She rounded the last corner at full speed and gave a startled squeak. She literally cornered on the side of the wall instead of the floor. She’d seen it done in movies, but never tried it herself. Thank goodness, she managed to achieve it, probably due to the light gravity.
Anna came back down to the floor in an awkward, stumbling stop. She turned to face the Phsatorae and Elders who she had nearly run over.
The Phsatorae smiled. “I now see why you were so appreciated as a pack-runner Phwolfe. We wished to speak to you, if you have the time.”
Anna nodded. “Please enter our room. I don’t know if Des is home yet.”
Kantuia smiled. “So you were rushing to get home.”
“If I’m late, Des makes me eat unripe greal.”
The Phsatorae threw back his head and laughed. “I take it you dislike unripe greal.”
Anna nodded vigorously. She looked at the Phsatorae. “Do you know what Des dislikes?”
“No, what?”
“I hoped you knew and would tell me so I possessed a way to get him back.” Anna sighed. “Today, he is late and I have no way to get even.” Anna motioned them in.
“We came to inform you that the volunteers plan to begin bringing the takosund to the hall this cool on carts. Is the central station cooled down?”
“It should be fine by this cool. I finished in there early this warm. If they leave the packaged takosund in the hall, I can finish the honor gifts.”
“Would you like some help finishing the honor gifts?” Kantuia asked.
“Yes, I guess so. I mean I want them to be a surprise. But I also need the help because Des’s gift still requires some work to finish it.”
“I told no one and let no one read what I saw in the packaging room. Would you like me to help?” Kantuia offered.
“Yes, please.” Anna nodded at Kantuia.
“I will meet you at the packaging room at the beginning of this cool.” Kantuia said with a smile.
“Thank you, was there anything else?”
The Phsatorae cleared his throat. “Yes, we wanted to show you some figures on the information panel.” Jao walked over and started hitting keys. “Please look at this, Phwolfe. Remember when I told you, if your suggestions made an improvement in the harvests, you would get ten percent of the improvement.”
Anna nodded and walked over to look at the screen.
Jao pointed. “These numbers show the average harvest on warm shift when they worked on the second level. And these are from when they worked the previously un-harvested garden room. They showed an eighty-eight percent increase. Two days later, they decided to start using carts as the cool shift does and their numbers advanced by another forty-one percent. Altogether, making a total gain of one hundred and twenty-nine percent in three days, Wolfe will receive twelve point nine percent of the extra harvest.”
Kantuia spoke up. “We want to know if you have any more suggestions on the harvest.”
“I think I need to do checks on all your second levels. Run the rail shelves. There have got to be more safe ones like Northwest 3. When I find them, I will barricade the lower-level.”
“Why would you want to do this?” Jao asked.
“Because you need to be able to harvest over the rail. To do that you need safe second levels. I’d suggest that after the barricade is up. We call in a good electrician to map out and install a shutoff system for the electrical field with a secure closable box at the top of the ramp and another one in the garden room. That way using the carts on the second levels becomes possible. Shut off the field, push the cart up the ramp, and turn the field back on. Reverse it when you go in. I also want to set up some rope slides over the rail, preferably two or three of them on each safe second level.”
“What is a rope slide?” Jao asked.
“A rope tied at an angle higher on the rail side, lower on the second level side. We’d need to make sure to tie high enough to clear the rail by three or four feet. You put denua fiber in a bag at the end of the second level side to cushion landing. You clip your full nets on to the rope and they slide down onto second level.”
“On the second level side, you need someone to unclip the nets and put them into carts. The rope slide could be used as an emergency exit also. If you see takosund you put your clip on the rope, pull up your feet, and slide over the rail. You could even make a safe perimeter and eliminate the need for watchers.”
“How?” Kantuia asked.
“Takosund can only get at you by coming up a tree trunk or across intersecting limbs. If we cut off the intersecting limbs, we only need to design a barricade for the trees to prevent takosund from climbing them.”
“You get the people used to checking the barricades. Before they turn off the electrical field on the way to harvest, they look at the first level barricade and check it. Is it still intact and sturdy? It needs to be an affirmative to both those questions, before they go up to the second level.”
“Once you get on the rail shelf, you stop. You only cross after you visually check all of the tree barriers. When you go across, you check the parts of the barriers not visible from the shelf. I’d suggest only letting volunteers go over the rail. They agree to take turns pushing in the carts. The person unsnapping the nets gets two percent. They could keep harvesting near the ropes and use the carts for no charge. Everybody else pushes in their own. If you fix the carts up with boxes for the top, side panels for the bottom level and places to hang nets, carrying two or three times as much produce becomes possible.”
The Phsatorae nodded. “We would be able to have a steady supply of greal and korftu. Whenever we run low, we harvest over the rail.”
Anna shook her head. “Harvest as much as possible now, your processors only lose two to four percent of the natural value of what they store over an indefinite period. When it goes into storage cubes, you only lose five to seven percent. You harvest all of it while you can. That way if something goes wrong later, a stockpile exists to see your people through without cutting their rations, keeping them healthy and strong.”
Kantuia nodded. “These ideas make good sense, when can you start implementing them.”
Anna groaned. “I intend to start them after the feast. I need to harvest the rest of the leka too. I’m working with the cool shift until Sato comes back. I plan to start by checking the gardens they harvest.”
“Of course, you realize the day after the feast is a rest day.” The Phsatorae commented.
Anna sighed. “I’m very glad to hear that. I feel like I need to sleep for a whole day.”
Kantuia spoke. “I wanted to ask you one more thing.”
“Okay, shoot!”
“You said this warm that you intend to wait to have children until after some food exists in a stockpile and the Wolfe clan matter becomes resolved.” Anna nodded. “What if Wolfe fails to become a sub-clan? Will you still have children?”
Anna smiled as Des walked in. “Hi sweetheart, I made it on time. You showed up late, meaning I get to force feed you greal. To answer your question Kantuia, yes, on one condition. I’m marrying Des and will have a secure place in Satorae, no matter what. The condition is I want
my children to be raised by my clan, whether that clan is Wolfe or Satorae. Our children need to stay with us. I want and plan to share the joys of child raising with my co-parents. But my children won’t be raised out-clan. If my clan refuses to raise children, then I will have no children.”
Elder Cretoc gasped, he sputtered. “The expense of Isadi Suits and teaching children is huge.”
Anna shook her head. “First of all, my children won’t require Isadi suits unless they spacewalk or hunt on Isadiea. Second, anyone who wants to bear my child needs to agree to teach two of my children a trade. That’s the price, I demand.”
Jao raised his eyes, looked at her, and gave a slight nod. “Enough Elders, Phwolfe needs to sleep.” He began shooing the Elders out of the room.
Anna turned to Des. “You don’t mind?”
“I agree with you.” Des smiled. “I want to raise our children in our clan.”
“Will Sato or Dasie mind the teaching?”
“No. They want children very badly and want to be involved in the raising of them. I think Mapao and Liso will both like the idea too.”
“Geez, hon, we are starting to get quite a back order built up.”
Des shrugged. “It only takes you a month.”
Anna nodded and smiled. “But, I’ve only been here ten days and we have five months’ worth backed up.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” He looked shyly down for a second, and then with a big grin said. “Maybe we need to start getting caught up.”
“Des, we agreed food stockpiles and Wolfe clan need to be settled first. How can we have children when we don’t know where we’ll live or what we’ll eat?”
Des smiled. “We now possess enough food for two weeks of full rations of everything, just counting the fresh. The processors hold another three weeks’ worth. The harvest will increase with people coming off the infirm lists to join the harvesting crew. Furthermore, we will live on the ship for at least ten more annuals. We need five or six annuals to finish the repairs and over six to get to Golria. Whether we become Wolfe or stay Satorae, we’ll live here on the Ladreti Khwa.”
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 18