Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1)

by Kimberly McLaughlin

  Anna felt exhausted. She set the food on the bedside table, killed the lights, curled up in her blankets, and sank into sleep.

  Des woke Anna up with a long sweet kiss. His mind touching hers pulsed with an urgent passion. The kiss, everything turned hot. It melded into a wild and frenzied loving, then it morphed sweetly into lingering kisses, long trailing caresses, a gentle sliding entry followed by long, so slow thrusts.

  Anna surfaced out of a half slumber, when the wet nuzzling of lips pushed her up and into passion; a deep, dark, languorous passion, all sighs and groans, and whispered promises. When hunger made her sit up and eat, Des snatched the gesar syrup from her and put it to delightfully sinful use. Sticky sweet, bodies slipping, sliding, meeting and retreating, separating and joining, a dance that swayed between elegance and primeval lust.

  Des’s mind shouted out joyous and exuberant, “A child, a child!” Finally, Anna slipped into blissful, undisturbed sleep.

  Anna woke up tired, sticky and sore, curled up against a snoring Des, a new and hopefully, short-lived behavior for him. She touched his mind and found him very happily, exhausted. What happened last night? She queried his mind. We made a child. His mind answered happily.

  How do you know?

  I felt it there. Something in you, that didn’t exist before; something good, something alive, a child. Des’s mind sounded joyous.

  Anna kissed Des’s cheek. I need to go take a shower and go to work.

  I must sleep, his mind replied. Anna laughed, got up, and started the day.

  By the time Anna showered and got going, it was an hour into the warm. She walked down the hall yawning. She would definitely sleep well at nap time today. She walked into Northwest 3 processing room expecting the worst and found it had vastly improved. A full crew sat running the processors and a counter here and there lay bare.

  Jatlo surprised Anna. “Are you looking for unripe greal? We have plenty.”

  Anna laughed and groaned. “No greal please, I’m not interested in any greal. Are these more of the invalids?”

  “Yes, Medical central wanted me to pass on a message. Thank you. They said this is only possible every other day, because once all the invalids clean this up, none will remain to work for cool shift tonight.”

  “Okay. We will do a rail run every other day. Is there anything else?”

  Jatlo nodded. “As trade chief, I need to hire an assistant.”

  “All right, do you have anyone in mind?”

  “Shalo, he is excellent at numbers and has a quick mind.”

  Anna nodded. “That sounds good to me. Do you think he’ll agree to the one eighth percent pay rate?”

  “Yes, I think so. Also I need to tell you, a third of these korftu nuts will flood commodities. Plus, it won’t take a third to make up the feasts quota you wanted, maybe a fifth.”

  “Okay, then put the rest of this in the emergency supply back up. Get Shalo to make up some numbers. I want to know how much needs to be stockpiled to keep everybody on shipboard supplied for two months. You guys lost processor power, after that accident on the way here.”

  “But only for two days.” Jatlo said.

  “Yeah, but worse could happen. If we prepare for the worst possibility, we never need to worry about it. Have Shalo make up those two-month numbers for korftu nuts, leka, gesar syrup, gesar flour, and all the non-perishables. Once that amount is stored in the emergency backup, the rest goes down the processor holes.”

  Jatlo nodded. “This might fill that amount, for the korftu nuts. Would you continue to harvest them?”

  Anna nodded. “Yes, every other night, it’s better to have them in the processor, than on the jungle floor. It’s even worth it, once the processors are full. The storage cubes only lose five to seven percent of the nutritional value. The cubes can be stored indefinitely. They might be needed, when we get to Golria.”

  Jatlo nodded sadly. “The home world wasn’t doing well when we left. Only a quarter of the stockpiles remained, and worse yet, agri-farmer got placed as the lowest priority.”

  “Okay, hire Shalo. If you need to Wolfe, would even agree to two assistants at one eighth percent pay rate. Let’s try to hire and break them in one at a time though. Am I needed here?”

  Jatlo shook his head. “I have it under control.” He looked around and shrugged. “Or at least approaching control.”

  “Excellent, I’m going to harvest another maleka hive. Give me five more days and then set up verification for the leka at Heroes’ Hall. I might be pouring it into the processor after that.”

  “There is that much?” Jatlo asked surprised.

  Anna nodded. “The hives are literally overflowing. May your blood stay strong.” Jatlo waved as she walked out.

  Anna managed to harvest a hive and run in three loads of leka, yawning every other step. Finally, she called it quits, went home, and curled up next to Des. His mind now sounded just plain tired, but still joyous. He had stopped snoring, thank God. They both slept with smiles on their faces.

  The alarm woke up both Des and Anna. Desvren acted like a smiling fool, goofy, endearing, and totally funny to watch. He seemed distracted by everything and often stared at nothing.

  “Desvren, honey,” Anna hugged him. “Are you going to be like this for thirty-six months?” She teased.

  He laughed. “No, I am a little disoriented after the mind transfer. I am going to be a father. It is sinking in. I will adjust to it.” He smiled. “I am very happy.”

  “I can tell, sweetheart. It hasn’t sunk in for me yet. Humans usually don’t know they have conceived until five or six weeks along. Knowing in one night seems unreal.”

  Desvren hugged her. Sato and Fienu staggered out of the supply room as they set food on the table. Des turned back to the cooler and started pulling out more food. Anna ordered up more of the lysdori tea.

  While Desvren acted distracted, Sato was spaced out, making conversation impossible. Fienu kept nodding off, obviously overcome by exhaustion. After they finished eating, Des and Anna convinced them to go back to the supply room. “Go back to sleep!” Des ordered.” I need to go work my shift with the invalids.” Des groaned.

  “They should be easier to get along with now. I think every single one of them showed up to work down at Northwest 3.”

  “But only thirty-four got scheduled to work down there. “ Des said.

  “That was before yesterday’s harvest. We got so swamped, I called medical and asked them to send down all available invalids, to work in shifts. They were still working down there this warm.”

  “What did you do this time? Put engines on the carts?” Desvren teased.

  “No, but that is an interesting idea. I put up rope slides over the rail. I finished barricading the trees. The harvest went in safe, easy, and very fast.” Anna shrugged. “Jatlo chased me with unripe greal and threatened to make me eat it. You couldn’t see a counter spot anywhere in the processing room.”

  “The harvest was that good?”

  Anna nodded. “We had the invalids manning processing rooms 2 and 3. They got buried too.”

  “I must see this. Do you do it again this cool?”

  “No, every other night. Tomorrow night, you can come help. We’ll need all the help, we can get.” Anna smiled, waved, and headed out.

  Anna went to Northwest 3 and logged onto the design page. She wanted to be able to harvest the tienara, tomorrow night. Hanging upside down to do it, held no appeal for her. You could straddle a limb, lay belly down on it, reach under and cut the tienara cluster free. But they were huge. You couldn’t balance them on the limb. They were about twice the size of greal clusters. Anna could hold one hanging with one hand. To pull it up, she would need both hands. If only she could sit the clusters down somewhere, then she could stand up. What about a scaffold?

  Anna went about designing a scaffold platform that could be suspended between tree limbs. It started out as denua boards and quickly morphed from there. The finished design ended up a
s a huge net with a platform in the center supported by six ropes. The net got glued to its bottom and had four ropes at its corners.

  Anna ran out and got the needed measurements. She made the ropes over strength and length. She didn’t want them to break or to be too short. She wanted to be able to move it from one site to another. When she put in the order, she discovered that Wolfe didn’t have enough tough denua fiber, left to make it. She checked the Satorae stock and found it was down to four percent. What the heck? She understood that the cloth fibers would disappear quickly, but where was the wood and rope fiber going?

  Anna tracked it down to the maintenance department. She called Gresa. “Gresa, this is Phwolfe. I was just checking on the denua tough fibers in commodities. Do you know where it’s all going to?”

  “Filters, gloves, and aprons, we have been out of all three for a couple of decades. There isn’t a filter on this ship that isn’t ten annuals overdue to be changed. We have washed and re-washed them, but they need to be replaced. Plus, we are getting burns and cuts, because our protective gear has long since worn out.” Gresa explained.

  “All right, now I know. I’ll see what I can do about it. How much more do you need?”

  Gresa laughed. “It would take ten times more than what we have used so far, just to replace the filters. We would also like to put some filters in stock, so we can change them when they are supposed to be changed. What is Wolfe using all that tough denua fiber for?”

  “We’re putting up barricades around the trees to keep the takosund from climbing them. We’ve also put up a couple of ropes slides to bring in the harvest quicker. Is there anything else you guys desperately need, other than the denua fiber?”

  “First and second boil glue, the techs also need kapedo oil.”

  “I’ll see what we can do. I don’t think we can get you the kapedo oil. It all goes down the funnel.”

  “The techs are drawing from the tank that the funnels fill, so you are helping them by pouring it down the funnel.”

  “All right then, I’ll talk to the cool shift. We will try to hit the denua, hard and heavy. May your blood stay strong.” After talking to Gresa Anna headed straight to the supply processor and began feeding in the boxes full of denua. They had let it build up, thinking it was a low priority item.

  Jatlo arrived first. Anna waved him over. “Jatlo, I just got done talking with Gresa. The mechanics need the tough denua fiber. Gresa said all the filters in the ship are ten annuals overdue to be replaced. East 5 through East 8 haven’t had any paths cleared. Can you think of a trade to offer the crew? I would like to take some volunteers over there to clear paths, especially East 6 which is as safe as Northwest 3. The mechanics also need kapedo oil and glues.”

  “Do they need a lot of fiber?”

  “Gresa said they could use ten times the amount we have already put on to commodities. That’s just to replace the filters. Plus, there have been injuries because they need personal protection equipment like gloves and aprons.”

  “I didn’t realize it was near that bad. Would you be willing to part with say thirty-five percent of your share of the kapedo oil? That stuff is worth a lot of credits. If you sign over that portion of it to those who volunteer and let them bring in a kapedo for every cartload of denua, you would have plenty of volunteers. Offer another five percent of the kapedo to be split between those who feed the supply processors and you would have volunteers for those jobs too.”

  “Can I offer it to the crew tonight, if I get the Phsatorae’s permission?”

  “Yes, if he gives you permission.”

  Anna called the Phsatorae and explained the situation. “Why do you want them to work in East 6 especially?” He asked.

  “East 6 is safe like Northwest 3. No crossing limbs, no takosund sign on the trees. It could be barricaded like Northwest 3 and made safe to harvest over the rail. I ran the rail shelves from East 8 through East 2. East 6 is safe, along with East 2. East 3 and East 4 are very dangerous, 4 is worse than Northwest 2. East 8 and East 5 could be made safe, with a little work. When I have more time, I’ll run more rail shelves.”

  “This is a dangerous thing for you to do, isn’t it?”

  “Well, it’s no walk in the park. But as long as I don’t have blood on me and I run quickly, I think I’m pretty safe.”

  “I see it falls in the category of, “it needed to be done.”.” The Phsatorae chuckled.

  “Exactly, we need to know, where it’s safe to work. The only way to find out is to check. I’m the fastest runner on the ship at this point.”

  “Yes, you are. You have my permission to ask for volunteers, when you’re not harvesting over the rail.”

  “Thank you, Phsatorae.” Anna rang off, before he could change his mind. Every other night was a better offer than she’d expected. “Jatlo, he gave permission to recruit volunteers every other night. If I explain the situation, will you make the offer for Wolfe?”

  “Sure, that’s the trade chief’s job. Shalo accepted the assistant position.”

  “Excellent, I’m pleased to hear that. I’m glad you joined up, Jatlo. I’m horrible at this trading stuff.”

  Jatlo laughed. “You need practice. You are too busy harvesting, to get the practice. Here comes the crew.”

  Anna explained the situation and Jatlo made the offer. The whole crew decided to go. They decided to use the supply processors in the three processing rooms of East 6, East 5, and East 7. They would clear paths in East 6 garden room. If Anna got the first level barrier up, they would also clear paths on the second level.

  Anna stuck to harvesting the denua, bypassing everything else. She started a path straight across the garden to the electrical field. She hauled her carts to the farthest processing rooms, East 5 room 1 and East 7 room 3.

  Once Anna got a path across the garden room, she called Gresa and asked him to come install switches, when he had a chance. He said he’d be there in an hour. Anna had the first level barrier up, when he arrived.

  He was even faster putting in these switches than in Northwest 3 and he wasn’t quite so bossy. He said he would pick up his fee from Jatlo on the next warm and drop off the crossbow at the same time.

  Anna thanked him and started cutting a path across the second level. She ran to Northwest 3 and ordered the net, boards, and ropes for the tienara scaffold. She wanted it ready for tomorrow, after that she headed back to East 6. A dozen cart loads later, when both her processors were buried, she offered five pounds of unripe greal and five pounds of korftu nuts for every half-hour someone watched for her. She got four watchers set up and managed to get five barricades up before the shift finished. The processors wanted to stay till twelve. Dasie, Mapao, and Kesti volunteered to watch till twelve, allowing Anna to get up another three barriers and take the measurements needed for the next four.

  Anna sank into bed with a sigh and a moan. She didn’t think she moved all night. When she woke in the morning, Desvren lay curled up against her.

  Anna set out the mewu bait and traps. She bottled the second boil glue. She ran down the rest of the leka from the third hive, strained, and packaged it. She assembled the tienara scaffold and dragged it up to the second level. Next time, she’d know to assemble it on the second level. Last of all, she went and checked the traps. She dipped and processed one hundred and ninety-three mewu.

  Anna trotted to Desvren’s cabin, took a really hot shower and then ran home. She was asleep, before Des got there. Even though she hadn’t been late, he was waiting with greal when her alarm went off. Anna protested loudly and vehemently. It didn’t do her any good. She still had to swallow the stuff. Finally she told him, if he insisted on feeding it to her; he could cut it up and soak it in gesar syrup to counteract the bitter taste. It didn’t surprise her one bit, that he was doing just that when she headed out the door.

  Anna went to East 6 and harvested denua. She stuffed it down the supply processor with a good feeling. The processor hummed away making the tree barriers, as she
stuffed in the raw ingredients. It felt nice to see both the beginning and ending of the process. She carted the finished boards to the second level. Four barriers lay piled up there, when she left.

  Anna got to Northwest 3 at fifteen minutes of nine. Since Shalo and Jatlo were already there, she asked them to help her set up the scaffold. It took a lot of tugging and pushing. But they got it tied down in the perfect spot. They ran back down to the waiting crew.

  “All right crew and volunteers, have you thought of where you want to work tonight?” Anna asked.

  Brema spoke up first. “Mapao, Kesti, Dasie, and I come over the rail with you. We work two ropes, you work one. Tafka unsnaps for us. Heda, Loski, and Casko will be our carters. They will deliver to Northwest 3 processing room 2 and 3. Tamsi asked to be your un-snapper. Doru, Jati, and Toltu volunteered as your first carter crew. They deliver to Northwest 3 processing room 1 and Northwest 4 processing room 3. Your second carter crew is Poltu, Prema, and Dratli. They deliver to Northwest 2 processing rooms 1 and 2.”

  Pealo stepped forward. “I head the processor team in Northwest 2, room 1, Krea oversees Northwest 2, room 2, Jatlo runs Northwest 3, room 3, Shalo manages Northwest 3, room 2, Cima leads Northwest 3, room 1, and Tawai has Northwest 4, room 3.”

  Anna nodded. “You are an excellent crew, people, the absolute best. How many modified carts do we have? Is anyone harvesting second level?”

  Jatlo spoke this time. “There are thirteen modified carts. No one works second level tonight. Even two percent of over the rail is better than a normal harvest.”

  “Good. I’ll take six of those carts for my two crews. You guys divide up the other seven carts. Processors while you’re waiting for your first loads go through the supply closets and pull out all the usable marked bags and nets. Each of you, over the rail harvester’s sign in four or five different marked bags. Processors get those bags sorted, and to the right set of carters as you process them. I want each processor, to order up eight boxes, so you’ll have plenty to trade off with the carters. Okay people, let’s sign in and go to work.”