Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1)

by Kimberly McLaughlin

  “This is Dramou. How may I help you?”

  “Hi Dramou, this is Phwolfe. I wanted to ask a couple of questions and possibly make a trade offer.”

  “Ask the questions. I will answer what I can.” Elder Dramou said.

  “Is it difficult to change the filters in the garden room processors?”

  “A trained mechanic can do a garden processor in about ten minutes.”

  “The processors have been jamming up on korftu, unless it is shelled and feed in separately. Could this be a filter problem?”

  “Most likely, the filters are self-washed. When filters get old, the self-washing isn’t enough to clean them. New filters rinse off easy, so the tough shell fibers would be rinsed off and sent where they belong, preventing the possibility of a jam up.”

  “How much denua fiber is needed to make the replacement filters for a processor?”

  “To replace all the filters about three hundred grams of the tough fiber is needed.”

  “That’s it!”

  “Yes, that is it.” Dramou chuckled.

  “There are eight food processors and one supply processor in each garden processing room. Wolfe offers a labor trade to all mechanics. For every processing room with all filters replaced, Wolfe will trade six ounces of leka. The necessary filters can be ordered on the room supply processor. They will be approved by Wolfe.”

  “This offer is for all of the processing rooms?”

  “Yes, but I have a priority list I want done first.”

  “The list please and how do we verify that the job is done?”

  “The list goes by garden room designation and means all processing rooms connected to that garden. In running order Northwest 4, 3, and 2, East 7, 6, and 5, Northwest 8, 7, and 6, East 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8, and Midsoutheast 1, that is the list for now. Once that list is finished I will offer another.”

  “If your offer is six ounces of leka for each processing room, that list adds up to over two hundred and fifty ounces of leka. How will you stand behind this offer?”

  “Elder Dramou, did you know that each maleka hive shelf holds four thousand three hundred and fifty ounces of leka?”

  “No, I didn’t realize that. Why does it relate to, what we are discussing?”

  “It relates because so far I have emptied five maleka hives. Each hive holds twenty shelves. I will empty another hive today. I have plenty of leka to stand behind my offer.”

  “Of… of course… of course Phwolfe.” Dramou’s voice trembled.

  “As to the matter of verification, I want the mechanics to sign in their finished processing rooms on my trade site. I will leave standing orders with trade chief Jatlo, and assistant chief Shalo to verify them as they find time. Verification will entail stuffing a dozen unshelled korftu down each processor. If the processors don’t jam, they are verified. At verification, the necessary filter order will be approved in Wolfe’s name and the mechanic can pick up the trade fee from trade chief Jatlo or assistant Shalo at set times. I myself will verify as many rooms, as I can find time to. I should have around an hour at the end of this shift free. I could verify during that hour. Trade chief Jatlo is doing leka verification with the Phsatorae this warm. This shift would be an ideal time for the mechanics to do the work. I could verify it, and Jatlo could make payment all within this shift. Will you announce the offer to your mechanics?”

  “I will begin calling them this very moment. I will allow them to sign intent on processing rooms by the priority list. I will only allow them to sign intent on one room at a time. When a room is finished, they can sign up for another.”

  “Thank you, Dramou. That is a just and fair plan. I look forward to more trades with mechanic hall.”

  “You have done us a great service by harvesting denua, Phwolfe. This offer is very gracious.”

  “It’s necessary Dramou. Having to shell all that korftu before processing it, is taking a lot of time and energy. Having the processors in top operating form will be a great help to both Wolfe and Satorae. May your blood stay strong.” Anna rang off and posted a note of the offer on the trade site. Jatlo would be frustrated at her generosity. But if they didn’t have to shell korftu any more, he’d be overjoyed.

  Anna made the maleka harvest. Now that she was used to it, it didn’t take nearly as long. She was back at Heroes’ Hall with the first run at two ninety-seven. She set the leka to strain. Jatlo was busy with the verification. Pealo, Tawai, and Krea stood by witnessing. The Phsatorae leaned against the counter. They all gaped in amazement at the leka filled cooler.

  Anna walked over. “Hello everyone, Jatlo did you see the posting of my trade offer to the mechanics.” She smiled at everyone and gave the Phsatorae a sketchy bow.

  Jatlo nodded. “It was a generous offer. But we do have plenty of leka. If we no longer have to shell korftu, it will be well worth the fee. I knew you said we had a lot of leka. But this is a hall cooler. It is twenty times the size of a personal cabin cooler. It is full of leka.”

  “Jatlo, I’m both sorry and happy to have to show you this.” Anna walked over to the next cooler and opened the door.

  Jatlo ran over and exclaimed. “This one, too!”

  “Four of them are full. The fifth is a partial. I needed this verification done. I would have run out of room soon. Two of the supply closets are full of various odds and ends; dyes, gesar syrup, glue, and tienara flour. I hope you offered a good witness fee. I doubt if you’ll finish it all in this shift.”

  “No, we won’t even finish half of the leka. How am I going to catch up?” Jatlo exclaimed.

  Anna looked over at the Jao. “Phsatorae, can’t you assign others to verify in your place?”

  Jao nodded. “Caso has as much verification authority as I do. But he can’t leave the bridge level. The only way we can both leave the bridge level is if five of the Elders with spacemanship trade take our place. This is going to take more than two to verify. Three Elders together have verification authority. Caso would dearly love to help with this.” The Phsatorae shrugged. “But the Elders would probably be easiest.”

  Anna thought about it for a moment. “Not necessarily. Jatlo, Phsatorae, we are going to have to have most of this carted to another location after verification. Some of ours will be going to commodities or staying here. But most will be going to the supply depots. The Satorae portion will need to be carted to your designated location.” She looked at the Phsatorae questioningly.

  “The medics put in a direct emergency buy of the first two thousand ounces. I don’t think any of us thought there would be more than that. I see now there is. I will send four thousand ounces to the medics so that they can have an additional emergency stockpile. The rest I will send to commodities.” The Phsatorae said. “I will arrange for carters to join us, once we are agreed on how to do all of this.”

  Anna smiled. “Okay, I leave the decision of how much leka should go where, up to my trade chief. I also leave the organization and payment of a carter crew up to him. But I will authorize Des, to go to the bridge and verify for Wolfe. The carters can easily roll the leka there first and then deliver it to its final destination after it is verified. Shalo, of course, as assistant trade chief has verification rights. If we need another to verify, I would ask Sato and Fienu, if the Phsatorae will allow them to stand for Wolfe in this.”

  “Since they are the co-parents of your child, I understand your trust in them. Gladly, I will lend them to you.” The Phsatorae said and smiled widely.

  “Thank you. Can you get the needed Elders to verify with Shalo and Sato and Fienu, Phsatorae?” Jao nodded. “All right, I’ll use the communication panel in the hall, and let you two use this one. I’ll contact Des, Sato, and Fienu. If you call Shalo first Jatlo, he could help you contact carters and witnesses. Is it okay with you that Sato and Fienu verify for Wolfe?”

  Jatlo nodded. “Yes, we will need them to help. Four full coolers and a partial, plus we still have unripe greal and the last of the korftu nuts from three cools
ago to verify.”

  “I’ll ask them to come. May your blood stay strong.” Anna turned and ran off before they could ask her to stay. She didn’t like verifying. It took too much time. Desvren said he would head right to the bridge. He also said he’d contact healer medic central and set up a relay for the leka. Sato and Fienu said they would be down in thirty minutes. And yes, they would come to Des and Anna’s place at ten.

  Happy to have that done, Anna logged onto the trade site. There were thirty-four processing rooms awaiting verification. Dramou most evidently, did call everyone. This type of verification, she could handle. She ran to Northwest 3.

  The volunteers were still running the processors, doing last cools harvest. Anna watched each processor push a dozen unshelled korftu down the fruit hole. No jam ups. She approved the filter order. She went onto the trade site and verified the trade. It only took about ten minutes for the first room.

  Anna entered the second room. “Processors, may I have your attention please.” They turned to her. “Please take a dozen unshelled korftu and feed them into the fruit hole.” The processors smiled. They had been doing unshelled korftu ever since the mechanics had replaced the filters. Anna waited about fifteen seconds. “Any jam ups.” They shook their heads. “Thank you, processors.” She did the approval of filters and verified the trade. That room didn’t even take three minutes. She did the rooms being used first.

  Anna stuffed her packs and nets full of unshelled korftu. She grabbed a box full of unshelled korftu and went on to the unused processing rooms on the list. She would run into the room and stuff twelve korftu into each fruit hole at a trot. Stop, look for flashing red lights. No lights. No jam ups. She would approve the filters, verify the trade, and then run out. She got so that, it only took four or five minutes for each room.

  The mechanics were still signing on more rooms to be verified. Anna verified thirty-seven, by the end of the shift. There were twenty-six left to go when she called it quits. The mechanics had finished the priority list, and were doing garden rooms in all directions. Thank goodness, they sensibly finished the three processing rooms to each garden, before moving to another. It would have been nearly impossible to keep track of it, otherwise.

  When Anna got home, she logged onto the trade site and left a message for Jatlo. She pre-approved Cima, Pealo, Tawai, Krea, and Marfi to verify the processing rooms. They knew more about processors than she did, who better to verify them. She asked Jatlo to offer them an appropriate payment for the verification of the processing rooms. She mentioned that if he made the offer now, maybe they could do some verifications before the cool shift started. She ate and crawled into bed. She woke up when Des joined her. “Hi love.” She mumbled.

  “I have never seen so much leka.” Des whispered.

  “Umm… is the verification done?” Anna asked, curling up to Des’s side.

  “Yes, between us we finished verifying everything. Shalo and Jatlo paid the mechanics their trade fees. Jatlo also got Heroes’ Hall triple feast amount put in cooler number eight. They split the rest between supply coolers one through six. Jatlo wanted me to tell you, that the Phsatorae share would flood the market for annuals. Your entire share is going into storage.”

  Anna nodded sleepily. “Good. We’ll have an emergency backup. Why split between supply coolers? Supply cooler one is closest, and they are ten times the size of a hall cooler.” She started to wake up.

  “Well, each supply cooler is independently operated and sealed from vacuum in its own supply section. If there is a space accident or operational failure, it will only affect one supply section. Each garden section has a supply depot and each supply depot is split into six sections. You have only seen section one, love. The other five sections are two behind us, here on Deck 5, and then one under each top section on Deck 4. This is the only supply depot with an operational transport grid. Jatlo plans on splitting the emergency backup between all six supply sections. No sense, having an emergency backup all in one place, where one accident could wipe it all out.”

  “I didn’t realize there were five more supply sections. I need to learn more. There’s so much I don’t know about this ship.” Anna yawned.

  Des nodded and pulled her closer. “I will resume the trance lessons. A little each sleep, so neither of us will get overtired.”

  “I don’t like it when you trance me and it costs you strength. It costs you much more than me. I don’t want you over-tired. Go slowly, we have time. It’s best to learn gradually, that way I have time to adjust. It’s a shock to wake up knowing a huge amount more, than what you had before you went to sleep. A little at a time is better.”

  “You are right. I get impatient. I promise to go slowly and to stop before I get tired.” Des said softly.

  “Let’s sleep, love. You are such a nice pillow.” Anna touched Des’s mind lovingly and mentally snuggled up to him.

  Des sighed. His mind murmured “Night, love.” and then he pulled them both into sleep.

  Anna woke to the alarm with Des stirring beside her. She turned off the alarm feeling well rested. She touched Des’s mind and was happy to find him well rested too. He hadn’t tired himself out. She gave him a kiss. “Are you getting up love?”

  “Yes, I will be back at ten.” Des stretched and smiled.

  “Good, I’ll pick up the cloth on the way home. We can make the quilting frame on the supply processor here. I’ll see you later, love.” Anna kissed Des again, threw on her clothes, and trotted out.

  Anna met up with Mapao, Kesti, Doru, and Tafka at East 6. They helped her put up the tienara scaffold, hang the last two ropes, and secure the landing pillows, and then they went to Northwest 7. It took a little while to find the best watching spots.

  Anna went over the rail and measured the first tree. It became a race between her and the processor. The new filters had greatly increased its speed. It kicked out the barrier boards quicker than she could set them up. Jatlo came by at fifteen of nine. She had just finished putting up the fourth barrier. She walked with him to the processing room to order the fifth.

  “Pealo, Cima, Tawai, and Krea all verified rooms. I offered them an ounce of leka for every room they did. It takes under ten minutes to do a room. They have caught up on all of the verifications. They promise to do so again at the end of the shift. There are about a dozen mechanics working on rooms right now. There are also two dozen more who signed intent for this shift. Will you post more for the priority list or just let them finish them randomly?”

  Anna ordered the next barrier. “I’ll run more rail shelves, tomorrow first thing. I’ll start at Northwest 1 and swing through to the Northeast gardens heading towards East 1. I’ll post any safe gardens I find. If I have time after running the rest of the leka down, I’ll do some more rail shelves.” She shrugged and picked up the boards.

  Jatlo picked up an armful and followed her. “I think the mechanics will do them as fast as they are posted. It will make a great difference in the harvest. The processors will be able to keep up or at least close to it. What will we do with extra volunteers on the warm shift? There won’t be enough work to keep them busy.”

  “Hmmm… I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll call medic healer central in the morning. Any volunteer strong enough to harvest any length of a shift will be offered the kapedo trade. I’d like them to work clearing paths in East 5, 7, and 8. Eventually, I’d like paths cleared through all of the Mid-southeast gardens too, just in the garden rooms. Nobody goes on to a second level, without my approval and the first level barrier being up. Could you set the rosters and sign everyone in, if I clear it with healer central?”

  “I will gladly do that. I think most of the invalids will be approved for half hour shifts harvesting. I expect within two weeks most of them will be upgraded to the restricted list. They regain strength quickly.” Jatlo smiled. “My Toruska has already been allowed two half-hour shifts a day. He is a very difficult patient. The healers will be glad to see the last of him.”

/>   Anna laughed. “I think the healers will be overjoyed when there are no more invalid or restricted lists.”

  “You think the lists will be gone permanently?”

  “Yes. If we figure out a way to hunt takosund and keep a steady supply of unripe greal, leka, korftu nuts, and takosund available, the people will regain all of their strength with the proper nutrition. It may take months for them to fully recover. In the meanwhile, Sato’s working on the crossbow bolts. Northwest 3 is almost harvested. Once I’m a good shot with the crossbow, we can hunt from the safe trees at Northwest 3. Gresa will have to install a winch system. We will have to prepare well. But I think we can do it.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  They set down the boards on the rail shelf. Anna thought for a couple minutes. “Once Northwest 3 is finished being harvested, probably tomorrow cool I think. I want you and Shalo to coordinate with Gresa. Get him what he needs to put in those winch systems; a winch with an arm to lift up the takosund, and a winch to pull it over the rail. We have got supply sections in East and Mid-southeast at our disposal. Hopefully, all we need can be found in supply, if not trade for it. Trade for Gresa’s labor, if there are others who he thinks or wants to help him trade for their labor too. Getting takosund meat is essential to the people’s health; all of Wolfe is at your disposal. I will authorize anything you feel is necessary in this matter.” She smiled. “Once that winch system is in, we can hunt from the trees. We could hunt with knifes. I would like to use the crossbow. I don’t want to lose knifes. But I don’t know how long it will take me to perfect a shot with the bow. We may have to hunt with knife’s first.” She shrugged again.

  Jatlo smiled. “Consider it done. I will talk to Shalo. We will pull up an inventory of the supply depots. After Northwest 3 is harvested, we will contact Gresa. Consider the situation resolved. Shalo and I will find a way to get that winch system installed as quickly as possible.”

  “Excellent, I put the matter in your very capable hands. I’ll concentrate on what I know. I will begin practice with the crossbow as soon as the arrowheads are mounted. For now, I’ll put up more barriers.” Anna grasped Jatlo’s forearm. “May your blood stay strong.” She jumped rail and went back to work. She finished five more barriers before Doru called ten of ten.