Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1)

by Kimberly McLaughlin

  Anna sighed. “I never was much good at math. Where did I mess up?”

  “It was I who messed up.” The Phsatorae said. “I wish to sincerely apologize for doing so. We will correct the mistake and I will pay you a penalty fee.”

  Anna shook her head. “How did we mess up? The only dealings I’ve had with you have been verifications. If I didn’t catch on to an error, it’s just as much my fault as yours.”

  “When Wolfe harvests Wolfe gardens, Satorae only gets a quarter of it.” Jatlo said.

  “Huh?” Anna looked at Jatlo. “Why?”

  Jatlo sighed. “Because you own the gardens, therefore you own what they produce. Your labor is split fifty-fifty. If Wolfe wanted to, Wolfe could harvest Wolfe gardens, and consume, giveaway, or build up a “for only Wolfe” stockpile and Satorae would get nothing of it. The only percentage Wolfe must pay would be a five percent Crown Percentage when we docked at Golria. You only split your labor when you want to list on Satorae commodities, because you will be selling to Satorae clan-members.”

  “But what about when I work in Satorae gardens, do I only get a quarter of it?”

  Jatlo shook his head. “The Phsatorae asked you to help harvest. He willingly gave you rights to half of what you harvest. If you harvested your gardens empty, and asked to harvest Satorae gardens, then you would negotiate a different percentage.”

  “All right, I think I understand. It’s like a tariff. If I keep everything, Wolfe does within Wolfe borders, Wolfe pays nothing. If I want to sell within Satorae borders, I split the labor percentage because that’s basically the profit percentage. That means anything I have already verified is okay to send to commodities. But anything I don’t verify, Wolfe can put into a strictly Wolfe stockpile.” Jatlo nodded. “You and I have to change some previously discussed percentage splits.” Anna said to Jatlo. Jatlo nodded again.

  “So how do you wish to correct my error?” The Phsatorae asked.

  “Shalo you’re good with numbers. You work with the Phsatorae. Go over the records and figure out what amounts of product that twenty-five percent adds up to. We kept everything we needed so just figure out what credit it would have got on commodities.”

  “You will let us make up our mistake in credit?” The Phsatorae asked.

  “Like I said, Wolfe kept what it needed. Is that solution acceptable?”

  “Yes, very acceptable.” The Phsatorae bowed and left. The Elders filed out behind him. The cool shift personnel stayed.

  When the door closed, Anna started to speak. “Jatlo start another stockpile in Midsoutheast supply depots. If Wolfe becomes a sub-clan, we’ll use it. If it doesn’t, it becomes Satorae’s outright so why verify it. I’ll finish the rest of the leka this cool. That can all go to Midsoutheast. I want a supply of non-perishables set up there, a quarter of the size of the Satorae stockpile, we’re building up. Let’s have my crew do some korftu nuts tonight. One night’s worth should be enough.”

  “I’ve got a lot of stuff in Midsoutheast 1, 2, and 3. The second boil glue put three-quarters of it directly into Wolfe stockpile. I’ll use it up making barricades. The gesar syrup we have and the dyes I finish tomorrow put half directly to Wolfe. I’ll need them to make clothes for the children. Everything else verify. Split them up like we discussed before.” Anna turned to Cima. “How are the yarns coming?”

  Cima smiled. “I should finish them tomorrow warm.”

  “Good! Cima I want you to finish it up in soft yarns. The stuff you would use to make socks, sweaters, and vests for children. Three of the dye wells were stocked, refill them.” Anna turned to Jatlo. “Get Cima the dyes she’ll need, either out of Wolfe or Satorae stockpiles. Cima make some whites, but mostly make colors. Stuff that’s suitable for children, pastel colors for the girls, jewel colors for the boys. I want what Cima makes to go in the Wolfe stockpile. I’ll call Tanake and ask him to make cloth for the children. He may need dyes also Jatlo.”

  “The next time, we need to empty the denua fiber. I’ll want it all done in colors and we will verify it and do the normal splits.” Anna shrugged and smiled. “I just want to get a head start on the children’s stuff. Even if there is no Wolfe, it would be hard for Satorae to find a different use for stuff made specifically for children.”

  Des nodded. “I will call Tanake and tell him to get the dyes from you Jatlo.” Des walked over to the communication board.

  “Thanks for bringing this to my attention Jatlo. I will be putting quite a bit of children’s stuff in that Wolfe stockpile. Selfish of me, I know but ...” Anna shrugged. “Well, I’m doing it anyways.”

  Jatlo smiled hugely. “Very understandable, Phwolfe. The warm invalid crew has nearly finished the paths in East 5, 7, and 8. Where do you want them next? And what have you got for dyes in the Midsoutheast’s?”

  “Tell the invalid crew the offer stands for Midsoutheast 4, 5, and 6. Make sure they check the electrical fields before entering. As for the dyes I have a lot of oesla, and tomorrow when it finishes I’ll have even more greal. No denua though. I’ll do some when I get a chance. Grab it from Satorae stockpile for now. There’s a lot of tienara flour and roasted korftu there. Split them how you see fit, trade chief.” Anna bowed to Jatlo.

  “Offer ten percent to those who package korftu nuts for you tonight.” Shalo said. He waved and walked out. The rest followed him. Jatlo who was last sketched a bow.

  Anna sat down at the table and started nibbling on her salad. “Wow!” She said when Des came over and sat down. “I didn’t think a strictly Wolfe stockpile or seventy-five percent from the East and Midsoutheast gardens was possible.”

  Des nodded. “I should have thought of it. What else do you want to stockpile for the children?”

  “First I have a couple of questions for you. Where will the children live, Des?”

  Des smiled. “Children’s hall! Come here, I will show you.” Des went to information and called up ship design. “All the children’s halls are identical and they are triple shielded, making them the safest place on the ship.”

  Des pointed to the screen. “The center rooms belong to the hall parents. That would be us, and whoever else decides to dedicate the majority of their time and energy to the children. Sato and Fienu will want to be hall parents. Jao and Caso can’t, too many other responsibilities. I don’t think Dasie and Brema will want to, nor Mapao and Kesti. Liso and Tava might. Tanake and Doru definitely will.” Des drew his hand along a section of rooms. “See these rooms six to a section, spread out like spokes on a wheel, around the hall parents’ rooms. These are the youngest rooms. This is where the newborns and youngest children stay. At first, there will be two in each room. After all the hall parents sections each have two to a room, it will increase to four to a room. Our young make strong bonds and do well when roomed together.”

  Des pointed to smaller rooms further down the spokes. “These are the young tai’twain rooms. Tai’twains usually bond in their teens, each pair has their own room here. They still need a lot of parental supervision. These rooms along the very outside are the eldest rooms. The children usually move there in their mid-to late twenties. They need little supervision and are training and working towards their trade certificates and adult confirmation.”

  Anna pointed between the spokes. “What are these rooms?”

  “Innermost, they are the eating halls, where the parents, youngest, young tai’twain, and eldest group together to prepare meals and eat together. Each parent pair has their own eating hall. Others are laundry rooms and bathrooms. You will have to teach the children how to shower. Even with Isadi suits we Golsidans must have carefully prepared baths. Our children will like showers much better.” Des smiled widely. “I am sorry to say it, love. But I will never be able to join you in the shower.”

  Des pointed to another room. “Here are the history halls. Every warm, the youngest have history lessons, both orally and taught mind to mind. One parent can lesson up to two dozen children. This gives the other parents tim
e to work their trades. Further out are the apprentice halls, where the trades get taught. Your teaching deal with Sato and Fienu will benefit you, more than you thought. Teaching a trade involves a month of hourly long trance teaching, followed by six to nine months of apprentice teaching, and then sponsored teaching for two to five annuals. At apprentice and sponsor levels the teachers are obligated to train up to three children, who have requested the training.”

  Anna shook her head. “I don’t understand, give me an example?”

  “Okay, one of Sato’s trades is spacemanship. It is also one of mine. By the time the children are born, you will have your trades’ certification in both agri-farming and spacemanship. The first child who shows an interest in spacemanship, I do the trance teaching. The second child, you do the trance teaching. The third child, Sato does the trance teaching. Sato is obligated to do the apprentice and sponsor teaching of all three.”

  “Why don’t you or I have to finish the teaching?”

  “If a third child, didn’t show interest within an annual of the first, one of us would be obligated to finish the training. Apprentice and sponsor teaching is a huge investment of time and energy, two and a half to almost six annuals of teaching, every cool. It is traditional to wait up to an annual after trance teaching, to see if more than one child could benefit from that investment.”

  Anna nodded. “That makes sense. I’ll have to understand more of this, before our next childbearing contract.”

  Des smiled and nodded. “I will trance teach you. Let’s eat and go to sleep.”

  Anna followed Des to the table. “Before we go to sleep, I want to know what the youngest rooms and eating halls look like.”

  “The eating halls are set up like the feast hall, with different size tables and dishes for the five growth groups of the children. The bedrooms look like ours.”

  “Des, how does a child get onto a bed that size? It’s huge. Why would a child need a bed that big?”

  Des laughed. “One, there will be two children sharing it. Two, if those children are trance learning, there will also be two adults there for part of each night. Three, they are children. They love having a grown-up bed. As for getting in it, the newborns get lifted in for the first couple of weeks. After that they jump into bed. I well remember the dash across the room, followed by that leap up, and then rolling halfway across the bed to a stop. After a couple of tries, I always made it.”

  Anna laughed. “I can picture that. But what else is in the room?”

  Des shrugged again. “Just a bedside table and small shelves like in our room.”

  “Des, my clothes are stacked on the floor. The children will need bureaus for their clothes and bookshelves for their things.”

  “What are bureaus? What things? Children don’t have things. Everything is owned by the clan. The child reaches adulthood and is gifted with their Isadi suit. That is the only thing that they own until they earn their own possessions.”

  Anna shook her head. “That is going to change. Those quilts we are making are gifts, Des, given to the children. When the child outgrows it, it’s put in storage. When the child becomes an adult, it goes with them. It is tradition, that that adult’s children use that quilt. It becomes an heirloom. It goes down through the generations, gifted to the first born children of that line.”

  “I like this idea. Sato and Fienu will like this too.”

  “The quilts aren’t the only thing either. Children are gifted with special gifts at special occasions. They go with the child. They become family keepsakes.”

  “What sort of gifts?”

  “Handmade crafts and arts, a sweater made in a child’s favorite color, the first rug the child made by themselves, a piece of art given as a gift at a trade certification. Little things Des, which show how proud a parent, is of the child. The quilt shows how much a child is wanted. Other gifts show pride in what the child is learning and who the child is becoming.”

  “I understand. At one time this was also a common practice among the clans who voluntarily raised children. That was a long time ago.” Des said sadly.

  “My children will be wanted by their clan, Des. Wolfe wants to raise children. If there is no Wolfe, we will see what Satorae wants.”

  “Don’t worry love. Let’s sleep. I will teach you about children’s hall and apprenticing.” Des said as he crawled into bed.

  “Teach me signing too, if you have the time. I need it for the takosund hunt. Don’t tire yourself though, you promised.”

  Des nodded and pulled Anna close to his side. “I will tire neither of us.”

  Anna woke up that cool with a plan. When she had the time, she would make a list of what was needed for the children. The things Golsidans wouldn’t think of, bureaus, steps up to get onto the bed, blankets, sheets, pillows, and clothes. The showers would need to be checked, bath mats made, towel racks, towels, and wash cloths.

  Golsidans had a temperature regulated bath and an air dry system. It was the only thing they took the Isadi suits off for. Everything was controlled to a decimal, water and air temperature, humidity and air circulation.

  Their children would need different things, sweaters and hats for going through partially heated areas, shorts for working up near the lights and at the central stations. The children would be able to do things Golsidans couldn’t. Things like Anna did, work at the central stations for hours on end, harvest leka, and take showers. She’d have to check with Des. Would their musculature structure be more adapted to heavy gravity like hers was? A heavy gravity world made for denser muscles, stronger tendons and ligaments, and more bone density. Was that hereditary? Would the children inherit it?

  If so they would need an exercising regimen, just like Anna was going to need. Des had reassured her, that she wasn’t losing bone, muscle mass, or density yet. Right now, she remained active enough to keep it. Eventually, she’d need an exercising program. But she wouldn’t worry about that now. She’d make a list of what the children needed. She’d design the needed items. If she had the time, she’d make some of them.

  Anna got dressed and trotted to Midsoutheast. She had dyes to strain and put on for their last re-boil. After she finished the dyes, she ran to East 6. She wanted nothing better than to get onto the design page. But she knew once she got on it, she would want to stay on it for as long as possible. If she got everything ready first, it would be better. She backed up the ropes with korftu and then she filled the tienara scaffold up. She could carry four tienara clusters, one in her backpack, one strapped to her belly, and one in each hand. She did just that. She jumped rail, shoved the two handheld tienara clusters on the bottom layer of the cart, and finished loading with korftu.

  It took two runs for each processing room. Anna put a tienara cluster on each processing station, and dumped all the korftu into boxes on the central station. She finished by backing the ropes up with korftu again, and refilling the tienara scaffold. They would need to move it soon. Finally, she filled her packs with korftu, trotted in, emptied them, and then she logged onto information. She did some research first.

  Anna found out that Golsidan children had five transition annuals, named so because a growth spurt occurred during them. Some children grew early in the annual, some late. But ninety-five percent of them grew during that annual. The growth spurt only took two to three months and the child would grow nine to twelve inches in those months. The transition annuals were when a child reached three, nine, sixteen, twenty-three, and thirty. Golsidan children lived in a contained living unit for those annuals, never leaving the safety of those temperature controlled units until they wore a custom fitted, new Isadi suit. Golsidan children didn’t grow except for in those transition annuals. Their Isadi suits fit perfectly for five or six annuals, until they hit the next transition annual.

  The average child’s height range between transition annuals only varied four to six inches. So clothes could be made in two or three sizes to fit that average range, after all they would be in those c
lothes for five or six annuals. As for the transition annuals, loose clothes would work. No way was Anna going to lock the kids in a room for an annual.

  Now that Anna had the information she needed. She could start designing, stairs up to the bed first. She designed them wide with shelves built into one side, and drawers into the other side. The steps would be a stretch for the newborn to three annual age range, just right for the four to nine age range, and after that steps could be skipped.

  Anna designed a low bureau with nine narrow drawers, three on each level. The bureau measured only two feet tall, three feet wide, and eighteen inches deep, small enough for even the youngest to use. Next, she drew up a side by side, eight drawer bureau. A little smaller than normal, but only a little, it could be used by even the newborns, if they worked together opening it, one on each handle. Golsidans never roomed alone. The firstborn would stay with the hall parents until the second was born. Those two would be moved into a room. The third would room with them until the fourth was born, and then they would be moved to a room. The fifth would room with them until the sixth was born, right on down the line. So there would always be at least two to a room. They could help each other.

  Anna wanted to design a keepsake box. For each child to take with them from room to room, as they moved through the hall, from youngest, to young tai’twain, to eldest. She would like that box to go with them into adulthood. She ended up designing a hope chest that was half the width of the bed. Because there would be two children sharing the bed, there would be two hope chests at the bottom of it. It had drawers along the outward facing side, and a split lid, because it was five and a half feet long. Each lid ended up being two feet wide. The chest was two feet high and about twenty-eight inches deep.

  Everything would be made by gluing together plastic covered denua boards. Anna would need more plastic. The barriers only took a little, because the plastic covering was thin. But it added up. Only six percent remained from her first batch. Definitely time to make more. With that in mind, she looked at the digital, eight eighty-two.