“Yes, it does. But I thought Northwest 3 was safe. How do you plan on hunting takosund when there are none in the area?” Kantuia asked.
“We plan to lure them in. As we discovered first when Brema and Sato got attacked, then secondly, when the third takosund tried to wrap and drag off one of the dead ones. The scent of blood attracts takosunds. They will attack the injured. Kali helped me to design a bowl. At the time of the hunt, we fill it with takosund blood from the processor and lower it to the jungle floor near the jump out spot, where we have clear shots at the garden floor. The bowl lid gets raised off. And we hunt what comes to that blood scent.”
The Phsatorae nodded. “This is a well-planned hunt. The tree barriers keep the hunters safe. No one has to go down to the jungle floor. You have winches to bring in the kill without endangering anyone. I vote for this hunt and that Phwolfe be hunt chief.”
The Elders converged, and then quickly broke apart. Kantuia announced. “The Elders are in agreement to approve this hunt. We also wish Phwolfe to be hunt chief. Traditionally, people who volunteer for hunt positions get released from their shifts to prepare for the hunt. At the beginning of this cool, we will make a ship wide announcement of the planned hunt. At that time the hunt leader, needs to announce the hunt list of required assistants, watchers, hunters, etc. You must also announce the agreed upon percentages. The hunt chief has twenty percent of the hunt kill to offer, which must cover everything from the beginning of the hunt, until the takosund enters the takosund processing room doors. The hunt chief is also responsible for choosing who fills what positions on the hunt list.”
Anna nodded and sighed. In for a penny in for a pound.
“Releasing these people from their work shifts will short the agri-farmers, making harvesting over the rail impossible. What would the hunt leader recommend?” The Phsatorae asked.
“I recommend that we ask Jatlo to join this discussion. Wolfe possibly has some offers to make to those people. I need to discuss them with my trade chief to see what is feasible.”
“Of course, I will call him for you.” Kantuia volunteered and dashed over to the communication board. He came back in moments. “He is on the way.”
“Do I have your permission to meet him in the hall? My discussion with him will be brief and then we will return and make our offers.”
“Please go ahead. We will wait here.” The Phsatorae said.
Anna went out into the hall. When Jatlo rounded the corner at a trot, she asked him. “Jatlo, it’s quicker. Can I mind to mind you?”
“Yes.” Jatlo gave Anna his hand.
Anna minded him. The hunt got approved. I’m hunt chief. They want to know about what to harvest, since they will be short people. I wish to offer something to get the volunteers to prepare for a feast. Dig and wash savti, peel and cut up gesar, peel the denua fruit, collect oesla tassels, wash and cart the fresh fruit and vegetables to Heroes’ Hall. What can we offer?
I recommend offering a set payment of goods for every hour worked. You announce what you wish to be done. I will follow it with the hourly payment offer. Have the harvest taken from Wolfe gardens, prepared in Wolfe processing rooms. If the hunt fails, you will still own everything they prepared. Because Wolfe paid for the labor, Satorae will own no percentage in it.
If there is a feast, you are going to be the one, to figure out how Satorae pays for what we have stocked and prepared. Anna smiled smugly. She wanted nothing to do with that job.
“Of course, that is my job and my pleasure. You do realize my mother was of trader clan. I enjoy trading.”
“You are very good at it. Let us go speak to the Elders and the Phsatorae.” They walked into the processing room together. “Thank you Elders, Phsatorae, my trade chief and I have discussed a trade offer to take place in garden rooms East 5, 7, and 8 to be processed in the processing rooms from East 4 through 8. Harvesters, using modified carts, are asked to harvest gesar, catronu, oesla, belao, savti, and wait… a moment please.” Anna touched Jatlo’s mind. Jatlo if they dig savti, they may find mewu eggs. What about them?
Whoever finds a nest is responsible for digging, harvesting, washing, and packaging the whole nest full of eggs. I will cover it in the payment.
Anna nodded. “Thank you again, Elders. Ah… let’s see savti and denua fruit. Anyone digging savti who finds a mewu egg nest is responsible for digging, harvesting, cleaning, and packaging the whole egg nest. They are overpopulated and need to be brought under control. Processors are to peel and cut gesar, storing both rinds and cut pieces. Clean the catronu. Store oesla tassels in trays. Wash the oesla. Sort belao; only the unbitten are to be washed and put on carts, the bitten ones go down the processor holes. Scrub the savti. Save the denua peelings for dye-making. Full carts and trays get brought to Heroes’ Hall central station processing room by the carters, who also gather empty carts from East 1 through 4, and Midsoutheast 1, 2, and 3.” Anna nodded to Jatlo.
Jatlo inhaled deeply and took over. “For every hour worked, Wolfe will pay the fee of two pounds each of korftu nuts, fried savti, and roasted savti, and one bottle each of catronu oil and gesar syrup. Those who find mewu eggs will receive five percent of their find. All payments will be paid two days after the work gets done. I will go over the time records and issue the payments.”
“Exactly, how would this trade benefit Satorae?” Elder Sablot demanded.
Jatlo looked shocked. Jao sighed. Anna cleared her throat. “I am sorry, Elder. I didn’t explain well. By making this offer, I commit to finishing the processing of those items. Gesar flour, syrup and glue, catronu oil, oesla and denua dye, fried savti and roasted savti are items your people crave and want, but don’t yet have the strength to make themselves.”
Sablot stood up straight. “Wolfe will own those items fully, so Satorae still gets no benefit from this trade.”
Jatlo stood frozen. Jao rolled his eyes. Anna lost her patience. “How many Wolfe stomachs are on this ship? I will answer that question with the obvious answer. One! Half of those items are perishable. Do you think I would invest my labor in them only to let them rot? One way or another, most of those items will end up going into Satorae stomachs. Either at a feast as honor gifts or bought from commodities. Has Wolfe ever misled you? Hasn’t Wolfe sold many commodities both perishable and non-perishable? Has anyone else sold on commodities yet? Has anyone else produced anything other than a half-dozen biscuits at a time, in their private kitchen?”
Anna’s anger faded. She sighed deeply. “You know as a human. I hated cooking. I never liked working in the kitchen. I have done more cooking and kitchen work in two Golsidan weeks than I ever did in five human years. Your people enjoyed those items so much; they made it fun to make them. If you don’t understand the benefits of Wolfe’s offer, your people do. The offer stands open, to all who wish to take it.” Anna stared at Elder Sablot.
He swallowed hard. “I failed to think it through, Phwolfe. You have been generous in your commodities listings. All you receive is credit in payment and there is nothing for you to buy, that you can’t produce yourself. My sincere apologies.” Sablot bowed.
“Apology accepted. If you don’t mind, I will be leaving now. I must go home, practice with the crossbow, and then figure out my hunt chief responsibilities.” Anna bowed to the Phsatorae and the Elders.
“We thank you Phwolfe, for your patience and time. Will you come to the bridge at eight for the hunt announcement?” The Phsatorae asked.
“Yes, of course.” Anna nodded. She turned and trotted out. She still felt riled up in a sort of stomach turning, nerve taut way. She ran to the supply depot. By the time she had bolt shot and knife pierced every target a dozen times, she felt completely better. As a matter of fact, she felt great. She had lost her temper, been rude and sarcastic, but she had said or done nothing to hurt anyone. She had just thrown the truth in the Elders faces. She didn’t like to cook period. She enjoyed the feast tremendously. But she would do what she could to avoid the hectic prepara
tion rush.
Anna sighed. Think positively, the korftu nuts, leka, gesar flour, unripe greal, cloth, yarns, and dyes are all set. There is almost enough gesar syrup, tienara flour and roasted tienara nuts. It is probably almost half done. If enough people harvest, the fresh fruit and vegetables will get finished within a shift. They can keep in the cooler for ten days. And the start they will give me on the savti will be huge.
Anna collected her bolts and knives. She still needed to make the bolt holders to go in her thigh pockets. She walked out to their quarters. There on the counter, she found the rest of her bolts. Sato had finished them. She went to the supply processor and ordered up her pocket holders. She arranged the bolts in them. She had room for two more and then she’d need to figure out another place to put them.
While she waited for Des to get home, Anna logged on to supply information and checked the Wolfe numbers. She leaned back in shock. Holy cow! The invalid warm crew was kicking denua ass. She had seen when she checked the gardens, that they cleared a lot of wide paths. They didn’t damage, any of the producing bushes, and they often carefully moved the kapedo vines. The catronu vines would grow back just like the denua. She hadn’t realized, how quickly that denua added up. They had made no barriers the other night. But she had used up quite a few boards this morning. The tough denua fiber had soared up to ninety-five percent; the soft fiber had already climbed back-up to forty-two percent. The plastic was at nine percent and climbing. Anna checked on the plastic processors only two had completely finished producing. The supply processors didn’t hold much plastic.
One plastic processor could fill a little over three supply processors. Even with half going to Satorae, all of the Wolfe supply processors would be totally filled, plus, enough would remain to completely refill twenty-one of them. And, Anna still had the lysordi branches trimmed from East 5 and 8, Midnortheast 1 and 6, and Northeast 5 to process. Making more plastic wouldn’t be necessary for quite a while.
Anna called up Jatlo. “Hi Jatlo, I was just looking at our denua numbers. Is it all right with you, if I offer to let Tanake and Cima make colored cloth and yarns? The same trade as we had before.”
“That sounds fine. The colors take longer to make. You may want to fill five or six processors at least with dye, for each Tanake and Cima. It took them quite a while to finish up that last six percent in colors.” Jatlo pointed out.
“Well, we have the dyes. I don’t want them to have to wait around. Give them the dyes they need. I’ll approve Cima for the supply processors in East 4, 5, and 6. Tanake can have the ones in East 1, 2, and 3. That should make them very happy and keep them very busy.”
Jatlo laughed. “It will certainly do both. Just tell them to come pick up the dyes, as soon as they want to start. I plan to stay up for another hour. I doubt if it will take them that long to show up at my door.”
“Thanks Jatlo.” Anna called Cima first. She would happily do colors again. She could fill that many supply processors with dye? Well, there would be no waiting at all. The new filters had cut the production time down to an hour. She would go see Jatlo right this moment. She would cart the finished product to Heroes’ Hall.
“Do you realize that supply closets 5 through 8 are full? After the verification and our trade payment, Jatlo and Shalo consolidated everything into those closets. They keyed them to only open for Phwolfe. Four closets full, ready for the feasts to come, isn’t that wonderful?” Cima exclaimed.
“It most certainly is! Thank you Cima.” Anna rang off feeling much better. Tanake was just as anxious to start as Cima. Anna made the offer and told him to pick up the dyes from Jatlo.
“Yes, I go now.” He shouted and hung up on Anna. She was still laughing, when Doru called her back.
“I am sorry. He loves making clothes so much. He used up his entire portion of the colors in baby cloth and made probably more than one child can wear. He has missed working in cloth, especially in colors. Please don’t hold his rudeness against him.” Doru pleaded.
“Of course, I won’t hold it against him Doru. I find it highly amusing. I called Cima first. But I can almost bet, those long pack-runner legs of Tanake’s will get him to Jatlo’s door first.” Anna chuckled.
“They will. He left at a full sprint. The moment he hung up with you. Jatlo knows his son well.” Doru laughed. “I can guarantee that Jatlo sent Toruska to get the dyes and he left their front door open in preparation for a speedy arrival.”
“Thank you for calling Doru. May your blood stay strong.”
“And yours.” Doru rang off.
“Well, you are laughing now which is good. What made you angry earlier? I felt it.” Des hugged Anna from behind, when she stood up.
Anna sighed and snuggled back against Des. “Oh, Elder Sablot kept asking irritating questions and I lost my patience.” She mind touched Des and showed him what had happened. “I really don’t like cooking.” She sighed.
Des remained quiet for a moment. “Tamsi and Pealo used to cook a lot. They enjoy it. They still don’t have the strength to endure a hot room. But they could help you. They could mash cooled savti and put it on platters. They could fill the platters with roasted and fried savti, once it has cooled and package the gift portion of it along with mixing the flatbread and biscuits, and putting them into pans. You could offer them a trade in baked goods, like the flatbread and biscuits. You could also trade for a carter. You push the partially cooled goods into the hall, where the rest of the heat disperses quickly. The carter pushes them down to East 4, where Tamsi and Pealo can work. The carter pushes the finished goods, the empty pans, and pans full of dough, back to the hallway for you to get. If you were to take the roasting and drying pans from the Midsoutheast processing rooms, you wouldn’t have to wait for the empty pans to return.”
Anna turned and kissed Des. “You are a genius. The hunt announcement is at eight. I’ll stay in Northwest 3 till ten accepting applicants for the hunt list. I could have the boiled savti cooked by ten ninety and cooled by eleven. I’ll call Jatlo and see what to offer Tamsi and Pealo, and a carter.” She gave Des another kiss and ran to call Jatlo.
“They have both already picked up the dyes. What else have you got in mind?”
Anna explained Des’s idea. “I will call them and offer a trade per hour of work. Would you take Toruska as the carter? He’s complaining, because there’s no un-snapper job this cool.”
“Yes, I’ll take him. Ask him to start at ten. Have him collect the drying and roasting pans from Midsoutheast 1 through 7 and cart them into the corridor outside of Heroes’ Hall. On our offer this cool, we need to tell the carters to stop going into the hall at ten. Heat builds up quickly in there.”
“I am typing up the Wolfe trade offer open to all interested parties. I will post it on the trade page site after the announcement. Just type up your hunt list and post it there too. At the announcement just tell everyone, that the hunt list and Wolfe offer is posted on the trade page. You don’t have to announce the whole list or offer. People can read it.”
“Thanks, Jatlo.” Des walked to Anna’s side when she hung up.
“Enough working and trading for now, we must eat and sleep.” Des led Anna to the kitchen. They threw together a meal made of mostly fresh food.
“What have you been trading to keep us in fresh food?” Anna asked.
Des laughed. “Jatlo has arranged a trade with Tanake’s crew. Your “over-the-rail” portion is keeping us going in greal, korftu, tienara flour, and tienara nuts. Some of the surplus of your portion gets traded to Tanake’s crew for the rest of our fresh food. Jatlo’s paying the crew processors one by one, to collect oesla tassels with the extra from the trading. The deal is when they all get paid up for three days; they collect and deliver the tassels. Tanake said to expect them tomorrow hot.”
“I didn’t even realize I was getting a portion.”
Des shook his head. “Your orders to Jatlo were to keep us reasonably supplied. He takes those orders seriously. Our p
ortion doesn’t even make a noticeable dent in what you send over the rail. Now eat, faster. It is time to sleep.”
“Des sweetheart, I still have to make up the hunt list.”
“No, you will set the alarm for seven sixty. That will give you plenty of time, before the announcement to make your list. You will think better, after you have slept. I will finish your signing lessons this sleep.”
“Okay love, I will go to sleep.” They finished eating and curled up in bed. They slept spoon fashion with Anna’s blankets tucked around her. She woke up before the alarm, warm, happy, and content. She slid out of bed, logged onto the trade page, and started working on the hunt list. Deciding how many people they needed was easy. Figuring out the payment percentages wasn’t.
Anna finally finished. She listed for twelve watchers at half percent each. Kali as the winch operator would get half of a percent. She listed for four winch assistants to help run the cable, to tie and untie the pulleys, and to use the small gaff poles to get the takosund into the carts. They each got a quarter of a percent. She listed for four Medic/healers, two on the second level at half of a percent each and two waiting in the processing room at a quarter of a percent each. She listed for two assistant hunters, who would help noose the takosund. They would also evacuate injured people, if anyone got injured. They got half of a percent each.
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 34