Connections

Posted on Tue 20th Jun, 2017 @ 2:29am by

980 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Unity Week
Location: Orchids & Jazz, Deck 600
Timeline: MD 02, early morning

Miss Lantz walked through the early morning restaurant, head bent over her PADD. By some miracle, or special El Aurian sense, she didn't run into a single object along the path to the back of Orchids & Jazz. Without raising her head, she hit the private lock into the back offices and spoke quietly to Jenna Clark, who stood nearby re-stocking glasses on shelves behind the bar.

"Jenna, come into my office, please. I'd like a word with you."

It sounded so formal, and slightly foreboding, so Jenna answered simply, "Right away, Miss Lantz." She set the two glasses in her hands carefully on the stack and stepped back before turning to follow her boss into her office down the private corridor. She wracked her brain to think what she might have done wrong, but she couldn't think of anything. So why do I feel like I'm going to the Head Mistress's office? she wondered.

"Take a seat," Jade told her, waving to the front of her desk. "I just want to check one more thing, and I'll be right with you. If you'd like a drink, get something from the replicator."

Now she was even more nervous. "Um, no thanks. I'm fine." Jenna took the chair on the left, facing Miss Lantz, and glanced around the office, her eyes skittering along the wall decorations without focusing on any of them.

Jade looked up the reserves in her personal credit account to ascertain exactly what she had without going into Orchids & Jazz funds. Both accounts were quite healthy, as was her investment portfolio. Redbird Foundation was also well funded. She could retire this minute, never work another day ... but that would be boring and besides, she wasn't working for herself so much as she was for her people ... and others who might need a hand up now and then. She closed the information and pushed her PADD aside.

Although she already knew things weren't going well on Alpha Centauri V, she asked Jenna, "Tell me what you've heard from your family lately. I know the Transport Union strike made things a little dicey for farmers."

Jenna stared at her boss for a minute. "How do you keep up with things like that?" she asked.

Jade smiled. "I make it my business to know what affects my employees."

"Oh. Well, I don't know. I mean," she leaned forward in the chair, crossing her arms over the front of the desk, "they send me notes, but I get the feeling they are leaving out a lot. You know?"

"Hmmm. What do you think they are leaving out?" her boss asked, also leaning on the desk, creating a more intimate atmosphere with Jenna.

"I'm not sure. I tried looking up things on the news, but the tourism board will block anything that might sound too awful and cause tourists to stay away. They're probably censoring out-going mail, too." She flopped back on to the seat and blew out a breath of air. Then she suddenly sat up straight. "Why? Do you know anything?"

"A little," Jade said. "The star flares of the three suns are causing localized droughts on several planets. I don't know for a fact that AC-5 is one; however, I am receiving little bits of information from a variety of sources I consider reliable." She didn't mention that at least half the resources were other El Aurians scattered about the galaxy, nor that the rest came from those who owed her favors from past events. All were sources she trusted, and things didn't look good for the farmers on any of the planets of the three suns of the Alpha Centauri systems.

"Do you have any kind of code to communicate information to your parents, things that you don't want the tourism board to decipher?" If she didn't have, then Jade would have to use her own resources.

Cautiously, Jenna answered, "For a few things. Why?"

"I'd like to help your parents, and perhaps others, too, get through this tight spot. The flares will eventually stop, the rains will come back, and the farmers need to still be in place. The Federation is a large entity, and it takes a lot of food to feed us all. We can't afford to let any bread basket planets cease production."

"Bread basket?" Jenna asked, frowning.

"An old term from ancient texts I've been reading," Jade said. "It just means an area that grows food for others - originally, I think it referred mainly to grains that were used to actually make bread. As you know, not all the planets of the Federation have, or choose to have, high levels of technology. It isn't as if we can scatter replicators everywhere and feed the hungry. There are limits set by the materials that must be converted, and limits set by energy requirements, as well. Plus, as I said, some civilizations choose to stay low tech. Do you think you can find out exactly what your parents need, or will need soon, to stay on their land?"

Jenna sat silently for a few minutes, thinking. Finally she nodded. "I think so."

"Then find out, and I'll find a way to get them whatever they need. If they know others who need help, I'm sure the Charles Redbird Foundation can provide loans to at least another 25 farms." Jade knew they could. She administered the funds.

"I never heard of the Charles Redbird Foundation," Jenna said.

Jade shrugged and answered, "I'm not surprised. Few people have." She did not, however, give any details about it.

After a short pause, Clark said, "I still find myself wondering why you would do this. My family is nothing to you."

It was Jade's turn to be silent, until she said, softly. "A famous Earth philosopher once said, 'No man is an island.' We are all connected, Jenna."

 

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