Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode two: To Be or Not to Be #8

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Lannister said as he opened the weekly briefing. He looked across the conference room and spotted Harin, the stations chief data engineer. Harin was heavy, not remarkably so by Earth standards, but probably the heaviest Consortium citizen Lannister had met. Harin was a eunuch, a sexless, genderless being. Zie was bald and wore a simple robe in royal purple. Lannister wondered if he needed to find a better greeting than 'ladies and gentlemen' but if Harin took any offense at being left out, zie gave no indication.

In his mind he could hear Kellii's snorted comment of the other day, "Zie doesn't notice anything, unless it's encrypted in the data stream."

"Single mindedness isn't a bad thing in a data officer," Madano had said. Madano was the stations chief walker. Lannister could barely remember the names of half his tech crew, let alone what they did. But Madano managed to stand out, a broad arrogant man that walked with a swagger and laughed often and loudly. He reminded Lannister of Daksha, the Corelean's chief walker, and he wondered if all space walkers were like that, arrogant, brash.

"When there is a decompression accident," Madano said when someone suggested that walkers were an arrogant lot, "there will be thousands running for safety and fifty running into the heart of danger." He had stabbed his finger into the tabletop for emphasis. "Believe me, the last thing you want is a meek space walker."

"How are things going? Any news? Concerns?" Lannister asked after a short speech. He didn't have much to add to this meeting.

Most of the chiefs just shook their head. Life support chief gave a brief report that mostly went over Lannister's head but amounted to things were fine.

"Financials suck. We are so in the red," A small consortium woman told him in a bright cheerful voice. Lannister tried to recall her name but came up blank.

"You don't sound upset, Iokina," Walsh said, sounding out the unfamiliar name carefully. Lannister gave him a shaded look. It sounded like Walsh had worked hard to get that name right. He smirked.

"Oh, this early in the station's operating period that's to be expected," one of the civilian council said.

"It's worse than that," one the tech crew said. "We are at nearly full potential on the power grid," he said with some measure of pride. "Power production isn't the issue. But only one of the ports down below is in active use."

"Denver," someone supplied. "We are supplying about sixty percent of the power to the city of Denver. The rest..." she shrugged.

"The power grid on the surface is a mess," the man complained. "Hundreds of little power stations and relays. Most of it hopelessly out of date. Diplomatic should really talk to them about upgrading."

Jack rolled his eyes from across the room and shared a look with Lannister. They understood, if the consortium crew did not, how such a suggestion would be taken down below.

"The economy is terrible on the surface," another person commented. "They should be making huge investments in infrastructure, get people working again. Everyone knows this."

Walsh's face was tight, trying not to snap at them. Most of the tiny American complement were making similar faces. The man who had spoken had an open expression, guileless. He had no clue how his words were being received.

"I agree," Lannister said in a loud voice. Before anyone could misunderstand what he was agreeing to he went on, "This is an issue for the diplomats to work on. I'm sure things will iron themselves out eventually. Anything else?"

An elderly hanuman woman in white spoke next. "We seem to have a steady drip of people coming up," she commented.

"Yeah, we are working on that," Jack said. "We've approved about a hundred day passes for people working on the station in one capacity or another. Other than that, no one is supposed to be let through."

"My department's fault. I will admit," A man said with a small bow. Lannister couldn't remember his name but he worked for the station's own diplomatic crew. "I apologize on their behalf. But you must understand. They aren't used to this situation. People say, 'I have an appointment.' Or 'I am going to work up there.' And these things sound reasonable to them. We've never been in a situation where travel has been so limited."

"How many people are we talking about?" Lannister asked.

"No more than a couple dozen," Jack said. "We are keeping an eye on them."

"As far as jobs go," the economics officer put in, "we've plenty. I have nearly a half dozen working various places. They don't seem to be any danger and they just want a better life."

"Indeed," the Hanuman woman said. "It was not my suggestion that they should be stopped. That's up to you, of course, captain," she nodded towards Lannister. "The issue is this, some are ill. We have... well probably the other half dozen. They have some serious problems. We don't begrudge treating them at all, or the many more clamoring to come up here. We understand we have treatments not available on the surface."

"Then what is the problem?" the economics officer wanted to know.

"We are having trouble integrating them. For one, they are sicker than we are used to seeing. Many have chronic things that should have been treated years ago. They will take weeks, months to get back to full health. In the meantime...I don't know. They have few credits in our system. Some can work, but some can not. They don't have any place to stay, anything they can do."

"Not to mention, it's not fair," Walsh said. "I've been thinking about this since the other day, when we let the man in the wheelchair up."

"He's a veteran who's served his country," Lannister growled.

"I know, sir," Walsh said. "But how many more vets can't come up? How many more deserve treatment. Why let some, but not others?"

"This man, he's the perfect example of our problem," the woman insisted. "We've bridged the nerve damage. But his legs are very atrophied. He won't be able to walk for some time. In the meantime he needs to be housed, fed, cared for. It's not a moral burden for my healers, it's the practical issues. We need rooms, not tank rooms, but regular places for people to stay. Tying up master healers to cook, shop or handle day to day business is not a good use of resources."

Lannister thought for awhile. "Let me think about this some more. How about we meet later today or tomorrow?" he said to the woman. "Healer's crew and diplomacy and me?"

She nodded.

As the meeting broke up and the others left, Jack approached Lannister. "I assume since you want me at that meeting, you have an idea?"

Lannister shrugged. "The beginnings of one, at any rate. She's right, we can't turn these people away. Walsh is right, too." He said as Walsh approached them. "It's not fair that some get treatment and others don't. We need to have some fair system for everyone." He grimaced. "I hate to say it but the others were right earlier, too. If this station is to be a success America needs to upgrade its energy infrastructure. But that's going to be a hard sell."

"A little too much like them telling us what to do," Jack agreed with a grimace.

"So we need a little good press, to grease the wheels. And nothing is as good as a medical miracle. Set up some sort of program to help those that need advanced care."

Jack laughed. "And you said you didn't like politics."

Lannister grimaced. "There's a difference between knowing the game and liking it."

"Just think about the people we could be helping, sir," Walsh said.

Lannister nodded. "Exactly." He pointed at Jack. "I think you corporate types call that a win - win situation."

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