Supply and Demand

Posted on Fri Oct 19, 2018 @ 4:31am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

643 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: The Box of Delights
Timeline: MD 24 1400

[ON]

Edward Stapleton stepped out of the back of house and walked across the ground floor of the Box looking vexed. The mezzanine floor had been rebuilt, and the scaffolding had come down the day before. Yolanthe was up there now, on hands and knees whilst she added a layer of wax to the new floor.

"Got a minute?" he called up

She got up and came to the railing, "Sure, whats up?"

"I've just got off a call with the wholesaler on Altair. They're running low on the Romulan Ale, it will be another month before they've got enough in."

Yolanthe's violet skin turned a dark gold. "Really? I've got two bottles left. Two! And there's more people turning up to populate that planet by the day. They'll drink us dry before they even get there."

Edward nodded, looking grim. "It gets worse I'm afraid. The freighter with the Trill Beers had an engineering malfunction and is delayed by a fortnight. And the Orion stuff was impounded by customs. Apparently the shipping company hasn't paid the FRS."

"What?!" Klia looked over the balcony on the second floor, where she was repainting the holospa. "That's nuts!"

Yolanthe's gold turned a much brighter yellow, and her fingers tightened on the bars of the balcony rail. "Which means we're out of Mandisa, Zirrah and the rum."

Edward held up a padd. "I'm looking into some alternates, but at the moment things aren't looking good. The stock that survived the fire would last two weeks, if we had everything else, but I don't know how long it will last when we're so short of everything else.

Yolanthe came down from the mezzanine, and together they sat at the bar, which was now formed from a sleek dark timber that Edward had chosen from a replicator catalogue. "We're in trouble aren't we?"

The older man nodded. "The insurance company is going to payout, but it will take a while to come through. And even then they can't make booze that doesn't exist magically appear, or stuff stuck in customs suddenly get cleared. We just have to hope we don't lose too many customers. WE can be open again tomorrow, once the paint upstairs is dry, but we may be forced to switch to replicators."

"I can't do that." Yolanthe drummed her fingers on the bar. "If people just wanted replicated stuff they could go to any of the other places. They come here to get quality product made by real hands grown from real things, and then mixed with flare and served by the eye candy. Eye candy is not enough."

Edward gave a short laugh. "I know. But if you want to have customers to serve next month, you may have to make sacrifices in the long term."

Yolanthe nodded. It was a fine balance, short term survival against long term reputation damage. Where on the scale was she supposed to put her thumb? "Lets see what happens when we open tomorrow. But we'll do it softly. No grand fanfare, no big gestures, just open up and see who we get. If we can get our supply back on track we can do something bigger then."

Edward nodded. "In the mean time I'll go back to looking for suppliers. There will be someone out there who can help." He used his finger to smooth down his moustache. "Maybe even some where here?" The question in his voice made it clear who he meant.

"Lasuma can go stuff himself." She turned the colour of banana peel. "Waltzing in here, offering to 'invest'! He can go jump in a lake of lava."

"I'll take that a maybe." Edward said as he walked back to the office.

She called back as she headed up the stair, "Take that as a never!"

[OFF]

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner
The Box of Delights.

 

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