The Rotten Pot is Broken

Posted on Sun 19th Jul, 2026 @ 6:25pm by Morva
Edited on on Sun 19th Jul, 2026 @ 7:46pm

1,302 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] Learning to Fly
Location: Various ships ('Zoom' meeting)
Timeline: Explosion +2 Days, 1300 hours

Morva, the Ferengi chef who ran the Slug & Grub restaurants on the two barges that operated up and down the river in Tivoli Gardens, turned on her computer and waited for her guests to arrive. Every one of them owned or ran a business in the Olla Podrida Mall, a craft mall that straddled the artificial river. The Ferengi-run barges stopped at the mall hourly, 'round the clock, to drop off and take on passengers.

Attendees slowly trickled into the virtual meeting room that Morva had set up. She had expected to see 88 people. Instead, she waw 10, none of whom were Emilton Krocher, the owner. What was wrong with these people? Weren't they interested in profit? She kept an eye on the participant list and hid her disappointment--something she was not used to doing, as any of the cooks working for her could attest.

At precisely 1300 hours, Morva gazed at the assembled people showing in frames on her screen. "Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming. I've called this meeting to address the explosion we recently suffered and our plans to deal with it. I heard a vile rumor that Olla Podrida Mall was going to close. Since you're here, I presume you, as I, do not want that to happen."

"Of course we don't want the mall to close," Balas, a Tellarite who ran a clothing store, retorted, "but commercial insurance doesn't cover damage caused by criminal acts. Repairs to my shop will cost a fortune that I can't afford. I might as well write it off as a loss and restart somewhere else, maybe in the Garden District."

T'Saval, a Vulcan who made and sold blown-glass sculptures, arched an eyebrow at Balas. "Your insurance plan does not include endorsements or riders to cover damage caused by criminals? I would not need such coverage on Vulcan, but this is not Vulcan."

Balas made a rude face in T'Saval's general direction. Morva rolled her eyes at him.

Aaron Thomas, a human woodworker, used the raised-hand function. Morva nodded at him. At last, someone who understood how to behave in a meeting.

"Mr. Krocher isn't just planning to close the mall, Morva. He plans to demolish it and let Starfleet or maybe the Tivoli Gardens Consortium reallocate the deck space to someone else. I'm guessing you weren't informed because you don't own a shop in the mall."

"He what?!!" Morva stifled the rest of her outburst with great difficulty. When she spoke again, her voice was firm. "This cannot be allowed to happen."

"Well, like it or not, hon, it's going to happen. He owns the place. What can we do about it?" Thris Galamar, who ran a Bajoran hasperat stall, fiddled with his earring chain as he leaned forward.

"We can buy it from him, of course!" Morva said. "Why can't we, the people who depend on the mall for our incomes, own the place if the owner doesn't want it anymore? Turn it into a corporation and divide the profits proportionally, according to how much we each pay in to the purchase price? Or raise money through Tivoli Gardens municipal bond sales?"

"Tivoli Gardens is a municipality?" Galamar asked. "I know the Garden District is, but I'm not sure about Tivoli. Doesn't Disney still own the place?"

Morva shuddered. "I would rather not do business with Disney. They're a horrendous Terran conglomerate, by which I mean they try to glom onto every shred of intellectual property they can, if they think it will be profitable. If they were a Ferengi company, I would admire that, but when the property they want is mine or is something I have an interest in, I want their grubby hands off of it."

Kristeen of Baby Invasion (Olla Podrida edition), snickered. "You crack me up, Morva. Well, I'm in. How much money can we scrape together if we all pool our funds? And, more importantly, how much money would Mr. Krocher get if he sells the deck space lease back to Disney or Starfleet? If Disney's the owner, he'll get a lot more for it, so we need to find that out."

"Ultimately, Starfleet's the owner," Loren Tesset, a Denobulan painter, said, "and leasing price will depend on whether Starfleet allows Disney to sub-lease the deck space at whatever Disney wants to charge--which would be exorbitant--or whether Starfleet requires Disney to only sub-lease space at however many credits Starfleet would charge, and we would know how much we should offer Krocher if Disney isn't trying to unduly profit off of him."

She looked at all of them in turn. "I have to let you all know, though, that I'm closing up my gallery and retiring to Denobula. I've been wanting to go back home for a while, and this explosion is as good an excuse for me as any. But I know someone who might be a good candidate to come on board here, and she has enough funds to help save the mall, if she's willing. I was going to offer my gallery space to her, in fact. Are you all okay with me talking to her?"

"Who is it?" Morva asked.

"It's Purulence Addams--er, Collins, now. I know, weird name, but she's a reasonably well-known portrait painter, and her portraits are amazing. You feel like you really know the subject when you look at them. Anyway, I think I could interest her in this venture, if you all go through with it."

"Addams..." Morva thought a moment. "Father's name is Pubert, right? She has a niece named Experiment Number Six?"

"I don't know about her family, but the weird names fit," Loren said.

"Her father and niece have eaten at the Slug & Grub before," Morva explained. "They were fascinated by the flaked blood flea and the gree worm jelly, if I recall."

Galamar winced. "Honestly, Morva, I don't know how you stay in business. That sounds thoroughly unappetizing."

"To each their own," Morva said to him with a toothy smile. "Loren, talk to Mrs. Collins and find out if she's willing to join our efforts. Everyone else--to recap--Task one: Find out the leasing arrangements for Olla Podrida. I'm sure they are publicly available somewhere. Task two: Find out how much money we can pool together, from our own savings, from bonds, from disaster relief grants, and from other sources. Task three: Meet with Mr. Krocher and negotiate the deal. We can tell him this would save him the cost of demolition."

Aaron raised his hand again. "Before we talk about saving Krocher the cost of demolition, let me have a look at the building. In my corporate job, I was a structural engineer and quit it to do what I love. I can scan the building and tell you if it's worth repairing or if we should just let Krocher demolish it and start anew. There's no reason why we should throw money away if we don't have to."

"Agreed," Morva said and made a note of that point. "You'll have to talk to Starfleet about getting permission to view the site, and you might have to wear an environment suit to take your scans, but please go ahead."

T'Saval also raised her hand. "I will do the research into leasing contracts and see what Disney's rights are. If Mr. Krocher has signed anything already, I'll be able to find that, as well."

Morva nodded. "Excellent. Let's meet again in five days, same time, if you all can make that. Let me know privately how much funding you can contribute to this project. I'm willing to put forward 500,000 credits. Aaron, submit an invoice to me for your services." She eyed them all. "Yes, it is that important to me, and I hope it is that important to all of you, too."

 

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