Chapter Jessica Proposes a Toast

Chapter Jessica Proposes a Toast

Jessica Morgan strolled through her beloved gardens. She paused at each carefully placed plant, each statue, each fountain, burning them into her memory.

She hadn’t expected to come here again and she definitely was not going to squander the opportunity.

She sought out a simple wooden bench in a less tended corner, her favorite spot in the entire galaxy.

It was quiet. It was serene. It was absolutely beautiful.

It was also the only place in the entire estate that wasn’t monitored. No camera watched. No sensor swept... or sniffed.

It was her spot.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

She sat there looking at the flowers and the trees. She looked around carefully. Satisfied that she was truly alone, she took a deep breath...

Then, she buried her face in her hands...

and wept.

***

It was a few hours later when her phone quietly rang.

“Yes,” a perfectly composed Jessica Morgan replied.

“Ma’am,” Terrence replied. “Everything is prepared and your guests have arrived.”

“Thank you, Terrence,” she said seemingly without a care in the world. “Go ahead and serve the appetizers. I shall be there directly.”

She calmly walked through the gardens, through the mansion, and into the great hall.

Inside there was a long table. Sitting at it were her three children, her nine remaining grandchildren, and seventeen of her great-grandchildren, all of the ones over sixteen.

They all rose to meet her.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” she said as she walked to the head of the table with a smile.

“It’s not like we had a choice,” her eldest son laughed.

“No, you most certainly did not,” Jessica chuckled as she took her seat.

Everyone sat in unison.

Terrence walked in with a holo-camera followed by one servant for each guest. In unison the servants placed a single champagne flute in front of each member of her family.

Shortly thereafter servants stepped forward with the finest champagne and filled each glass in turn.

“We will survive.”

She raised her glass.

“My dear family, who I truly love, please raise your glasses.”

“To the Confederacy of Sol!”

“To the Confederacy,” her family said in unison and drank.

“You know,” Jessica said after a moment. “Leadership can be hard. It can be the toughest thing you ever do. The decisions that you must make can sometimes be... God... It can be really hard. For example, I just held a conference with those very leaders to which we raised a glass. We discussed many things... One of them was a common problem we all shared. As we discussed a very serious dilemma the solution became clear. It was crystal clear what must happen. It wasn’t a pleasant realization. It was to be perfectly honest about it was perhaps one of the most difficult calls I’ve ever had to make. But... it is a decision that was clear... Is clear... and a command that had to be made...”

She looked at everyone and smiled sadly.

“So I made that decision, that command. And once again I must lead and to lead effectively you must lead by example,” she said as Terrence calmly filmed the group.

Her smile turned grim and her eyes turned cold.

“Our family faces a challenge, a challenge that we must rise to meet,” she said calmly. “A challenge that more than one of you has already failed. Some of you have abused the trust that the organization has placed in you and embezzled millions of credits,” she said looking at her eldest who shifted uncomfortably. “Others,” she said looking at Selene, “betrayed the organization by giving damaging testimony in order to try to gain immunity from what was in all honesty a minor criminal charge that would have resulted in, what, a few years of confinement in conditions that many of your fellow man would sell their soul to enjoy? If you cannot hold firm against that how can you hold firm in the days ahead?”

Selene flinched and looked away.

“Others have committed similar transgressions thinking that they went unnoticed,” Jessica said with ice in her voice. “and have already failed.”

Her eldest son swayed and gripped the table for support. He looked up, his eyes starting to glaze over. Selene stumbled, falling to her knees as others started to behave similarly.

“Yet more of you have, time and time again, have shirked even the slightest shred of responsibility not only for your actions but for your very existence and have absolutely nothing to show for a life filled with advantages that others can only dream of besides corruption and vice. I believe the correct term for your debased state is ‘affluenza’. You have absolutely nothing to offer... and you never will.”

She paused as the room filled with the sound of bodies falling to the floor and the shouts of confusion and alarm from the untouched.

As a horrified silence settled over the room she turned to the survivors.

“This is my fault...” Jessica said as silence fell. “our faults... I and the other leaders of the organization and of the various members of the Confederacy allowed ourselves to succumb to the dream that this day would never come. We allowed weakness and corruption into our houses. Today, we must correct that terrible mistake. The fate of our organizations, our confederacy, and thus the fate of all humanity in the Federation demands it.”

“We face a hard, grim future and we must do so free from weakness,” she said calmly, “Thieves, traitors, the stupid... the weak... have no place in that future. There is no room for the dishonest or disloyal on our ships. There is no oxygen to spare for the useless. The is no food to waste on those who cannot contribute. You are not immune to this new reality. In fact, you are now held to a higher standard. We must lead by example. We cannot be the weak link or we doom all who rely upon us. That I cannot allow. For every pleasure, for every privilege there is a price. Today, the bill has come due and the price is duty, duty to this organization, a duty to this confederacy, and most importantly, a duty to the very survival of our people.”

She glanced at her fallen son.

“Some were unable to meet their obligations and are no longer with us.”

She then looked up at the people still standing. Some of them pale with shock and horror, others like her daughter actually smiling back at her, eyes gleaming.

“To those of you who remain...” she said with a cold even voice.

“Welcome to the future.”