Private Expensive Addiction

[NPC Treasury]

Dear Kay Arenais,

First I would like to formally thank you for that sampling can of your new coffee recipe that you gave me last year. It was truly amazing and going back to the navy regulation coffee hasn't been the same since. I can't stop thinking about that coffee and I have to have it for the whole navy. I understand that you have put the new coffee recipe into production and you are now able to sell mass quantities of this substance?

I want to place an order for the navy immediately. Sooner than later if you can, please. 50 million cases to supply all of my ships with Empire Coffee should be enough to stimulate my fleets for a year and we will be ordering another 50 million next year. Bill it to my quartermaster Dorthea Dobson and she will see about finalizing the transaction.

Again, haste would be highly appreciated. We are willing to pay a rush premium on this.

My eternal thanks,
Grand Admiral Burtch.


.............


Kay nearly dropped her cup of Sapir tea while she read the message from Grand Shepherd Burtch on her datapad. "Fifty MILLION cases?!" She set her cup down and then grabbed her little pillow from her couch, screaming into it. Most people would probably be ecstatic over such an order. But Kay was freaked out.

"Fifty.....MILLION.....cases." She got to her feet and quickly left her small room above her shop and headed down to the manufacturing and storage warehouse that was at the back of her shop. "Fifty million cases...fifty million...." Kay furrowed her brows as she looked around. "I'm going to need a bigger warehouse..." Not to mention more bean roasters, greenhouses and staff. It was going to be quite the undertaking. And it was going to take a while.

Kay returned to her room and picked up her datapad, penning a message for the Grand Admiral.

~Grand Admiral Burtch,

Thank you for your interest in Empire Coffee. I'm glad that it is to your taste. And thank you for generous order. It may take some time to fulfill however as the vine-coffee beans are not artificial, nor easily grown. But I will do my best to ensure that their productivity grows so that such an immense order can be fulfilled upon request in the future.

In the meantime I can send you 100 cases immediately.

Respectively,

Sphaera Tea Company~

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Burtch read NPC Treasury 's response and immediately felt anxious. Only 100 cases???

A hundred cases might last HMS Shii-Cho a full year. Tops. But that was just one ship. What if Burtch had to move his flag for a temporary assignment? What if he had to take up another base assignment? What if, Force forbid, he had to share with other navy commands??? This was unacceptable.

He got up from his desk, walked out of his office, and strode past his trandoshan secretary without saying a word. He strode briskly to his private quarters down the hall, tension apparent in his gate. He entered his quarters and quickly stripped his uniform and put on his PT attire. He then left his quarters and made his way down to the officers gym.

He threw on some sparring gloves and began hitting the bag with a ferocity that told the other three officers in the gym to not get close or to be seen watching him. Flurries of kicks and punches of different kinds hammered away at the bag as it dangled helplessly from the ceiling. Burtch spent several minutes working up an incredible sweat, punishing the bag, his knuckles, his wrists, his shins and his feet.

Finally he was completely out of breath. With sweat dripping down his face, and staining his PT attire, he tore off the gloves, threw them in the hamper, and grabbed a towel and a water bottle. He strode past a couple of dornean officers on the weights and they both saluted him as he walked by. He didn't even notice them.

He made his way back to his office, not bothering to stop at his quarters to change back into his uniform, and walked right past his secretary. As he passed her, he felt her eyes quickly fall on him in concern, but he ignored her. It was none of her business.

He sat down, set the bottle on his desk and draped the towel around his neck. He hit the reply icon on NPC Treasury 's message and began typing;

To whom it may concern,

I understand that production capabilities are a concern, and I do appreciate the promptness with which you replied to my request. Is there anything that can be done to assist with production? Facilities can be arranged, funds can be invested, and infrastructure can be provided. Name it, and I will see it done.

You may or may not be aware of this, but good navies run on good coffee. The Imperial Navy needs your product and I am happy to help facilitate a prompt delivery in whatever way possible. I have the power to make things happen. I am a Grand Admiral. I will use my assets to my advantage.

Again please tell me if there is anything that will help. I will even grow the damn vines myself if you send me the seeds.

Sincerely,

Grand Admiral Burtch.

 

[NPC Treasury]

Kay read the message from Grand Shepherd Burtch over and over again with utter concern written on her face. She had seen such strong dedication to something before. He was addicted... And overly so. Sure she was addicted to Sapir tea, but never would she go to such lengths to get huge quantities of it. Yet here was a Grand Admiral nearly proposing to move mountains and earth in order to get her coffee. His message read like someone obsessed.

She had to tread carefully. Very carefully.

After a moment of thinking, Kay penned him a reply:

~Grand Admiral Burtch,

Thank you for your kind offers to assist. What is needed the most is time. Vine-coffee is a very stubborn and difficult plant to culminate properly. The plants that I grow are pure and not genetically altered in any way. That is part of the secret to their great taste.

It takes a season for one crop to be ready, which will be ample time for me to increase the size of my facility and warehouse plus hire more help.

I implore you to be patient, and will send you as many cases as I can when they become available.

Respectively,

Sphaera Tea Company~

She sent it off and hoped that the man would be kept busy enough to not even fathom dropping by her shoppe. The last thing that she needed was an Imperial Navy knocking at her door...

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Dorthea Dobson POV (forgot to switch accounts)

The turbolifts on the Makashi Class Light Cruisers were very well laid out, in Dorthea's opinion. Her office, in between the hangar's two cargo bays, was very close to the hallway that ran straight to the turbolift bank. She didn't even need to take the ship-long tramways that ran along the ship's upper and lower keels. Very quickly, she strode to the lifts, went up to the bridge level, then walked a short distance down the hall to Grand Shepherd Burtch ‘s personal office. At the reception desk was Burtch's ever-present Trandoshan secretary.

"Good Morning, Lieutenant Krriistaah." Dorthea chimed in an unusually cheerful mood.

Krriistaah stood at attention from her chair, but didn't bother saluting. In her position, even though she was only a lieutenant, for her to salute everyone that came through would've been a nightmare for her, so some leniency was granted to her as a courtesy. Plus, mostly everyone on the ship liked her and she wasn't the type to take advantage of a little leeway. Only so long as she saluted high ranking strangers she would be left alone by the senior officers on Shii-Cho. She did respond verbally however in a professional manner, "Good morning, Lieutenant Commander Dobzon! The Admiral iz… currently unavailable today."

Dorthea sensed the nervousness in Krriistaah's tone, and a little instinct went off in her head. She decided to press this matter, "how do you mean 'unavailable'? Is he not in his office or is he taking a call?"

Nervous tension continued to cloud Krriistaah's face as she tried to answer the question, "he'z juzt not… I actually zhouldn't zay, ma'am. I don't think it'z my businezz."

Dorthea sighed. She had been keeping an eye on Burtch for a while now and she was pretty sure she knew what was going on. Plus she had heard that two Dornean officers had just seen Burtch in a strange way at the gym, which confirmed her suspicions, "I'm gonna talk to him. Don't let anyone disturb us…"

"I would not do that, Commander," Krriistaah warned.

Dorthea walked closer to the trandoshan Lieutenant, stopped, and stared her hard in the eyes, "I will go in there Lieutenant, and I'm ordering you to let me. I've known him since we served together in the First Order and I've been watching him for a while. This is overdue. I'm going to talk to him, and you need to not let anyone bother us. Understood?”

"Yez, Commander Dobzon," Krriistaah said while somehow straightening her spine even more than it had been at attention

"Very good," and Dorthea walked right through the door.

Inside, she saw a sad sight of Burtch in his PT clothes, typing madly at his computer. Dark bags under his eyes contrasted the paler shade of his already pale-blue skin, and he was covered in sweat.

"What are you doing, Admiral?" She demanded.

He didn't look up and kept typing, but he did say, "You're supposed to salute, Lieutenant Commander Dobson,"

"Burtch" she said sternly.

The word hung in the air for a second until Burtch realized this was serious and he stopped to look up at her. His eyes were a weird shade of red and when his eyes fell on her face, they seemed to look through her as if he was struggling to focus on her. She spoke before he could find his own words, "when's the last time you slept?"

He blinked hard, trying to think about the question, "well last night, of course. I'm a Chiss though, so I don't need to sleep nearly as much as humans do."

Dorthea blinked slowly, once, and then looked at him with a deadpan expression, "you didn't sleep last night." It wasn't a question.

Burtch looked back at her and he seemed to sink a little in his chair, "no," he admitted softly.

"You haven't slept in weeks."

"No," he answered again. Fatigue seemed to suck him into his chair even more. His hands were now no longer hovering over his typing pad.

Dorthea nodded understanding, "to be totally honest, sir, you look like my brother Severus Dobson after he's spent a week in a conference on Zeltos." She hid her smirk as best as she could.

Burtch glanced at his computer screen, seeming a little lost for words, but then spoke again, "I don't have a substance abuse problem. I just think I need some rest."

Dorthea nodded understanding again, "I couldn't agree more, sir. I don't think you have a substance abuse problem either, in the traditional sense, but you are working yourself into the grave. You're not stopping to rest and you're beginning to use caffeine as a substitute for sleep. You're starting to become dependent on caffeine and it's having addiction-like effects on you now. Withdrawal symptoms are showing since we ran out of Empire Coffee. You need to take a leave, sir." In truth she was certain that he was at least mildly addicted, but it was amplified by the fact that he was exceedingly exhausted. Nothing could be done to help the Admiral unless he left the navy for a short break.

Burtch nodded meekly and then spoke, his voice was becoming hoarse, "ok, I'll send a couple letters here and then I'll go to my quarters and get my things ready…"

"No." Dorthea declared firmly, "you go now. I'll take care of your computer stuff and make sure all the proper channels know what they need to know."

"But I'm…" Burtch started.

"Go. Now. Room." She stepped to the side and pointed towards the door.

Burtch shot a look of daggers at her, but the effort of doing so combined with his recent acknowledgment of his fatigue finally killed his resolve. He simply stood and started walking towards the door. But he stopped as he passed Dorthea and spoke, "maybe send Martin Dux a message saying that I'd like to spend some time at his academy. Since I'm going on leave, I'd like to explore some curiosities of a private sort while I'm gone."

Dorthea resisted the urge to roll her eyes and said, "sure. I'll send him a message. Now go."

The thought of going to Spindle IV to check out Vesti seemed to perk Burtch up a bit and so he left with a bit more energy, and rounded the corner and disappeared.

Dorthea moved towards his desk and looked at the display. There was a mostly finished letter written to the Sphaera Tea Company written with many spelling errors. So naturally, Dorthea proceeded to read it… and her eyes widened in horror as she did so. The letter was filled with veiled threats and suggestions that would make any Dobson blush. Good thing I got here when I did. He was starting to go over the edge!


She quickly deleted the letter and began writing a replacement:

Dear Sphaera Tea Company,

Thank you for your correspondence and I look forward to the completion of our agreement. I am going on a vacation as of today, so I will forward you the contact information for my Chief Quartermaster Dorthea Dobson so that you can ask her if you have any concerns.

Thank you very much!

Grand Admiral Burtch

She sent that as it was and then composed of a few more messages that would need to know that Burtch was going on a leave of absence effective immediately. Then, finally as Burtch had requested, she sent a message to Martin Dux ;

Dear Master Dux,

I am messaging you to inform you that I am about to go on leave and I would very much like to visit your base on Spindle IV, Vesti. My reasons for visiting are personal and the duration of my stay is undecided, but please inform me if this is unacceptable to you and I will make other plans. Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Rhob'urt'chistagh.

While she dealt with Burtch’s messages, her letter of resignation laid untouched and forgotten in her pocket…

 

[Martin Dux]

"No, that's not how the force works." Martin said, sternly, leaning back in the chair, laying a hand on his desk.

The officer shook his head, upset, confused, and all-around moody at the old man's laid-back nature. "I've heard legends that the Jedi of the past had the ability to tear literal starships out of the sky, and you're telling me that your knights can only manage to toss small rocks!?"

Martin raised an eyebrow. "first off, those rocks weren't small, they could easily crush a man. Secondly, yes, the force users of the past could rip starships from the atmosphere. People like Revan could kill armies with the wave of their hand. Unfortunately, people with that kind of power only come once in a blue moon, besides, the knights aren't even trained for that kind of display."

"Well, they should be! If they can't accomplish even that small a feat, how can they stand against the Sith or Jedi?" The officer scrunched up his face.

Martin chuckled, looking to the desk and shaking his head. "Sir, you are greatly overestimating our enemies." he used the terms 'enemies' lightly, really, he didn't know who to see as opposition.

Just then, the datapad on Martin's desk lit up, a message beaming on its screen. The old man's eyes darted from it to the officer. "You may leave, we're done here."

"But-"

"We're done here." Martin waved a hand in front of the man's face, without thinking, the officer rose and left the room. Thankfully, Dux wouldn't be seeing him again.

He coughed, picking up the datapad. He read intently, mildly surprised at Grand Shepherd Burtch 's desire to see Vesti. Granted, it would be good to see the Admiral, he was about the only one in the Elysium he considered a friend. Although, you could substitute friend with collogue.

Martin went to tapping on the device, replying.

~Burtch,

I have to say, this is a surprise, not a bad one though. It'll be good to see you again, we haven't talked much since our first meeting and I bet you're dying to see how the 'academy' is coming along.

I welcome your visit, come anytime you want. Although don't expect anything fancy, we're currently renovating a few parts to make it more suitable. Again, I have to thank you for allowing me to use this place, it's been a great fit.

With highest regards,

Martin~


NPC Treasury