The Circadia Chronicles: Omnibus: The Complete Colonization Sci-Fi Series by Heather Heckadon (books to read to get smarter .txt) 📗

that she had some new information for us. “We are so glad to have the newest citizens of Circadia with us. This is our first dinner together. I just wanted to make everyone aware of what is going into meal times. There are four hundred of us now. That’s a lot. I don’t know if you are aware or not, but we are also ensuring that the livestock has food. So, to say that today was exhausting would be an understatement,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing with the helpful crew all pitching in, but I want you all to understand how much food it takes to make one meal. Just for this dinner alone, we used three whole pigs. You can see how much meat is on your plate—very little. We spent four hours gathering native leafy greens to provide eighty pounds of vegetables. Your personal serving of these vegetables is very small. It took collecting one hundred gallons of water from the stream, boiling it, and cooling it to provide everyone with two glasses of water during their meals.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “What I’m trying to say is, we are going to have to do meal times differently now. We would like to work with the agricultural team on a plan that is sustainable, but for now, realize that rations will be small and we apologize.”

Idris stood up and put his hand on her shoulder. She nodded and sat down. Idris spoke, “For now, only the rations are changing. You will still come to meal time just as we have been doing. I encourage those of you who finish your work days early to lend a hand to our nutrition team if you have time. They could use the help. If you can spare any people from your crews, send them this way. Tomorrow, the agricultural and nutritional teams will have a meeting to get an idea of what exactly our needs are, and what we are going to do about meeting them. For now, everyone enjoy this delicious meal. Have a wonderful night.” He sat down, and I could immediately feel the stress start to consume me.

How were we possibly going to get enough food to support and sustain the people around us without ruining our future productivity? We had to give the rabbits and pigs time to breed and multiply. Even the rabbits would take a fair amount of time. The crops that were not even in the ground yet would need time to grow. How could we possibly have thought this was going to work? I tried to clear my mind, but the thoughts wouldn’t subside.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. While lying awake in my hut, listening to the crackle of the small fire in the center, the best idea came to me. And almost as soon as the idea came, I was fast asleep.

Morning came fast, but I was ready for the day. I quickly got dressed in clean clothes, pulled my long brown waves into a ponytail, and set out. Everyone was gathered around the large fire pit where most of the cooking was done. My team stood around while some sat among the nutrition team.

“Guys, I have a great idea!” I announced.

“You’re late...” Smith muttered.

“Okay, here it is. At home, when you needed groceries or you were about to cook a meal, you went to the grocery store and got exactly what you wanted, right?” Everyone stared at me silently. I continued on anyway. “Right! There is not as much waste at home as there is in institutions because people pick and choose what they want at home. Why would you spend money on something you didn’t want, right? We need to do that here.”

“What are you talking about?” the lead nutritionist said, becoming defensive. “We don’t have the means to set up a grocery store here, and we don’t have currency. So, tell me how that is going to work.”

“You’re missing the point, I think. We don’t want currency here, right?” I didn’t realize this until I said it. Back home people slaved their lives away working for a paycheck, just so that they could live. I wanted it to be different here. I wanted living and providing for yourself to just be a way of life. I wanted it to be part of the journey, not a sentence. Everyone in the meeting nodded slowly in approval. It was clear the thought hadn’t crossed their minds either, but they were certain that currency was not a wanted ideal on Circadia.

“So, what are we talking about here, then?”

“For a while, we continue to work with our crews and groups. Agricultural team grows crops, raises livestock and such. Medical team continues doing medical stuff. Solar team continues creating energy and electricity... so on, etcetera. So, for a bit, you guys continue preparing small rations of an assortment of food. People will eat it or starve. It sounds harsh, and it is, but if we all have the same goal we can handle it. Once we have a base setup, then I think we should allow people to harvest and cook their own food. Of course, if they need assistance, they can always speak with you or the medical team. Otherwise, they create their own diet.” Everyone looked enticed and nervous all at the same time. “Instead of spending your hard-earned money on food, you spend your hard-earned effort on food. If you have to process and prepare your own food, you are not going to want to be wasteful. Not to mention all the food that will be saved from being thrown away because something is not cooked the way someone likes it or due to different tastes. Not only that, but it would cut down a lot of work for you all. What do you think?”

The two teams narrowed their eyes at me. I could see that it was a lot to process.

“It’s