Tiona (a sequel to "Vaz") (20 page)

Zack had just strapped himself to the command console seat preparatory to placing a call to Houston. He paused and turned. With a little dread in his voice, he asked, “What kind of numbers?”

“If Bellerphon’s engine suffers the same rate of deterioration burning the ice we’ve loaded into its tanks… we can’t make Earth orbit. Well, not before we run out of food.” They had a small system to purify water out of the ice on the asteroid so they wouldn’t run out of water. They could use the water to make oxygen and they had a Sabatier processor to remove CO2. Food would be their limit.

The light in Zack’s eyes dimmed for a moment as the air seemed to go out of him. “Have you talked to Houston about it?”

Ralph nodded, “They’re working on it.”

“Do they have a capsule that could rendezvous with us as we go by?”

Ralph shook his head.

“And the water purifier wouldn’t give us enough clean water for Bellerphon’s engines?”

“No, not and keep us alive too. I’ve emptied Bellerphon’s tank and started filling it with every drop of surplus water the purifier generates. It won’t be enough, but I figure that every drop of clean water will mean a little less of whatever impurity it is that gives the engines problems. We’ll refill the tank with the ice right before we leave.” He paused, “But it won’t be enough.”

Zack got a distant look in his eyes, “So we’re better staying here on the rock, hoping that Houston will figure out what’s wrong and come up with a solution?”

Ralph shrugged, “Yeah, for now. They’re also trying to run scenarios where they’d boost some clean fuel out to meet us on the way back. Then we could refill the tank before the engine deteriorated too much.”

“Are we sure Bellerphon’s engines will crap out using the ice?”

“No, the designs are a little different, so maybe not. But I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Well I’m calling Houston anyway,” Zack said turning back to the panel. “Somebody’s got to light a fire under those bastards,” he grumbled.

***

Eisner and Weitzel stepped into the technology development office at the University. Eisner felt grateful for once that the students were still on break. He wanted to figure out what the intellectual property issues would be before he had to talk to Tiona Gettnor again. When they arrived at the desk, the receptionist sent them right in to the conference room where their meeting had been set.

Alan Barker, the University’s attorney, drummed his fingers on the desk as he thought. “How many people did you say know about this?”

Eisner frowned as he thought, “Well, myself and Dr. Weitzel here. Obviously, Tiona Gettnor, and she says she’s explained it to her dad who’s an unemployed physicist. Apparently he has some lab equipment and has been helping her work on it over her Christmas break. My other grad student, Nolan Marlowe, might know something about it, I don’t know. He’s the one that came up with the process for precipitation of multilayer graphene.”

“Then why does this student’s father know about it? Don’t you have some kind of confidentiality agreement in your lab?”

“There’s kind of an understanding that you don’t go blabbing about your research to everyone so other lab groups don’t beat you to the punch with a publication. But unless we think there’s commercial value we don’t start signing confidentiality agreements.”

Barker sighed, “What’s done is done I guess. You think these ‘thrusters’ can be used for station keeping on satellites?”

Eisner and Weitzel both nodded.

The attorney frowned, “How do satellites keep station now?”

“They use little rockets. But eventually they run out of fuel, and of course refueling them is
extremely
expensive.”

“So this would be pretty valuable?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure just how much it would be worth, but the space industry should
really
want these things.”

“And this student’s dad… how much does he know about this?”

Eisner and Weitzel looked at one another, “Apparently quite a bit,” Eisner said.

Barker frowned again, “But he shouldn’t have any claim to the inventive process, right?”

Eisner gave a doubtful shrug, “I don’t know… to hear the daughter tell it, he might be the one who recognized that the phenomenon could be important.”

Barker drew his head back in astonishment, “
You
didn’t think it was important?!”

“I didn’t even know it existed. She hadn’t said anything to me about her membranes moving until she came to tell me that they were producing thrust.”

“But she’s just a student in your lab, right?”

Eisner nodded.

“And the father doesn’t even have a job?”

“Apparently not.”

The attorney sat forward as if he’d just come to a decision. “So here’s what we’ll do. As usual, the University gets sixty percent, with forty percent going to your department. The other forty percent goes to the inventors and I’d suggest sixty percent to you Dr. Eisner, thirty percent to Dr. Weitzel and ten percent to be split between this girl and her father.”

Eisner sank back in his chair. Sixty percent seemed like a lot more than his contribution had amounted to. Thirty percent was certainly a lot more than Weitzel had contributed, he’d come to this after-the-fact. For a moment Eisner thought about protesting that the Gettnors really should get the biggest share. But, the attorney had a lot of experience with this stuff. If he thought it should be divided that way…?

Eventually, Eisner said nothing and merely nodded. He felt guilty, but it was hard to say no to the kind of financial windfall this probably represented.

Barker nodded in return; then said, “I’ll shoot you the documents by email. All of you sign them and send them back to me. I’ll get the patent people started on getting us some protection. In the meantime,” he paused for emphasis, “
keep this confidential
!”

***

Tiona stared at the agreement that Dr. Eisner had forwarded to her. His message was cryptic, “I disclosed the thrusters to the University attorneys and they said we all (your dad included) needed to sign the attached agreement. They’re having their patent attorneys submit it for patent protection. The patent attorney would like any further description you have of the precipitation methods and the physical setup of the thrusters for their submission. You can send it to me, and I’ll forward it onward.”

Tiona hadn’t read any intellectual property disclosure forms before and found the process to be pretty interesting. However, she’d been stunned when she came to the section which assigned ownership. She had assumed that Dr. Eisner would get some ownership; it was his lab after all.

But Weitzel? She liked Dr. Weitzel, but he hadn’t had anything to do with the development of the idea.

For that matter, Dr. Eisner hadn’t had much to do with it other than for the fact that serendipity had struck in his laboratory. Tiona thought of her dad as having the most to do with recognizing that this could be important and then developing it.

Finding herself tense, she took a couple of deep breaths and tried to relax.
I don’t know why I’m worried about it! It’s not like Dad needs the money or like he doesn’t give me plenty to spend!

She stretched a couple of times, took a few more relaxing breaths and then forwarded the email to her dad. Her comment was even more cryptic. “What do you think?”

Then she thought to herself,
He’s oblivious. He not only won’t know if he’s being screwed, he won’t care!

She had just started to wonder whether she should try to figure out how to get some legal advice, when an email came back from her dad. “I don’t understand this kind of legal stuff, but I have a lawyer. She has me send all this kind of stuff to her and she gets back to me pretty quickly about whether it’s okay. I’ve sent it to her.”

***

Tiona stared out a window of her parent’s home. Though it was evening and the light was down, she could see that a U-Haul truck was pulled up in front of the Johnson’s house.
Somebody’s moving in?! Do they have the wrong address, or does Dad not really own that house?
She turned and headed downstairs.
I’d better let him know.

Her dad wasn’t in the basement. Not in the old lab that he’d always used, nor in the big area that went over under Johnson’s house. She went up the stairs and heard her dad talking out in the garage. Talking might be a generous term; he was using very few words, like he usually did when speaking to a stranger. She walked out into the garage and felt the man’s eyes jump to her.

Mentally she grimaced to herself. She and Ronnie were supposed to go out to dinner and see if they could “work things out.” She was wearing a fairly short skirt, heels, and a silky blouse, determined to show Ronnie what he’d be giving up if he kept acting like a jerk. Of course, clothing like that was getting all the wrong kind of attention from the guy in the U-Haul. The clothes she wore to school kept this kind of crap from happening. Her dad turned towards her at the man’s glance and his eyebrows went up too.
Well, he doesn’t have any eyebrows to go up, but his face made the muscular contractions for it.
She felt a little embarrassed.

After a moment’s gawk, the man turned back to Vaz. “But Sir, I understand you’re having a lot of deliveries in the next couple of weeks. You know they can be delivered directly to you, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Having them delivered to us, then getting us to rent a U-Haul and deliver them after dark is going to cost you a fortune!”

“It’s okay.”

The man rolled his eyes, “It’s your funeral. Where do you want us to put this thing?”

Vaz turned and pointed to some markings in the center of the floor.

The guy frowned, then turned and walked to the back of his truck, calling to his helper.

A little while later, the two men had unloaded what looked like a big two meter diameter oval hot tub. At first Tiona wasn’t sure what it was; then she saw GE’s symbol on the side suggesting it was the fusion plant. The two men put it in the center of the garage and turned to go.

Abruptly Vaz said, “Your agreement says you’ll put it exactly where I want it.”

The first guy stared at him, “That’s where you said to put it!”

The other guy stared at Tiona, obviously uninterested in the conversation.
And people wonder why I wear ugly clothes most of the time,
she thought to herself.

“No, the marks.” Vaz said, pointing, “It needs to line up on the marks.”

The man looked down and saw that the marks on the floor were in the shape of the bottom of the power plant. They had set it a couple of inches to one side. He shrugged, “Okay man.”

A few minutes later, the men had positioned it correctly on the marks. The first guy said, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Vaz said.

The two men left and Vaz closed the garage door. He turned to Tiona with a puzzled look on his face, “Why did he say it would be my funeral?”

“It’s just a saying Dad.” She tilted her head, “Why are you having stuff delivered in U-Haul trucks?”

“Hoping the neighbors won’t ask so many questions.”

***

Tiona and Ronnie walked into Rockfish. Ronnie had actually suggested it even though he wasn’t wild about seafood, knowing that Tiona liked it. She thought that was a positive indication.

The hostess said that it would be another ten minutes until their table would be ready and suggested they get a drink at the bar. Tiona said, “No, we’ll just wait.” She turned to the little bench the restaurant kept for people who had to wait.

Ronnie said, “I’ll go snag a beer. What do you want Tiona?”

Tiona stared up at him from her seat. “No,
don’t
go ‘snag a beer!’ You’re
an
unwiped
ass
when you drink. That’s the whole thing we’re getting together to talk about tonight.”

Ronnie got a mulish expression on his face, “And here I thought we were getting together to talk about how you should loosen up! Not be such a bitch.”

Tiona stood up. She looked sadly at Ronnie for a minute; then said, “Goodbye.” She turned and went out the door, telling her AI to call her car over from where it had parked. Thank the gods she hadn’t ridden with Ronnie.

The door opened behind her and Ronnie called out, “Tiona!” When she didn’t turn, he yelled, “You’re going to be sorry!”

Tiona kept walking…

***

Eisner’s AI said, “You have a call from University attorney Allan Barker.”

“I’ll take it… Hello Mr. Barker?”

Barker sounded furious. “The Gettnors are refusing to sign off on the IP disclosure!”

A sick feeling came over Eisner.
They must be upset about the small share they got assigned!
Aloud, he said, “What’s the problem?”