Tiona (a sequel to "Vaz") (21 page)

“Gettnor, the dad that is, hired a lawyer!” Barker said it like hiring a lawyer was a low-life scum-sucking thing to do. Eisner found this oddly amusing in view of the fact that Barker was a lawyer himself. “She’s saying that since he doesn’t work for the University he should get his share off the top, rather than a piece of the share the University gives the inventors.”

Eisner’s eyebrows went up.
No wonder the University attorney is upset. Barker probably doesn’t care that much about how the inventors share their part, but if Gettnor takes his piece off the top, the University’s share gets smaller!”
“So he’s taking a five percent share off the top?”

“No! This lawyer’s demanding fifty percent! She says she’s gone over the AV records from both the father and the daughter. She claims that this entire invention is unrelated to the research project the daughter was assigned to. She says the University’s only claim relates to the use of the lab space and the fact that the daughter has a job here so the university has some claim on her IP because of her employment. But she says the daughter did most of the work at home and the University doesn’t have
any
claim on the father’s IP. She claims that you and Dr. Weitzel didn’t actually do
any
work on this until the father and daughter had figured it out and told you about it. Can that be true?”

“Um,” Eisner said, his heart sinking.
I should never have agreed to that disposition Barker designated for the IP.
“I directed her into her research area. I suggested the doping scheme that resulted in the membranes that produced thrust. She didn’t tell me the membranes were moving when she applied current to them or… or, I’m sure I would have recognized the importance of such a phenomenon. Uh, it’s true that they kind of figured it all out before I even heard about it, but that’s only because they didn’t give me the opportunity.” He paused, thinking furiously, “But, I do think they should get a bigger share and wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. Do you think that would appease them?”

Barker didn’t say anything for a moment, presumably thinking, then he said, “Nah, they’re probably just throwing a hook in the water to see if it catches a fish. It’s something we lawyers do. I’ll set up a meeting and we’ll hit her with the argument that they don’t really want to go up against the resources of the University. That should scare this lawyer woman pretty good since her client is actually unemployed.
Then
we’ll magnanimously offer to up the Gettnors share a little bit. Always better to argue from strength.”

“Okay…” Eisner said uneasily.

***

Tiona found her dad in what she thought of as the “lab extension,” the part that went between the two houses and on into the Johnson’s basement. He had a series of half meter coppery discs laid out on the lab benches in shallow plastic pans. The pans had a double lip around the edge and looked like something he’d had molded just for this project. He was pouring liquids into bottles suspended over the pans, presumably the solutions for doped monolayer graphene precipitation. Tubes from each of them joined at a mixer right over the pan. It was essentially the set up she’d come up with for Nolan. It would mix the solutions and drip them into the pan; then the fluids would overflow the first lip into the second reservoir before the pH changed too much from the precipitation.

“Hi Tiona,” he said. “Are you up to helping me precipitate some of your membranes? I especially need your help precipitating the big ones for the main saucer tonight if you have time?”

Might as well, it’s not like I have a love life to attend to,
Tiona thought sadly. “Sure, what do you need me to do?”

He pointed at two of the setups which were already going, “It’d be great if you could check the pH on those to make sure it’s staying where it’s supposed to be.”

She and her dad worked the morning away precipitating large numbers of the half meter discs that were to produce forward and lateral thrust from inside the big saucer. At one point she asked, “What did you say about precipitating the big ones for the main saucer?”

“The fabricators have finished the top and bottom sections of the main saucer. They’ve got them laid out in their plant face up, ready for us to precipitate the membranes into them. Since we can’t use this ‘spillover’ method on them because they have an enormous lip, my plan is to pour the solutions in around the edges and pump it out near the center. It’ll be kind of labor-intensive.”

And you need me there because you couldn’t stand to hire a stranger to help you,
Tiona thought. Then she reconsidered,
That was uncharitable. It’s
my
project too, I
should
be helping.
“No problem, I didn’t have any plans tonight.”

“Great! Then the fabricators can insert these half-meter discs into the honeycomb grid with all the tanks and the gigahertz power converters. They’ll drop the honeycomb into the big bottom disc, flip the top disc over onto it and bolt
the whole thing together tomorrow.”

Tiona frowned, “They must be
constantly
working your project to make so much progress. How are you getting them to give you so much priority?!”

“Paying them a
huge
premium. They’re working on it 24/7,” Vaz said happily.

***

Houston, Texas - NASA today disclosed serious problems with the Bellerphon module and its mission to capture asteroid Kadoma. Astronauts White and Abbott successfully rendezvoused with Kadoma and installed a large ion engine. The engine was intended to modify Kadoma’s orbit so that it could be brought into orbit around Earth. The asteroid, with its collection of frozen gases, high content metal ores, and carbonaceous deposits would have served as a magnificent resource for space-based industries.

Unfortunately, the engine, though it initially worked well, has been gradually failing. This is thought to be due to some unexpected impurity contained in the frozen gases the astronauts have been harvesting from Kadoma to serve as fuel. The effectiveness of the engine has recently decreased to the point where the capture of Kadoma is no longer possible. Even more dismaying, however, is the fact that the return of the Bellerphon module had been intended to be fueled by those same frozen gases. If Bellerphon’s engine fails in the same fashion while using that fuel, it’s possible that astronauts White and Abbott will not successfully return to earth.

For now, the astronauts have begun consuming reduced rations, but remain on Kadoma in hopes that NASA will be able to determine the cause of the engine failure and develop a solution to correct it. In another two weeks, however, they will reach the point which would produce their most efficient transfer orbit. Then they will leave Kadoma and try to reach Earth, hoping that Bellerphon’s engine will be less severely affected by the problem and that they can make it back home.

Our prayers will go with them…

***

Sophie sat with her head in her hands. She’d just finished talking to Zack and Ralph out on Kadoma, trying to stay upbeat. Ralph seemed to be on an even keel like he always was, but Zack… just like Zack had been the one full of vim and vigor when things were going well; now Zack was the one in the depths of depression. Talking to him was agonizing.

He’d even said, “You can stop pretending you think someone’s going to find a solution. We both know we’re ‘dead men walking.’”

Ralph had rebutted, “
I
don’t know that. I’m going to keep working the problem ’til I’m
actually
dead!”

Sophie had said, “I’m with Ralph!” trying to sound optimistic, but even
she
thought she sounded hollow.

***

Bob Eisner and Leo Weitzel looked up as more people entered the small conference room. Eisner immediately recognized Tiona and a sick, embarrassed feeling rose up inside him. She was his student, and had certainly contributed far more than five percent to any inventive process. He’d been lying awake the past few nights, thinking that it was completely unconscionable that he’d agreed to the percentages that Barker had suggested. He should have had the moral fiber to suggest something more reasonable rather than being sucked in by the potential financial windfall. Besides, the Gettnors were poor and could really use the money.

Eisner glanced back at Allan Barker, the University attorney. While they’d been waiting, Barker had been haranguing Eisner and Weitzel to stand firm. “We’ll negotiate, sure,” he’d said. “First we have to establish a position of strength. Then we’ll magnanimously give the Gettnors a bigger share. That way everyone’ll be happy.”

Eisner thought that Barker was unnecessarily aggressive. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that legal practice was an adversarial zero-sum game. People who were good at it would naturally be aggressive. Eisner looked back at the people who’d just entered the room.

The slender, dark woman of obvious Indian ancestry had to be Anbala Singh, the Gettnors’ lawyer. She seemed too young and pretty to be taken seriously as a lawyer despite her exquisitely tailored suit.
Probably she’s all the Gettnors could afford. Probably working on contingency and hoping the intellectual property turns out to be valuable enough to make it worth her while even if she only gets a piece.

The third person must be Gettnor.
Nolan Marlowe was certainly correct when he said Gettnor was a weird guy!
The man had on ill-fitting oversized clothing. It didn’t look
old like his daughter’s clothing usually did, but looked cheap and made a marked contrast to the lawyer’s elegant attire. The expressionless, uncomfortable looking man was not only bald, he didn’t even have eyebrows!

To his astonishment, Tiona came around the table and sat down next to Eisner! In view of the legal proceedings, he’d expected her to be hostile. Instead she leaned close to him to quietly say, “I hope this doesn’t cause problems between us. I’ve been learning a lot working in your lab and would like to stay on.” She shrugged, “But, my dad had some problems with IP agreements in the past so he always has Ms. Singh read over any contracts. She didn’t think this one was fair.” Tiona looked around the room at the others and said wistfully, “I hope we can work this out.”

“Me too,” Eisner said.

Barker had been whispering to a couple of the people from the technology development office. Now he turned and frowned when he saw Eisner and Tiona sitting next to one another. He looked Eisner in the eye and gave a minute disapproving shake of his head. Then he looked around the room, cleared his throat and said, “Well, let’s get started, shall we?”

There were nods all around. With some surprise, Eisner saw Anbala Singh grinning widely as if she were tremendously amused. Eisner had expected the young lawyer to be fidgety and nervous. The older Gettnor was staring up at his HUD and murmuring to his AI. Eisner had the distinct impression that Gettnor was completely uninterested in the proceedings and totally focused on something completely unrelated.

Barker began by co-opting Eisner’s words to explain how the thruster invention depended on the multi-monolayer graphene invented in Eisner’s lab with Marlowe and further describing the lithium-copper doping scheme Eisner had suggested for Tiona’s membranes. Barker managed to make it sound like the Gettnors’ contribution in recognizing the “thrust effect” of the membranes when energized was a minor contribution. Listening to Barker explain it, made Eisner feel a little bit better about the oversized share he’d been assigned. Barker finished up by saying, “However, in retrospect, we recognize that the percentage assigned to the Gettnors was a little small. Drs. Eisner and Weitzel have graciously acknowledged this and are willing to negotiate that figure upwards a little.” At this point Barker paused, apparently awaiting comment from the others.

Eisner looked around the table and found it disconcerting to realize that Singh still sat there smiling happily. She looked like someone had told a particularly humorous story. After a moment, she leaned forward, “So, by that argument,” she raised an eyebrow, “Shouldn’t Andre Geim, the man who first isolated monolayer graphene, get an even bigger share than Dr. Eisner? And perhaps an even bigger share should go to Hanns-Peter Boehm who described single-layer carbon in 1962?” Her eyes widened as if she’d just been struck with the thought, “Maybe the person who first described carbon way back when should get a bigger share yet?!”

Barker looked irritated, “That’s ridiculous. Isolating graphene has nothing to do with the thrust invention!”

“Whoops! My bad!” Singh frowned, “Why does developing a process for making multi-monolayer graphene have something to do with the thrust invention?”

“You can’t make the thrusters without multi-monolayer graphene!”

Singh pursed her lips in puzzlement, “Can’t make thrusters without carbon, or copper, or lithium either.”

Barker closed his eyes as if he were trying to calm himself. “The point I’m trying to make,” he grated, “is that the graphene invention was necessary for this invention.”

“So is science… and electricity… and transistors capable of generating gigahertz current, do the inventors of those all get a piece?”