Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation (10 page)

"I don't like surprises, Mister Drucker, but I came prepared. Susan..."

Susan handed Andrew a stack of papers, which he then passed over to Drucker.

"What's this Williams? We already have a contract with you through the University," Drucker said obviously affronted.

"Non-disclosure agreement for Mister Phillips," Andrew responded. "Sorry...but we feel it's necessary."

"He doesn’t have to sign anything," Drucker said and looked at Linnette, who took the papers and began to scan them.

"No sign...no demo," Andrew said and the team looked scared because they knew there would be hell to pay. Susan thought that they might be kicked out of school but Andrew had persevered.

Drucker was furious and started to sputter but Linnette Thompson pulled him back before he said something in anger and the visitors had a little heated, huddle discussion for a minute or two. The team couldn't tell what they were saying but Linnette Thompson, the lawyer, was obviously a voice of reason trying to calm Drucker. Philips kind of’ sat back with an amused smirk. The huddle suddenly got quiet. All the heads turned toward Philips, who cocked his head and did a shrug and he began signing the agreement.

Andrew let out a long sigh and Susan covertly reached up and gave his upper arm a quick squeeze.

Drucker turned around after taking the signed copy from Phillips and shoved the papers at Andrew. "This better be good... Williams."

Andrew turned it over to Tod who started lying his ass off. He started talking about the failings in quantum mechanics and electron valence and about a new process similar to the older fuel cells to produce electricity. Thompson's and Weston's eyes glazed over pretty quickly when he started into particle theory but Philips looked like he was listening. Drucker still looked pissed and Andrew knew he had an enemy for the near term. Leman Fredericks acted puzzled at first but began to get an incredulous look. He didn't look like he was falling for this bullshit so Andrew stepped in.

"Let's go ahead and show you what this does and go into the more technical details later. Joel?" Andrew motioned to Joel and the visitors eyes refocused. They leaned a little closer as Joel flipped the switch and the motor, the refrigerator, the heater, and the lights came on. Andrew nodded to Steve, who held up his Mem-Dex, cleared his hand from the DSSS port, and turned the viewscreen to a local news channel.

"Please feel free to look this over but please don't touch anything on the power supply."

Philips and Fredericks came over to examine the power supply and the heavy leads coming out of the unit. Joel handed them an amp meter, which they held near the output cables.

"Twenty amps," Fredericks said. "What's the maximum output this unit will do? No noise? May I touch the casing? Why such heavy output cables?"

"I'm not sure about max output yet," Tod said honestly for once. “Sure. Go ahead and touch it but stay away from the output leads. We used that cable because it was laying around in a lab.”

Fredericks touched the outer casing and sucked in breath through his teeth. “Room temp. How do you do that little trick?”

"What does it use for fuel?" Philips asked. "You got in a little over my head with the technical stuff."

Tod looked at Andrew who nodded. Tod turned back to Philips. "It uses deuterium."

"Why, that's cheap. What process does it use? How many moving parts? How long will these units last?" Philips blurted. “How much does this unit weigh? Kilowatt peak output? How long will the deuterium supply last?”

Andrew coughed and shook his head, no. "The deuterium is inexpensive. I can't tell you other than it is very involved process. The only moving parts are the control switches and we'll replace them with solid state soon. We don't know how long it will last. This one weighs about 27 kilos and puts out at least 10 kilowatts."

Philips turned around with an absolute gleam in his eyes and shook Tod's, Andrew's, and Joel's hands and waved to the rest of the team who were edging a little closer themselves. Most of them hadn't seen it work either. "You kids have done a wonderful job. Drucker! I've seen enough. This is wonderful stuff. Have to go now. Keep it up. Wonderful stuff," he said and gathered up the university people and headed out the door.

Fredericks lingered around and went straight to Andrew. "Cold fusion! You really did it! Why didn't you tell me? How did you figure it out? What the hell, are those fuel tanks for? You've been hosing Drucker but I've just fired those requisitions through anyway."

Andrew held up both hands in front of him. "We'll tell you when we're a little further along." Andrew turned to Joel. "Joel. Would you mind turning that off?"

Fran spoke out, "I'll do it Joel," she said as she reached down toward the top of the unit.

John froze in horror, "Not that!" he cried. "Don't touch that!" but she had already committed to freeing the pinned switch. John jumped and shoved her harshly away but it only served to free the pinned output control. There was an explosion and flash as the output cables vaporized. A split second later, the fuel supply fail-safes kicked in and shut down the unit.

Fredericks had shielded Andrew so all he got was a momentary flash blindness but others weren't so lucky. Fredericks was down and writhing on his stomach. The back of his right leg was pretty fried. Andrew turned around to find Susan while he tried to wipe his watering eyes. John who had been almost directly over the output cables had shielded Fran, Joel and Tod. Ling had rushed in and was trying to minister to John's severe burns while Steve just dug his fingers in his ears and paced back and forth.

Philips and Drucker came running in. Philips had a comm out and was telling the paramedics where to go. Andrew felt like he could hug that man right then. John was unconscious with severe burns on the front of his lower body and crotch. Fran was pale...stunned...stumbling.

Drucker started yelling some crazy shit...it was hard to remember all he said at the moment. Philips took off his jacket and spread it over Fredericks, trying to keep him from going into shock.

The paramedics were there in a couple of minutes and had whisked Fredericks and John away. A second squad had come in and checked out the others while Drucker ranted and raved about kids and things they didn't have any business messing with.

Drucker yelled, "I'm going to have you expelled and this dangerous project shut down at once. I'm going to..."

Philips slapped him across the face...hard. "You're not going to do anything of the sort," he said in a low, deadly tone. "I will jerk the financial supports out from under this school if you interfere with them in any way." He turned to Andrew. "I'll make sure...what's his name?"

"John Brattor," Andrew said.

"I'll make sure John gets the best treatment. You have my word on it." Philips stated.

Andrew was numb. He nodded and wondered why Philips was such a rabid supporter now. He hadn't seen Philips scoop up the old, burnt out piece output cable. Sections of the heavy 4/0 cable output cable for that tiny power plant had been vaporized.

All their work took on a somber note and Andrew, hit hardest of all, simply plunged deeper into his work. Fredericks would be okay after a couple of weeks lying on his stomach. He wasn't angry and wrote a sweet note to Fran and the team to encourage them to keep working and finish what no one had been able to do before. John was in pretty bad shape though – having to undergo skin grafts plus a long series of operations. They doubted he'd be able to have kids do to the burn damage in his crotch. He was going to be a loss to the group in more ways than his expertise.

Steve showed up the next day with a black eye and wouldn't talk about it. Susan finally got it out of Ling and told Andrew about it. Seems that Steve was pissed that his screen had been fried and Ling had decked him when he mentioned it. He smiled at the thought of petite little Ling, smacking Steve. What a dweb. Ling helped in other ways too. She got Fran through the guilt of the accident and tended the others to get the group running again. Ling even got Andrew fired up again when he was feeling sorry for himself. He liked her a lot more as he learned more about her.

Andrew had another project that was showing promise right about then also. He was working long hours with Desiree trying to draw every bit of technology he could out of the language/picture teaching he had received at the hands of the alien. He would read word by word from a technical dictionary and record the alien images it would make him recall in the alien language. Andrew was also taking the rules of grammar, diction, and pronunciation and with Desiree's help, was making a language program for the alien's language. It was far from an ideal way to do it but the assisting computers never forgot and greatly aided the work. Andrew soon convened the team.

Without any emotion other than weariness showing, Andrew said, "I want you to build the others according to my specs as soon as possible. I'm going to present our entire plan to the university now." He detailed what he intended to do and then had everyone leave.

Susan was interrupted from her shower by a knock on her door. Wrapping a towel around her, she checked through the peephole and seeing Andrew, she hurriedly opened the door.

"What in the world is the matter?" Susan pleaded, "You look awful."

"We finished the large, shipboard power supplies," he said as he collapsed on the couch.

"But that's great! So soon, but what's the problem?” She said as she sat down next to him.

"The university totally rejected our offer. They said the space flight was out of the question but, of course, the power supply was
their
property since it was built on university property with university funding. The other universities I contacted wouldn't even touch the plan for space flight," he said with total defeat in his voice.

Gingerly she reached out to stroke his face to help sooth some of his hurts. "They're wrong about the custody of the power system, because I've already checked the university charter on synthesist projects. We have total control on any device or discovery during a group synthesist project. We can have it out with them tomorrow. They do get a percentage of any profits from patent sales but we retain control. Immediate proceeds reimburse any expenses for the project. When the first money is received as a result of research funded by the university it goes first to the university to pay off any expenses incurred by the university. Plus they also charge indirect costs for administrative support and the researcher gets one-half of what’s left. We’ll still make a fortune on those power supplies."

"That must be why they said they would not fund
anything
but the power supply... no ship... get rid of the tanks... one serious injury is enough... they plan to turn over our project to experts."

"Tonight, let's just think about something else," she said as she leaned over and tenderly kissed his lips.

Andrew surrendered his problems to her scent and her caresses as he looked down into her sparkling green eyes.

Susan was awakened by the phone early in the morning and rolled out of bed to answer it.

"What? Hello. Tod, what are you calling me this early for? They tried what! Yeah. OK. I'll get him over there," Susan said as she looked at Andrew's still sleeping, boyish countenance.

"Andrew. Andrew! Wake up. There has been an attempted break in at the lab where we had the first prototype of the power supply," Susan said.

"Huh, did they get anything?" Andrew asked sleepily.

"No. But there was a fight. Tod said for us to come over. I'll come over as soon as I've contacted the others," Susan said with controlled concern.

Andrew was dressed and heading out the door when he turned back to Susan.

"Thanks. I needed you."

"I needed you as much. Now hurry."

When Andrew got to the lab, he saw Desiree straightening equipment but nothing looked out of place. As he got further inside he saw two seedy looking men tied with electrical cords to two chairs. Tod came walking in from the restroom nursing a new bruise he was sporting under his ear.

"So. I see you had a little fight. I'm glad you are all right. What happened and who are these fellows?" Andrew asked.

"Well. Desiree was over here...helping me with some calculations; when these two guys came in as bold as you please and saw us. I guess they were coming to steal the prototype. One slapped Desiree and the other hit me behind the ear with something. When I woke up; this is how they were," Tod said.

"Desiree? ...maybe you can fill in the details," Andrew said turning to the lithe woman.

"I was here working with Tod," she said and turned to grin at Tod, "When these two thugs came in. One slapped me."

Desiree took a step toward one of the men and he cringed visibly.

"Anyway, they ignored me after that and I had this short pipe; so to speak."

Andrew looked from Desiree to the two things with growing astonishment.

"I fight dirty and four years of Karate helped," she said.

Andrew walked over to the two tied men and then turned to the others and said, "We had better turn these folks over to the police. I wish we could get them to talk first though," he said looking down at the men who were glaring up at him.