After dinner, they cleared up and then Tony suggested that they go for a walk along the Pacific Ocean waterfront just a mile away. That evening there was a bright moon, and the sometimes fierce Pacific breakers were subdued to an intermittent rumbling. Amongst a few other evening walkers, Tony and Judy were only conscious of each other, the moon, the breakers and the beach. The wine they had been sharing made it seem a dream like experience for both of them. They talked about Tony’s childhood, and the things that had impressed him in Cambridge, UK while he was doing his post-doctoral fellowship there. Judy spoke about her time with Professor Wang at Cal State Long Beach, and her parents who she still called on Skype nearly every morning, when they were going to bed in China. Finally at around 10 p.m. they got back into Tony’s car and returned to his apartment.
“I can lend you a few things to help you overnight, said Tony chivalrously. “I have got a new toothbrush which I have not opened yet, and a spare pair of slippers. I have an old dressing gown that you can use to go to and from the bathroom.”
“Thank you, you so kind, I’ll take all of them,” said Judy with a smile.
Tony gathered up the slippers, the toothbrush and the dressing gown and gave them to Judy along with a set of clean towels. She set them on the bed in the spare bedroom.
“This has been such a lovely evening that I can’t bear for it to end right now,” remarked Judy. “Do you have any of that Chardonnay left?”
“You bet!” replied Tony. “Let me go and see to it.”
“I’ll get ready for bed,” announced Judy.
Moments later Tony came back into the living room with the Chardonnay, and Judy emerged from the spare bedroom wearing Tony’s dressing gown. They sat down on the sofa together and Judy curled up her feet on the sofa inside the soft material of the dressing gown. She could not push the thought of her mother and the strictures of her Chinese upbringing out of her mind, but being alone with Tony like this felt so secure, so comforting in every other respect.
“This evening together by the Pacific was just magical for me,” said Judy.
“And for me too,” replied Tony.
“Here’s to Electrolev!” he proposed.
“To Electrolev!” rejoined Judy.
They both sipped the wine. Judy stretched out on the sofa and the dressing gown gapped open revealing a long bare leg. Tony thought maybe it was intentional, since she stared at him with a Mona Lisa enigmatic smile. In her mind she was running her hands through that thick golden blond hair. As the Chardonnay warmed Judy’s stomach, the thoughts of her mother gradually were no longer a conflict in her mind. After all, this was a different country and a different era to her childhood.
After reflecting for twenty minutes or so on how pleasant the evening had been, they agreed to retire to bed. Tony apologized that he liked to lie in bed and read the prestigious physics periodical, Physical Review, for fifteen minutes before going to sleep. This is how he kept up to date on the latest physics publications and it helped him settle down to sleep. So for this reason he would be making rustling noises for a little while. Also because he was used to living alone he liked to sleep with the bedroom door ajar.
“I like mine closed,” rejoined Judy.
The apartment had been in darkness for only a few minutes when Tony heard a faint knock on his bedroom door. “Hello, Judy?” said Tony into the darkness. The bedroom door moved a little. By the light of his bedside lamp he could see Judy, still wearing his dressing gown but with the tie hanging down so that the front gapped open to reveal her curvaceous body and bright red underwear. Her uplift bra and tight fitting thong stirred Tony’s imagination, and certainly distracted him from the Physical Review. “I’ve got a much better idea than the Physical Review for way to help you get off to sleep!” she announced. Judy shrugged off the dressing gown and climbed onto the bed so that she was kneeling over Tony with her breasts in front of his face. Gently, she took the Physical Review from Tony’s hands and put it on the bed beside him. Giving in to her own fantasy, she ruffled her hands through Tony’s fine blond hair, and then she lay on top of him and engaged him in a long passionate kiss. The Physical Review fell onto the floor with a resounding thud, but neither of them even noticed.
Chapter 14
It was now summer in Southern California. In Long Beach the oceanfront was crowded with families enjoying the hot sand and the cold surf. Little children screamed and romped in the waves. Athletic young people in wet suits were bobbing off shore waiting for that special big wave to come surfing in upon. In the city, Jacaranda trees with their startling lavender blue blossoms decorated boulevards, and underneath them were Lily of the Nile flowers, each having a six inch ball of sky blue flowers on a long stem.
The first manned LeviStar flight was planned for the next day, and John was to be the test pilot. Everybody knew that this milestone was critical for the continued funding of Electrolev. The tension in the company was palpable. When John arrived at Electrolev that morning, the first thing on his mind was to check in with Judy to ascertain the status of the software for the first manned test flight. He stopped in the doorway of Judy’s giant cubicle. “How’s my software doing for tomorrow, Judy?”
Judy looked up from her computer screen with a faint preoccupied smile. “Morning John, I am going to load software revision B28 for tomorrow - its simple and robust, and has worked flawlessly on the last ten or so tethered flights in warehouse.”
John tried to overcome his tension and force a smile. “Could we get together to go over the Charlotte battery management software soon?”
“There is no need -I’ve already planned all the flow charts with Tony, I’ve put them up on the server in battery subsystem folder. I’d be delighted to get your comments.”
John was stunned by this declaration. “Since I’m in charge of the power systems then don’t you think that perhaps I should have been part of that meeting?”
Judy stared at her computer screen and continued to type. “Sorry – we thought that because you had so much to worry about being President you would appreciate us just taking care of it.”
John leaned against the panel beside the doorway and tried to look merry and relaxed. “Since we are going to put regenerative descent into Charlotte, how about you and I having a brainstorming meeting to plan how to do it after work at Mimi’s restaurant tonight? Since it’s work then it would be legit for the company to pay for it.”
Judy continued typing and staring at her screen. “I’ve got plans for tonight, John,” We have plenty time during working hours to plan that stuff.”
John moved over to Judy’s desk and leaned over the top of her computer screen. “That regenerative software is going to need some serious new thinking. Wouldn’t it go better with a glass of wine and some soft lights to stimulate the creative juices?”
Judy’s feminine intuition switched on as her eyes came off the screen and bored right through John. “How is it going with that new girl you met in the internet chat room?”
John squirmed inwardly at her piercing gaze. “She ditched me. She was an English major – really we did not have much in common.”
Judy sighed faintly. “I figured as much,” Abruptly her eyes flashed and her normally soft voice assumed a harsh resonant tone: “John, I do not want have a working date with you – get it?” At that moment Steve Harman walked past and they both nodded and smiled good morning to him. John, trying to look dignified, started to retreat out into the corridor. “OK. Perhaps somebody got out of bed the wrong side this morning.” Judy continued typing without looking up again.
John was making his way back to his office when Steve Harmann stuck his head out from his room: “There are a few presidential things that we ought to discuss,” said Steve. John groaned inwardly. He much more enjoyed being power engineering manager than he did being president. Steve knew all about how to run a company, but John knew all about LeviStar power engineering, and John had the title of President. He sat down in Steve’s gue
st chair.
Steve had taken upon himself the task of shouldering the entire administrative burden so that John, Judy and Tony could focus all their energy upon the technology. He was working hard to make sure that they had everything they needed to make his and their stock options grow in value as much as possible. “One issue is, we have been going long enough that we need to make some rules about what holidays the company observes. I suggest that since we have people working so long and hard anyway, that we make a total of ten holidays per year. July 4th is coming up soon and everybody will want to know what days they have off.”
John stretched out in the visitor chair. “You have all the hardest questions! Maybe we should go along with your suggestion for ten holidays. You can figure out which ones they are going to be.”
Steve ticked off an item from the list on his desk. “The next thing is, we need to do something about security. At the moment anybody can walk in off the street. Now we have grown to 26 people, then once they are in the building most of us do not know if they are a new employee or what. We have got some big secrets in this place which we really ought to protect.”
“What do you suggest?” responded John.
“Well, step one, I think that we ought to have a security guard man the doors once the receptionist is gone, and be here through the night. I know that we can get a security company who will look after all the staffing issues, so all we have to do is to arrange training and pay a monthly fee. Then I will get a laminating machine and make ID badges for us all so we can recognize other employees.”
“That’s great!” nodded John in a disinterested kind of way.
“The next thing is,” continued Steve, “We need to get our computer network properly secured and backed up. Up until now the programmers have been managing the network on a part time basis, but it’s tough for them whenever we add a new staff member and all the email and stuff has to be fixed up. So I would like to hire an IT person who can shoulder the responsibility for the whole computer network thing. Especially I want to get some tape backups set up in the computer room.” He pointed to the glacial room hosting the servers which was just across the hall from John’s and Tony’s offices. “It really needs somebody to take responsibility for securing all our data. If you think about it, the entire knowledge of Electrolev is on those servers and if there was an earthquake and the whole building came down, then we could lose everything. The job for the IT person would include taking a backup tape home each night so that there was always a copy outside this building.”
“That’s really good thinking,” replied John. “Let’s do it immediately."
Steve cleared his throat. “The last thing is that a company which has more than 15 employees in California has to have all the managers complete sexual harassment training. It’s really tough when you are a manager, especially the President like you are, because almost anything which you say to a member of the opposite sex can be misinterpreted and used against you. For example, I accidentally overheard your conversation with Judy this morning, and in my opinion that was classic sexual harassment. If you were a tech in the lab it would be bad enough to say something like you did, but as the President of the company you have to almost walk on water. And what I heard this morning would have sunk Jesus Christ!”
John turned red in the face. “But Judy and I go back years and years!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, but now you are the company president and she reports to you as VP of engineering, everything is different. I want to arrange for all the staff to take one of those on line courses over the internet, and it would set a good example if you could lead the way and tell everyone that you have taken it.”
“Steve isn’t this ridiculous?” asked John. “I would not harass a fly let alone a female member of staff.”
“John, believe me, in this day and age we all need it. You have to follow just a few simple safety rules like, you never make a joke in the presence of a woman and you never have off campus meetings alone with a female subordinate. You’ll soon get it, wait till you have had the training.”
John momentarily buried his head in his hands. “I am really starting to have reservations about this president job,” he murmured.
With the last item crossed off his list, Steve relaxed back in his chair. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. How is Barbara coming along?”
John’s face brightened. “Well, tomorrow is the big day. We are going to try out manned flight on Barbara for the first time. I’m going to be the pilot, although I had to fight off Judy to get the job.”
“What are they doing out there with all those steel ropes?” asked Steve.
John’s demeanor changed and he became vibrant and enthusiastic: “Well, what is going on there is calibration and burn in. That means we are measuring how much lift is coming out of the anti-coils over a whole night, and making sure that after a long period of operation the operation is stable. We have left Barbara with the inverters running all night long. The wire ropes are joined onto a stress meter which tells us how much lift it is producing. Come and have a look.” The pair of them walked out of the office area and into the warehouse workshop where Barbara was two feet off the floor under bright lights, tied down to the concrete floor by steel ropes. John pointed to a big red digital meter. “You see, she has been producing 500 pounds of lift in excess of her own weight all night long. All the inverters and anti-coils should be pretty well burned in and stable by now. Her batteries could sustain this for about two hours, but for burn in she has been plugged in to the wall. We are going to try her out at 10a.m. tomorrow.”
“What’s going on over there?” inquired Steve, pointing across the warehouse laboratory.
“That’s Charlotte,” explained John. Our new mechanical engineering manager Fred Beller really laughed at our wooden 2X4 approach in Barbara, and so he has used his CAD machine to design a professional aluminum airframe for Charlotte. No more wood. It’s all aluminum struts and girders. He is not here now, but when he comes by have him give you a tour of all his innovations. The south bay has a lot of aerospace industry and because of them there are lots of metal suppliers and workshops who can build practically anything between them. So Fred just sends out his drawings and a few days later the parts come in. The best thing is that the suppliers have not got a clue what it is they are building.
Electrically I can tell you that Charlotte has double redundancy for everything, so any one component can fail and the system will still keep flying at least. Barbara is somewhat of a wing and a prayer – if anything fails then the whole thing piles in. I shall really be praying tomorrow, I can tell you.
“I know that Judy has lots happening on the digital side. She has two much bigger processors working in tandem. To get it all going just 3 months after Barbara is going to be a real struggle. Charlotte will have vertical inertial stabilization for the first time. That means that you can pull up on the height control and she goes up, and stops still when you let go the lever. With Barbara and Annette all you are applying is power, and to get it to go up the right amount is sheer skill. Also the really big thing is that Charlotte will have regenerative descent for the first time. So we can reclaim the energy used in going up when she comes down.”
“That all sounds fantastic,” enthused Steve. “OK if I come along for your maiden flight tomorrow? – I can bring along my movie camera.”
“Sure,” shrugged John. “The whole company is gonna be there anyway.” The pair of them walked back into the office area.
Chapter 15
The day of the Barbara test flight started out with a low overcast, but by 10a.m. the sun was starting to break through intermittently. The back yard of Electrolev was enclosed by a ten foot high grey brick wall topped with razor wire. Inside the yard was a large parking area on one side, and the other side was relatively clear so that trucks could come and deliver things to the receiving dock at the back of the building. As ten o’clock approached, without any particular signal, people started
drifting out into the courtyard. Everybody was there - programmers, the physicists, the power electronics engineers, Fred Beller the new mechanical engineering manager, technicians and even Julie the receptionist had momentarily deserted her post. At the edge of the receiving dock Steve Harmann was setting up a camera on a tripod. Tony and Judy stood close together by the wall of the building. Although John did not want to acknowledge it, most people in the company had come to accept Tony and Judy as an entity now. The assembly technicians rolled out Barbara, which was on a big skid, using a hand fork lift.
Judy walked over to Barbara with her laptop. “Let me take last look at how the processor is running before she does anything.” She plugged in her laptop under the seat of Barbara, and inspected screens full of status reports. “It looks as good as ever can be to me!” she said to John, who came up just then.
John was wearing a white hard hat with an Electrolev logo hastily glued on the front. “Well, it’s now or never,” he joked. Raising his voice, he pronounced: “One small ride for John Sykes, but one great leap for Electrolev!” There were no chuckles from the crowd. Everybody knew that to achieve a manned flight was vital to the Electrolev business plan. The value of everybody’s stock options was going to hinge upon this test. If it was successful then in government terms they could qualify as “Technology Readiness 6” and it might be possible to get a lucrative government contract, as well as venture capital money for a big factory. The increase in the value of their options from this would offset the diluting effect from another round of financing. A failure would mean a lessening of the expected value of their stock options.
John sat down on Barbara’s simple tractor seat and buckled up its lap seat belt. He pressed a switch to power up the inverters. Then very gently and carefully he pulled back on the yellow lever beside the seat which controlled the power to the inverters. Barbara had nothing but a simple power control, unlike the inertial control which was planned for Charlotte. So it would be very hard to make Barbara stay still. With another nudge from the control lever, Barbara lifted a few inches off the ground, and then rose to about two feet while John delicately pushed the control back and forth to try and hold it at a fixed height. A cheer broke out from the crowd of assembled employees. Many of the staff clapped. Next John lowered Barbara down onto the ground. “Let’s start the air blower!” he commanded the assembly technicians. One of them strode over and without hesitation pull started the blower motor, which was mounted on a corner next to one of the anticoils. The crowd saw a momentary puff of faint blue smoke and a high pitched whining noise. Once again John gingerly pulled back on the yellow inverter control lever, bringing Barbara up to a height of about two feet. Then, as everybody watched with bated breath, he slowly pushed down on the right foot pedal which opened up a rear facing air jet. The left pedal operated a corresponding duct for a forward facing air jet, which was intended to act as a brake. Barbara started to move slowly across the courtyard with John perched nervously on top. When it had gone about five yards, there was a sudden crackling noise and smoke started pouring from the anti-coil that was next to the air blower motor. A chorus of girlish screams came from the assembled crowd. Two of the assembly technicians collided with each other with one of them being knocked over as they rushed to fetch fire extinguishers.
A Disruptive Invention Page 7