A Pause in Space-Time

by Laurence Dahners

  “Why’re you in such a hurry? We just get our patent, then we start selling it.”

  “I…” he trailed off.

  “‘You,’ what?”

  Wistfully, he said, “I’m so tired of being sick all the time. Weak, short of breath, unable to do… do anything! I want gene therapy now, not ‘someday.’”

  “Sorry,” Arya said, eyes full of sympathy. “You’re right.” She sighed, “How about this? I’ve read that if you don’t have the money for a patent, one option is to show a company your idea under what’s called a ‘nondisclosure agreement.’ Essentially, they sign a binding contract saying they won’t steal your idea before they get to see the technology, then if they want the tech, they pay for the patent. The patent’s still in your name. You just agree to license the technology to them.”

  “That sounds great!” Kaem said enthusiastically, “Let’s ask the attorney about that.”

  “I don’t know about that. He’ll have a conflict of interest because he’d like to be the one who files for the patent.”

  Kaem shrugged, “Even if Space-Gen insists on using their own patent attorneys, I’d think we’d want to have our guy look over the application to protect our interests.”

  Arya said, “Maybe we can sell him on that.” They rode for a few moments in silence, then she said, “I still think we should pick those specimens up from Harris Labs.”

  “There’s nothing to pick up.”

  Arya frowned, “You already got them?”

  “No, they were set for one megasecond or 11.6 days. The one with the cricket expired this morning. The cricket looks healthy by the way. The test samples were made on the same afternoon, just a little while later than the one with the cricket, using the same settings on the machine. Therefore, stasis on the test samples would’ve expired this morning as well. If we tried to pick them up all we’d get would be a couple of wet envelopes.”

  “Oh,” Arya said thoughtfully. She giggled. “I’d like to say that I hope they didn’t get something else wet and ruin it, but I really don’t like that Harris guy.”

  “Me either,” Kaem said with a little grin.

  ~~~

  The patent attorney reluctantly agreed to draft nondisclosure agreements for them to send to companies.

  They never showed him the sample stade they’d had with them.

  ***

  On edge, Harris met the PI, Phil Sherman, at a coffee shop. “What can I get you?” he asked when Sherman sat down.

  Once they had their coffees, Harris leaned across the table of their back corner booth and asked, “What can you tell me?”

  Sherman held up a finger, “One bizarre thing. I don’t know if it matters, but he never goes anywhere without that girl.”

  “Really? I’m pretty sure she wasn’t with him the day he dropped off the specimen.”

  Sherman shrugged, then snickered, “Maybe they just started dating. They could be in the hot throes of love.”

  Feeling certain the girl didn’t matter, Harris impatiently asked, “Where’ve they been?”

  “To the physics building, where I assume his classes are.” He cocked his head, “The hot girlfriend actually came by his dorm, they walked to the physics building together, then she went on to the business school. It’s like he’s blind or helpless or something and needs to have her guide him.” He snorted, “She came back in the middle of the day and they sat outside and ate lunches they’d packed. They’re discreet though. I didn’t even see any kissing. Then they snagged an Uber.”

  Harris had been uninterested, but the Uber piqued his interest. Anxiously he asked, “I hope you were able to follow them?”

  “Of course,” Sherman said, sounding a little offended, “It’s what I do. They went to see Thomas Morales, a patent attorney. Spent an hour and fifteen minutes inside, then took another Uber back to his dorm.”

  A patent attorney! Did that kid invent the technology himself?! It seemed impossible. Feeling frenzied, but trying to hide his tension, Harris asked, “I don’t suppose there’s any way to know what they talked about?”

  “Not without doing something illegal.”

  “Oh,” Harris said disappointedly.

  He was wondering if there were any other angles when Sherman slid a handwritten note across the table, keeping his fingers on it. The words were at odd angles. It said, “illegal,” at one angle and “premium $,” at another.

  Harris looked a question at Sherman.

  Sherman pulled his note back and wrote “5X” on it at a third angle.

  Five times as much! Harris thought with alarm. He’d already thought Sherman’s prices were exorbitant. But, he reminded himself, I’m never gonna get a chance like this again.

  Harris raised his eyes to Sherman’s, then gave a slow deliberate nod. He gestured for the pencil.

  Sherman turned the paper to a different angle, then handed Harris the pencil while not letting go of the paper.

  Harris wrote, “need know,” and in another spot, “what’s in patent.”

  Sherman pulled the paper back. At one angle, he wrote “$20,000.” At another angle, he wrote, “If successful.”

  Harris wondered why the guy kept changing the angle and writing on different parts of the paper. Then, as he studied the confusing mess the writing had made, he realized that it made it impossible to tell what order things had been written in. And, thus hard to piece the conversation together. He raised his eyes to Sherman’s and nodded again.

  Sherman turned the paper and wrote, “need Seba,” and, “email addr”

  Sherman asked, “Anything else?

  Harris shook his head.

  Sherman slowly and deliberately tore the piece of paper into little bits, dropped them in the last of his coffee, then drank it down. He reached across the table and shook Harris’s hand, then got up and started for the coffee shop’s door.

  Am I going over the edge again? Harris wondered, acutely aware of how many doses of his meds he’d skipped in an effort to boost his mental acuity during this critical time. He started to call Sherman back, then shook his head. I’ll never get an opportunity like this again. Besides, he thought angrily, justifying himself, a snot-nosed kid like that doesn’t deserve to keep something this important to himself.

  ***

  Arya and Kaem worked together to email and snail-mail letters to the chief technical officers of every space launch company for which they could get addresses.

  And all the space launch wannabes.

  Out of respect for the recently adopted country of both of their families, they limited the mailings to American companies for now.

  The letters enthusiastically described the benefits of using stade as a material for building rockets.

  They attached copies of the Harris Laboratories documentation of the properties of a stade and the nondisclosure agreement or NDA to the letter.

  ***

  Harris and Sherman met at a different coffee shop. Trying not to exhibit the tension crackling through him, Harris said, “What’s up?”

  Sherman slowly shook his head. “computer’s impenetrable.”

  Not sure of the meaning of Sherman’s cryptic words, this time Harris pulled out his own piece of paper. He wrote, “Seba’s?”

  Sherman nodded.

  Harris wrote, “hire a better hacker!”

  Sherman pulled out his own piece of paper. He wrote, “using the best I can find.”

  “going through trash?”

  “housekeeper says all shredded.”

  Harris rubbed his temples in frustration. He asked, “Are you giving up?”

  “No. I still have some ideas.” He wrote, “says Seba’s computer,” and “security incredible.” At another angle, he wrote, “REALLY smart.” Sherman tapped that last statement with a finger, then Seba’s name. He said, “Something you should take into consideration.”

  ***

  Mary Willis, Senior Admin for Mahesh Prakant, Space-Gen’s Chief Technical Officer, studied the letter
her assistant brought her. It was an unsolicited request that Space-Gen sign a nondisclosure agreement to look at a new material. The writers proposed that their material would be useful for building rockets.

  Generally, her boss was interested in new technology, but this didn’t seem to be coming from any known space technology company. In fact, reading the letter, she’d swear it came from a small group of individuals. A phone number was the only contact information. She thought the likelihood it was someone’s pipe dream must be high. With some trepidation, she decided to forward it to her boss. He always claimed he wanted to see all the new technology offered to Space-Gen. Unfortunately, sometimes he blew up when he decided the technology was a waste of his time. After a little thought, she applied a Post-it note apologizing for wasting his time if he wasn’t interested.

  ~~~

  The next day, Prakant dropped the letter and NDA on her desk. “Why’d you forward this to me?!”

  Biting her tongue, Willis said, “You told me you wanted to see all proposals for new technology.”

  “But did you even look at the material properties they’re claiming?!”

  She shook her head, “I don’t know much about—”

  “They’re impossible! I can’t believe I wasted my time reading the letter before noticing the ridiculous claims they’re making for material data!”

  “Sorry. Shouldn’t I forward these queries in the future?”

  “No,” Prakant sighed, “and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t expect you to know what’s possible and what’s not. In the future though, before you forward things like this to me, have one of the junior engineers look at them and decide if they’re even plausible.”

  He abruptly turned and walked away before she could acknowledge his instructions.

  ***

  It’d been a couple of weeks. As they walked to class, Arya said, “We’ve gotten replies from most of the space launch companies we sent NDAs.”

  Sure the answer would be disheartening, Kaem kept his tone upbeat nonetheless, “Any takers?”

  “No. Most of the replies have been versions of, ‘Not interested.’ The ones who’ve given a reason for the rejection have said something about the claimed properties being impossible. Many of them have a kind of boilerplate statement about how they don’t want to look at technology that might conflict with something they already have in the pipeline. I get the impression the legal issue is that if we showed them something they’re already working on, that when they use it, we’ll claim they stole the idea from us.”

  “They aren’t working on ‘something like this’!”

  “You’re preaching to the choir.” She sighed, “The frequency of the replies has dropped off. I think the remaining companies probably tossed our letters in the trash.”

  “We’re going to have to send them samples.”

  “Mr. Morales strongly advised against that.”

  “He knows the law, but he doesn’t have any idea how hard it’d be to reverse engineer stade.”

  “Okay,” Arya said reluctantly, “I’ll look at our mailing list, then call Gunnar and ask him to make us enough test stades to send one to every company.”

  “Two for every company,” Kaem said. “But, remember, he can’t make them without the electronics. We’ll have to go over there and help him make them.”

  “Okay, I’ll work out a time we can go over.” She frowned, “I keep forgetting to bring this up, but I’m worried about you keeping that rack of electronics in your room. You’ve told me about that fancy encryption you’re using on your computer, and I know you shred every bit of paper, but what if someone just stole those electronics. Aren’t they the most important part of the whole thing?”

  “Well, yeah. Gunnar couldn’t make stades with just the mirrored cavities, he’d need the electronics. The electronics can’t make stade without his cavities, which is why I keep them separated. It just makes it harder for someone to copy the whole thing.”

  “Supposing someone’s been following us around and they know about Gunnar. If they took a cavity from him and stole the electronics from your room…”

  “I change every setting on that rack of electronics when we’re not using it. You’ve probably noticed I even unplug the wires that go from one component to the next. There’s a nearly infinite number of settings and another infinite number of ways they could be hooked up. Very few of them would actually work—”

  “Okay, okay,” Arya said putting her hands up in surrender. “I’m trusting you on this one…” she hesitated a moment. “I’ve got a request. I know we’re not going to make any new molds, so I can’t have my perfectly insulated coffee cup. But is there a way we could leave little holes around the edges of the 7.5 x 15 cm test samples this time? I’d like to make extra plates and use them to line my coat. Use that perfect insulator to turn my lightweight jacket into something that’s warm enough for the depths of winter.”

  Kaem frowned, “We could make holes if Gunnar could silver the circumference of little pieces of glass rod and stick them into the mold so they’d bridge from the top to the bottom.” He gave her a puzzled look, “Then you’re what? Going to sew the plates into your jacket using the holes to send your threads through?”

  Arya shrugged, “I’ll see when I’ve got them. I’ve been thinking I could use fine cord to bind them together into a kind of vest. Then I’d sew that vest into my jacket between the liner and the shell.” She gave him a curious look, “Wouldn’t the holes make them easier to handle too? They wouldn’t get away from people all the time because you could loop a string through the holes to serve as kind of a handle.”

  “Maybe. Go ahead and call Gunnar. See if he can set up the molds to make the holes without it costing an arm and a leg.”

  ***

  Harris was studying a photograph Sherman had provided. Apparently, it’d been taken in Kaem Seba’s dorm by one of the housekeeping people. It showed a rack of electronics. Harris could see the settings on each of the components in the rack. However, all the connecting wires had been unjacked so he didn’t know how one component hooked to the next. He sighed. Even if I knew how to hook them all together, and the settings turned out to be correct, I don’t even know if this equipment has anything to do with making the wonder-material. And even if I got all the electronics and they do have something to do with making that stuff, I don’t know what I’d hook the wires up to since I don’t think just wiring them correctly and powering them up is suddenly going to make the substance appear out of thin air.

  He’d priced and considered ordering all the electronic gear “just in case” but decided it was ridiculous to spend that much money on equipment until he had some idea what he would do with it.

  ***

  While Kaem was setting up his rack of electronics, Gunnar hooked the cables up to the lasers and microwave antennas. Then he carefully poured water into the 7.5 x 15 cm x 1 mm chamber. Gunnar had argued for making a few other shapes to send the companies for testing, but Kaem thought it would be a waste of money. He claimed that if they didn’t understand how important stade could be to rocketry from the current samples, they’d never figure it out. It hadn’t been hard to put in little silvered glass posts that should leave holes around the edges of the plates, so at least they had some variety.

  Gunnar carefully closed the door over the water, squeezing out the excess. Kaem looked ready, so Gunnar gave him a nod. Kaem flipped a switch and heard the charging whine and snap of the big capacitor. Gunnar opened the door and popped out the stade. Since he was ready for it, he managed to grab it with hands on both sides before it slid off the bench. He stepped over to Arya who was holding open a 5 x 7 envelope. He dropped the stade in and Arya sealed it up.

  Kaem said, “Wait a minute,” and stepped over to heft the envelope. “Why’s it so heavy?”

  “It’s not heavy,” Gunnar said, puzzled.

  “Oh, wait,” Kaem said as if he’d had a realization. “You made it out of water, didn’t you?”


  “Yes,” Gunnar said patiently. “You said we were making more like the last ones.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” Kaem said as if amused at himself. “One small detail. Rocketry’s all about weight. We should send them ones that’re air-filled so they’re light.”

  “We could make them with helium…” Gunnar said eagerly, looking at the chamber and wondering how much helium he could get to stay in its shallow cavity.

  “I think that’s just a little too far out there,” Kaem said with a laugh. “We can sell them on that idea after they buy air-filled ones.”

  “But with helium, the engines would actually be lighter than air!”

  “And,” Kaem said with a snort, “the samples would be really hard to test. I’m picturing them trying to get them down off the ceiling and into their three-point testing jig. All the while, the sample’s slipping out of their hands and shooting back up to the ceiling again and again.”

  Gunnar grinned, “They’re,” he made finger quotes, “‘rocket scientists!’ They should be smart enough to tie a string through one of our new holes.”

  Kaem laughed. “I’m sure some rocket scientists are pretty obtuse.”

  Gunnar wiped out the chamber with a paper towel and they started making the test samples.

  Plus, a bunch more so Arya could line her super-jacket.

  ~~~

  In his car on the street across from Gunnar Schmidt’s backyard workshop, Phil Sherman listened to the audio stream coming in through the laser microphone he’d focused on the shop’s window. I don’t think any of this stuff’s going to be of any use to Harris, he thought. None of it makes any sense.

  ***

  Oh, my, God! Harris thought as he listened to the recording of Seba and this Gunnar Schmidt out in Schmidt’s workshop. Rocket engines! Of course! Raymond was right, the stuff would be amazing for construction, but the BIG money’s going to be in rocket engines. Extreme pressures, extreme temperatures, extreme costs of failure. He knew Raymond hadn’t been able to test the material up to the kind of temperatures found in a rocket engine, but he suspected the stuff would tolerate temperatures far higher than Raymond had subjected it to.