Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 18

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The message.
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Part 18 of the 28 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 05/15/2013
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Thanks for the positive comments. This is another long chapter.

*****

1 Law-suit and air-suit

Danielle was fuming.

She read the message on her computer again, just to confirm what she thought it said, though it was short and blunt. The message read:

"Dear Doctor Goldrick,"

"Pending the outcome of a legal challenge, you are required to cease and desist all activity pertaining to the Samothea Project immediately. A meeting is scheduled at 09:00 on Thursday in the Vice-Chancellor's office to discuss the case."

Sent late on Wednesday afternoon by a bureaucratic drone in the Celetaris Institute's legal department, Danielle hadn't seen the message until now, eight-thirty on Thursday morning, when she sat down at her desk to begin her day's work. Furious, she grabbed her coat and bag and stamped off to the lift.

She decided to walk from The Vortex, the tower in which she worked, to The Needle, the thin skyscraper half-a-mile across the campus whose upper floors housed the Institute's governors and administrators. She would probably be late but at least she would have walked off some of her anger.

It was ten days since the Samothea Project had sent their Traveller all the way to Samothea in a single jump; after which it was lost, presumed destroyed. Following muted celebrations and a carefully-worded press release, the survey ship docked at Capella SpacePort. Danielle and Roger collected Yumi Takahashi's suitcase and other belongings from storage and took their places on the regular transport to Earth, where they planned a week's working holiday.

They deposited Yumi's things in their Cambridge apartment, with the plan of giving them to Itsuki Takahashi on a future visit, and took a stratoliner to Boston to stay with Roger's family. It was a short trip, during which they met relatives, visited friends and conducted interviews with the news media.

Roger was publicising his video film, which was garnering positive reviews. Danielle was sought out by many science journalists who, unlike the popular news reporters, understood the magnitude of what the Samothea Project had accomplished and didn't consider the mission at all a failure.

In fact, Danielle found herself having to dampen down the expectations of those who wanted to know when her team would send a spaceship with a manned crew to Samothea. Not for a long time, she cautioned.

The other main thing she and Roger did that week was fuck like rabbits on amphetamines. From Monday to Saturday, they followed Danielle's rules for nightly sex: woman on top, man on top, doggy-style, 'tie up my wife and fuck her night', oral sex and anal sex. It was wonderful, satisfying and exciting sex. Now it was Sunday and Danielle thought of a good way of teasing Roger to enhance that night's spanking session.

"You know, Darling," she said, as she lay comfortably over his knees, presenting her curvy bottom nicely for him to spank, "sex this last year has been amazing."

"It certainly has," he agreed, stroking her naked pink buttocks, big and squidgy enough to be fun to fondle but firm enough to reward smacking.

"I think it's because there's been such long gaps, usually three months, between sessions," she said.

"No doubt."

He was making circular strokes now, warming and preparing the target area.

"So when you come to live permanently with me at Celetaris," she said, "I think we need another sex-rule."

"Yet another rule?"

"Yes, we should only ever have sex once every three months."

"Really? Only once?"

"Absolutely. I'm completely persuaded; and I don't believe there's anything you can do to make me change my mind."

"We'll see about that," he said with exactly the determined edge to his voice that she was hoping to inspire.

Danielle smiled to herself (at first), as Roger gave her the best spanking of her life so far. It was precisely what she wanted and it stopped only when she pushed herself off his lap, breathing heavily, finally at her limit. Small tears made her lust-filled eyes sparkle brightly, but her smile was hungry. With her bottom hot and aching, her mind still in the erotic zone, she climbed back on him, engulfed his cock in her soaking pussy and rode him until he came twice and she lost count of her orgasms.

Danielle often smiled again during her lonely three-day journey home to Celetaris, inspired by a tingling afterglow every time she thought about the last week, re-living particular scenes in her mind. It made her ache for her husband and wish his video film hadn't been so successful, so he hadn't been invited to give so many interviews but could join her on Celetaris as soon as possible.

What also occupied her thoughts on the tedious journey, most of which was spent waiting for connections between hyperspace transports, was analysing the data sent by the Samothea Project team. She preferred to do this, rather than wade through hundreds of congratulatory messages or answer the same obvious questions from journalists she'd already answered a dozen times. So she arrived home late on Wednesday night, not having read the message from the University administration.

The walk benefited her. Danielle had cooled off by the time she reached The Needle and stepped inside a lift.

It was a plasti-glass tower on the edge of the planet's central ocean. As its name suggested, The Needle was a tall thin building that rose to a sharp point. Its ornament was a large golden 'C' for Celetaris, twice the width of the tower, one third of the way up. From the end of the C, a clever animated feature simulated a waterfall cascading into a shimmering silver lake.

Vice-Chancellor Joan Mayfield's office was near the top of the tower, with windows to the south and north, giving truly awesome views over the ocean, the university, the rest of the city, its parks and the surrounding farms. From this height, on clear summer evenings, one could see the lights of Ocean City, a hundred miles away across the bay, twinkling on the calm surface of the water. Today, the mist that the spring sun had burned off the city still hung over the ocean and over the green forest to the north.

Three people rose to greet Danielle as she entered the Vice-Chancellor's office: Joan Mayfield herself, a short busy woman standing behind her large cluttered desk; the Dean, Doctor Hoxton, a tall mild man, harassed-looking and prematurely balding; and another man who looked like a movie star. Preposterously good-looking, well-groomed, tanned, relaxed and rich, he was a romantic character for women to swoon over.

"Welcome, Doctor Goldrick," the Vice-Chancellor said. "Thank you for coming. You know Doctor Hoxton, I think. This is Mr. Kessler from our legal department. Please take a seat."

Danielle did so but sat stiffly, no longer seething inside but ready to be affronted.

"First, let me apologise for the brevity and tone of the message we sent you yesterday," the Vice-Chancellor continued in an efficient but sincere business voice. "It was composed by a junior member of staff in a hurry to leave for the night and not vetted by me, though I gave the instructions."

That did a lot to improve Danielle's temper. She wasn't yet ready to forgive but she did relax as she waited to learn more.

"I'll let Mr. Kessler explain what it's all about," the Vice-Chancellor said.

"This is an informal meeting," Mr. Kessler began, his voice as smooth as an oil-slick, "so I'd like to use first-names. I'm Paul."

"Joan."

"Michael."

"Doctor Goldrick."

Danielle wasn't playing along. She wasn't going to let this smooth man charm her out of her righteous protest. But the handsome lawyer wasn't fazed at all.

"Very well, Doctor Goldrick. ... The reason the University has requested the Samothea Project be temporarily halted is in response to a letter from the solicitors for the Nakatani Corporation of Japan."

He projected a letter for them all to read. Amid a load of impressive legal gobbledygook, there was a clear threat of court action against both the Celetaris Institute for Science, HyperStar Japan and Danielle herself for patent infringement unless work stopped immediately on the hyperdrive motor, which was suspiciously similar to the Hayai C1 engine manufactured by the Nakatani Corporation.

Danielle's anger returned.

"This is absurd!" she protested. "You're shutting down my project just as it has achieved success on the basis of this letter?"

"We're being cautious," the Dean said.

("'Cautious' is your middle name," Danielle thought to herself but wisely didn't say it.)

"Doctor Goldrick, do you deny that your engine and the Nakatani Hayai C1 Hyperdrive Motor are identical?" Paul asked.

"Yes, I do. There's a superficial similarity between the two engines," Danielle admitted, "but they work in entirely different ways."

"So you didn't steal the design of the Hayai C1?"

"Steal it? Of course not!"

"Then why did you say you did?" Paul challenged.

"What do you mean? When did I say that?"

"The Nakatani Corporation cited this article on the PhysicsWeb," he said, projecting another document, an interview with Haruki, the young engineer from HyperStar Japan, who had been her first champion when she visited the company in Kyoto.

A few days after the Samothea Project went public, a pretty young journalist invited Haruki to a bar, plied him with alcohol, fluttered her long eye-lashes, and asked him to describe the vital role he'd played in this technological marvel.

He fell heavily for the siren and told her everything, including how he met Danielle and from where she said she got the inspiration for her new engine.

"Oh God!" Danielle said, suddenly remembering. "I did say that, but it was a joke. I didn't really steal the design. The waveguide of the C1 just gave me an idea."

"That sounds like a serious admission," Dean Hoxton said.

"But it's just the shape of the waveguide that's similar," Danielle protested. "Surely you can't patent a shape!"

"Not a natural shape, no," Paul explained. "But a shape that's integral to a technological design is not so clear-cut. Nakatani's lawyers seem to think they have a case."

"But the innovative part of my motor is that it communicates through the hyperspace plume," Danielle explained. "The Nakatani engine can't do that."

She described the technical differences between the two kinds of hyperdrive motor. Vice-Chancellor Mayfield followed intently; poor Doctor Hoxton's eyes glazed over; and though Paul Kessler listened politely, it was impossible to tell whether or not he understood the point. But after she finished, he smiled and asked in purring tones:

"Do you think you could make a jury of laymen understand that?"

"Good God!" Danielle exclaimed. "You don't think it'll go to court, do you?"

"These things usually do. It makes more money for us lawyers, you see."

"But it's absurd!" Danielle said. "It's a nuisance suit. It's only point is to hold up the project and punish me."

"I'm afraid it will succeed in both those aims, so long as the University administration follow normal legal procedure."

Danielle sneaked a look at the Dean and saw "normal legal procedure" written on his face. Joan Mayfield's opinion was less perceptible.

"How long might the project be delayed?" Danielle asked, beginning to be resigned to the inevitable.

"These things can take months, even years," Paul said. "My guess is at least six months will pass in exchanging pointless letters before the case will go before a judge."

"Six months!"

"At least. Then a year or more after that if it goes to trial."

"Good God! We can't wait that long," Danielle said.

"I'm sorry," Paul commiserated. "But that's what happens when lawyers get involved."

"Yes, that's all very self-deprecating and cynical, Paul," the Vice-Chancellor interrupted, "but Doctor Goldrick wants to know what we're going to do to fight the action. How can we push back against the Nakatani Corporation?"

While Dean Hoxton looked wary, Danielle smiled her thanks to the Vice-Chancellor and relented at last.

"Please call me 'Danielle'," she said.

"Danielle," Paul said. "I need some more information before I can advise how to fight the case. Can you tell me what you meant when you said this was a nuisance suit designed to punish you? Do you mean that the Nakatani Corporation has an animus against you personally? Why would they?"

Danielle took a minute to prepare her thoughts.

"I don't think the Nakatani Corporation cares about the patent. They know there's no infringement. I believe they bear malice toward me because my name is on a legal document taking responsibility for the property that a Japanese woman called Yumi Takahashi left on Capella Spaceport."

Danielle told them the peculiar story of Yumi and her affair with Michio Nakatani, which ended with Yumi disappearing (probably in Ezra's ship) from Capella Spaceport, leaving her belongings behind, which Danielle took possession of through the power of attorney issued her by Yumi's father.

"I see," said the lawyer. "Or, rather, I don't see why this Micho Nakatani wants to punish you, just because you're helping the family of his ex-girlfriend."

"I don't know if it's Michio or his father who's the driving force but they had all of Yumi's personal records locked on Capella SpacePort, so that the Constable there had to hack into his own computer system to retrieve them. My guess, I suppose, is that they'll use the threat of this court-case to get me to keep silent about Yumi."

"If that's true," Joan said musingly, "then it sounds like it's going to backfire. What's to stop you making everything you know about Yumi Takahashi public?"

"I promised her brother not to, for the sake of her parents, though I'm not sure that keeping the truth from them is best."

"What do you think, Paul?" Joan asked.

"I've lived in Japan," he said, "and family honour is very important. I can see their point of view. ... However, you understand, Danielle, regardless of the personal side of your story, I will try to defend the accusation of patent infringement in the usual way?"

"Yes, Paul," she said.

"But," he continued, "there's nothing to stop us also thinking of ways to push back against the Nakatani Corporation, as Joan suggested. For example, we will apply for a patent for Danielle's motor on Celetaris. If it's granted, then the legal part of the problem is solved."

"That sounds too simple," Danielle said.

"It is. Nakatani can challenge the patent office ruling and, as the supposedly aggrieved party, demand the case be heard in Japan, where it may have an advantage."

"Do we have to accept the jurisdiction of an Earth court?" Danielle wondered.

"We do if Celetaris wants to be part of the Anglosphere," the Dean said; "just as Earth has to accept the judgment of our local courts."

"Damn! Well, that didn't work," Danielle lamented, remembering how on Capella she had assured Constable Jeffries that, when she reached Celetaris, she would be beyond the power of the Nakatani Corporation.

"I beg your pardon?" Joan said.

"Nothing," Danielle said. "So what can we do? I'm not stopping work on the Project."

"You will have to for now, I'm afraid," the Dean said. "At least the part concerning the engine."

"I don't like kow-towing to anyone on Earth," the Vice-Chancellor said, forcefully.

"No doubt, but this is a delicate time in relations between Earth and the Outworld Settlements," the Dean replied.

Danielle sighed. As the daughter of a diplomat and the wife of a historian studying that very topic, it was something she knew only too well.

"It's always a delicate time in relations between Earth and the Outworld Settlements," she said and stayed silent for a minute or two, thinking. The others waited patiently.

"All right," she said at last. "There's lots of work for the Samothea Project team to do. And HyperStar Japan need to tool up to mass-produce the commercial version of the drive and work on the design for a scaled-up larger version. So maybe this annoying legal nonsense will be over by the time we're ready to send another mission to Samothea."

There was silence again, until Paul spoke up once more.

"Danielle, do you know why HyperStar Japan didn't patent the motor after its first successful test, or even before? Had the patent been granted, the Nakatani Corporation would have had no case."

"I know they took advice from patent lawyers but HyperStar is a small company and fearful of copyright theft. They thought it safer to work in secret. I didn't mind. It meant they worked faster; but I see now it was a bad policy."

"It's ironic how it turned out," Paul agreed. "From what I know of how business is done in Japan, I cannot see the case being resolved anytime soon."

"In Japan," he explained, "a smaller company will always obey a request like this out of respect for its stronger competitor, regardless who's right. I believe HyperStar will put the Samothea engine in mothballs while the lawyers consider the issue. And you can't guarantee that a Japanese patent office will take your side if it means dishonouring an important company with a galaxy-wide reputation."

"You paint a very pessimistic picture, Paul. Is there no hope for us?" Danielle asked.

"There may be, but you must leave us lawyers to our legal shenanigans and shady backroom deals."

"Quite right," endorsed the Dean. "I mean leaving it to the lawyers, not shady deals and the like. ... Danielle, will you keep a low-profile and let the lawyers do the work?"

There was a moment of silence before Danielle answered.

"I will," she averred, smiling sweetly.

"Oh, no!" Joan Mayfield said. "I've only met you a few times, Danielle, but I know that look. My daughter looks like that when she's set to defy me."

Danielle laughed guiltily.

"If you're planning something, I think you should let us know," Joan insisted.

"All right," Danielle agreed. "I have an idea how to push back hard against the Nakatani Corporation."

"Go on," Joan encouraged, mentally rubbing her hands.

"Don't go on," cautioned Dean Hoxton. "I cannot countenance something that will bring the University into disrepute or engage us in costly legal battles. We don't have the same resources as large Earth businesses. Danielle must obey us in this. Her position in the faculty demands it."

"We are far from poor, Michael," Joan insisted, "even as an academic institution; and I notice that you don't know how to talk to someone like Danielle."

"Do you mean because she's a young woman, Joan? You know I have five daughters?"

That explained his harassed looks and prematurely bald head, Danielle thought to herself, instantly warming to the much-put-upon man, judging him far more kindly.

"No, I mean a physics genius," Joan said.

"Oh! Then how should I talk to a physics genius?"

"First, you tell her that her ideas are impossible, absurd and against all protocol. Then you let her go ahead exactly as she wants. Lastly, you support her with personnel, materiel and as much money as possible."

Danielle laughed, which didn't help the Dean's agitation.

"Don't worry, Michael," she assured him kindly, "I'll keep my new project at arms-length from the University."

"Go on, Danielle," Joan said. "Tell us your plan, if it's not a secret."

"It's not secret," she said. "I remembered what I was doing when I first saw the Hayai C1 and was inspired to design my own - very different - motor. I had just promised my husband I'd design him a microwave air-suit."

"A what?" Joan asked.

"It's a combination of the air-jellies you can ride on in some cities and the compressed-air gauntlet used for some industrial engineering tasks. The technology uses microwaves to compress air into a strong force-field, powerful enough to provide lift or act like an exo-skeleton. My suit will be a complete exo-skeleton, not just a gauntlet. It will make a man fifty times stronger than normal and allow him to fly. And the best thing of all, it will compete directly with the Nakatani Corporation and really piss them off!"

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