Bill fixed Ben with a look. “With the money he’s spending getting his son out of trouble and the money he may be spending to deal with this Houston situation we really need to get this prototype of yours into production. Once they’re in ce we’ll be able to triple our output safely and that will give an immediate financial boost for thepany. Not to mention the jobs it will protect, mine included! I know you aren’t likely to sell the patent to the old man. I know there are many industries and applications that would benefit from your design. Are you looking at licensing it to us?”


    “Yes, and the rate will be fair. I don’t need to get rich off this one design. The volume of license deals I can make will take care of generating a decent revenue stream.”


    Bill sighed and rxed. “Should we get back to it then?”


    “Lead the way!” Ben smiled.


    Bill signed for breakfast, Ben’s stay was going on the corporate ount, and they headed back to theb. When they got there the shifts were changing and the men seemed rested and calm.


    “Morning Bill, Ben! Uneventful night.” the short bearded engineer said.


    “Morning Dale! That’s excellent news!” Bill said all smiles. They went through the logs and the test bench had thrown several cmitous events at the prototype but there was no sign of excess heat, strain, but most pleasing of all there had been no urrences of hydraulic shock. None. Not even a ripple.


    Ben went through the numbers and he asked Bill for a schematic of the full assembly. Bill’s eyes lit up as he could see the wheels turning in the engineer’s eyes. Ben pulled out hisptop and fired it up. Once the drawings were in front of him he ran some calctions and pointed out a particr section on the drawing.


    “Do you have sensors on this section for heat build-up?” he asked.


    Bill smiled seeing where this may be going. “Yes, that’s one point in the process where we encounter that.”


    “Can I get the specs for this piece here?” Ben said to Dale who was leaning in over the drawings.


    “Coming right up.” Dale said.


    Soon other members of the team were getting involved. Bill and Ben reviewed the entire refinery schematic and between them they found four more ces where Ben’sponent should be installed over the existing four ces they’d intended. The effect of this would allow the system to handle five times its current load. They’d be five time more productive.


    When the team finally sat back in exhaustion they were all dazed by the events. By utilizing the valve Ben had designed for the nuclear power nt in ce of the standard valves the entire system was safer and five times more efficient. Output would be five times higher meaning five times more cost effective and five times the revenue.


    No retooling would be required as the connections were all standard. The valves weren’t exorbitantly expensive and could be ordered from the manufacturer online. Dale immediately got on that. Ben worked out a rough agreement with Bill that Sturn Enterprise could be the exclusive licensed manufacture for the new hydraulic shock reductionponent he’d designed for them. The final agreement would have to be done through Sturn’s CEO, Jacob Sturn. It was finally time to see the man. Ben shook the hands of each member of the team. He’d never worked with a group of engineers directly before and heplimented Bill on his team. The man was rightly proud.


    Bill drove Ben in the electric cart over to therge office tower standing apart from the factory. He’d made the call and the old man was ready.


    The two men made their way to arge boardroom on the top floor and made themselvesfortable. The view from the room was spectacr and they were enjoying the sunset when they heard the door opening behind them. They stood and shook the hand of Jacob Sturn, a man in his sixties but currently looking like a man in his eighties.


    “Is everything ok sir?” Bill asked, worried about strain showing on the man’s face.


    Jacob’s sharp eyes jerked to Bill but saw only concern there so he nodded and smile. “Yes, thank you Bill.”


    He turned his eyes on Ben and a little bit of vitality seemed to return. “So this is the man who engineers miracles?”ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .


    Ben smiled as Bill pped him on the shoulder. “The miracles just keeping. Theponent he designed surpasses expectations and we just spent the day making adjustments to the refinery design using his newponent plus some valves he designed years ago. With these new adjustments andponents in ce we can safely boost the output of the refinery by five times!”


    Jacob’s eyes snapped back to Bill. “What? Five times? Are you 100% sure of that?”


    “Yes sir. The engineering is sound. We’re ordering the valves. We need about a dozen of them and they only cost $1500 each. Ben’s new hydraulic shock reductionponent, we can manufacture those here so they’ll only run us around $500 each and we need eight. Best of all Ben and I worked out a rough agreement to allow Sturn Enterprises to be the exclusive licensed manufacturer of these. The market will be enormous as they’ll work for many industries.”


    Jacob was looking more and more pleased with his chief engineer. Life was returning to his eyes which at the beginning of the meeting were anything but lively.


    “Jesus Bill, I had no idea you had the business chops to work out such a deal!” the old man grinned.


    “Well, it’s just the frame of a deal. Pending your approval and review of course!” Bill shrugged.


    Jacob looked like a man who’d been thrown a lifeline. He was nodding and looking at Bill in a new light.


    “I’ve done this before as I have a number of designs I’ve licensed manufacturers to provide. I have a licensing contract I can send you which you can have your legal team go through. Once that is signed I’ll give Bill here the manufacturing specs for theponent and he can get his team started.”


    Jacob looked back at Ben and there was steel in his eyes once more as the businessman resurfaced. “What are the fees for licensing going to be?”


    Ben was ready for that question and flipped open hisptop. The contract was on the screen in seconds and the fees page just a few secondster. “I use a pretty standard rate which I believe you will find fair.” He spun the screen towards the CEO.


    Jacob read through the page, then reread the text. His eyes returned to Ben. “This seems lower than I’d expect.”


    “As I mentioned to Bill, I don’t need to get rich from this one design. I believe as Bill does, the market for these is veryrge. Keeping the price down will mean much higher volume which guarantees a steady stream of ie. Stability and long term growth is more interesting to me. Bill impressed me. He got that immediately and saw how Sturn could not only utilize them for thepany’s own immediate benefit but as the licensed manufacturer you could increase thepany’s revenue stream and diversify your offering to protect thepany against market fluctuations in oil futures.


    Jacob was back to looking at Bill. Ben could see Bill having a brighter future at thepany now.


    “Send me the contract. I’ll have my team look at it overnight and we can sign it tomorrow morning.” Jacob said. He stood and they rose with him. Jacob shook Ben’s hand and surprised him with the tightness of his grip. Ben thought it was a stupid game but he gave back what he got plus some and the CEO grinned broadly and nodded. Bill was obviously ready for the grip and Jacob smiled brightly as he turned and left the room.


    Once he was gone Bill turned to Ben. “Man! You did me a solid with the boss!”


    “Don’t sell yourself short. Nothing I said wasn’t the absolute truth. I think you are just what Mr. Sturn needs for hispany to seed and grow.” Ben sat down again and modified a copy of the contract to reflect the rtionship between himself and Sturn Enterprises naming the parties including Jacob and Bill, and theponent they would be manufacturing including his patent submission ID. He emailed the contract to both Jacob Sturn and Bill. “OK, that does it. We get a signature on this tomorrow morning and by lunch you are making theponents. And by the afternoon I’m on my way home!”


    “Can I bring you home tonight for a home cooked meal? Mydy insists.” Bill grinned showing the text from his wife.


    “I’d like that!” Ben said.


    They made their way back down to the electric cart and made a quick stop by theb. Once Bill exined what had transpired to his team there were even more smiles, handshakes, and pats on the back. The future of the team looked promising too.


    As Bill drove Ben to his home they talked about how unhappy Jacob had been when the meeting began.


    “I know he loves his son, as any father should, but Ray’s a grown man now and he has some serious issues that are not getting addressed. He’s hurt people. He needs to take responsibility for himself but I think he knows his dad will just keep protecting him.”


    “Maybe this time the trouble isrger than Jacob can deal with. You mentioned he was arrested.” Ben said.


    “Maybe so. I actually hope that’s the case.”