Chapter 5: What! No Patent?

It was after two in the morning when we landed back at our Vine Street base. We had been keeping local time, so we just fell into bed in our rooms at the warehouse. The next morning we all slept in a little late. While we had been away, Steve and the other three marines had installed domestic bathrooms in the warehouse. That was a great improvement on the factory washrooms that were all we had before,

After breakfast, I downloaded the still and moving pictures from the DVD I had made from all of them. I thought that I would put a representative selection from them on the website. Looking through them persuaded me to post most of them. The site was growing fast.

At last I had caught up with myself and decided to take a break. I went through the works to see what the others were up to and to get them to look at our website to enable me to solicit their opinions.

Mid-morning there was a phone call from Adam Saunders, our patent agent.

"Bill, I've run into a slight problem. The Patent Office refuses to complete our application. I've got hold of their senior man and persuaded him to, at least, have a look at your work. When would it be convenient to bring him out there?"

"As soon as possible, I should think. We were thinking of taking a break and getting away for a few days. So, as soon as you can arrange it."

"Right oh. I'll see when he can manage and ring you back."

"Just a minute! Would it be more convenient if we were to come to you for a meeting?"

"Great! Where and when?"

"Suppose we were to meet with you this afternoon, say at three o'clock. We aren't certified to land at an airport. Umm. I know. How about this. We will meet with you in the parking lot of the Gravelly Point Park just north of the Ronald Reagan-Washington National Airport at three."

"Fine! If I can't drag the man out there, I'll let you know."

I went to tell the others what had happened and to get us all moving.

Corporal Benson said, "I'd better fix up some sort of IFF device. We don't want to be shot down over the Pentagon."

We polished up the Enterprise until it shone. We then did the same for ourselves. Over lunch, we discussed how we would demonstrate the combined drive system to the Patent man. One conclusion that we came to was that we should arrive at the rendezvous early to increase the impact on the man when we took off. As this was going to be a 'fun' trip, we decided to take everyone along for the ride.

Corporal Benson returned after lunch with a broad grin plastered across his face. He would not explain why. He was still grinning and fitting his device when we took off. To try to avoid confrontation with the air traffic control authorities, we went to two hundred thousand feet for our trip cross-country. We would descend in a slow fashion over our destination in an attempt to not trigger any defensive reactions. Benson had his radio on speaker as we descended.

We were challenged, "Enterprise. Are you landing at Washington International? Over."

"No," replied Benson, "We are proposing to land in Gravelly Point Park, just north of you. Over."

"Thank you, Enterprise. Out."

A pretty cool air traffic controller, I thought, but then, they have to be. We landed on the grass just to the side of the car park. "Benson," I said, "How did he know to call us by name?"

"I got one of my mates, back at base, to fix up the IFF unit I installed. It sends them our name, too, Skipper."

I descended to the ground and fifteen minutes later, Adam Saunders drove up with a sour-faced passenger. He emerged from Adam's car, looked at the Enterprise and finally spoke to me.

"What's this wreck doing here? You must know I haven't got time to waste on your junk. Your allusion to the Alcubierre Drive in your application is ridiculous. Now where is this so-called drive?"