Today is one of those cold spring days. You think winter and the cold are finally gone, and then you wake up one morning almost frozen to death. The cold days are getting more few and far between though, but it makes it all the more colder when it sneaks up on you. I don't like it when it's this cold. Then you have the LSS's environmental controls emulating North American Mid-Western winters! So annoying! I'd prefer tropical temperatures. Don't tell Zyra. She loves winter. She's weird like that. The only thing I fight with her on besides working too much is how she keeps the individual thermostat temp in the freezing range.
Anyway, at dinner that night, the sound of my father's laughter was probably what pushed me over. I became so possessed with trying to prove him wrong. I knew that to get a bigger grant and complete my research would take loads of work. And work I did. I don't remember ever working as hard as I did all those months. I just kept digging, just kept working. But if there was a lesson I learned during that time, it was that hard work was only about half of the battle. There were so many other factors.
First, it only took a few months before the money I got from that first grant ran out. And since all I had to show for all my spending was a lot of failed calculations and experiments, it was difficult. I started looking for investors, business people who wanted to get access to patents and stuff like that. The first one I sent my proposal to didn't even bother calling me. Another sent me communication saying politely that they weren't interested. To be honest, I'd have preferred not to get it at all, because I'd felt so excited when I saw the company's logo and all. Then to have all my hopes dashed...
Some others gave me audience, but then dismissed my ideas as nothing but theoretical nonsense, and said they had no merit. There was no point investing in something doomed to failure. After getting this reply from more than six interviews, I got so frustrated. I just sat in the park crying one early morning. It was shortly after that I got a call from a small company I had never approached. They told me they'd heard about my research, and they were interested.
I was so happy, I met the board and company execs and techs, and for days, I went over all of my research and work with them. In my desperation, I even left copies of the work I had done with them, except for a few things I wanted to hold back. One of the sacred rules most researchers in my field, and probably others, had, was to never allow anyone full access to all your work. Not even your spouse. A lot of backstabbing went on, and you didn't want freely hand the knife over to anyone.
Barely a month later, while I was still waiting for the company's decision as to whether they would give me the grant or not, I went for a small get-together with colleagues. I was talking to a few of them about my work when someone joined our group and overhead.
Then he cut in. I think he said something like "You're working on time-travel? Maybe you'll like to communicate with Dalton Fox. I think the company just started doing some research into it. I have a friend who's a physicist there, and he says they are making a headway, due to some new research they did."
It froze my insides like someone suddenly shoved a barrel of snow down my throat. All through dinner, I told myself not to jump to conclusions, that maybe this guy didn't get the right information, or the physicist had somehow missed out on some critical information, like my name.
However, when I tried contacting the company for some communication and got blocked at every angle, I realized that it was really happening. My research had been stolen.
I never imagined something like this could happen. I got a lawyer. My first choice for one was Zyra but she was busy on another case at this time. We worked through the case over and again until we were sure we had something foolproof. Then we went to court. Before we could even start the thing properly, the company brought in their own experts and stuff, and the court ruled that since they already applied to the government for the rights to the research and I could prove that I had started all of it before them, I had no rights.
During that period, there were nights I cried myself to sleep. Zyra was still in Lunar Prime for the next few months and I didn't want to bother her with the details. But somehow my dad found out and he sent me an email.
I deleted it almost immediately after reading it, but I still remember some of the words. "Stupid" and "foolhardy" were some of the softest ones. I thought my world had ended, until one morning someone woke me up and told me to check the business news. I didn't feel like. I hadn't felt like doing anything those weeks. Still, I knew it had to be pretty important.
There was a reporter in the news, and then I could see the name of the company that had stolen my dream written at the top of the screen. At first I felt like kicking the TV screen to the ground, bashing it with a hammer or a bat or whatever else I could find until...
Hey, that's my alarm. I have to go get ready for the company event. Oh, joy. Guess I'll continue with this later.