Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) by Laurence Dahners Read Free Book Online Page A

orbit and back here to earth . The transfer fluid doesn’t boil at those temps so it doesn’t expand into steam and there’s no increase in velocity. Once it comes back here hot, we run the transfer fluid through a pipe in a water tank. The water boils into steam and powers our electric generator.” He sat back up and lifted a finger, frowning, then smiling, “Then, instead of just exhausting the steam into the atmosphere and heating the earth, we cool it against a second heat transfer fluid loop that we’ve cooled by running it through a pipe way out in deep space. That pipe radiates the heat away. We condense our steam, don’t heat the planet and save ourselves the cost of buying more water!”
    “Roger, that’s brilliant!”
    “Oh! And… we don’t just sell steam for power generation; we can use it for heat! And we can use the deep space pipe s for air conditioning! Holy cripes! Talk about energy conservation! My God , this could solve a lot of problems! ”
    Ell jumped up and gave him a hug. “Way to go Rog’!” She held him back out at arm’s length. “Way to go,” she whispered, her eyes getting a little misty as she looked up at Roger. Roger, her handsome, smart, “ friendly boy. ” The boy she loved but couldn’t seem to love . The boy she wanted Emma to have, but didn’t want to let go of, especially when he was having this moment of brilliance.
    Roger, not recognizing the tumultuous thoughts pouring through Ell’s mind, waggled his eyebrows, “Want to spin another company off D5R with me? We’ll be rich!”
    Ell looked wistfully at him another moment , then let go and sat down. “Yes , you will. I’d rather keep doing research rather than trying to be a commercial success. But I’ll wish you the best of luck and help you get started.”
    Roger looked like he’d been poleaxed, “No! I want to do it with you Ell !” He quirked the corner of his mouth, “I want us to be rich together . If this is an invention, it’s partly yours.”
    She looked wistfully at him then said, “I’d rather license my share to someone else so I can keep doing research.”
    Roger brightened, “OK, who?”
    “ET Resources for one, this is right up their alley.”
    “OK! Let’s go talk to them.”
    “First let’s get you some patent protection. And you should build a working model.”
     

Chapter Three
     
    Morning fou nd Dex huddled next to the fire with Syrdian crowded next to himr. Dex’s thoughts stumbled, remembering hi e s old fantasies of sleeping next to Syrdian. H i e thought about trying to snuggle even closer to Syrdian to “ward off the cold” but, fearing rejection, instead hie got up to put wood on the fire.
     
    A little later Syrdian tore into the pieces of talor hie’d rejected the evening before. Hi e s eyes widened, “This tastes better today.”
    “You’re hungrier today.”
    “No, really, I think something happened to it to make it better.”
    Dex shrugged hi e s wings in doubt and started taking the strips of dried meat off hi e s green withe frame over the fire and stuffing them in hi e s carry harness. When hi e s harness was full h i e passed some to Syrdian.
    Syrdian frowned without taking it , “I don’t think I’m going to want to eat any of that. I’m pretty sure it’ll be too tough to be any good.”
    Dex stared at Syrdian disgustedly for a moment, then turned and thundered into the air, turning to head back to the cave. Hie couldn’t believe that hie ’d ever found Syrdian desirable! Hie certainly wasn’t going to stay , at considerable risk to himrself , to help someone so incapable of recognizing hies dire situation or undertaking to try to save himrself. Dex assuaged hies guilt at leaving by thinking that hie could just turn this problem over to Syrdian’s parents. A niggling doubt told himr that hies parents couldn’t save Syrdian either. Dex had had crazy ideas about how to do it but hie doubted that anyone else would consider them.
    So, essentially