The patent plan caught Michelle completely by surprise, watching the realization in her eyes as she came to grips with the of the vast amount of wealth available was fun. We had stopped in the shade of a huge old oak tree and I simply rested in my saddle and smoked a cigarette while she considered the implications. Michelle was a smart one and well educated, more-so than I was; she’d gone to a good university and gotten degrees in business and animal husbandry. I finished my cigarette and then began to lay out my plans for this scheme.

There was a lot to cover. The most important fact was that we had the schematics and we now had engineers to help us work them. So we discussed the engineers for a while and how to use them in this plan. We turned back to the compound to have a cold drink while we went over this, having her on the same page while I discussed this with the engineers would be a huge help.

Technology-wise we didn’t want to try to push too far ahead too fast; we also didn’t want to own every single important patent out there. We also had moral obligations to consider in addition to the Patent office fires. We had sit down and discuss all these historical facts and Sonya had to be brought into the scheme. We needed Sonya because we needed someone to put this to paper for us; there were simply far too many details for us to try to keep them in our heads.

So back to the compound we went to suss out the complete concept and get it put to paper before I sat down with the engineers. We still had time before I intended to head back east but we had a lot of work to do before then. Sitting down and sharing out my ideas were a big part of that. I wasn’t fool enough to think that I was aware of each and every consideration in the plan; this was a massive play and required input from all angles.

We sat in the shade of the camper awning and with Sonya taking notes we began to detail the overall concept and look for the hidden traps that lay within. There weren’t many we could add to this planning party, even Sher’iff and Lucinda, despite their being engineers, needed to be held out until the next day’s working session. We needed to have a full grip on the moral implications and extended impact we would be having. The engineers would get lost in the joy of the ideas and have trouble weighing those implications; almost like a kid with a ball, they’d want to play first and think second.

The moral obligation weighed heavily upon me; I simply did not want to steal an innocent inventor's glory. Countering that was my knowledge of time twitching. Michelle and Sonya got the concept, however they simply didn’t and couldn’t know about the Weaver with the colorless eyes unless they brought it up to me first. They were content to accept that we were a one-off anomaly while I on the other hand knew differently.

As a prime example I suspected that both Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were twitchers - many of the things they both did were so out of time it was shocking. Tesla introduced advanced technology at an unfathomable rate and Edison stole technology faster than the greatest patent sharks of the twentieth century. Tesla I’d happily deal with; Edison I intended to front-run at every opportunity I got. Those two were just the prime examples, there were many more out there but what I did hope was to avoid stepping on the tender toes of true inventors.

So we had to devise a moral code for our patent program. I would be happy to only own a portion of a patent from a true inventor if I could provide a material improvement to their overall idea. An improvement which would benefit them in the long run yet still allow me to collect a check. This was all about money after all, money and morals.

Discussion around those concepts raged for hours among the three of us. Each of us had our own specific moral codes and each objected strongly if we felt that code was being impinged. So we argued into the evening; it wasn’t angry argument just simply standing by our personal beliefs. We stayed constructive and didn’t devolve into conflict; the point was to find a solid moral stand which we would all sign on to.

We moved inside the camper to thwart the mosquitoes and we eventually delved into the digital archive to find examples. Our focus turned to identifying low hanging fruit that wouldn't violate our moral stance. Once focused both of them found excellent examples of challenges to our moral code as it currently stood. We simply refined the code from that point and moved on.

Each of them had their own approach, Sonya being a young liberal and Michelle being a moderate conservative. The varied inputs provide ample fodder for thought.

Sweet Matilda brought us supper and cold drinks as we continued on. Both ladies wanted to call it a day at different points but I wanted to be more firmly grounded when I sat down to talk to the engineers tomorrow. Poor Peter was about to have his mind blown.

The mental exhaustion, beer and wine finally started to take effect and we started to get silly. I did allow that they could start their own line of patented “women’s mechanical accessories” but we had to stay within certain limits. That didn’t make much difference as the evening progressed, the productive conversation had long since departed and we just had fun.

When we finally packed it all in I got a sweet hug and quick kiss from Sonya.

Michelle however simply undressed and climbed into my bed.