Previous Chapter

Chapter 71 - Resort with New Friends

During the remainder of the week, Tamara continued work on one of her dark force experiments but she took some time to meet with a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering department. She had originally contacted him when she had gotten an idea about making a flexible polymer to solve a problem she had encountered when building mechanisms that needed to work within G-force fields since magnetic-actuated solenoids or relays wouldn’t work properly in the G-force field. Dr Li Seang was the recommended person to contact.

“Hi again, Dr Li,” she greeted him when she went into his lab.

“Hello to you, Tamara. I told you last time that you can call me Sonny. The name’s Li Seang, so I made it more Western. Okay, I was able to make your polymer stiffer without losing a flexibility, but can’t do much about a compression. It still bulges out, and if constrained by wall, the compressive force directs radially rather than axially. Did you have application in mind for such a material?”

“I’m looking for a non-metallic material to work in a G-force field in a manner like a solenoid. All metals we’ve tried are affected by the field and don’t work properly. I’ve tried ceramics but they have other disadvantages. So do carbon nanotube fibers. So I had my tech try some polymers and the ones we came up with appeared to work but when we tried making them more rigid, the G-force kinda liquified them. That’s when I approached you; you’re said to be the magician with polymers.”

He laughed. “I do have some successes. This is your stiffer polymer.” He took out a thin flexible rod about 1.25 centimeters in diameter and about 15 centimeters long. “See, it bends and stretches easily, but this one will only stretch to about three centimeter longer before it breaking. But it does contract nicely, about four centimeter, about 25 percent. I will show you how it works when power is applied to the leads; I followed your instruction for how to include the tiny chips you provided to be used in the polymer assembly.”

He connected the leads.

“Now I will apply 10 millivolt.”

The rod slowly contracted about a centimeter. When the power was turned off, the rod slowly returned to normal.

“Now 50 millivolt.”

The rod quickly shrunk almost four centimeters.

“Good. Now see the effect when polarity is switched. I will apply 50 millivolt.”

When he did, the rod lengthened a little but bulged a fair amount.

“Now I attach a load to rod.”

The rod had little loops molded into each end. Li attached one end to a stationary hook and took out a small spring gage.

“The scale reads up to five kilogram,” he told her.

Li connected the gage to the other loop and reconnected the power leads.

“I will do 50 millivolt again,” he commented.

The polymer contracted about 3.5 centimeters and the scale read almost 3900 grams. Tamara pulled out her phone.

“Looks like that happened in a second, right?”

Li nodded.

“The rod’s cross-section area is how much?”

“Err, 1.2 or 1.3 square centimeter. Closer to 1.2.”

She pushed some keys. “About 32.5 newtons force developed per square centimeter. Totally excellent. How thin and short can you make these polymer rods? I’d like to have about fifty that are around 7.5 millimeters diameter and 5 centimeters long. And let me know if you need more funds for the work and I’ll add it to this project’s account.”

“Yes, that size is possible. What kind of terminations are needed?”

“The loops should work just fine. I’ve begun to do the writeup for this device, so here’s the part of the discussion section of the paper that covers the theory behind how the G-force works in the polymer. Can you write up the part on the polymer synthesis and assembly with the coils? We’re going to patent this baby and I want you listed as a co-inventor of the polymer used. Then we can get together and plan the rest of the paper, but I’m gonna get started on the patent app.”

“Thank you for honor of recognizing my part in this, Tamara,” Li told her. “This was just interesting side project.”

“It was, and now something useful may come from this,” she answered. “I’ll get back to you soon.”

Mid-July

Tamara and Peter went to Kevin and Denise’s new home in the third week of July to assist them with their moving in. Cynthia and Tom were in North Carolina visiting both sets of parents; Cynthia’s father had recently retired from the Marine Corps, where he had been the top NCO at Camp Lejeune, and Tom’s mother and step-father were employed at a nuclear power plant near Wilmington. Cynthia’s parents had become fast friends with Tom’s and loved the area around Camp Lejeune, so they decided to remain in the Wilmington area. Also, Cynthia’s aunt and uncle, who had lived in Japan for over twenty-five years where her uncle was an engineer for an electronics firm, were retiring and planned to move there as well.

Tamara found all of that out as she worked with Denise, setting up the kitchen in their wing of the house. The house was a large two-story home with a great view over an expansive lawn. Its bedroom areas were private and there was a nice central kitchen, with a dining room-great room combo that had a giant flat-screen TV and elaborate sound system. Outside was a pool and bathhouse. The grounds contained several gardens and two two-bedroom cottages.

“Whatever are you gonna do with all this space?” Tamara wondered to Denise as they worked.

“Well, we’ll have our three couples living here. I didn’t tell you that Kevin is hiring a housekeeper, cook, and groundskeeper, did I? No? He is. The cook and housekeeper will live on the grounds, but Kevin thinks he found a couple, highly recommended, where the guy is currently working as a handyman and she’s working for a cleaning service. They expressed interest in those jobs.

“For the cook, it’s open what we’ll wind up doing so we’ll wait to see what Cindy and Amelia think. We could have dinners as a communal meal or have the cook make meals for us to eat in our own wings. Or a combination. I don’t imagine there’ll be anyone around at lunchtime while we’re all at school or work and breakfasts ... we’ll need to see how that shakes out. Cindy and Tom are staying in their apartment until their lease ends in December so we’ll have time to figure it all out.”

The four of them spent most of the afternoon organizing the movers. There wasn’t much furniture to move here from Atlanta, Denise having moved out of her mother’s home where she lived with Kevin while going to high school and then university, but Kevin had a lot of stored furniture from his home in South Korea where he had lived before moving to the U.S. for his high school junior year. Much of that furniture had sentimental value and the State Department had it shipped to the U.S. and stored. It was being brought into their new home now.

As the movers began cleaning up and packing away their blankets and dollies, the four of them had more of an opportunity to talk to each other.

“So as I understand it, Tamara, you’re gonna be setting up a program to bring cheap power to third world countries,” Kevin remarked to her as the final moving truck pulled away.

“More than just a program,” she told him. “I’m setting up at least two companies. One’ll be for manufacturing. The first product will be turbines. Different sizes. My idea is to build the turbine components here initially and have them assembled by skilled workers in the countries where they’ll be installed. The first country will be Haiti and I’m setting up both a technical training program and a manufacturing facility there; I hope that within five to seven years, we can do the whole manufacturing job there for Caribbean and South American orders. The other outfit will manage the licensing of the other patents I have, do research and development on other products based on my inventions, and handle any further development of those inventions.”

“Damn, you don’t think small, do you? That makes the Coris Foundation look like small change.”

“Oh no, it doesn’t, Kevin. You concentrate on medical and legal aid assistance, and education too. My goal is to try to kick-start those economies, and that’s lots harder ‘cause of corruption, power-seeking, and graft. And successful foreign industries can become targets for nationalization, but that happens rarely these days because of the internationalization of commerce.”

“Hey—who’s the specialist in international relations here, anyway, Tamara?” Kevin laughed. “This is the realization of a total dream for me: finding someone who has the knowledge, skill, drive, and resources to carry on economic development free of government interference and foreign policy problems while social development can occur as living conditions improve. Aunt Janet told me what your mom is doing in Haiti and I think that her ideas are just marvelous. When I get with Amelia, we’re gonna discuss that Haiti initiative as a model system.

“Anyway, what’s the deal with your resort trip? Who goes with you? Denise said that it’s Peter’s whole family.”

“It is,” Peter answered. “Let me tell you a bit about the history of the resort and my extended family.”

That discussion took over an hour and then the four decided to find a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, at which they traded their university stories—each person trying to outdo the previous one, to everyone’s amusement, they left for their respective homes.

End of July

The following week, Jeremy and Amelia arrived at Dulles International and Kevin picked them up. They had their clothes for a week with them; the balance of their personal effects were arriving by air freight during the next several days. Denise was out shopping for linens and other items to outfit their bedroom until the couple could get their own furniture. Kevin had provided a queen bed and two chests of drawers that the couple would use until they bought their own furniture.

Tamara and Peter weren’t able to take the time for a visit since they were both hard at work now, getting their final projects completed before the month-long vacation period of August began. Tamara, in particular, had two patent applications and three scientific papers in process and wanted them done before the first week of August was over. Virtually nothing would be accomplished at either the APL or at Peter’s or Emma’s Hopkins labs during most of August because Emma took her vacation then as well.

There were a lot of text messages flowing between them, however, so Tamara knew when Jeremy and Amelia arrived, when their new furniture was delivered—with photos—and when Cindy and Tom got back to town. That was just two days before Tamara and Peter got themselves ready to go to the resort. They were both anxious to see Barbara; she had been very busy with her Maryland graduate program classes. Peter had been having lunches with Terence at Hopkins and Tamara joined them on the days that she was working in Emma’s lab, but much of her own work was at the APL.

Arundel Nature Society, Davidsonville, Maryland: August

Peter had decided to get to the resort early on the Friday before the rest of the whole family showed up. He had learned from experience that those chaotic times when everyone arrived were best avoided; he preferred to quietly get set up in one of the little cabins, with he and his sister helping each other, and stay out of the way while mayhem reigned around them. Of course, now that all the cousins were older, the turmoil shouldn’t be as bad—but why chance it?

When he rolled into the resort at 10:15 a.m., he found that Terence and Barbara had beaten them by about fifteen minutes, but of course they lived closer. They got a nice greeting from the couple, who had already opened and aired out “their” cabin. A rented bunkhouse camper-trailer was already sitting in its designated spot and connected to the water and electric services.

“Ron gave me the keys to the camper,” Barbara told Peter, “but no one locks anything here anyway. When are your friends coming? I can’t wait to see Denise and Amelia. Kevin and Jeremy too, but mostly the gals. God, they’re so nice. And Cindy too. Ooo, this’ll be a great gathering.”

Peter smiled. “Excited, are we? Got a text just as I left the office and Denise said that Kevin was about fifteen minutes out. She said that Cindy and Tom should arrive just about the same time. Hey, let’s all go back to the office and greet them there. Give them the nude carpet treatment.”

“Funny guy, y’all aren’t,” Terence grunted. “Ah got my jitters up. Don’t know why.”

“New people, it’s natural,” Barbara said. “Naturally for naturists.”

“Not y’all too,” Terence scowled at her. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Don’t forget—take towels,” Barbara reminded them. “Peter and Tamara, do your sun screen? Terence and I are already done.”

“Sure thing, Mother,” Tamara giggled.

They lathered each other up and left for the office.

When Kevin and Denise and Amelia and Jeremy opened the doors of their car, they were mobbed by four nude young adults who grabbed their hands and pulled them out and then hugged them fondly.

“It’s wonderful seeing you guys,” Tamara gushed as she hugged Jeremy, and she heard similar happy greetings from the others.

She did notice that the guys didn’t hug—but their handclasps showed strong emotions. She also noticed that no one stared at Terence.

That should reassure him, she thought.

While they were greeting one another, Tom pulled his car into the little parking area next to them and hopped out with Cindy. So the mob moved over there for more greetings and hugs.

Since Amelia and Jeremy hadn’t met Cindy or Tom, they took some time for introductions and Tamara had a hard time prying Amelia away from Cindy; Amelia was gushing about how great the Avery Program was.

Cindy was laughing at the attention. “And I developed the program and missy here got the knighthood for it.”

Amelia looked abashed but Cindy gave her a big hug and smiled at her, saying, “And I think that you well deserved it, honey. Look what you did with it—your adaptations have made it much more acceptable to schools on this side of the pond and every year, we’re seeing more schools wanting to use it.”

Amelia blushed and nodded.

Peter began herding the mob toward the office. “Let’s get you guys checked in—then we’ll have two weeks to talk. You all have good trips? North Carolina and London?”

“Trip was fine” ... “No problem” ... “Too long,” this from Amelia.

Jeremy just nodded. He was looking around at all of the nudity around the clubhouse area. Amelia noticed and giggled.

“Jeremy, you’re not supposed to stare! With all your experience in a school with lots of naked kids, you should be used to this!” she told him quietly, but Tom overheard her.

“Jeremy, you were in that naked program in England?” Tom asked.

Jeremy nodded. “It was a soddin’ mess, but yeah. All of two days. But I spent a whole school term dealing with seeing humiliated, terrified, and anxious kids there. Here, it’s amazing to see—everyone looks so bloomin’ happy. That’s what I was staring at, how happy everyone looks. Not the nudity, Amelia, love. But that bunch of gals over there, now they...”

“Oh, you!” Amelia laughed, slapping him on the arm.

They walked into the office and were greeted by Vicki Allerman.

“Welcome, all of Peter’s friends. What a big group! Ron will be here in just a bit. Michelle’s on an errand, so this’ll take a bit of time to get you all into the system. We need driver’s licenses—is everyone past their eighteenth birthdays? Two of you look younger than the others.”

Denise spoke up, “Amelia is two months shy of her eighteenth, but Kevin and I were appointed as her guardians several years ago. Here’s the court order, my ID, and Amelia’s U.K. passport.”

“Oh jeez, this is a new one. Peter, you keep bringing in these odd cases,” Vicki complained with a smile.

“What can I say? I got talent,” Peter joked. “Obviously Amelia doesn’t have a driver’s license—nor does Jeremy; they just arrived here in the U.S. two weeks ago to go to college.”

“I got mine now, Vicki!” Tamara shouted at her from the back of the pack, waving her license in the air.

“Oh, my lord,” Vicki moaned. “Everyone, just cool it and let an old lady try to get things done.”

“You’re not old, Vicki,” Barbara sniggered. “Just well aged. You’re doing fine.”

That’s when Ron came in. He stopped, looked around, and turned to tiptoe back out. Vicki saw him.

“Hey you, where you think you’re going?” she called.

“It looked like you have it under control, dear, so I was gonna go somewhere to hide out,” he answered and everyone laughed.

Vicki didn’t. “Get your ass back over here and help me with this mob, okay?” she demanded.

Ron grinned at everyone as he went behind the counter.

“Has she been in such a bad mood lately?” Peter asked innocently and Vicki snorted.

Ron chuckled. “It’s an act. I hope. How should I help, dear?”

“Get them to sign the waivers first. And get licenses from those who have them. I’ll do those first. Put their phone numbers on the waiver forms and I’ll enter those when this mob leaves.”

She gradually made her way through getting all of the newcomers registered, except for Jeremy and Amelia.

Vicki looked at their passports. “Okay, for Jeremy... do you have a U.S. address? Is it at the college?”

“Actually no, we—Amelia and I—live with Kevin and Denise. Same address.”

“But they have an Atlanta address—oh, my poor head,” Vicki moaned.

Kevin got a scrap of paper and wrote his Maryland address on it and gave it to her. “Ma’am, Denise and I just moved here too and we haven’t changed our licenses yet. Here’s our current one. Denise’s mom lives at that Atlanta address so it’s still good too.”

“All right, then,” Vicki remarked. “So now, Amelia, I have no doubt that this guardianship form is fine, so all I’ll need is for Denise to complete the minor permission form. Ron, can you get one out?”

He pulled a folder from a file cabinet and passed a sheet to Vicki. She gave it to Denise.

“Fill it out and... ah... do you also have power of attorney for medical for Amelia?”

“I do.”

“Good. Put your and Kevin’s name on the ‘emergency contact’ line then, and sign it. And Peter? As a co-owner rep here, please sign as a witness.”

“Sure.”

“Last step, your account ID barcode tags,” Vicki told them. “Peter had us put all of you on his account so these tags I’m giving you—you can put them in those wrist bands or on those lanyards over on that shelf—are all the same. Use them for any charges at the resort. The restaurant, lunch stand, convenience shop, whatever. You don’t need cash here, but cash can be used if you want. Credit card charges have to go through the office here. There’s an ATM in the clubhouse.

“I think we’re all done,” Vicki sighed. “Except for the orientation. Peter and Barbara, could you do the honors when you show your horde... I mean guests... around?” she chuckled. “Tell them about the nudist rule.”

“Sure, Vicki. Let’s go, guys,” Barbara said. “We require non-members of the resort to strip after they register. I’ll explain more about that rule in a sec. But members can go straight to their sites and undress there, so that’s what we’ll do; it’s much simpler that way. Get in your cars. I’ll get in Cindy’s car to guide her and Kevin, follow Cindy. There’ll be lots of cars at the site later so we’ve developed a scheme to efficiently park everyone. The others, you guys will walk back, okay? It’s only a five minute walk from here if you don’t stroll.”

When Tamara and the others got back to the Winsbergs’ site, everyone was nude and Barbara was explaining the difference between a nudist resort and a clothing-optional one.

“There’s just a fine distinction between them and many resorts’ policies fall somewhere between the fully nudist version and the C-O one, but here at Arundel, full nudism has been the policy since our founding about 96 years ago.”

“That long. Wow,” Tom said. “The resort we belonged to in California started up in 1963 and I thought that was a long while.”

Tamara smiled at the others. “You guys all look very comfortable in your skin. Jeez, you gals, you all look like goddesses. Amelia’s like a fairy—you just need the gossamer wings. Denise looks like a Greek goddess and Cindy, like the stacked Amazon warrior on one of those ‘Conan the Barbarian’ covers. Out of my league.”

Kevin interjected, “Stop, don’t even think that, Tamara. First, it’s not just about body image; it’s what’s inside that counts for more. Besides, I think that you’re just as pretty as anyone here. And your skin color is simply gorgeous. That couldn’t be from a tan, your skin just glows.”

The others began echoing Kevin’s comments.

Tom looked at Tamara. “Tamara, I grew up in California, the land of the beautiful gal. Mostly blondes.” The others chuckled. “Let me say that you’re right up there in the beauty scale; don’t think you aren’t. Don’t measure beauty by those stick-thin supermodels; Madison Avenue would like them to be the standard, but they’re not. Not at all. Every girl here embodies a different standard of beauty. You said it yourself—a pixie fairy, a living marble statue, a barbarian princess. None look like a classic supermodel, do they? No. But I strongly feel attracted to you; it’s your appearance but I also sense that it’s your personality. Now I finally understand the meaning of a ‘magnetic personality.’ That’s you.”

Barbara broke in. “Right. Now let’s adjourn the mutual admiration society meeting. It’s time for you guys to get the orientation. Everyone here been to a nudist resort before?”

All except Jeremy and Amelia had been.

“So here are the nudist rules; these are observed virtually everywhere social nudism is practiced. Carry a towel and always sit on it. No bare bottoms on any surface, except in the pool or spa. Shower using soap every time you enter a pool or spa. Gets the skin oils off and the sun screen and bug spray too. That keeps the water filters happy. No clothing in the pool or hot tub, but since this resort is fully nudist, that goes without further explanation. We don’t allow any cell phones off of your own site—don’t even carry them with you, even in a bag. No photography, of course. No one smokes so I’ll skip that one. You got the rules handout; that has all the other resort rules. We’re just like any other resort or campground, except that we have a very relaxed dress code. Sounds good?”

Everyone acknowledged her.

“Say, Barbara,” Tom said, getting her attention, “you and Peter are owners here, Vicki said?”

“Minority owners. Our great-grandfather set up this place with a close friend who was Ron’s grandfather. There are a bunch of aunts and uncles who all have shares and the entire Winsberg clan collectively has about a 40 percent ownership,” Barbara responded. “They began building our cabin lodge here in 1938 and then the war came. It got finished ten years later, and you can see how it’s been added on to. The little cabins were built in the fifties and have had lots of upgrades since then. Peter and I virtually grew up here; spent Augusts here as far back as I can remember, and from when we were about six or seven and lived much closer, we came here all the time.”

“Truly born a nudist,” Denise joked.

“Hey, need to tour you guys. Walking tour. Sun’s hot, so sun screen’s the order of the day,” Barbara instructed everyone.

When that was done, they headed back to the central area with Peter and Barbara pointing out more of the resort’s features.

“Who’s coming, anyway?” Jeremy asked. “You mentioned a lot of cousins.”

“This year is more random than most,” Peter replied. “Everyone in the entire extended family will be here at some point, but not all at once, and some will come and go at various times. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Robin Richardson—Mom’s brother and sister-in-law—will be here next weekend from Richmond, Virginia. They have four kids but two are married and live elsewhere. They have twin girls, Madeline and Melodie, go figure, and they’re 17 now. High school seniors in the fall.”

He went on to tell them about the other families—the Frederick, York, and Wilmington ones, and the bevy of cousins.

“Some cousins might be coming with a friend,” Barbara mentioned. “And none of the cousins’ other grandparents come; none are into nudism, nor their other children. Just Mom and Dad’s own parents.”

“Which is good, ‘cause otherwise we’d have to take over the entire resort,” Peter laughed. “A few groups will be here later today; some tomorrow. Then some during the week. We’ll have them arriving and leaving all during the next two weeks.”

While they were walking, Barbara was telling them about the planned events and mentioned the volleyball clinic.

“It’s lots of fun. The team members work with anyone who wants to learn or brush up their game. The men’s and women’s team goes to this Naked Superbowl of Volleyball event in western Pennsylvania every year. Last two years, Tamara and I were on the team.”

“Cool,” Cindy said. “Doing it this year?”

“We need to see how my schedule is,” Barbara answered. “Tamara thinks she can fit it in.”

They wound up at the pool and decided to swim, so after showers—Amelia and Jeremy were nonplused at seeing the showers located out in the open—they all hopped in. The guys, mostly. The gals entered the water more sedately, except for Cindy. Holding hands with Tom, they both cannon balled into the deep end.

After a while in the water, several of them got out to lay in the sun and Peter began introducing them to the others on the deck. All of the friends eventually broke up into smaller conversation groups and Peter found himself speaking to Tom.

“We haven’t spoken much to each other, one-on-one,” Tom observed after they wandered off, looking for a quiet place to chat.

“Yeah. The gals suck up all the free energy, don’t they?”

They laughed.

“Speaking of energy, Tamara is amazing; she’s so f’ing smart but she’s a sweet gal. I’ve seen how she looks at you, and the rapport you two have is like you guys’ve been married fifty years. It almost seems you know what the other’s thinking.”

“Um, I guess we do, in a way. You know about her family background? That all of her ancestors were a kind of priest or priestess of Vodou?”

“Yeah... we did talk about that when we first met. Strange to think about that, but I now know that the religion is an indigenous African one and not a dumb magic sham,” Tom answered.

Peter nodded. “By the same token, I think I told you guys that I’m descended from a line of Norse seers—seeresses, actually. They originally followed an animistic religion too, like Tamara’s African ancestors, and its practitioners went underground when Christianity pressured them. So Tamara and I apparently have this spiritual resonance that makes us sensitive to each other. I can’t really describe how close we feel.”

“Damn, that’s so cool. Cindy and I sometimes feel like two halves of the same person but that’s only when ... um ...”

“Don’t bother saying it, and I won’t describe how Tamara and I can feel each other’s sensations when we do that.”

“No shit! Now I’m really envious,” Tom grinned at him.

“It’s great and it happens a lot, but the two of us are trashed afterwards. Apparently both our bodies must burn double the energy for the two of us to sustain that connection. It’s based, Tamara believes, on the high levels of empathy that we seem to have.”

“That’s some serious shit, Peter. But you know, from what you’ve described, Denise does something related when we’re, um, all doing the nasty...”

“Hell, Tom, you guys swingers?”

“No, no. Not at all. Completely monogamous, all of us; we’ve never swapped; the thought of doing that is, well, distasteful. It’s just, well, living together and being so close, we’ve made love in the same space or room and Denise does something, like projects an aura, that turns on the lust in the guys around her. She’s given orgasms to Kevin without touching him, they claim, and she came close to doing that to me one time.”

Peter laughed. “Oh... Tamara mentioned something to me that Denise told her about some tantric massage sessions she was in. Ideas from those sessions were some of the things that went into the Avery Program.”

“Right. I was there and involved.”

“Of course,” Peter said. “I get it about the massage—my sister with her boyfriend and Tamara and I, did a nuru massage session here at the resort ... um, two years ago. Turned into a bit of a group sex session, but there was no switching partners. Barbara and Tamara were okay with their getting off, but Terence...”

“Barbara’s boyfriend. He’s really hung.”

“Yeah. Sensitive about it too. He was a bit embarrassed. His family’s strict Southern Baptist and nudism is a cardinal sin. As you can see, seems he got the only liberal gene in that family.”

Tom laughed. “Hey, change subjects. So you’re doing a PhD in double E. I’m gonna be finished with my industrial-mechanical PhD next spring and Cindy will be on her fellowship—that’s like a residency—and then she’ll take the Boards for her specialty. We plan to stick around here ‘cause Cindy and Denise are cooking something up.”

“What are your own plans after your degree?” Peter asked.

“Industrial processes, that’s my research. Adapting theoretical designs into working devices.”

“Nice. Say, um, I just thought of something,” Peter mused. “You triggered an idea that I’ve been mulling around and need to find just the right kind of collaborator. I’m working on microcontrol systems—tiny low-power controls which can activate mechanisms which use larger amounts of power. My control circuits are tiny, about 100 micrometers square.”

“Something like for industrial robots? Current ones need better sensitivity to touch and pressure.”

“Yeah. For that and for prosthetics too. Last week I was reading a paper that Tamara was finishing up with one of her many collaborators, this one’s in materials science. Tamara had suggested to this professor that a flexible polymer could be made, doped with some of a ferromagnetic compound she’s figured out, and that tiny versions of her G-force coils could be used to force the polymer to extend or contract. The professor tried fabricating her idea and it worked, kind of.”

“Something that works sort of like a relay?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, that’s it. It was originally intended as a solenoid replacement. But when I read the description, I figured out that it actually works more like the way a muscle contracts. Muscles work the way they do because of how two proteins in the muscle strands interact. When a muscle gets a signal from a nerve, the actin proteins in a muscle filament are stimulated to slide past the adjacent myosin proteins and that movement generates muscle tension.

“What Tamara came up with was a flexible polymer which works to pull like that, but her version not only causes it to pull, this thing pushes too. But the pushing isn’t as efficient because the polymer bunches up; it’s not rigid enough. But the pulling action works great, so she’s writing up a patent application for that idea. I’ve lost count of how many patents she has now. Anyway, I was trying to think of a cool application for my control circuits and having them work with this stretchy polymer seems like a unique idea but I don’t know anyone who I could work with to develop something brand new like this.”

Peter looked at Tom. “Tamara’s big on NDAs, that’s non disclosure agreements. If I skip getting an NDA from you and tell you my idea, you won’t go off and develop it yourself, right?”

Tom shot him a hurt expression. “Now that would be completely unethical, Peter, why would you suggest that?”

“Sorry. I need to be careful,” Peter replied. “Tamara is a bear about her NDAs. But I can tell that you mean it; that’s good. My idea, since my career goal is developing controls for robotic systems, is to build better prosthetics for handicapped—less-abled—people. If I could use her polymer to design artificial muscles, that would be an immense improvement on using actuators and cables to mimic muscle contraction. The control circuits I can design would take over the function of the nerve stimulation. Tamara’s polymer invention could work as the muscle itself. The last part would be integrating the prosthetic into the subject’s nervous system and I know that there’s been some successful work in that area. Do you think this would be something you’d want to work on with me? We’d have the inside track to licensing her invention.”

Tom had been listening with an amazed expression.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed. “Something like that would be a certain career-builder. But wouldn’t Hopkins have the patent rights?”

“No, Tamara didn’t do the work under any Hopkins project or faculty member and she personally funded the prof’s work on refining the polymer she developed. She has an agreement with Hopkins about her spin-off invention ideas, anyway.”

“Well, if I did the work at Georgetown, they’d want a piece of it, I would think,” Tom mused.

“There’s ways around that. If you’re doing your own research but do something unrelated on the side, then it’s yours if you don’t use any resources of your employer—or school, in your case. I assume you have a fellowship?”

“Assistantship. I have to teach classes.”

“My dad told me that years ago, schools thought that they owned 100 percent of a grad student’s time if they gave him support, and anything he did, even at home, belonged to the school. That’s not the case anymore. If you had your own lab off of campus, as long as you kept your grad project work totally separate, whatever you do in your lab is your own. If you want, I can ask Tamara to get a copy of her Hopkins agreement and you can tailor it for your own use. Then get your admin people to sign it. This work won’t be on an invention you made, but it’d be your own development work and that could lead to your own patents.”

“Huh. But where could an engineering facility be set up to do this?” Tom asked.

“Tamara’s doing that right now... well, after our vacation, but the attorneys are hard at work on setting up a facility right now. She’ll be building a manufacturing facility and the number one product will be G-force turbines. Also in the plans are frictionless bearings. There are communication devices and power transmission projects. So the facility will have shops and labs too. We could add robotics to the mix.”

“Shit, Denise was right. You guys don’t think small. Hey, one big problem with powered prosthetics is the power supply. What about...”

Peter interrupted. “That’s no problem at all. You know, I assume, that Tamara invented the energy accumulator? The power supply part would be the easiest part to design, actually. Hey, let’s go find her. She’ll be excited about this idea, believe me.”

Tom shook his head. “I can’t believe how I’m getting roped into this, but it really sounds exciting.”

Next Chapter            Return Home

Copyright © 2023 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.