Echolocation

"When is the birthday?" Tim asked Ning.

Ning shrugged. "No idea," he said before turning toward Zarius on the other side of the room. "Sir Zarius, when is that party?"

Zarius quickly read the piece of paper with him again. "In 5 days," he answered.

"5 days?" Ning was a little surprised at how quickly fast that celebration was. "Doesn't that mean we have to leave her in 4 days? Or is it 3?"

The inventor walked toward them. "Jacob will figure that out for me. I'll have him tell the young lady here," he said. "But, are you going to be going as well? Were you invited?"

"He said you could bring anyone you like with your invitation, didn't he? The prince just now, I mean. If that is true then I and young Timothy here should be able to come along with you."

The inventor's eyes narrowed a little, surprised at Ning's forthcoming attitude, one he didn't like at all for someone having not even been properly introduced.

"My apologies. The prince took all of my attention just then. What did you say your names were?" Zarius asked.

Ning introduced himself and the other two one after the other, letting the Inventor know that they were there to invest in his upcoming work.

"Right, hi. I'm glad you could come," Zarius said as he sat on the couch close to Ning, the girl behind him sitting alongside him.

"Who is this young lady?" Ning had been curious for some time.

"Oh, forgive me. This is my daughter, Arya," Zarius introduced the young lady.

The girl, Arya, gave a small bow but said nothing.

"She stays with me in the factory and is forced to be around me most of the time for security reasons," Zarius said.

"I see."

Ning knew that Zarius wasn't Zurinus, so he wanted to get this over with quickly. "Let's talk about the matter I'm here for, shall we? You must be busy, so I should not keep you here for too long."

"I trust Jacob has explained how it all works?" "He has."

"Then how much do you wish to invest?" "May I ask what you are working on first so I can decide if I truly wish to invest in your work or not?" Ning asked.

"I'm afraid I cannot speak too much on the aspect of what I am working on," Zarius said. "I suppose I could give you some tidbits."

"Please do," Ning said.

"Do you know what echolocation is, Sir Ning?" Zarius asked.

"I do not," Ning lied. "Please explain."

"It is what we call the ability of something to locate its surroundings through just sound. Bats have it. Marine animals like Whales and Dolphins are known to have it too."

"What I'm developing right now is something like that, but for ships," Zarius explained.

"Oh," Ning raised an eyebrow. The current ships mostly used a simple map and a compass to chart their course through the ocean. If they had something like a radar, that would be quite helpful.

"This echolocation thing, does this happen above the ocean or below the ocean?" Ning asked.

Zarius raised an eyebrow. "I'm… actually working on both right now," he said quickly. "You're the first person to ask me that question, you know. Most just want to learn if it will help them search for schools of fish or help them stay from pirates."

"How far along are you into this?" Ning asked. "Do you need more money to work on it right away?"

"More money would help," the man said. "We could have more people working on it at once and we can afford to focus on the design aspect of the thing as well."

Ning nodded. "And do you wish to sell it to everyone?" he asked.

"Of course," Zarius said. "What good will come by not doing that?"

"You never know," Ning said. "Have a deal made with great empires and kingdoms that you will supply this technology to only their armies and they will fork up a lot of money for it."

Zarius' eyes narrowed. "But then the regular folks won't be able to use it. They need to get away from pirates too, or find another ship that's coming toward them at night. I make these inventions for everybody, so I wish for everyone to use them."

Ning nodded. "I understand," he said. "I have a few more questions if you don't mind."

"Sure, go ahead," Zarius said.

"When did you start inventing stuff? When did you realize you were good with this sort of thing?" Ning asked.

"I suppose I always knew," the man said. "You might have read my story. I used to work in a metal pressing factory and while I worked there, I found a very important flaw in their machines, which I reported and had them fix before the machines were destroyed."

"By doing that, I averted a great disaster that could've happened in that factory."

"I was commended by the president of that factory for helping the people, and that was when I realized that I needed to use my talent to help others."

"Since then, I started making small things here and there and hit it big when Jacob came to one of my invention reveals. Since then, everything I make, I make it for the people."

"However small, however unique, however unimportant, I want everyone to have it, if it means it could help them in any way."

"So, while it is true that selling to the navy of all the countries exclusively would help me earn a lot of money, I'm really just trying to help others. As such, I won't be doing that sort of practice any time soon."

"Unless I end up making a weapon, I won't hand it over exclusively to the navy or authority figures."

Zarius sat with a proud chest and a confident look on his face. Ning smiled a little seeing that.

"You've convinced me all right," he said. "I would like to sponsor you with 30 thousand gold coins right now."