The Industrialist

Scientific Awards Committee Hall, Bloomforge Enclave

Project Presentation.

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It was a pain seeing Jaqi surprised with what he said. She was kept in the dark, hopefully, it would not enrage his partner. Lance assumed that Jaqi would be pleased if their project not only supported the food inventories but also the weapons inventory.

He had not prepared for the defense, and might as well just drop the bomb on the panelists and tinged their interest to the aspiring Scientists before them.

"How come the Aiveez plant becomes a weapon?" Mister Tanaka threw a follow-up question. It did not surprise Lance, he knew how Tanaka operated during the defense.

"It would be another project that I will present maybe next week. CBD would like me to patent the poison bombs on their behalf, and also to create further regulations for the new weapon invention. But to answer your question, Mister Tanaka, Aiveez is composed of nectar that is poisonous to the Abominants if ingested.

But in order for it to properly dissipate and efficiently spread it into the air, I incorporated it into a bomb, making a mist out of it."

"Wow! Fascinating," Doctor Zee praised.

"Actually," Lance continued, "if you haven't known about Aiveez, some are using this to repel the presence of Abominated rats in your homes. You will just stand with the plant's aroma," Lance said.

"Well," Zee said, "we will be looking forward for your project proposal, Mister Berkley. For now, we will concentrate on this project before our discussion is sidetracked."

"Ok. I have a question," Doctor Cultz said. "It says in your Cloud presentation the composition of the bacterial medium you used for the plants to grow; can you elaborate it on how did you come up with the compatibility?"

Lance knew that this was Jaqi's forte. She had been researching the compositions in the Archives. Eventhough, Jaqi had disclosed a little about it, however, it was nobler to let Jaqi answer the question. Lance stared at Jaqi and she took the cue.

"Cultured Bacteria. We are culturing soil to decontaminate it and inject some nutritive value into it just to be compatible with plant growth. It's the same concept with the bacterial medium. The same nutrients were injected in the media; however, it needed something to stabilize its characteristic, making it like a gel.

Through cultured bacteria, mixed with water, in time, the Bacteria would solidify the water in the form of gel, hence, the capability to hold the nutrients in place. Not only that, the bacteria cultivate the organic nutrients that were being injected in the gel, hence, making the levels close to infinity."

Jaqi continued his explanation more on the technical side, the type of bacteria used, the levels of nutrients injected into the gels, and she was able to achieve compatibility with the plants. She was thorough. Looking at her, one could have immense appreciation.

If the panelists' objective was to throw questions that the aspirant could not answer and fail the patent application, they would clearly lose. Jaqi was an intellect machine. It was not apparent in the way she looked, but the way she defended it, she was unyielding.

As Jaqi elucidated the details, Lance could see that the panelists had been scanning the Cloud presentation on their respective tabs.

Doctor Zee, the Industrialist Tier 1, questioned about future applications as he was known for it.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"We know that King Orange is very expensive at this moment. The bulk of its operating expenses was based on the high-tech equipment that we used in HomesteadGreen Sector, in the Dome. With this project, could it lessen the cost?"

"Absolutely," Jaqi replied. "It does not need more electricity to power the equipment that we use. It does not need the facilities during the seedling stage. We can place them in racks from tissues.

And of course, the cost of the adult plant being harvested for its tissue and converted into hundreds of seedlings versus the traditional plant propagation of King orange that may be half of what it can produce."

Doctor Zee nodded. "Have you made the calculations?"

Lance had not seen the presentation and he was not sure if Jaqi made the calculations. He was hoping she had. However, Jaqi was silent momentarily, like a frigid statue in front of the inquisitor. Apparently, Jaqi had not made the calculations. She was not able to anticipate Doctor Zee's approach and the mood had depressed from there.

"Unfortunately, Doctor Zee," She said meekly, "we were not able to do the computations."

"Hmm." There was a slight frown on Doctor Zee's face. "How can you conclude that this project had contributed better operational expense than the traditional ones if you had not made the calculations?"

If Lance had an idea of the numbers, he could produce a rough computation with his mind. But the numbers were not readily available for them, so he was rather silent.

"I think," Lance saved Jaqi's silence, "we are more inclined with the replenishment of the inventories that we had challenges ages before, and had overlooked the business side of it. But at what Jaqi had said, her defense was sound that in the business side, we are reducing the operating expense of plant propagation."

As Lance interjected, there was no change of mood from Doctor Zee. That slight derision was still plastered on his expression.

"I see," Zee said finally. "You are just deflecting the fact that you haven't made the numbers. Remember that during patent presentations like this one, the presenters should anticipate the consideration of the financial angle.

Especially during our economy is dwindling and budget constraints have been issued to all departments of the Government, especially in the industrial sectors, there is a need for us to scrutinize more on the impact of the economy. But…" Zee sighed. "I can accept the fact that this project really helps with our predicament. That's on the plus side.

Now, we have to weigh the scorings for this one between my co-panelists."

There were occasional questions from other panelists but it was handled by Jaqi. Despite the blow that they received from Doctor Zee, it did not demotivate Jaqi as their team leader.

They were asked to exit the room while the panelists were assessing the scores of their patent applications.

Jaqi was clearly devastated, with her droopy eyes, and bent head as she sat down on the bench. Lance sat down, too, inches from her. Lance was just waiting for Jaqi to talk about how their presentation went.

"Well. What do you think?" Jaqi asked, her eyes were looking at the floor.

"I think you are doing great, Jaqi. I am proud of you," Lance said. Find adventures at empire

"Are you patronizing me?"

"No. It's the truth. Don't worry too much. We are doing great. Our project is successful."

She did not reply to that, she rather stayed silent.

Tanaka opened the door and peaked at them. "It's time for the verdict."