Chapter 30 - Not the end

With a roaring sound, the Prime Minister had turned up for dinner, riding her vintage BSA Lightning bike with gold-painted fairing up to the front door. She was just swinging a Kevlar-reinforced-jeans-clad leg over the back as Eddy came running out to carry her inside over his shoulder. 'Nice bike!' he said. 'Yes. It used to be a movie prop, but they won't let me ride it with the rocket launchers loaded.' Caoilinn's head answered from halfway down Eddy's back. 'Spoilsports!'

The Prime Minister wanted to know all that had happened during the day, to get an idea of what political ramifications were to be expected when it became common knowledge that the grail had been found in her Britain and what it could potentially do.

After dinner Ava fetched the list they compiled for the scientists, as Eddy was unwilling to get off the couch because it would mean he had to let go of Caoilinn.

Caoilinn was impressed at the thoroughness as she started reading it out loud.

'Lets see… Equal opportunities for every inhabitant of the world to obtain clean hydrogen at cost price. Nice! This may mean that the grail needs to travel the world, because moving the grail from buffer to buffer is probably more cost effective than piping it everywhere from Britain or whatever fixed location the Grail would otherwise be. That makes sense, but could be a security risk if some dictator decides he (it usually is a he) wants to steal it for himself. Risk assessments should take place on a continuous basis. We don't want to swap one climate disaster for another one. You sure you aren't politicians?..' Caoilinn asked before she planted a kiss on Eddy's forehead.

'Dad helped out a little bit.' Ava admitted. ' But I am mostly concerned that if we turn loads of water into hydrogen without knowing where the oxygen goes, then burning it back to water with oxygen from the air, we could end up with nothing to breathe. That would be really bad.'

A scratching at the front door indicated the return of Wolfgang. He was carrying a big envelope. 'No slug slime this time.' he grumbled through gritted teeth. 'George was kind enough to write down the message while I dictated.'

Ava took the envelope and ripped it open with the nail of her index finger. A thick sheaf of papers fell out on the table.

'Ah, the SHC transcripts…'

'You'd better read the last page.' Wolfgang said. 'Not sure you'll like that.'

They all clustered around the table to have a look.

'That's going to be tricky.' said Caoilinn, after reading the last page.
'Especially now that we already got this far.' moaned Eddy.

'They can't do that to us. Not now…' exclaimed Ava.

'What is it?' Dad asked from the kitchen.

'The SHC ruling on our case has been overruled by the MWHC. Now they want to roll back our use of the green stuff and they want us to hand over the Grail!'

'What is this MWHC?'

'That would be the Milky Wayan High Court.' Wolfgang supplied. 'One step up from the Solarian High Court'

'Do we acknowledge the validity of such an organisation? I'm sure we never signed up for something like that.' Was Dad's answer as he came to the table, wiping a dinner plate dry with a dishcloth.

Caoilinn gave this some thought. 'I'd have to ask the King. He'll know if we have anything in writing. We should at least ask this MWHC for some kind of credentials before we can accept any kind of authority… Could you arrange something like that, Wolfgang? You can take your time, so that we can come up with some ideas.'

'Allright.' said Wolfgang. 'Do you still have some dessert left for me?'

As Wolfgang attempted to eat his trifle in a decent manner and failed, Eddy took Caoilinn's hand and pulled her off the couch and up the stairs to his bedroom…