“All the geniuses I ever met were so just part of the time. To qualify, you only have to be great once, you know. Once when it matters.”
He’d called it the Spline Actuator out of self-amusement and it turned out to be the most useful tool in the Galactic Standard Toolbox. It had spread virally across the Galactica alliance as thousands of JOATs made their own from equally viral how-to-make-it videos.
Every now and again, someone remembered to send him a few Seconds for the original idea.
But more frequently…
“Wow. That’s got to be the most beat-up looking Spline Actuator I’ve ever seen.”
Five thousand, nine hundred and thirty eight… thought Probost. “That’s because it’s the first one.” He extracted himself from his work and offered his hand. “Hi. Probost Flit. Inventor of the Spline Actuator.”
A big, wide grin. An active shaking of the hand. “Oh wow. I never knew anyone invented that thing. It must have saved my life thousands of times. You must be rolling in Years. How much profit have you made?”
Sigh. “To date? Three Days.”
“What? How? Why? Everyone in the galaxy uses them…”
“Yes. They also make their own. And then they make their own how-to-make-it video. People pay them for their Time. If they remember, they send me a few Seconds because everyone figures I’m rolling in Years by now. If they remember.” It was hard not to be bitter. JOATs everywhere owed him their lives and he was still a lowly maintenance techie on the endless parade of tweaks and re-jigging in his regular beat.
The cogniscent who had once been so overjoyed looked alarmed. “I’m going to add information to any video I see that isn’t yours. And tell my networks.” Ze dug in hir pockets. “This isn’t nearly what I owe you, but think of it as a down payment.”
“Thanks,” said Probost. Three more Hours, twenty-two Minutes, and a handful of Seconds. “This means a lot.”
Not all of them believed him. In fact, damn few of them believed him. It was still on the Galactic Wiki that he kept his day job on a voluntary basis. Like anyone would volunteer to do backbreaking, repetitive maintenance work for their productive time.
“Are you working on anything else? The Spline Actuator’s a work of genius.”
“Sorry… but it’s looking like I was only ever a genius once.”
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