Chapter 360 360: Gifting Daughter A Star.

Leo heard the reward that the system had bestowed him and he was shocked. He looked at Lily as the little one drifted off to slumberland. The technology for the space elevator had advanced and within twenty four hours the breakthrough would become obvious to the researchers and the engineers of the Utopia Research Center.This was going to change the entire way of space exploration. Leo took a deep breath and decided to not act. He was going to wait to hear the news from the people who have been working hard, and see how things goes.

The floating platform had already been constructed a few months ago, it was almost as big as a twenty football fields and could withstand tsunamis and ignore the tectonic movements under the water. This platform had a large array of water submerged propellers under it to ensure that the whole thing stays pseudo-locked in its place and not float away all over the ocean.

They have build a small airport on the island nearby capable of both water landing and accommodating a small plane on the tarmac as well. This island was big enough and a ground station was set up here.

…

In the morning, just as Leo had expected, a call came in and he was made aware of the achievement of the scientists and engineers, they have also published the science papers. Leo only told them to wait for the funding and then the project will be kicked off.

The next thing he did was to call all the sigil council families, gave them seven percent shares of profit in the project, and ten percent to the military institutions who will be providing the security and also the much needed top class engineers and executionary discipline.

He was still the biggest shareholder in the entire project and none of the people cared about it because it was all possible because of his vision. On the other hand, coincidently, the space research organization of the nation, Clover Celestial Broad, or CCB had discovered a trace of water on the moon, in a crater.

This news shocked everyone and they also proposed space missions for further exploration but the chief of the organization shook his head and said, "We cannot jump into this blindly, our rocket technology is not mature and even to deploy the probe we had to rely on the Eagle Nation, and those bastards, they took all the credit for the discover. I don't know how this will happen, but they cannot design a probe like we can and for the next year, the alignment of the moon will not be preferable for a landing probe. Using this time, we should work extensively on the rocket technology."

Someone raised his hand and said, "Sir, how about we collaborate with not these western merchants, but rather a home grown company."

The people looked at the person and they found that it was an assistant professor. His status was not good enough to participate in shuch high level meeting but before anyone could refute him, the young man said, "The Cardinal Group funded a research in the Utopia Research Center and they have developed graphene successfully, they have announced the commencement of a space elevator."

Then he pro-actively stepped up and passed a tablet to the chief. The man looked at the details of the paper and couldn't peel his eyes away. After a prolonged silence he said, "Yes, this is possible. They have been deploying the network of highly sophisticated communication satellites and even some of the program sequence that we have come to use were outsourced to them.

If they can come up with a way to help use launch a rover and probe, then we can consider them. However, we don't have much time or budget left to sponsor this. What do you all think?"

The tablet was passed around and after a few minutes, someone suggested, "We can ask Leo Cardinal Directly on how to handle this. I have his contact number, Chief Bon."

Bon raised his brow and asked, "How do you have his contact details, Professor Handa?"

Professor Handa sighed and said, "Well, that good for nothing grandson clamored for me to attend his debate competition. Can you believe that he is in high school, and was silenced by just one remark made by an elementary school student who was supposed to watch from the sidelines? That little kid was Lily Cardinal, Leo Cardinal's boss, and when I congratulated her, she revealed the insights that were way ahead of her age, so just on am impulse I passed on my card to her, who knew she would be carrying her father's business card as well."

Chief Bon smiled and said, "Whatever, just make the call, and ask if something can be done about this."

Professor Handa used the phone placed inside the conference room directly. The call connected and a calm masculine voice echoed through the room, "Hello."

Professor Handa said, "Hello, am I talking to Mister Cardinal?"

Leo replied positively before asking, "May I ask who is calling?"

The professor introduced himself and then he said, "Mister Cardinal, I beg your pardon but I am a scientist and do not have much of a business acumen so I would directly like to state the main reason behind the call."

The conversation started, and while the people expected Leo to be rather money making mongrel, they found that he was very apt, all the things were discussed briefly but concisely and the conclusion was something that the CCB liked a lot.

Finally, unable to hold himself back, Chief Bon asked, "Mister Cardinal, may I ask what is your demand for this collaboration?"

Leo chuckled and replied, "Sir, while I would like to do this for free, the people working in the company need to break bread. So, the finance department will send you a standard quotation for a commercial cargo flight, but I hope that CCB could acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved in this operation down from the sweeper to the CFO."

The people were shocked because this was just a simple effort from their side. The other party despite being involved in money burning projects didn't ask them a high price. The CCB had their own dignity, and the Chief spoke again, "Mister Cardinal, if you have any other requests please tell us and don' hesitate."

Leo thought for a bit and then he said, "Sir, if possible, could you name a spot from your findings on moon after my daughter? I remember that a few decades ago, a celebrity had been honored by a crater being named after her?"

Chief Bon looked at the people, they were think if this rich man on the other side of the phone has lost his mind, but then they nodded, after all, this was a similar transaction to that of a young rich guy doing charity to get a name on the inauguration plaque. They had no problem doing this, and the Chief said, "How about we name the rover that we wish to send to the moon after your daughter?"

Leo replied without delay, "Excellent."

The chief sighed and realized that the rich really did care for their name and face. However, he misunderstood the motive Leo had behind this, it was because he already had a plan to handle this in a way that was better than sending a rover. The young man said, "Sir, instead of a rover, how about deploying a smart robot that can be patched up with your super computer and remotely controlled, and also given instructions to function better than the rover, after all the human anatomy that it has would give us a better chance at conducting experiments and more than that, we can deploy a dozen of such robots in the payload same as your rover and probe."

Chief Bon was shocked and he wanted to ask what Leo meant when suddenly, the young man said, "I will have my CEO reach back to your all soon, for now, I have to look after my children. I seek your understanding."

The call was disconnected, and the people were left staring at each other.

…

Leo had ran off to the baby room to find Julian crying at the top of his lungs and Beta was shaking the milk bottle before him. Leo quickly soothed the child and picked him up in his arms and coaxed him with gentle rocking before taking the bottle from Beta.

The robot said, "Sir, the doctors had mentioned that massaging the children with oil would do them good to develop strong physique in the future."

The young man nodded and then looked at the blinds on the side before he said, "Can you get the blinds, since I have to massage them, I shall let them bask in some sunlight as well. They look too pale now."

Beta nodded and carefully undid the blinds before Leo fed Julian, and then lay him on the side board unbothered by his movements. The young man was calm and he had attained a massaging technique long ago, so using it on his children was not a problem and this also an exercise for him to control his strength better.

Julian was giggling as Leo massaged him with oil and sang a few rhymes. Beta said, "Sir, it appears that Young Miss Elena has caught cold."

Leo froze, and he thought the world has collapsed.