Work Text:
The Invention of Flight
***
Tesla’s hat flew off his head and he felt a giddy whoop tear from his throat despite himself as the air whipped through his hair. The other men of the small group assembled were similarly caught up in a rush of boyish glee as they saw the somewhat clunky, and unassuming craft launch into the air and take flight.
The plane crashed gently into the field a mere seconds later, but it did nothing to deter the overwhelmed grin on Wilbur Wright’s face as he hopped out of the cockpit and jogged over.
Tesla pumped the man’s hand enthusiastically. “Brilliant! Brilliant, my good sir. But you know, there are quite a number of improvements that must be made to sustain it.”
Wright was bemused for a second, tearing off his flying goggles, but laughed good-naturedly. “We manage to give man a pair of wings and already you are looking to shame the mountains.”
Tesla smirked. “Mountaintops pale to my sense of ambition. Now, I have a few patents you might be interested in to improve upon your propulsion system and engine coil.”
Wright frowned. “By Jove, man, are you already trying to buy me out?”
“Doesn’t Wright-Tesla have a ring to it?”
To his credit, Wilbur Wright gave a hearty laugh and shook his head incredulously. “I can see many impertinent offers and requests forthcoming from you, Mr. Tesla.”
Nikola merely shrugged, brushing the dust from his hat as he replaced it onto his head. “Sir, you and your brother have just invented something that will change how men live their lives, how the world spins, and how kings rise and topple. This is something that I’m familiar with. You can think of me as a mentor.”
Wilbur Wright was beginning to grow less amused. “And if I instead think you arrogant and interfering?”
“Come, come, Mr. Wright. Surely the point of your invention is not to merely sustain a few seconds of airlift? And you could push your design so much beyond its current prototype.” Nikola grinned when he saw he had caught the man’s interest, despite his dislike of being patronized.
“What are you intimating?”
“I’m currently working on the patent for a death ray…which could be modified to be mounted onto a craft…”
Wilbur Wright looked pole-axed, but then leant over and spoke quietly into Nikola’s ear. “Why don’t you buy my brother and I a very nice lunch and we can discuss the matter further? Starting with one of your patents for the propulsion system.”
Nikola merely smirked. They all bowed to his superior genius in the end. “And now for the most impertinent request…”
Wright gave him an uneasy look.
“…can I have a go in it?”
***
When Helen tore the seal off the unmarked envelope it was to find a self-made postcard enclosed. It was a picture of Nikola sitting in the cockpit of a shattered, slightly smoking wooden aircraft with a mad grin on his face. He had written a simple note on the back.
I think I’ll call it the Wright Stuff.
She groaned.
FIN