Discovering Alien Tech
Copyright© 2025 by GMet
Chapter 20
Thursday morning, I was up early and jogged over to the Johnson Center with my skates around my neck, a stick in my hand and a couple of pucks and a change of clothes in my backpack. I showed my id to the guy in the office room before going into a change room and getting my skates on. I walked out to the rink and was happy to see the goalie nets were available to be pushed onto the ice at the larger door at the far end. I put one in place at the far end before stretching for a bit nearby. I started by simply slowly skating around the outside of the rink to warm up and then sped up incrementally. When I was at my full speed, Base informed me that I was doing a lap under thirteen seconds, which was where the NHL all star game fast skater skill competition record was.
‘No cameras or clock to record it,’ I sub-vocalized.
‘I’m sure we could get it set up if you were interested,’ Base suggested.
‘No, not at this time,’ I replied after thinking about it. ‘Someone might start thinking how a fourteen year old genius could also be a record holder in a physical event and think they need to study me in more detail.’
‘You are probably correct,’ Base agreed. ‘No need to provoke a controversy overtop of your genius.’
I turned around and skated backwards, hardly losing any time for a lap which showed that I was definitely unique in skating speed and talent. After a few minutes I spent some time just carrying a puck up and down the ice, looping around the entire width of the ice while stickhandling. I would switch from forwards to skating backwards all the while moving the puck around me as if I was keeping it away from opposing players. When I got tired of that, I spent the next fifteen minutes shooting on the net from all vantage points inside the blueline. I made it harder on myself by aiming for a top corner for fifty shots no matter where I was and then switching to the other corner. All the best places to score on a goalie got fifty shots before I finished up with some penalty shot practice.
I was drenched when the back doors of the rink opened to show that one of the guys had the Zamboni ready to clean the ice for the next set of people. I pushed the net to the edge of the rink, lifted one end off the ice and pulled the net right off before closing the doors. I walked up the side of the rink and nodded to a couple waiting to get onto the ice, obviously a figure skating pair. They smiled back at me before I headed through the doors towards the change rooms. I had a quick shower and got into my change of clothes before heading back to my dorm room. Base and I continued writing the Robot paper until it was time to get Sage off to the airport. She opened the door when I knocked and gave me a frown.
“You look too awake for me,” she noted as she let me in.
“And you look like you got up ten minutes ago,” I retorted with a grin.
“Half hour ago but I haven’t had my caffeine yet so you don’t get a smile,” she told me. “Alright, you get to pull that one and I’ll carry my purse and my backpack for my carryon.”
“Yes Ma’am,” I agreed as I pulled up the handle up to extend it to pull the suitcase on its wheels. “You ready? Got your boarding pass and all that?”
“Yep, the Uber should be out front in a couple of minutes so we should go,” Sage responded.
I let the way out the door and, after locking it, Sage walked beside me to the lobby and then outside.
“Damn, it’s cold,” she said as she hurriedly did up her coat.
“It’s refreshing,” I responded with a grin.
“Freaking Canuck,” she muttered as we walked through the courtyard to the sidewalk of the street.
“So, you have a good trip and let me know when you’re home please,” I said as she moved close. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I will definitely let you know when I’m home and I’ll miss you as well,” Sage responded. “You take care of yourself and have a good week with your parents up north. Don’t worry, I’ll stay connected with you via texts and I’ll call you often. I know you’ll get focussed on your work and forget about me so I’ll take the initiative to handle our communications for the next month.”
“Thanks, but I’ll also try to call you after texting to see if you have time to talk as well,” I replied.
She pulled her phone out and checked her Uber app which showed her that the ride was a minute away. She pulled me close and gave me a very nice kiss and hug until a car stopped in front of us. We checked that it was the right licence plate and person in the picture before I put the suitcase in the trunk.
“Okay, be safe and I’ll talk to you tonight,” I said as I opened the back door for her.
“You as well tomorrow and good luck with the adults in today’s meetings,” she replied with a grin.
I took her backpack and helped her into the car before handing it back to her. We smiled at each other, said bye before I closed the door. A quick wave and she was away. I waited until she was out of sight before heading back inside for breakfast. After eating, I went to my room for a change of good clothes in case I got a call to meet with people, packed them in my backpack with my laptop before heading to my workshop. Once there, I continued to build M4V1, the service robot, attaching the limbs to the finished spine, shoulders and hips. Right at ten, Dean Broderick called so I rested the arm I was working with onto a bench and hit the accept button.
“Good morning Dean Broderick,” I greeted him.
“Good morning Ben, how are you this morning?” he inquired.
“I’m doing fine, yourself?” I replied.
“I’m doing well, thanks for asking,” he responded. “I’m sure you’re busy with your robot build in your workshop but if you had time to meet with a few people this morning, say ten-thirty or so, we can discuss a few things about your schooling, teaching, and getting your projects out to some of our affiliated corporations.”
“Sure, where do you need me to be?” I asked.
“Third floor of building 3, conference room 310,” was his prompt reply.
“Give me five to finish up here, another five to clean up and I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” I told him.
“I’ll see you then,” he said and hung up.
I quickly finished attaching the arm to the shoulder joint before putting away everything into it’s appropriate spot. I used a washroom down the hall to clean up and then went back to the workshop to change into my good clothes behind closed doors. I left my work clothes on a hook and hooked my backpack, with my laptop inside, over a shoulder. It was only a five minute walk through the attached buildings to get to building 3 and then climb the stairs to the third floor. I found the conference room half way down the hall and entered to find it empty. I took a seat on the far side of the table at the end nearest the door and got my laptop powered up after hanging up my coat and backpack on the back of the chair. As it was only quarter after, I went to work on the paper, trusting Base to let me know when people were about to arrive. We got another couple pages done before the Dean came in with a man and a women. I stood up as another pair came in and then Dr. Pointek joined us.
“Good morning, Ben,” Dean Broderick said with a smile as he came over and shook my hand.
“Good morning, Dean,” I replied.
“I’m going to leave all the introductions until everyone is here and we’ll just do it once, okay?” he asked.
“Sounds like the right way to go,” I agreed.
Four more people came in as a group and then two groups of three came in soon after, filling up the table.
“Alright, I think we’re all here,” Dean Broderick announced as he stood up from the chair across the table from me. “I’m Tom Broderick, the Dean of Engineering here at MIT. We are here to meet an extraordinary young man who has brought to us not only designs but actual physical prototypes of his designs in several fields of study such robotics, AI, pollution scrubbing, next gen batteries and aerospace robotics. Where he doesn’t have prototypes ready, he is getting ready to build robotic limb replacements and the robot surgeon to attach them. Finally, he has brilliant space station and space craft designs ready to be built with some financial backing from his other inventions.”
He looked around at everyone who had different expressions on their faces, ranging from disbelief to great interest.
“I see scepticism on a few faces but we can go to his workshop and see the prototypes go through their paces and you’ll all be convinced in less than an hour that he’s the real deal,” the Dean continued. “In the meantime, take my word for it and Ben can show his designs as a quick precursor to that show and tell. Let’s go around the room and introduce yourselves and then we’ll discuss in detail why everyone is here.”
The introductions took five minutes and the people were split between administrators of various levels of MIT, including vice presidents of various departments and the president of the university, as well as reps from various companies or corporations. The companies were involved in robotics, computer software and AI, batteries and pollution control. There were a couple from airplane manufacturing and even NASA and DARPA.
“And last but not least,” Dean Broderick said, looking at me.
“I’m Ben Addler, fourteen years old and have fifteen patents pending in robotics, AI, pollution scrubbing, battery technology, artificial limb replacement, aerospace robotics, aerospace design,” I said. “I have three software games on the market with over a half a million copies sold on each so far, which have funded my robotic prototypes, my pollution scrubber and my batteries which power my robots. My robots work, my pollution scrubber captures ninety percent of all exhaust chemicals and can fit all versions of cars and trucks and can scale up to semis and industrial stacks for buildings. My batteries power my robots and can be scaled down to normal AAA to D batteries, cell phones, current car and truck batteries and are a better solution for EVs than what’s even been theorized, let alone being produced. What I need is partners, both here at MIT for testing, safety as well as companies to partner with to produce production versions of everything as soon as possible. It was brought to my attention that I should produce papers to get peer reviewed so that the scientific community would take my ideas and designs seriously, so I’m working on that and have the robotics one about half way done.”
The president indicated that she wanted to speak.
“Ben, what you just said would normally have everyone in this room laughing out loud at your naivety and arrogance except that we have the highest regard for Dr. Pointek and Dean Broderick and they are adamant that you have the designs and the prototypes to back up what you are saying,” Miss Archer said. “The fact that they want you to teach your new ideas as our curriculum starting in the next semester is astonishing. I applaud your initiative on getting started on peer review papers and your work ethic to get so much done in the last half year.”
“Thank you, but I hear a ‘but’ coming,” I responded.
She smiled and said, “You are indeed a smart young man. Without peer review papers and some sort of graduate degree behind you, we can’t have anyone as a professor at MIT. So, professors in each of the affected fields will have to assimilate your intellectual property, concepts, designs and even use your prototypes in their courses.”
“That is assuming that licencing is agreed upon as everything is my property,” I said.
“That will have to be discussed as we don’t pay to use ideas in our curriculum,” she replied.
“I see this is going downhill really quick,” I replied, looking at Dean Broderick. “Maybe we should just do a show and tell for the companies and work directly with anyone interested in what I have developed.”
“I doubt anyone will want to work with you without our involvement,” Miss Archer stated, looking around. “There are agreements in place that have precedence.”
I stood up and said, “Anyone interested in seeing what is now the state of the art in those areas, you’re welcome to come now to view them because after today, I’ll be moving everything back to Ontario, Canada and developing them myself.”
“Let’s not be hasty, Ben,” Dean Broderick said, standing up. “We really want you here to help with your ideas and spread them to everyone. Everyone will benefit from partnering together.”
“Your President doesn’t think so, without even seeing what I have,” I rebutted. “I’d have them come up and convince her right here but I might scare a few people in the hallways. They will be available for the next hour before I start packing things up and shipping them home. I’d say it’s been nice to meet everyone but my parents encouraged me not to lie.”