Discovering Alien Tech
Copyright© 2025 by GMet
Chapter 21
Friday was a long day of hurry up and wait. I was up early as usual and worked out in the hotel gym before showering. I had an early breakfast and then caught the shuttle to the international terminal to catch the nine am flight to Toronto. I waited in the first-class lounge and worked on our paper until it was time to board. I was served a Coke Zero prior to lift off and worked on my laptop the entire time we were in the air. Once on the ground at Pearson Airport in Toronto, I found my flight to Dryden cancelled and I was booked on a flight to Winnipeg three hours later. From Winnipeg, there was a short flight to Dryden but I would be getting in around eight in the evening.
I texted mom and dad the updated schedule and moved to the appropriate gate to catch the plane to Winnipeg. The rest of the day was long waits, long flights until I was finally on the ground in Dryden at eight-fifteen at night. I let my parents know I was on the ground and waiting for my suitcase at luggage claim. They texted back that they were on their way and would see me outside. Fifteen minutes later I grabbed my suitcase from the carrousel and made my way outside. It was definitely colder up here than in Boston, so I zipped up my coat as I waited on the sidewalk. A few minutes later, I spotted my dad’s pickup and moved forward as he pulled up. I put my suitcase on the seat behind dad and climbed in on the other side behind mom’s seat.
“Hi,” I said after I shut my door.
“Hey Ben, how was your trip?” dad asked.
“Long and boring,” I replied. “Sorry you had to pick me up so late.”
“Not your fault and it’s not that late,” mom responded. “Did you eat?”
“Had a burger in Winnipeg so I’m good,” I told her.
Dad pulled away from the sidewalk and everyone was quiet on the drive home. Once inside, mom said we would talk tomorrow about what happened and what the next steps were. They wished me a good night and I dragged my suitcase and backpack upstairs. I put my clean clothes away and filled my laundry basket with the dirty ones. I went back down for a quick shower and then hit the bed, exhausted after the long day but happy to be home.
Saturday’s discussion over breakfast went better than expected as they were on my side about them using my intellectual property without compensation. They cautioned me about losing my temper and making rash or impulsive decisions as it had potentially bad consequences as people might think me immature and pouty. The fact that most of them came to see my prototypes afterwards made it seem that wasn’t the case this time but it might not go so well the next time, especially with the same people in the room. I agreed and vowed to stop and think before acting from now on and that was that for that issue.
As for next steps, I told them what I had to do to get peer reviews of each research paper published in a scientific journal. I planned to write up every major project and fill it will enough technology to blow everyone away without giving away the exact AI, and other fine details unless the patent was ready to protect those ideas. I thought it would take a couple of weeks to get them done, some time to get them submitted and who knows how long to get published. In the meantime, I would send a copy to each of the companies and invite them for a more in-depth meeting.
“You’ll need a more professional setting for those meetings or you’ll have to go to them with whatever you have to show them,” dad stated. “The first one could be online to review designs but they’ll need to see the prototypes and data proving whatever results you need to show.”
“Understood, we’ll have to work on that over the next month I suppose,” I agreed. “I’m thinking the pollution scrubber is the easiest to get to market if a company can afford the liability insurance and the testing. If not, we could break it up and have companies make the clamping, the molds for the cartridges and a separate company to make the actual material. Any company can put them together and also work on the returned cartridges.”
We talked about that for a while and then what was needed for the limb replacement prototypes and the surgeon robot. Base had redirected the shipments for the parts so they would come here between Christmas and New Years. The truck with all my workshop stuff came soon after and dad and I helped unload everything into the garage and workshop. I gave them each a hundred bucks for helping out and they drove off happy. Dad helped with the unpacking of the robots and was amazed when I asked them to help with the rest and they all started unpacking the rest of the boxes. I even had M1V2 help me carry the rest of the boxes with my clothes inside to the laundry room, surprising mom.
“Mom, meet M1V2, M1V2, meet my mother,” I made the introductions.
“Mrs. Addler, it’s my pleasure to meet you,” M1V2 said as he put his box down.
“Hi M1V2, thanks for helping out,” Mom responded.
“Any time,” he replied.
I gave her a grin before we went back out. I made the trip with M3V1 and then M2V1 and they each greeted mom pleasantly. Dad and I placed their station racks around the workshop and had them go on standby after plugging themselves into the wall sockets to recharge.
“You’ve really made some fantastic robots Ben,” Dad observed. “I have the feeling you’re going to revolutionize everything if their programming is as brilliant as I think it is. You might want to include videos of their interactions and them working like I just saw into your paper and sales presentation. You’ll have companies forming a line to get in on producing them.”
“That’s the plan,” I agreed. “They are surpassing what I thought they could do in terms of interacting with humans and themselves. A few of these could man a factory to make more robots and other things we want to produce. Maybe we don’t have to have our stuff built by as many other companies as we predicted.”
Dad thought about it and replied, “You may have something there Ben, at least on the robotics, scrubbers and the batteries after seeing how easy it was for you to fill and close the batteries and how dextrous these robots are.”
“We could rent a building in town and set up a new division for producing whatever we wanted,” I mused out loud. “Build some robots, have them put the scrubbers together, have them make batteries once we get the casings built and so on. We’ll have to talk to mom about money and if we have enough to start up another division and get the building and lines ready.”
“I know there are a few empty buildings in town, the economy isn’t as rosy as the media portrays it, at least here,” Dad said as we shut everything down. “Let’s go in and strategize with mom and we’ll see what we can do.”
I followed him back inside our house and I retrieved my laptop and my bigger monitor before meeting my parents at the dining room table, mom having her laptop open while dad had a pad of paper and a pen in front of him.
“Alright, I call this meeting of the Addler board in session,” mom said with a grin.
We laughed as I powered up my laptop.
“Okay, Ben and I got talking after seeing how his robots interacted and worked on unpacking all of his stuff this morning,” dad started. “Why don’t we put them to work in our own building making robots, scrubbers, batteries and, in time, Ben’s other inventions like his limb replacement robots and even his surgical robot systems? We could look for a building in Dryden to rent or purchase and then set it up for small run production to start.”
“That’s an intriguing idea,” mom responded after thinking about it for a minute. “Pros and cons?”
“Cost, security, oversight, ongoing funds, how to sell the product, getting appropriate licencing and permits, insurance for the building and the product, warranty on the product, product testing, safety testing are some of the issues I’ve been thinking about,” I listed as dad wrote things down.
“Those all are cons I suppose, or at least obstacles to overcome,” mom stated. “What are the benefits of doing it ourselves?”
“More control of the process and the product,” I responded. “More of the profits as well the ability to make other products or experiment in the future like my space stations and space craft. We could start small, build a few robots or a robotic line to assemble robots and another line to make the scrubbers and a third to make batteries that we need for the robots. Expand as we get sales on each product or contract other companies to add production lines.”
“I see what you mean Ben, a linear production line along a wall for example to build the robots we need and then use them to get another the battery line started and then a third to assemble the scrubbers,” Dad jumped in. “We would have to contract the battery casings and the plastic cartridge out to a plastic molding shop and perhaps the clamping portion to a steel stamping source, but we could put them together. The scrubber cloth would have to be made elsewhere as well.”
“Okay, we’re getting a bit too specific and ahead of ourselves,” mom jumped in. “I think you have a good idea to start making some robots to help in producing other robots and the batteries they will need. I think that companies will want to buy a prototype to see if they can make them for themselves; universities and governments will want them to study as well. I assume you would have to install the AI into each one and use some safety protocols to ensure the software can’t be hacked or stolen from each one?”
“Yes, I would install safeguards into each robot to ensure no tampering could be done to steal propriety software or hardware, though disassembling of the physical robot would tell them much, even if it voids the warranty and would shut down the robot for good,” I explained. “We could be the repair source or be called in to see what happened if someone else sold the robot, so we could tell what happened by asking the AI when we rebooted it back up after a shutdown.”
“The market for first prototypes of each model could be in the thousands,” dad mused. “We could make all of those for sure, sell them as one offs with specific warranties and rules of use, with limited liability statements as part of the sale. What would you charge for one of those?”
I had been talking sub-vocally to Base in the background and he had sent me a bill of materials with accurate costs for each item for all of the models.
“I’ve got a bill of materials for each robot model,” I told them as I pulled them up and split my screen so they could see them on my monitor. “As you can see, right now each one costs a fair bit as the components are purchased without trying to get better costs by buying in bulk. It looks like full scale models cost close to fifteen to twenty thousand dollars each due to the computer, titanium steel in their construction, fibre wiring, miniature activators and controls and the specialty items in their spines, as well as sensors and other electronics.”
“So, we should be able to lower the costs as we purchase items in bulk like you said,” mom agreed as she looked the list over. “Before we can make any more of these, we’ll need another source of revenue or advanced sales with deposits with their order.”
“Do we have enough money to even rent a building or do we have to make them in the garage?” dad asked.
“We still have a couple hundred thousand in the bank so we’re not in danger of going broke,” mom replied. “But, that would go quickly getting a manufacturing business established from the ground up. That’s why we’re meeting like this to discuss everything, weight out all the pros and cons and then meticulously plan out the next steps. Who are we going sell our products to, approach them with proposals, see if there is a market and potential orders and so on. We are not going to rush into this and get a building on Monday. Ben has to write those peer review papers and get them published first and foremost. They will do more for creating markets for his inventions than anything else. We could possibly build another robot of each model to have as a second demonstration model and make them a bit more presentable, so your next show and tell is your marketable version of each.”
“Then, when the potential orders start coming in, or when someone wants to licence your patents, we’ll have the capital to start producing them if we want to go that route,” dad said. “It makes sense with what funds we have and how expensive each prototype costs. Ben?”
Base and I had already confirmed that would have to be the plan unless he could funnel in more of his money, but we didn’t see how that could be done without mom and the Revenue service asking a lot of questions.
“I agree, papers finished and published first, then make up a more visually acceptable version of the five models, though I’m not sure where model one would fit into the overall marketing scheme, as it’s not meant to be an industrial robot, a security robot or a service robot, let alone the space robot.”
“Then keep it for your own use then and concentrate on models two, three and four, leaving five to be special ordered from NASA and the other private or government run space agencies,” dad stated.
“Okay, papers, another version of the three models, a few more scrubbers and battery samples of different sizes and prototypes of limb replacements and a couple surgical robots will be our priority for the next month or two, all built here,” I listed the plan Base and I came up with.
Mom was doing some calculating on a spreadsheet so we waited on her before continuing.
“Alright, with that plan, we run out of funds by end of February, without any new sources of revenue,” she said. “Either we get orders, licences or another software game or we have to wait until the rest of the world wants to pay for your work.”
“Understood, I’ve got an idea on a multiplayer space explore and colonization game that might pull in some great ongoing revenue,” I told them. “It would be based on the space version of my flying game as a start and players would start by building or purchasing space craft to first explore and then colonize planets. They could run into aliens along the way, pirates as well as other various space hazards.”
“Sounds interesting but time intensive to develop,” mom responded. “Do you have to time and energy to do that along with everything else you have going on?”
“Since I don’t need to attend classes or study, I could fit it in after finishing the papers,” I explained. “Let me see how things play out in the next few weeks and we’ll see. I have the feeling that more than a few companies and agencies will be reaching out as soon as the papers are published to get at my ideas or want me to work on projects.”
“Probably, but let’s all discuss each proposal and meeting before agreeing to anything,” mom insisted. “If nothing else, to schedule your time and to keep things straight for all of us. Too many fires on the go will burn down more than the garage.”
“Okay, but you both have jobs you can’t abandon until we have enough revenue streams set up that will allow you to come on board permanently,” I responded.
“We’ll work things out,” mom stated. “We’re not going to let you be taken advantage of or get pulled into a dozen directions. Both of us will be here to support you until things get worked out and until you get a team in place to help. I can see big things in your future but we need to manage things to ensure they don’t get out of control.”
“I’m okay with that as long as decision making isn’t taken out of my hands,” I insisted.
“Of course you’re highly involved in all decision making, you’re just not going to being doing it in a vacuum,” dad told me.
“Alright, I’ll get busy on papers, the new software game and upgrades to designs on the three models for presentations,” I said. “Can you guys look into buildings that might be free if things go well?”
“Of course, and I’ll research everything we need to set up a manufacturing company as well,” mom responded.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.