Discovering Alien Tech
Copyright© 2025 by GMet
Chapter 24
Dad and I drove in together on Monday to get to the shop before seven while mom would come in later. Both Reece and Riley would be in school for the week. I updated dad on everything we had done over the weekend, the probes, the jetpack and the updated designs on AddlerTwo and AddlerThree.
“Did you relax at all this weekend?” he asked.
I told him what I did on Sunday, with the running, fishing, cutting wood, outside and then the designing.
“That doesn’t sound like relaxation at all,” dad observed. “Ben, you need to wind down a bit or you’ll run yourself ragged. I know you’re young and can go all day and night, but down time helps get your mind off of things and maybe do some fun things every once in a while.”
“I suppose so, though I did watch a hockey game Saturday night,” I informed him.
“Good,” he said, shaking his head.
When we got to the shop, we went over and inspected the AddlerOne progress and then the other lines and inventory created by each. Trucks were being unloaded and the robots stacking boxes and material in a new area of the second building where we would begin the build for AddlerTwo. Dad went to his office to update statuses for all builds and check inventories while I started laying out the frame for the AddlerTwo. It would be a single floor only with the main AIPS in the back, then the bay with bay doors, the bulkhead door, the airlock and the hatch opposite the normal man door, then the cockpit for two pilot chairs and consoles. Small wings on either side and landing gear that would fold up into the main floor. It was longer than what I wanted for my fun space craft but would do for a rescue ship. The smaller AIPS would help with the course changes but it didn’t have an AIPS in front to brake with. Once in space, the ship would have to flip over if an immediate stop was needed as the gliding speeds without rockets firing would be still very fast.
I enlisted the help of some M2 robots to set up heavy duty horses and then placed long beams on them as the frame. We attached the cross beams to attach them together and the curled half moon frame pieces to each beam for the walls. Thick titanium plating went down on the beams for flooring and then the gimbal was bolted and welded to that for the main AIPS. Various conduits were run under the floor through the cross beams so we could wire everything, pump air and fluids throughout the ship, etcetera. I worked all day on the second ship, only stopping for short food and bathroom breaks. As more was done on AddlerOne, the spare robots were shuttled over to this ship building team and it took shape.
“Jesus, you got most of the frame already done!” dad said as he and mom looked it over.
“A good portion of it,” I agreed. “We have conduit run and we’re ready for the main AIPS to install from the top before we finish the top framing. The bay doors have interesting mechanisms to open the doors in space and still give lots of room for cargo loading and unloading without a middle beam to close against. Sealing those doors will be a challenge.”
“Maybe NASA will help with that,” he said.
“Perhaps, I looked at their design of the shuttle which seemed to work well but I think we can do better,” I responded. “So, how was your day?”
“I have a handle on where we are at on each manufacturing line as well as our inventory and I have to say we’re ahead of all of our schedules for each line,” dad replied.
“Good news,” I said.
“We have lots of money coming in and less going out so that’s a good sign,” mom added.
“Great news,” I replied with a grin.
“Rachel has submitted your new patents on the probes and the jet pack,” mom continued. “We’ve received some scheduling from both Donna and Amanda on testing and the pickup. I saw that Riley and Reece added the probes and the jet pack to the shipping bill of lading on the truck taking the spare rockets down, pending patent approvals. Does this have to go down as well?”
“I don’t think so, but maybe,” I hedged. “It’s smaller so we could launch from the airport here in an emergency but that would need some red tape cleared. Having it ready down there for human flight testing of the AddlerOne would be handy as a rescue ship for space but it will also require testing as it’s definitely a different model with other potential issues. We should bring it up with NASA and CSA later this week when we have more of it built.”
“Okay,” she said as she made a note on her phone.
“I have something we should discuss just the three of us to start and then expand as we have some research done,” I said as I led the way to the wash sink.
“And that is?” dad inquired.
“We’re already getting too big for these buildings and we’re going to be building AddlerThree in the next few months,” I started. “What do you think about putting up a bigger building out by the airport and maybe expanding the runway to launch from here?”
“The runway is just less than 6,000 feet long and 148 feet wide and is a class 3C runway,” dad replied. I think the 747 needs 10,000 to 12,000 feet to land and more to take off so it really isn’t long enough for the 747 to land, let alone take off with AddlerOne on it. They have been known to land in a much shorter distance if it has to, but I doubt they can take off from here. Winnipeg has an 11,000 ft runway so maybe that’s an option. We’ll have to discuss this with NASA and CSA to see what they are thinking. So, Dryden is a nonstarter unless a new very long runway is put in. There isn’t enough room to put one there either unless a lot of the forest come down and a lot of fill is added, so if you want to build beside a long runway, it won’t be here without a lot of work.”
“Understood,” I responded. “We have a definite problem getting the AddlerOne down south then. No way to get it to Winnipeg except by flying or disassembling the entire ship.”
“Why the hell didn’t we figure that out last week?” mom asked, obviously perturbed.
“I didn’t think about it really and neither did the astronauts or anyone else in either group,” dad responded with a shrug.
“Well, they better get on it in the morning and come up with a solution or the ship will be flown down,” mom said forcefully.
I wisely kept quiet as we left the building and locked up. The drive home was quick and I helped with dinner prep and cleanup afterwards before going upstairs. Base and I looked at maps of the airport and the surrounding area and noticed that there was a road near the one end and rough terrain at the other before thick forest took over.
‘Doesn’t look promising,’ I noted.
‘I agree, it would take a lot of time and work to lengthen that runway,’ Base agreed. ‘There does seem to be a bit of room to add a runway beside that one.’
‘So, we will keep that in our hip pocket while looking elsewhere to set up shop,’ I said. ‘Winnipeg doesn’t look good to set up a big shop either, neither does Thunder Bay. We might have to look south, though even Toronto has two of only 11,000 feet or a bit longer.”
‘The runway at the Kennedy Space Center is one of the longest in the world at 15,000 feet, so we might have to see if they will lease land and/or buildings nearby,’ Base suggested.
‘Let’s see how long we actually need to take-off and land first and then we can decide where to locate,’ I said. ‘The rocket and noise might determine where we can operate from. I have the feeling that the Kennedy Center area will be very expensive and ripe for industrial espionage. I’d like to build somewhere out in the boonies so that we’re isolated and a bit more secure. I’d like to stay in Canada as well. Maybe we have to get CSA looking for a good place to build.’
‘Both Calgary and Edmonton have long runways and Edmonton is a bit out of the city,’ Base informed me.
‘Anything is possible but I’d rather be close to your base if possible,’ I said. ‘Let’s look at funding a new Dryden runway and put up buildings between the current one and our new runway.’
‘Very ambitious,’ Base noted. ‘I will investigate and see what would be needed and if the township would be interested. It’s not something we need to do immediately. It might be easier if the publicity of the launches and all the other things we’re doing will help convince people to allow an expansion. If not, we look for the best flat land nearby and see if we can purchase it and then develop it.’
‘Okay, we have several options and some time to figure this out,’ I agreed.
The rest of the week was busy with building both ships at an accelerated pace with more robots assigned to both projects. Dad concentrated on AddlerOne while I focussed on AddlerTwo. Mom and Rachel, with Reece helping when she could, concentrated on getting the ships down to Florida and finalizing the testing and flight schedules.
Riley joined me on the weekend working on both ships where needed. AddlerOne needed fine work to install the final circuitry and systems in the bridge and test them out without actually starting the rockets. Life support, seals, landing gear (as we were still on horses so the landing gear could be lowered and raised), wing flap functions, kitchen and bathroom electricity, water, microwave and fridge install and on and on. Checklists were used to verify every system, every subcomponent and every connection was correct and working. At the end of the weekend, everything on AddlerOne was tested except for the AIPS, collision detection and guidance. Those would wait for runway and in-atmosphere or in-space testing after the functionality was tested on the ground.
The third week of June we concentrated on the AddlerTwo, getting the bay doors and their mechanisms installed and then testing them out. After that, the rest of the systems were installed in the cockpit while bulkheads with pressurized doors were added at either end of the bay. Other robots started installing the man door as well as the hatch and airlock system on opposite sides of the ship, just behind the cockpit. The airlock was only big enough for one person at a time with the space we had in the small hallway.
The rest of the team from AddlerOne moved over and started installing the titanium plates on AddlerTwo and by the end of the third week we had two ships that actually looked like space ships. We took them off their supporting stationary supports and put the weight on the landing gear with no issues. Both ships were backed out of the building with a tractor and we sprayed on several layers of our proprietary coating with a large plastic frame work covering the ships. After the white coat, we put on the ships’ names, Addler Enterprise wording and several Canadian flags on the top and bottom of the wings, back fins as well as the bottom of the ships. AddlerOne or AddlerTwo went on the bottom as well as the sides. Finally, we put several coats of the clear coating on and let it dry.
Both ships were ready to go by June twenty-six but how to get them to Florida was not determined as any flights were not approved. The full teams from NASA and CSA, including Alex, flew in on the twenty-seventh. We gave them another tour of the finished ships as well as showing them the emitter and detector arrays, the probes and the jet pack. Back in the conference room, I showed them what we had come up with for the guidance and the collision avoidance programming. After the explanation, we showed them the simulations taken from my space explore game and adding in our programming. We ran it with the ship going through an asteroid field on autopilot and it worked like a charm.
“Ben, you’ve outdone yourself this month, finishing two ships, creating a guidance and collision avoidance program that works, new sensor arrays, probes for distance sensing, new jetpacks,” Alex said. “Your team has testing and flight schedules down pat and you’re ready to proceed a few days ahead of schedule. I’m amazed and I don’t say that lightly.”
“Thanks Alex, we’ve all put in a lot of time and effort to get to this stage,” I admitted. “We said we would be ready and we all made sure we were.”
“As you stated in our last meeting, if you say something, it will happen,” Alex responded with a grin. “It’s not usually the case in my experience but I’m very happy to acknowledge it’s true with you. Now, our teams have all the testing and flight schedules booked into the Kennedy Space Center scheduling for July and August as per the combined teams work. Good work everyone on all sides to get that done.”
Everyone nodded and smiled.
“So, the truck will be here tomorrow to pick up the AIPS rockets, the probes and the jet pack, correct?” Alex inquired.
Everyone nodded or replied with the affirmative.
“Good,” Alex said, checking that off his list. “A jet to pick up the Addler team is also ready for whenever we decide to shuttle them down?”
“Yes,” Donna replied. “It’s on standby in Ottawa and will make it’s way here with a half day notice.”
“Excellent,” Alex responded, checking that off as well. “So, we come to the 64,000-dollar question. Where do we stand on getting the ships down to Florida?”
“The runway here is too short for the 747 Shuttle plane to land, let alone take off with the weight of the ships added,” Donna stated. “Winnipeg airport’s runway length is 11,000 ft so should be long enough but we can’t get the ships there. It was going to be hard enough to get them to this airport with the size of the roads leading to it from here.”
“Options?” Alex asked.
“Helicopter them from here,” I suggested. “Lift them straight up and then over to the Dryden airport. Either we fly them to Winnipeg or Florida or see if the helicopter can make it to Winnipeg in one trip and then come back for the next.”
“That sounds doable,” Alex agreed. “I meant the helicopter to Winnipeg portion of it. Let’s get the weight of each ship and get moving with helicopters. I thought I saw a big one out at the airport and I’m sure Winnipeg or somewhere else has something for us to use.”
“I’ll get on it,” Donna said.
Amanda, along with Reece, moved with Donna to the other end of the conference room.
“Okay, the space shuttle weighed in at eighty-three tons and no helicopter can carry that,” Alex stated. “Maybe two at once for the big Sikorsky Skycranes as they max out at forty-thousand lbs each if my memory serves me. Your ships are smaller and hopefully lighter. What do you think they weigh?”
Base had that ready for me so I replied, “AddlerOne is twenty-five thousand pounds and AddlerTwo is twelve thousand pounds as they are.”
“Okay, so twelve point five tons and six tons each, definitely doable with more than one type of helicopter,” Alex responded and raised his voice, “Ladies, twelve point five imperial tons and six imperial tons for the weights.”
“Alright, we’ll get them to Winnipeg as fast as we can and in the meantime, we’ll get the 747-shuttle plane to Winnipeg and make sure we have a crane to lift the ships onto the top of the plane,” Alex continued as he made some notes before looking over at the other members.
“So, someone from NASA call down and get the plane up to Winnipeg and someone from CSA work on the crane that can lift that weight to the airport,” he directed. “We have a schedule to keep and this should have been worked out already.”
People got busy and I broached the subject of where to build and test AddlerThree and the next versions in the near future.
“Good thinking ahead, Ben,” Alex noted. “You need your own access to a runway or vertical takeoff launch pad. Obviously, there are a few in Florida and California that have both. A few of your airports have a long enough runway but are for commercial flights so you won’t be able to test when you want. Either build near a NASA or Air Force site or build your own.”
“My thoughts as well,” I replied. “Why don’t you and NASA put a proposal together to get me a site in the States and I’ll see what CSA can suggest and help with up here?”
“I’ll do that, but we usually lease out our space to your competitors,” Alex responded.
“Yes, but they’re still working with huge fuel rockets to get their capsules out to space, so they’re really not my competition,” I nodded. “You’re here because if these ships work, you hope to have instant access to space again simply by helping us out. I submit that by providing some buildings and access to your runway, it would show that you would be a good partnership for our company and NASA, let alone both countries. Horizontal takeoff to space eliminates so much cost and waiting for launch windows once the guidance and collision avoidance software is proven out. I still might need a launch point up here for various reasons but for now, using yours might be a good first step and cost everyone a whole lot less money.”
“Understood, and I’ll definitely put that point in when I discuss it with the powers-that-be at NASA and the government,” Alex responded.
“Make sure that the government knows that I own the spacecraft and will lease them, with my pilots to whoever wants to use them,” I told him. “These are dangerous ships in the wrong hands and for now, I’ll keep them under my control.”
“Understood, though the military of every country as well as all sorts of other companies will want them so be careful,” he warned.
“They have built in safeguards and more will be put in for next models,” I assured him. “They will never work for anyone else, including the AIPS and the other specialty items.”
“Interesting,” Alex said. “I underestimated you again, Ben.”
“It just seemed wise to put things in place in everything I invent,” I said with a shrug. “So, let me know as soon as you can because I will need to make other arrangements soon to start the next build.”
“I’ll approach everyone starting tomorrow when I’m back in Florida,” he stated.
“Thanks,” I replied.
I excused myself and pulled Jean Giguere from CSA aside and had a similar conversation with him as I had with Alex. I explained the need to be near a very long runway with a large building but away from the large population centre where most runways were.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have anything like that except at the big airports and that wouldn’t be suitable for testing,” Jean agreed with my assessment.
“So, either we work with NASA in the States or build a new site somewhere up here to work and test out of,” I summarized. “Can you get someone in your agency working with someone in the government to see what we can do? It would mean revenue for launching people out into space on a regular basis and we would keep the technology in the country. I’d need this talked about and decided on very quickly as the AddlerThree will begin construction soon after test flights in August prove out the designs.”
“I’ll get on it tomorrow Ben, we’ll want to be highly involved in this and keeping it local and in the country is good for everyone in Canada,” Jean responded. “You might want to invite some politicians and senior members of CSA to the test flights to get them on board.”
“I suppose so,” I reluctantly agreed. “Let’s see if we can put a new runway here in Dryden and put up some bigger buildings to work out of. Get the red tape worked out and I’ll help with some of the financing for the longer runway.”
“I’ll suggest that,” Jean responded.
I moved back into the conference room while he got on his phone. Alex was on his phone as well as several others from each team. Mom and Rachel had joined Reece and Riley and it sounded like mom was authorizing the cost of the helicopters to come here or it would have never got done. We all converged at the centre of the table fifteen minutes later for an update.
“Addler Enterprises have booked a helicopter to come here tomorrow to lift both ships to Winnipeg Airport,” Mom stated. “We have rented one of the buildings to store the ship that doesn’t go down to Florida tomorrow for a day, plus the use of a tractor to move the ship around. A robot will travel with each ship and will help steer if necessary.”
“NASA will have the 747-shuttle jet at that airport tomorrow morning,” Amanda added. “We will take one down to Florida at a time and new pilots will come back up to Winnipeg and do it again on Saturday, the twenty-eighth.”
“CSA has ensured that there will be a crane to lift the ships, one at a time onto each 747 tomorrow and Saturday,” Donna continued.
“How will the ship be anchored to the 747?” I asked.
It has three brackets to hold the shuttle to it, one in the front and two in the back,” Amanda said.
“My ships do not have any corresponding parts to hold it to those brackets,” I informed them.
“Shit, didn’t anyone check that out or inform Ben what was needed?” Alex asked in disgust as he looked around. “Apparently not. Get him the specs of the brackets and we’ll have to make something up quickly.”
He looked over and me and said, “Can you respray the coating on again after welding on the bracketry needed?”
“It’s not that simple, it’s put on in layers so that will be a weak spot in flight,” I told him. “On top of that, not every place under the ships is reinforced to hold it’s entire weight. I’ll have to see where things line up first. For all I know, it might align up with the landing gear doorway in the front. I think both ships are shorter so they might not land on the brackets. You better get me some CAD so we can line everything up before they even make the trip up.”
“Son of a bitch!” he said. “Someone get him some CAD data of the plane pronto. Everyone hold off on everything until we see if the 747 are even useful.”
Fifteen minutes later I received the CAD and pulled in the CAD for both space ships. Both fit in-between the brackets meant to hold the ships.
“What if we built a large rack to fit over the brackets and make a frame for the ship to sit on so we can strap and otherwise hold the ship to the frame,” I suggested as I quickly made-up angle iron beams in CAD and put them together.
“What straps would hold that much weight?” dad asked. “Might want to put a second rack overtop and bolt it to the first frame that attaches to the 747 and strap and pad the crap out of it to limit the damage to the skin and coating.”
“Good idea,” I told him. “Even if’s a couple tons of material, it shouldn’t matter. We’ll need special shapes to mate to the brackets and be bolted down. Give me a half hour and I’ll have it fully drawn and we’ll get working on it. All is not lost people; we can get this done so let’s continue on. Dad and I will travel with the ships or by other means with some robots to get the racking on the 747 and then load the ship on. The ladies can go direct to Florida via the jet. Do you have a crew to unbolt the top rack and unload the ship and then put the rack back together so it can fly back up to Winnipeg?”
“I’m sure we can manage that,” Alex said, looking at the NASA crew, who nodded. “Alright, problem solved. Why don’t the Addler men get busy on the frames while we finish coordination of the flights?”
I nodded and continued to draw up the racks and fill in lock nuts and bolts through mating areas built into the top and bottom frame. Mom was looking for I beams or other large steel beams in Dryden and the surrounding area. She found some and then looked farther out after an emergency shipment to our shops for those was finalized. Kenora had some an hour and a half away as did Thunder Bay, four hours away. She bought everything and had it on the road as soon as possible, paying a premium to get it here today. She then worked on the long bolts and lock nuts needed to close the racks together.
Dad and I got into our working clothes and had the robots help clear a space outside to build the rack. We laid out what we had and started welding things together while robots cut beams to size. Another group worked on the attachment points to the 747 and a third made up the plates to allow the top rack to mate to it. A final group worked on the parts to hold the ship in the rack tightly so it didn’t move around and get damaged. That consisted of U brackets to go around the ship and bolt to the bottom rack, with padding to protect the skin. The landing gear would also be put down and secured to the rack for further stability, with the parking brake put on of course.
The smaller ship would need a lower upper rack as the ship was only one floor so I went back and designed that while they kept building the first rack. We would also need extra struts to hold the shorter ship in the bottom rack as well.
Every robot was helping on this project, whether unloading trucks, cutting beams to length, welding, manufacturing the smaller plates or the various other brackets, all in the parking lot between the buildings. We attracted a lot of town folk interested in what we were doing, including reporters for the local paper and a video recorder. Reece met with both and told them to be here tomorrow when the ships would be airlifted to Winnipeg and then down to Florida. She also informed both the CBC and the Global news networks about the move and the 747 landing and airlifting our space ships to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from Winnipeg.
Dad and I worked through the night to get the racks built and even tried out the U brackets and the padding on the ships to make sure they would keep it secure and undamaged. To the truck shipment, I added a sprayer and several drums of my coating in different colours to repair any damage to the coating. We even added a couple crates of large titanium sheets to replace any outside panels if needed. We had everything ready for the truck when it arrived at seven in the morning, including the updated paperwork.
The next to arrive was the helicopter and their team. They set down in an empty field nearby and we discussed the ships and the racks. I suggested that if they first lifted AddlerOne onto the bottom rack, then the top rack onto the ship, we could bolt it down they could lift the whole thing by the rack. We might then just load the entire assembly right onto the 747 with the helicopter or have a crane do it at the Winnipeg airport.
We worked all the weights and they thought they could do it that way. We had a robot pilot go with the space ship to help with anything needed, including the parking brake.
There were cameras rolling from various angles as the helicopter hovered over the parking lot while our teams helped get the straps around the ship in the proper areas. Once everyone was okay with the placement, the head of the team on the ground gave the radio signal and the helicopter put more power to their rotors and slowly raised the ship. We all watched and were satisfied that it wasn’t damaging the ship as he swung the ship over the rack and lowered it slowly so the team could orient it properly. Once down, we marked where the straps had to go right on the ship so the next lift of the ship at the airport would be faster. Then the straps were lowered and detached and quickly brought over to the top rack. That was lifted and placed onto the ship and the bottom rack and held there until a few bolts were snugged down. The straps were then reattached to the bottom rack while we finished bolting everything down.
They checked everything, including the padding and each bolt before the signal was given to lift away. The helicopter strained but got itself up in the air high enough to clear all the buildings before taking off to the west.
“Who do we have in Winnipeg to undo the top rack and then strap up the ship to lift it out the rack so we get the bottom rack back here?” I asked my team and the helicopter team still here.
“We have a team there to handle all of that,” the lead guy said.
“Good, how about putting the ship away while you come back here?” I asked. “And the top rack should go with it as well.”
“We’ve got a tow motor and a building ready but I’m not sure if that comes with a guy to drive it and to open up the building,” mom responded. “I’ll work on that.”
“The robot can help with the parking brake and will provide some security while we wait here for the helicopter to return,” I told her. “In the meantime, I’m going to have a shower and then we’re going to have to get to Winnipeg after the helicopter comes back for AddlerTwo. Are we driving or riding with the helicopter?”
“I’ll get us a flight from the airport like we did for you SATs,” dad took that job.
“Thanks everyone, this really was a cluster of epic proportions,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of some of this stuff earlier.”
“It’s not your fault, the teams didn’t help much and we’re all just learning things as we go on some of this,” mom responded. “I think we’ll need some more team members soon because we certainly can’t trust outside people to get things right.”
“The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of our own runway and buildings up here so we can test everything up in Canada without all the hassle and red tape,” dad added. “Let’s get cleaned up and have some thing to eat before they come back. Moira, when are you ladies flying out?”
“The jet is at the airport waiting for us,” mom responded. “We wanted to wait until one ship was on its way. I’ll gather everyone up and head there soon.”