Discovering Alien Tech
Copyright© 2025 by GMet
Chapter 5
Wednesday classes were English and Canadian history before lunch and then after lunch it was a class on how to study and draft proper essays for answers, then French and finally shop class as dad and I thought it would be good to be able to use the various machines that I might need later in life or in the robotics’ parts manufacturing. The only class I was going to enjoy was shop as the teacher, a Mr. Adams, let us know we would be using every machine in his shop before the year was out, both for woodworking as well as metal and plastic projects. The first class was more about safety and drafting but I could tell it would be good for me.
I tried to book an appointment with a guidance counsellor but the receptionist told me that grade nine appointments would start in a week so I was to wait until then unless it was an emergency. I did ask if testing out of several of my classes to move up a grade or two was an emergency as I would have to be moved to other classes, but the woman just said to wait as that was rarely done. I discussed it with my mom and dad at supper, which we had picked up from a local pizza place after they both met me at the nearby sport’s store. I bought all new hockey equipment and got my new skates sharpened while we were there. They advised me to wait and not rock the boat any further than what the request would already do. They warned me that there would always be small minded, petty bureaucrats that wouldn’t want to go outside their comfort zone that I would have to deal with, so patience but also perseverance would be required.
That evening, I finished all my first four classes’ textbooks and started on English, French and History textbooks. With my enhanced brain capabilities for storage and recall of information, one quick read and I retained everything I set my eyes on. And since I read at speeds well beyond normal humans, I finished the English and History textbooks before falling asleep.
Thursday was boring except for robotics club. We met in an actual lab with multiple work stations, shelves of all sorts of components, from electronics, electrical wiring and connectors, motors and actuators, and various metal and plastic components to make up the physical frame and covering. Twenty-five students showed up and the older students picked leaders for five teams, splitting up the various ages amongst them. I was assigned to team number four, with Derek Prince in charge as a grade twelve returning member. Amanda Victors, one of five girls in the club, was a grade eleven returning member, as was Peter Smythe. The fourth member was a fellow grade nine newbie, Riley Owens. She was quiet, and her body was hidden behind a loose jersey and baggy jeans but she had a cute face when you could see it from behind her dark hair.
After the teams were decided, they showed off a shelf that had previous years’ finished projects, from battle-bots to robot arms built from scratch to small versions of various full robots. You could tell the progression over the years as the latest were much more sophisticated and looked like commercial offerings for small robots sold to kids to play with. The groups split up and met at the designated work area for team four. The older members put up suggestions on what they thought we should make with the plan to show off the finished project in February to decide which of the five projects would represent the school in the region’s robotic contest. If that team won there, it would go on to the Ontario wide contest and the winner of that would go onto the Canada wide contest. The winner of that competed in a North America contest in late May, this year held in San Diego, California. The team was tasked with bringing in their ideas for next meeting, along with a design of the idea as best we could before the meeting broke up. I had about ten minutes before the busses came, so I took a closer look at the completed projects before leaving.
Base and I discussed the levels the previous projects were at and where dad and I were with version one. Version one was beyond anything done up to now by the club and, with the AI I was going to install, would be on par with the best robots from the high-end companies. Version two would be the state of the art as far as we could research. There may be secret government or defence contractor projects that could rival it, but we haven’t bothered to hack them yet to see. Neither Base or I wanted to give up the designs for version one or two so we brainstormed on what we could suggest instead. Drones were already pretty sophisticated, larger robots weren’t feasible with the budget and material they had so it had to be something small and complex that could work either on the ground or maybe in water or both.
“How about a robot that can swim, walk and run on wheels?” I suggested. “It doesn’t have to be big but would have to be waterproof.”
“Already being worked on at various Universities,” Base replied, “including mimicking human swimming, various fish and larger aquatic mammals, and even jellyfish. What we need is a concept that is so different than anything else already being done. I will research the current state of the art while you continue to throw out suggestions and then we can design it over the weekend.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed and rushed to catch the bus.
After supper I worked on French as it was probably going to be my hardest subject. I didn’t have a good head for languages before my enhancements but Base promised to help with translations and proper pronunciation as needed.
Friday was another boring day for the most part. By now I had finished all my textbooks and only gym and shop were at all interesting. I did my homework in minutes for most classes and the essay questions only took a bit longer for English and history. Today, gym was an actual soccer game with the class of thirty split in two with four subs per team. After scoring a couple quick goals, I went off for one of the subs and relaxed, watching the game. The gym teacher tried to talk me into trying out for the team but I said I was already in robotics club and was going to try out for the hockey team. If I didn’t make it, I told him I would join the soccer team instead. My dad was waiting for me outside the school with my equipment in the truck. The drive was less than a minute but I didn’t have anywhere to store the equipment at the school so he agreed to pick me up.
“Looking forward to getting on the ice again?” he asked as we drove to the arena.
“Sure am,” I answered. “I’m eager to see how I stack up against the bigger guys now that I’ve grown a bit.”
“Well, have fun and I’ll watch from the lobby or the stands if you don’t mind your old man watching?” he asked.
“Of course not, how else am I going to get home?” I responded with a grin.
I got the equipment bag and a couple sticks out of the bed of the truck and lugged them inside. Dad pointed to the sign-up area and then left me alone but stayed close in case they needed a parent’s signature.
“Hi there, going to try out for the Dryden Eagles high school hockey team?” one of the three adult men asked.
“Yes Sir,” I replied.
“Alright, I don’t recognize you so you better fill out the full application and then get your dad to sign as well as you at the bottom,” he said, handing me a clipboard and pen and pointed to a desk off to the side.
It took ten minutes to fill it out and I had to wave my dad over to read it through and sign the bottom. We both went over and handed it in.
“Alright, looks good Ben, why don’t you go get changed and get some skating in while everyone else arrives and gets signed in,” the man suggested. “Use Change Room One through those doors and just pick a spot, nothing is assigned until the team is picked, no matter what anyone tells you.”
“Okay, thanks,” I replied and followed his directions after telling dad I’d see him afterwards.
There were a few change rooms but number one was the first one down the hallway. I went inside and nodded to the few guys already in and quickly got suited up. We had bought both a dark and a white practice jersey and I put on the dark one to start. After filling up a water bottle, I carried it and my sticks out to the ice, following the carpeting to keep the edge on my skates sharp. There were a few guys already on the ice so I put my bottle into a slot on the bench and my spare stick into the corner before stretching out of the way of the skaters. Once warmed up, I started skating slowly, testing out my skates and my new body. It went well so I did a couple laps backwards and found myself skating better than I ever had before.
I started alternating going forwards and backwards and sped up until I was going as fast as the others without straining or being out of breath. I held that speed for a couple of laps and then went faster, cutting around the nets in a sharp turn and speeding up the whole way down the ice. After a couple of those laps going forward, I turned to skating backwards without slowing and raced around twice more as fast as I could. I finally slowed down and just did a few starts and stops from the goalie line to the blue line at one end until I final had to stop as more guys joined us on the ice. Eventually a large group of guys were on the ice skating around in a circle while the goalies, three of them, stretched near the benches. I just kept up my speed to the main groups until we were all called to one of the side benches by the three guys who were signing in everyone. They now had skates and helmets on.
“I’m Coach Sanders, this is Coach Tretiak, and this is Coach Cunningham, we’ll be in charge of the Dryden Eagles boys hockey team this year,” one of the men announced. “We have fifty boys trying out for eighteen starting positions, five alternates and two goalie positions. This is not a house league team where everyone plays and they don’t care about the score as long as everyone participates. We’re here to win so we’re going to pick the best candidates to win games. How we do that is to do some time trials for skating, shooting and penalty shots and then evaluate everyone while we play some scrimmages. If we can’t narrow it down in one tryout, we’ll have another one day next week after school. Any questions so far?”
No one had any so he continued, “Neck guards, mouth guards and all other equipment are mandatory. Checking is allowed but only from the front or side, and not into the boards. All other Hockey Canada rules apply. If you don’t know them, download a copy from their website tonight and learn them by Monday. No fighting or dirty play or you sit on the bench for five minutes and may lose your chance to make the team. Alright, line up at centre ice for time trials once around the rink. Tell the coach your name before the whistle and skate your hardest around the outside of the rink by the boards going around the nets at each end, just like the fastest skater competition at the all-star competition. We have four cones you have to skate on the outside of so you can’t cut the corners that much.”
We all got into a line while they put the four cones in from the corners about ten feet and then watched as each of us were timed, with one of the coaches shouting out the times while the other assistant wrote it down.