Discovering Alien Technology Part Two
Copyright© 2026 by GMet
Chapter 15
Monday May fourth was cool as I was out for a run while planning my day. The Mars mission had safely landed and the robots were building a base with what they brought along on the AddlerFour. They had already dug tunnels into a ridge and had the first dome erected with the second one, a greenhouse, started. We sent a second AddlerFour with more construction equipment, rovers and robots to extend the base to get ready for the first humans. We tentatively were thinking of sending them up in late June or early July of this year.
I wasn’t going on the first human trip to Mars and neither was Roger as he had taken over the Moon base for the Canadians. The CSA was picking a couple astronauts to go and we were going to select a few from other friendly countries to go along. That process was just underway but would probably include those countries who had a base up on the moon.
On the homefront, the pod production plant was up and running as was the Addler Pod Clinic in Dryden. We had poured a lot of time and money into both to accelerate the setups and for once the government came through with approvals and people to staff it. I had to spend time training a bunch of people to run the pods, with the first thing taught was that the AI was much smarter than any human, including me, in determining how to treat the patient after they were scanned. The operators just had to follow instructions and get the patient into and out of the pod, assisting with the diaper contraption and cleanup after the pod was done. I did task the health care professionals to see if they could make a better waste capture method but they hadn’t come up with much of an improvement as of yet.
The next trials happened a week after the PM’s first visit and went well. We cured someone with Altheimer’s, another with Parkinson’s, a third with Diabetes and then Lupus, Lyme Disease, severe Arthritis, and HIV/AIDs. Then they found people with Hepatis, Malaria, Influenza, COVID, Chicken Pox and the mumps. Finally, they brought in some mental health patients with various disorders and the pod fixed them up as well. Frankly, I was surprised how well it did but tried not to show it as everyone came out with a clean report. The health professionals monitored all the patients afterwards but so far there was no regression.
After the trials all went well, things ramped up quickly. We staffed the clinic and opened up on April twenty-seventh. The first few days were hectic as we had to adjust to the demand and tweak our procedures for incoming, pre-scanning and then how to properly schedule the pods based on the pre-scanning results. We immediately went twenty-four hours, seven days a week, with robots helping as orderlies and pod maintenance.
Demand was fierce as our first patients came from the population of Dryden which was now about 7,500 people. About a quarter of that was sixty-five and older so most of them came through the clinic if they had something bothering them. Obviously, we took all ages if they were suffering from something serious and we got through over four hundred patients each day once we had the twenty pods set up. We hadn’t got through every Dryden citizen yet as some didn’t want to use the pods but we had all the sick people through.
We started turning out pods a week before the opening of the clinic and sent the first ten to our clinic to make twenty total and then sent the next twenty to Winnipeg and the twenty after that to Thunder Bay. We turned out twenty pods per hour, one of each on the twenty lines and kept the lines going twenty-four seven as well. Twenty pods went out on each truck, one heading west and one heading east every two hours. After they had left the production building, it was up to Health Canada and their Health Pod division to get them to a building and set up. We did provide a couple of robots to help with the setup and maintenance of the pods at each location.
All the technicians came to Dryden for training so we had both our AddlerEights flying every day to get them from and back to their city. We had them in the clinic to observe for a couple patients and then work alongside the operators of a pod. They had to learn the differences for each size pods in order to be flexible in their own clinic.
As of last night, we had 6,720 pods made or 336 sets of 20 pods. Splitting them East and West equally to start, meant we had 168 clinics each way to set up or already set up. Out west we had clinics already going in Winnipeg, Thompson and Port Nelson in Manitoba; Saskatoon, Regina and La Ronge in Saskatchewan; Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray in Alberta; while Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George in British Columbia would get their pods soon. Whitehorse up in Yukon, Yellowknife in the North West Territories and Iqaluit in Nunavut up north were all getting a clinic’s worth shipped out this week.
To the east, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury all got clinics in the Ontario North and then the next went to Ottawa and Kingston. The next few trucks would go to the Greater Toronto Area with it’s over seven million people needing clinics in each city around Toronto as well as the city itself. More trucks would head south to Guelph, Waterloo and Cambridge, London and Windsor while others would head to into Quebec for Montreal, Sherbrook, Quebec City and then to the north of the province. Some would go further to the Eastern provinces until every province had three or more clinics set up, including more in the Northern territories spread out over their vast area. All in all, the rollout was going well so I expected something to go wrong soon enough.
When I got back home, I worked out for a bit before having a shower and waking up my ladies with coffee and breakfast. We had our usual Uber driver pick us up and he dropped me off at the space port before delivering the ladies to school. As I walked through the security gate, I noticed a jet parked over at the Dryden Airport with security guards standing watch around it. Another jet landed and parked close but not too close to the first one.
‘Base, do you know anything about the jets I’m seeing over at the airport?’ I sub-vocalized.
‘There have been some people flying in to the clinic to get treated in the pods,’ Base replied. ‘They may also be here to persuade you and your family to send pods to their country. Another reason for the fly-ins are to attend the meeting on who will join the Mars mission. We have a meeting with reps from twenty countries this afternoon for that. Finally, the Russians, Chinese and the Americans all want to meet with us to let them build bases on the moon and be a part of the Mars mission. That’s happening this morning.’
‘A full day then,’ I responded. ‘Are we getting help from the Canadians in these meetings?’
‘Yes, your mother had the Prime Minister notified as well as the CSA when the demands for meetings got insistent so they are sending people to assist in all four of them today,’ Base informed me.
‘I wonder why I wasn’t notified?’ I mused.
‘You have been busy with the pods, the Mars base build, as well as ship and space station builds,’ Base replied. ‘The adults thought it best not to bother you or worry you about the meetings before they happened.’
‘So why didn’t you let me know?’ I asked. ‘You know I can multitask better than anyone.’
‘I made a judgement call that they had a valid point,’ Base said. ‘It won’t happen again.’
‘Thank you, I don’t mind people taking care of things, it’s just nice to be notified in case I have an opinion on the subject,’ I told him.
‘Understood,’ Base responded.
I walked into our headquarters and dropped off my bag in my office before heading to mission control to get an update on the Mars Base build. Things were going okay but they had a setback in the tunnels as they ran into soft limestone type of rock and the tunnels collapsed the farther they advanced into the ridge. The robots and the team shut down digging in that direction and went along the ridge instead of further in. We sent out robot explorers to find another location as a deep tunnel system was paramount for long term survival on Mars. I made a few suggestions while also sub-vocalizing with Base so we were on the same page before heading to the conference room with my tablet.
“Hello Ben, I was wondering when you would wander in,” Mom said in greeting.
“Well, if someone would have informed me of the various meetings today, I would have shown up earlier,” I retorted.
“We didn’t want to overload you but we would have sent for you if you didn’t show up soon,” she responded with a smirk. “So, we have representatives of the Chinese, Russians and the Americans coming in less than a half hour with the Canadians coming in fifteen minutes prior to that to align our gameplan. We’ll let the politicians duke it out for a bit before we add our two cents. Try not to jump in until it really goes off the rails please. We don’t need to make enemies of all three superpowers.”
“We don’t need to kotow to them either,” I responded. “We have something, several somethings actually, that everyone wants. We actually are now in a position of strength.”
“We know that and they know that,” Mom said. “Everyone should be on their best behaviour so that everyone gets a bit of what they want, including us.”
“And what do we want?” I asked.
“The Canadians want better trading tariffs from all three and the end to the wars that two of the three are currently involved in,” Mom answered. “Addler wants to sell lots of pods without tariffs and legal issues as well as space trips and bases to them. We also want all of us to be able to travel around the world without fear of being kidnapped or our technology stolen or appropriated. So, we have a plan and you can attend and listen but hold your temper and your tongue other than to greet them.”
“Yes Ma’am,” I replied with a grin.
“Don’t make me discipline you in front of the guests, young man,” she threatened.
I just stuck out my tongue at her, making Nancy, Rachel and Dad laugh while Mom just sighed and shook her head. I went over to the refreshment table and got snacks and a pop and then sat down at the end of the line beside Nancy.
“Good seating choice, don’t be the centre of attention until it goes really bad,” Nancy told me.
“I’ll be working on my new inventions over here so just nudge me if I need to pay attention to something or worse, get involved,” I told her.
“Will do,” she agreed with a grin while I pulled out my tablet.
I had a few things on the go in terms of new ideas. I was designing a new futuristic road vehicle, using the clear compound we used for our space ship windows to create the top shell or body of a six seater SUV with gull wing doors for the two sides and the back cargo hatch. The side doors would cover the entire side so when they lifted up, all three passengers on that side could get in and out at the same time. Next, the car would be totally powered by my new batteries so only four small electric motors would be needed for each wheel plus power to the console and operating system. The frame would be made with our material as well so the vehicle would be stronger than anything on the market. Add in AI to help with driving and collision avoidance and it would be the safest and most fuel efficient vehicle out there.
The second thing I was tackling was the skyrocketing cost of air travel. Base and I were taking our ship designs and adapting them for commercial use with new AddlerNine and AddlerTen models the result. AddlerNine was as big as the large 747 jets of the past but was lighter and cheaper to use as we put AIPS instead of jets on the wings. AddlerTen would be the midsize version that a lot of airlines actually used when they didn’t have demand for large jets for their routes. We could sell AddlerEights to replace smaller jets if the demand was there. We upgraded all the controls of the current jets to what we had in our craft and added AI to each to control a lot of the functions, basically a much better autopilot. Addlerium would be used to power them and we would provide that to the airlines for a modest fee. We had already purchased the mines necessary as well as a huge expanse of land outside of town to mix the components into the final compound.
My third project was a one passenger personal car, built again with our clear compound, with three wheels and a small, clear dome around it. It had a small hatch in the back for cargo and a small electric motor in front. The frame and dome made from our materials would make it safe and the motor would be powered by one of my new batteries so it would go as quick as a race car. I hoped it would be very successful in crowded cities where the traffic was atrocious.
The fourth project was a personal aircraft, using small AIPs to hover and go forward and backward. It would be clear all around, including the bottom, so you could see everything around you and the AI would be the pilot or assist the human pilot and take over should something go wrong. We could make bigger versions to replace helicopter passenger service.
I had other ideas to tackle the plastic problem in the oceans and to remove nuclear and toxic waste from all the world’s storage facilities and fly all of it in multiple huge waste space barges that a AddlerFour would tow towards the sun and send them into the Sun’s gravity pull before turning back. There was a lot of waste and plastic so it would be an ongoing project that we could charge some money for to at least recoup expenses.
With all of these ideas, I would need the buy in from the world in order to make these things a reality but it would provide a very useful service that could sway the powers that be into agreeing to some of Mom’s and Canada’s demands.
The CSA and the Ministry of Global Affairs people showed up and the adults all shook hands and put their name placards in front of their seat before heading to the snack table. I was not introduced nor did I have a placard to display my name. I wanted to put a small sign up in front of me but didn’t want to look too needy, or worse, cute. The adults in the room had a quick discussion about how to deal with the superpowers and it seemed that they had it all planned out. I had my doubts but kept quiet as asked.
The delegations from the three countries came in at the same time and were shown their sections to sit in and the refreshment table. The first order was to make the introductions, in English but the Russians and Chinese had interpreters for those who supposedly didn’t speak English. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t send anyone who didn’t at least understand some English to a meeting like this, but I supposed it gave them time to think of an answer if they had to pretend they didn’t comprehend what was said. Most people could have translations done by their phone to an earbud nowadays so the translators were superfluous.
The Minister of Global Affairs from Canada got up and welcomed everyone to Dryden Ontario, Canada and outlined what she thought was the purpose of the meeting. She welcomed the leader of each delegation to present a brief summation of what they were here for and then Addler Enterprises would discuss their proposals either as a group or one by one, with the Ministry and the CSA adding to that discussion as needed. She invited the Chinese delegation to go first.
I kept one ear open to each speaker from the three countries who basically thought they deserved the right to have bases on the moon and be on the first human mission to Mars as well as be the primary colonists on that planet. There was a lot of extra words in there, some flowery words of cooperation and some slightly threatening words if they weren’t included. Apparently they had all sent their first team to the meeting, Ministers or Secretary’s of State.
“Thank you all for your presentations,” the Minister said, standing up after the US Secretary of State finished. “If I was to summarize your presentations, you all wish to have a base on the moon and be part of the first human mission to Mars and be the first to colonize that planet. I’ll invite Moira Addler, CFO of Addler Enterprises to speak.”
“Welcome everyone to the Dryden Space port,” she started. “We’re happy to have everyone here to express their desire to be involved in Addler’s mission to Mars and to possibly purchase bases on the Moon and Mars. Obviously, we have a few countries already taking possession of bases we’ve built on the moon as no one has the technology to safely build or shield their own bases on the moon or Mars. We are currently providing daily flights to and from the moon for tourists or colonists as well as supply runs with our larger AddlerFour cargo craft. Not all of you have asked to join us on the moon before this meeting, but for obvious reasons, we’ve been reluctant to include the three of you so far. Why? The three of you are the superpowers of Earth at this time and all have had less than stellar track records in peaceful coexistence with each other and with other countries.”
That got some protests and frowns from each delegation. Go Mom!
“You can argue and protest but let’s not pretend that statement isn’t true,” Mom spoke overtop of mutterings. “I’m not here to criticize your pasts. It’s the future that we all need to discuss and agree upon. Our planet is in dire straits due to overcrowding, pollution, climate change and resource depletion. You all know it or you wouldn’t be so adamant on getting bases set up on the moon and Mars. We need to work together to make this happen, without everyone fighting amongst themselves here and off world. Addler Enterprise’s inventions and technology will stem the tide for a bit but with our new Addler Health Pods, our population will live longer and over population will eventually occur. So, how do all live together here and off world? Stop the wars, stop the bullying and actually work together to help expand out into our solar system and beyond. That means sensible tariffs between countries, stop the threats against Addler Enterprises and it’s employees, Canada and each other. Stop trying to steal technology from other countries or from Addler Enterprises. If we can get agreements on these issues at this meeting and the days ahead, we can begin building each of you a base on the moon and reserve a seat on the first human mission to Mars for a qualified astronaut. Please discuss amongst yourselves for fifteen minutes and then we can hear from each of you to see if we can come to some agreements on this.”
Mom sat down and Dad gave her a smile and a nod, as did Rachel and Nancy. Base listened in to all three discussions and gave me the scoop while I worked on the toxic waste removal space barge design and the large water ship design to siphon the plastic from the surface of the oceans. All three groups thought Mom was misguided and naïve if she thought their country would change their politics and aspirations just to get a base on the Moon or be on the mission to Mars. Their leaders would never go for that but what they would go for is the illusion that that they would change, at least until they took over their base and got their astronaut to Mars. The Chinese always played the long game but had overcrowding and resource issues while both the Russians and the US had financial and political issues that required a win to distract their people and media.
After the fifteen minutes were up, the Minister asked each country to address the possibility of meeting some of the requests. All three declined to even take the proposal back to their leadership. Each of them suggested that they would use economic measures to punish Canada and Addler Enterprises if they did not include them in both projects.
“That is disappointing to hear from all three of you,” the Minister stood back up. “We’re not asking for huge amounts of money or some other exotic requests, just for peace and respect for everyone. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make this work, other than with coercion and threats?”
She got mostly frowns and shakes of heads back from everyone.
“Then, we thank you for you time today and please make your way back to your jets and leave Canada,” the Minister said in a harder voice.
The protest were loud as people stood up to demand we take them. She sat down and just let them shout and make fools of themselves. Mom and Dad looked at me and nodded.
“Everyone sit down and shut up,” I shouted, using Base to patch my voice into speakers.
“Who the hell are you?” the US Secretary of State shouted back.
“My name is Ben Addler and I’m the reason everyone is here,” I replied. “Now everyone sit down and I’ll do the talking.”
They all mumbled but eventually shut up and sat back down.
“The population of earth is approximately eight point three billion people, up from eight billion in twenty twenty-two,” I started. “Three hundred million more people in less than four years. You can all do the math. Add in the people that will live longer now that we can cure most diseases with the Addler Health Pod, and we’ll be out of places to live, grow food and the resources to sustain that population in just years. Your countries make up approximately twenty-three percent of the population and if you add just India that takes you to almost forty percent for four countries. Things need to change now or we will face catastrophic events. We need to do this together or only a few lucky souls will survive. Stop thinking short term and get with the program. Mars and the moon need to be populated quickly so that they can start providing their own food and resources before Earth keeps them for their own needs. Oxygen, Water and energy has to be found or produced so we don’t have to import them from Earth.”
I paused and then kept going, “While we’re learning how to do that and setting things up out there, we need to streamline everything on earth. Conserve what we have left, stop polluting our atmosphere, water, and ground, find new energy solutions and remove all the poisons we currently have. To do some of that, I’m in the process of inventing new ways to get plastic out of our oceans and, along with all the toxic and nuclear waste, will start flying all of it out to the sun where it will burn up. That will take huge waste barges and more of my AddlerFour space ships to tow them out of the atmosphere and towards the sun, but it needs to happen.”
Everyone looked impressed with that.
“Furthermore, I’m in the process of designing and will build two more aircraft models to take over for the current models of aircraft that fly using jet fuel that is prohibitively expensive and pollutes the world,” I continued. “I can make those available to the world to help everyone save time, money and eliminate a big source of pollution. Finally, a lot of you are using my battery technology more and more, but I’m going to design a couple of ground vehicles that will standardize electric vehicles and could help eliminate fossil fuel vehicles for good. Add in new flyers that will replace helicopters and we can really cut down on pollution while increasing safety.”
After the buzz died down, I continued, “I’m doing this for humanity, our children’s future and beyond. If we don’t act now, half the population will be dead in fifty years and the planet will be destroyed. You’ve done the math or you should do it real soon. So, that’s the carrot. The stick is that I don’t play well with others and will keep all of this technology for those that do get on board. Your oil will dry up, your people will not get the benefit of health pods, cleaner air and water and we’ll have a world war to either shrink the population or to try to get other country’s resources. I’m sure you’ll bomb each other and others and your cities will become a nuclear wasteland. That scenario will become more of a reality if we don’t act smart and do it soon. You’re all smart people or you wouldn’t be here. Use that brain power to find a way to get this done. Or don’t and find out what the future has in store for you on Earth while my family and the people of the countries on board are on Mars or somewhere else out there.”
I grabbed my tablet and left the room. I was mad but also disappointed in humanity.
‘That was a very moving speech Ben, I commend you on your elegance and conciseness,’ Base sub-vocalized.
‘Thanks, not sure it was enough though,’ I responded. ‘People are selfish, countries are even more so. They don’t want to worry about their kids’ future, just their wallet and position in the present. If they don’t come around, we go without them, to Mars and out into space. The people left behind will destroy the planet sooner or later.’
‘The probability is very high for that to happen,’ Base agreed. ‘At least some people believe in you and are willing to help. We should concentrate on the ones that do.’
‘So we shall,’ I stated.
I went over to the station build hangar and checked the progress. Each floor was so big we had to build it four sections and then break those into sections to get those smaller pieces into an AddlerFour. We were making good progress but it would be months before we had enough built to have it look like anything resembling a station. After reviewing the buildout schedule with Base, I walked outside and saw the jets all still there so maybe one or two of them actually had a brain.
Next was the two shipbuilding hangars and I liked the progress there before I moved to the hangar that housed the fighter craft. Eight dark AddlerFives were all complete, fully fueled and fully weaponized, ready to defend our space port, our town and the country. I had the suspicion that they would have to be used at some point if the countries back in the conference room didn’t get on board. Base and I made plans in case we needed something more.
A new tunnel was started on the moon to a larger cave we had found in a nearby ridge. A new tunnel on Mars was started to an even bigger cavern the scanners had found. A faster schedule for extra supplies to both bases was created, including additional oxygen, water, various batteries and of course food. Additional purpose built robots to help in space were scheduled into our lines and some of the robot surgical units and pods were diverted to be sent up to the bases for their use. One of the new AddlerEight passenger craft was stationed permanently at the Dryden space port should the family need to evacuate to the moon or Mars. Even if the opinions changed, we were going to be prepared.
Base kept me informed about the meeting where each group was in heated arguments within their own people until the heads of the delegations eventually got on their phones and called back to the leadership of each country. The Canadians and our smaller group just watched and waited. Base monitored each call and let me know that the Chinese were probably going to bend first as they didn’t have an actual war going on and knew better than most how crowded the world was getting.
I left the mess to the adults and went back to my office to work on the additional plans and needs for when, not if, we bugged out. We created a new robot line for military grade robots to protect the two bases plus the Dryden space port and our homes. Each would be able to take out the latest version of each country’s tanks, shoot down any helicopter and make the sky overhead very uncomfortable for jets. Each would be fully shielded and could work alone or in squads.
Next, we decided to continue making AddlerFive fighters with upgraded shielding and send them to the moon and Mars to protect each base. While we were at it, we would also make more AddlerThrees and AddlerFours for both bases and even another AddlerSeven to use as a water transporter to the off world colonies.
Finally, we had to start growing things, build manufacturing facilities, water and oxygen creation and start resource gathering at each new base to establish real colonies and the ability to fend for themselves. There wasn’t any water on the moon but we were hopeful that ice could be found on Mars. In the meantime, Hydrogen and Oxygen would make H2O with heat but the reaction generated energy that had to be siphoned off along with the gaseous water. We had to get tanks ready to store each plus the water it would create.
Everything we thought of went onto lists, some of which I would show the family and a subset we would involve the Canadians. The rest of the team members with bases on the moon would get an even smaller subset of what we were doing. Eventually my phone beeped with a text from Dad asking me to rejoin the meeting.
‘Here we go,’ I sub-vocalized to Base.
‘Yes, the three countries are agreeing to the demands but my surveillance of all three, both here and back in Washington, Moscow and Beijing, is that everyone is showing compliance but have not actually bought into actually changing,’ Base responded. ‘So, take their responses with a grain of sand.’
‘Noted,’ I agreed as I brought my tablet with me to the conference room.
My entrance was met with silence as everyone watched me come in and sit down. I looked over at Mom and Dad with a Spock eyebrow, causing some grins to appear with the Canadian contingent and the adults.