Discovering Alien Technology Part Two
Copyright© 2026 by GMet
Chapter 19
Monday July twentieth found Teigan and I standing on the Government Dock at the edge of Lake Wabigoon as a crane lowered one of the submersibles in to the water with two robots inside. The submersible, aptly named AddlerS1, floated on the water while other robots released the cables and climbed back up to the dock via the ladder. S1 slowly motored away from the dock while the cables were attached to S2 still on the flatbed. The second one was then lifted off the truck and also lowered into the water to join it’s twin.
“Alright, shall we proceed?” I asked Teigan.
“Yes we shall,” she replied with an upper crust accent. “James, please proceed with the test as we mapped out.”
“Certainly, Miss Teigan,” her AI replied in his British accent.
I just rolled my eyes as she grinned at me. Each of my ladies picked a male name with an accent from what they considered sexy, Italian, French, Brazilian, English to tease me except for Sage who picked a female and used an Irish accent for hers.
The two of us climbed onto our boat that we had towed over, unloaded at the dock and tied up close by. Once we were out on the water, S1 dove below the surface while S2 followed along atop the water as they meandered down the lake. Lake Wabigoon was several miles long and fairly wide but we wanted to ensure no boats came close to hit either of them on their maiden voyages.
Teigan monitored the feeds from S1 which cycled through views of the cabin as well as floor of the lake and then the front, sides and above where we could see both S2’s and our boat’s keel.
“Hull at 100% integrity, propulsion and steerage systems are operational as are life support, sensors and crash avoidance,” James announced. “We shall now test each system, starting with steerage.”
“Thank you James,” Teigan replied.
“You are most welcome, Miss Teigan,” James responded.
For the next hour, we moved down the lake towards Kenora, with S1 turning one way and then the other, rising and diving and then speeding up and slowing down to make sure everything was working well. When they rose close to the surface, their crash avoidance system sounded the alarm as they approached both S2 and our boat on the surface.
We then switched to S2 diving and did it all over again. Everything seemed to be working well, with some programming upgrades done on the fly and camera angles altered for best coverage. When both were tested and found to be ready to go, I climbed into S1 as a passenger while Teigan stayed on the boat and S2 was held in reserve in case something went wrong.
I just watched the pilot for the trip down the lake while we monitored the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and how the scrubbers dealt with it. On the trip back, I took the pilot seat and did a few turns and simple dives and climbs to test out the responsiveness of controls. It was as good a feeling as being in space as we explored the relatively shallow depths of the lake. We came across an old car, a couple boats and more than a few ice-fishing huts that weren’t retrieved off the winter ice before it melted.
Teigan did the same with S2 and I had to admit being a bit worried about her being down there but at least she was with robots who could take over in a heartbeat if needed.
“That was a blast!” she said when I helped her out of the submersible.
“Yeah, it was fun,” I agreed. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“Alright, I think our first tests passed with flying colours,” she stated as she scrolled through all the information on her tablet. “James, any issues we need to address?”
“Not at this time, Miss Teigan,” he responded. “We’ll need to get deeper to test the hull integrity at higher pressures. We’ve already tested the life support systems by simulating three people in the cabin and the oxygen supply was more than sufficient for twenty-four hours. The carbon dioxide scrubbers worked well with taking out four times the amount that three people would produce in a day, in just an hour. Of course we’ll still keep testing those in Great Slave Lake and the Pacific Ocean next.”
“Excellent,” Teigan said. “Let’s get them out of the water and back on the flatbed.”
The robots quickly had them hoisted out of the water, onto the flatbed and tied down while I backed up the truck and trailer to get the boat out of the water and onto the trailer. The semi took the submersibles back to the space port where they were loaded into an AddlerFour while Teigan and I drove home with the boat, put it back into Rice lake and moored it on our dock.
Teigan insisted on showering together even though we never got wet or dirty. I of course didn’t complain and enjoyed washing her back and then drying her off. The tall blonde pulled me to the bed and had her way with me before we had to quickly shower again. I drove us back to the space port to check up on everything else we had going on and picked up some lunch in our cafeteria.
Teigan checked up on the other water projects and let me know that the well drilling trucks had left Dryden for the various destinations east and west of us. Four desalination plants, two large and two mini plants, had left for both coasts with one already being installed in a building on Vancouver Island. Provincial and national governments were very interested in the tests and had helped with locations and permits for the testing of both the drilling and desalination plants. Teigan and I would fly out tomorrow to Great Slave Lake for a day of testing and then back down south to oversee a well drilling in Saskatchewan and then the desalination plant test in British Columbia.
While she was doing that, I was working with Base to finish the underwater habitat designs for a small, twenty person habitat as well as the larger, city sized design. We were impressed with their designs as they incorporated a few ideas that we hadn’t thought of. We first combined our designs, integrating several features of our space station that were already molded and then swapped in our materials for other parts of the structure and the various windows, domes and viewports. We changed their power sources with our Addler power units as their proposal, while unique, would entail many years of testing and would cause a lot of issues in the long run, getting power from the ocean itself. If they felt strongly about it, they could still build it for the city habitat but have our units as backup and initial power source while they continued to work on theirs. The smaller design was better served with our power units, so we saved a lot of time, space and work by just putting ours in.
We added our shield generators all around the habitat, finding places where they would fit and not be disruptive or unsightly. I wanted a full sphere of protection for the habitat in case of natural disasters but also smaller ones in localized areas that could keep the water outside so that that space could be used for various activities. I was thinking a play area for kids, exercise area for all and an observation area to see the sights. There would be those types of areas inside the habitat as well, including a walking path around the outside of the habitat, but we thought our domes would also be unique and fascinating for the citizens.
‘I think we have two working designs that combine the strengths of both,’ I sub-vocalized.
‘I agree, the merged designs are far superior to the individual ones,’ Base agreed. ‘I have saved them and emailed Teigan the updated versions so she can send them on as project manager.’
‘Thanks, I’ll let her know,’ I replied.
“I’ve finished the merger of the habitat designs and sent them to your email,” I told her. “Why don’t you look them over and if you’re okay with them, send them on to the Hitmatzu Corporation, along with a copy to Rachel for the patent update.”
“Will do,” Teigan agreed.
“Alright, I’m going to go check on the Mars mission, last I checked they were getting close to the planet and would get into an orbit by the end of the day,” I told her.
“Sounds good, I’ll be ready to fly up to Great Slave Lake later this afternoon but will review the habitat design now before sending it on,” she replied. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
She kissed me before heading to her office while I went to mission control. Once I got there, I was informed that the two space ships were indeed orbiting the red planet and providing some great views of the surface while the base was videoing them when they came into view of their cameras. Localized dust storms obscured the view of parts of the planet and the base’s view of the ships from time to time, but it was still a great show. I made sure we were live streaming the video and Reese confirmed that we had it on our website and several networks were also showing some of the footage.
Cassie had taken over the overall lead of the mission, with Dad handling the base builds on Mars and the moon as well as the space station out at L4 and the planning for the new space station between Mars and the Asteroid Belt.
“We’re doing two more passes to map some more of the planet while slowing down and then we’ll have them land vertically near the base,” Cassie told me when I approached her. “No issues so far, but there is a good chance of a dust storm interacting with the ships’ descent.”
“And do we see that as a significant danger?” I asked.
“Wind speeds in a dust storm can get up to a 100 miles per hour or 160 Km per hour but with the atmosphere being so thin it won’t be as severe as on earth, just very dusty so visibility is an issue during a descent,” Cassie explained. “The dust will get in everywhere but shouldn’t affect the ion jets as they will just burn it up. The first mission taught us a lot about flying in the thin atmosphere and during dust storms so we’re prepared if we get caught in one. We can abort and try again once it passes if we have to.”
“Understood,” I replied. “Thanks for taking over the mission, you’re the perfect person to do so.”
“Thanks for trusting me with it,” she said with a smile.
“Alright, I’ll watch from my desk and leave it to you,” I told her.
We had decided to let the AddlerEleven land first, leaving the AddlerFour to monitor from slightly higher to possibly intervene if there were issues. Half the world was watching as the AddlerEleven made a quick descent and slowed down with a longer fire of the AIPS units providing a great show as the ion plasma hit the landing site and shot outwards.
Once it was down, the AddlerFour landed on it’s own pad far enough away from the other one to not hit them with the plasma or the dust kicked up. Once both were on the ground and the dust settled, robots came out from the base and set up cameras to catch the first humans to step on another planet. This time, we had the three women astronauts going to step off together, one from Canada, one from Japan and the third from Brazil.
“We take this step for all of humanity, for women around the world and for representatives of more than twenty-three countries as part of the next steps in humanity’s exploration and colonization of our solar system,” Shannon Shadoweye, our Canadian astronaut, said for all to hear.
They linked arms and stepped from the ramp to the ground, taking a few steps before throwing their arms in the air to celebrate. We got their big smiles on camera and just let them look around at the scenery for a minute.
“Alright, why don’t you all join them?” Cassie suggested.
The rest of the astronauts, all men, stepped out in no particular order and joined the celebration. Everyone looked around in wonder and we let them all have their moment in the spotlight.
Eventually we had them head towards the base and had the security shield opened enough to let them all walk in groups of five wide. Once they were under the shield, we popped up the shield over the landing pads to protect the two space ships with openings coinciding with the base’s shield so we could unload both ships where they were. A stream of rovers, piloted by robots, began that operation while being filmed.
The astronauts were also filmed walking to the base and entering via the large hatch. Eventually they were all in and we shut the doors and stopped filming from the outside. Inside cameras captured them getting out of their suits so they were all in Addler jumpsuits with no national insignia on any suit. Instead, we had the Addler Enterprises logo plus a large Mars Expedition logo with the planet in red and our ships orbiting.
“Congratulations all for your safe arrival at the Addler Mars Base!” I said when they all gathered in one of the large conference rooms.
“Thanks Ben, for making this happen,” Shannon replied. “We wish you were here to experience it.”
“I’m sure to make the trip at some point,” I responded. “So, we don’t have much planned for your first day there; you can all call back home and talk to your loved ones and just get acclimated to the planet and the base, have a good night’s sleep and then you can start the exploration as per our schedule. Any issues or comments from anyone, noting that we’re still being videoed for all the world to see.”
Everyone shook their heads so no one wanted to say anything negative on air.
“Alright, we’ll end the video feed back to earth and I’ll pass control back to Cassie, our mission lead,” I said. “Have a good first day and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow.”
“You too, Ben,” Shannon responded.
I nodded to Cassie who had the video feed stopped and then took over talking to the astronauts while I stepped over to Dad.
“How is everything going?” I asked quietly.
“We’re unloading the ships and then we’ll do a full examination of both ships over the next couple of days,” he replied. “We’ll need to clean off all the dust and see what damage it did to the coating and the exposed part of the ion jets. Then we’ll fill up all the Addlerium tanks and resupply consumables just in case there needs to be a quick evacuation. Everything will be ready by tomorrow morning so we’re prepared for the worst.”
“Good news,” I said. “We’ll need to review and sweep both ships for anything the astronauts might have planted to record or sabotage the mission and keep our surveillance of all of them inside the base and on any excursions. Are the security robots all in place?”
“Yes, we’ve got them stationed around the base as reminders with extra stationed in all the sensitive areas to discourage unwanted exploration or tampering,” Dad ensured me. “There are cameras everywhere, mostly obvious but a bunch unseen in case they tamper with the ones that they know about. Hopefully, they won’t be too stupid and try to wreck the mission or the base.”
“Here’s hoping,” I responded. “Alright, I’ll be in my office if you need me. Let me know if I have to do a shift in here to monitor things while you and Cassie get some rest.”
“We have a schedule but we’re swapping out with some Canadian Space Agency people while you and Teigan head up to Yellowknife so you can test your submersibles,” Dad informed me. “We’ll handle things here while you’re up north and out west for a few days. Reece and Riley will help as well so we’ll be fine. You be safe up north and in your travels.”
“Will do, just contact us through the AIs or by phone and we can be back in a couple of hours or help via our tablets,” I replied.
“Okay, see you later,” he said and then went back to work.
I kissed and hugged Riley before saying goodbye to my other ladies less affectionately due to the non-Addler eyes in the room. I headed back to my office and reviewed the secret Mars base status. The caverns we found were widened, reinforced and access tunnels to the surface were ongoing. They had left enough rock at the top to hide the base and started building sliding doors underneath to allow for space ship access. We would then remove the final rock layer and debris during times when the rotation of the planet hid it from any prying eyes on Earth and disguise the opening by colouring the doors the same as the surrounding rock and dust. A shield would protect the entire opening and could be shut down for launches or landings as required.
Inside the caverns, we were building our portals in pieces as well as the required small, and large wormhole strengthened ships. It would take us the rest of the year to get that project to a point where we had to inform everyone of the new technology.
All other shipbuilding and space station building projects were on target, with the grand opening of the L4 Addler Space Station scheduled in mid December. The Mars/Asteroid belt station would be up by March of next year but we would be sending ships to the Asteroid belt to mine for what we needed much earlier.
Sage came into my office and shut and locked the door before coming to sit on my lap.
“I’m going to miss you,” she said after she kissed me thoroughly.
“We’re only going to be gone a couple days, maybe three,” I told her dryly.
“I’ve gotten used to having you around,” she admitted.
“You could come with us,” I suggested.
“My little vixen of a sister wouldn’t appreciate that,” Sage said with a shake of her head. “She’s been looking forward to having you all to herself for a while. I’ll survive but will need some time alone with you as well.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “So how does the shelter project go?”
“Still waiting on approvals for re-zoning and renovating the building,” she replied with a frown. “We have another meeting with the town council tomorrow to go over your new designs so hopefully it gets passed and we can start.”
“Good luck in the meeting,” I said. “If that building can’t get re-zoned, then we’ll find another on or build a new one on the right piece of land. We’ll get it done for you one way or the other.”
“You’re too good to me,” she said before she squeezed me tight.
“Nonsense, you deserve everything and much more,” I told her. “You make me a better person just by being near me and pushing me to help others.”
“I was such a bitch to you for so long,” she said into my neck.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I responded. “You’ve come around and now look where you are.”
I caressed her back as she leaned back so she could look into my eyes. I smiled at her and she smiled back but looked a bit sad.
“You seem a bit sad,” I noted.
“I am because I don’t get to spend as much time with you as the others as they have projects with you,” she told me.
“Yes, but it was you who had the ideas for all of the water ones,” I responded. “You could get more involved in those if you like. It’s a lot for Teigan to manage on her own.”
“I don’t think she would want me interfering at this point,” Sage said after thinking about it. “I’ll ask her but I doubt she’ll want big sister involved. I’ll be busy enough with the shelters soon enough.”
“Well, you’ll just have to spend time with me while I deal with things or we’ll create a new project that we can work on together,” I told her. “How about you think about it and we can discuss when we’re back and we have our alone time?”
“Okay, thanks Ben,” Sage agreed. “I better let you get ready to go. Little sister will be pounding on the door soon enough.”
“Alright, you spend some extra time with Reece and the other two while I’m gone and we’ll take this up when I’m back,” I said as I helped her get up before standing up myself.
“Of course,” she said as she walked to the door. “Have fun with little sister.”
“Will do,” I responded with a grin.
She rolled her eyes before heading out the office. I wrapped up what I had going on and made sure I had everything I needed in my suitcase and backpack. Base had the AddlerFour stocked with food and drink and we brought several changes in outerwear for changes in temperature up north and then in Southwestern Saskatchewan and the Pacific coast.
Teigan came in a few minutes later, carrying her suitcase and backpack.
“All set?” she asked.
“Yep,” I replied. “You?”
“Yep, we just have to say goodbye to the Moms and we’re good to go,” Teigan responded.
I followed her out the office, locking it up before walking down the hall. We popped our heads into the three offices where they were working and told them we were heading out. They all gave us hugs and wished us a safe trip before we went downstairs and out to the AddlerFour. We were taking a dozen robots with us to help out as well as four pilots. They were all ready to go and we stored our stuff in our bedroom before joining the pilots in the bridge.
“Good afternoon, Ben and Teigan, I am Pilot Twelve and will be chief pilot for our mission this week,” the pilot in the left seat greeted us. “This is Pilot Thirteen and we have Pilots fourteen and fifteen with us as spares.”
“Good afternoon all,” I replied. “I’m sure we’re in good hands. We’re ready to go if you’ve filed our flight plan with the control tower and the Ministry of Transport.”
“That is an affirmative,” Pilot Thirteen answered from the right seat. “I will inform them of our imminent departure. Please be seated and get strapped in and we will taxi to the runway.”
Teigan and I took two seats along the side of the bridge and buckled up before they got the ship moving to the end of the runway. We took off shortly after and quickly turned north out of the normal flightpaths to the airport.
“We’ve got a site to land on outside of Yellowknife that is flat rock so we don’t damage any wildlife with our ion plasma,” Teigan told me. “We’ll use the robots to push the subs out of the bottom hatch and one of the modified AddlerSix’s we have in the top cargo bay will lift them into the lake one at a time. The Mayor and his council may come see us at some point and they mentioned that there would probably be more than a few townsfolk interested in seeing what we’re doing.”
“That’s fine, as long as they’re not too close to the landing site,” I responded.
“The RCMP assured us they would have it clear from four pm onwards until we land,” she said.
“That was nice of them,” I replied.
“We’re donating a fair sum to both the RCMP and the town for their cooperation, but they are all benefiting from the Addler Health Pod clinic in town so they probably would have done it for free,” Teigan informed me. “We are invited to a diner in our honour at seven so we’ll drive into town with the C1 we also have in the bottom cargo bay and meet a few folks. We’ll start our testing in the morning, bright and early.”
“Alright, you’re in charge of this so good planning so far,” I responded with a grin.
“Thank you, but I had help from James,” she admitted.
“As you should, there are just too many details to remember with all of this,” I reminded her.
It took less than an hour to get there and land in the area marked with lights on the rocky plateau on a cliff above the lake. After we shut off the engines and lowered the ramp, I drove the C1 down onto the rocks. Two security robots were in the back seat while Teigan was in the passenger seat. Once off the ramp, it quickly rose back up after several security robots set up a perimeter around the ship. I drove slowly over the rocks until we met up with a RCMP SUV and got out to meet them.
“Hello, I’m Ben Addler and this is Teigan Stuart, thank you for getting the landing site lit up and isolated,” I said, holding out my hand.
“Hello, I’m Corporal Simmons and this is Constable Johnson,” the tall, but not as tall as I was, man replied.
“Nice to meet you both,” I said as I shook his hand and then the pretty Constable Johnson’s hand.
“Call me Abbie,” she said with a smile.
“And you can call me Carl,” the Corporal said to Teigan while shaking her hand. “That was some landing, it lit up the sky and those plasma jets must have been a fifty metres long.”
“Yes, it’s quite something,” Teigan replied. “So you two got stuck waiting for us out here all alone?”
“Yes, but it’s our pleasure,” Carl quickly said. “They said you’re going to test submersibles in the lake tomorrow morning?”
“Yes, first thing,” Teigan answered. “Great Slave Lake is the deepest lake in North America so it’s the best place to test our new submersibles besides the ocean. That comes in a few days out on the Pacific coast if everything goes well here.”
“That will be something to see as well, I’m sure,” Abbie said, looking at me.
“Well, most of it will be underwater but I suppose watching the AddlerSix as it picks up the S1 and S2 submersibles and lowers them into the water will be cool to see,” I told her. “We’re starting at first light, probably six am.”
“Good, I’ll be there,” Abbie said.
“So will I,” Carl quickly added.
“That’s good,” Teigan responded. “Now, can you point us the way into town, we have a dinner to attend with the Mayor, some councillors and I think your boss, Superintendent Abbott.”
“We’re supposed to guide you there so just follow us and we’ll take you right to city hall,” Carl said.
“Great, lead the way,” she replied with a smile before we split up.
“We have admirers,” Teigan said once we buckled in and were on our way.
“I suppose, but we’ll have to avoid being alone with either of them,” I responded. “We’re going to have to come up with a coordinated response to this type of thing as you’re just too damn gorgeous for your own good.”
“Like you’re an ugly duckling yourself,” she retorted. “If I left you alone with her, she’d be tripping you between her legs in no time.”
“I don’t trip easily,” I said dryly. “Like I said, we need to be careful when we’re out and about. There will be people just out for a good time or people with agendas after both of us or separately. It wouldn’t look good if I had to rip the good Corporal in half if he tried anything with you.”
“Oh, we’ve never seen you jealous before,” Teigan teased.
“I’ve never had any reason to be jealous and still don’t, but I’d have to say I’m protective,” I admitted.
“So no men,” she said. “What about other women?”
“I think we’d have to have a talk about that with you and the other four before we even thought about that,” I replied. “Five of you is more than enough for me. You wear me out every night.”
“What if it was just with us girls or just a girl with another girl?” was the next question.
“Like you and the constable by yourselves?” I tried to clarify her question.
“Or any other girl one of us might meet,” Teigan responded.
“Again, we’ll have to set up some ground rules for something like that,” I answered. “Let’s not decide tonight so you can talk to the others and then all of us can agree.”
“So, before we go to Japan then,” Teigan stated. “I’ll talk to them tonight and then we can discuss later on our trip.”
“Why the rush?” I asked.
“Emiko Yamamoto has been assigned as my contact at Hitmatzu Corporation and is just gorgeous,” Teigan said with a sigh. “Riley thinks so as well, so much so that she may want to come with us to Japan.”
I just shook my head and sighed.
“What? Wait until you see her, she’s tall, thin and is quite beautiful with short hair and a long neck,” she informed me. “She speaks excellent English and is very smart.”
“I’m sure she’s wonderful but will I doubt she will move to Dryden to be with all of you so it would just be a short term affair,” I responded. “She might be a honey-trap to set their hooks into us. Talk over all the issues with the others before you do anything and then don’t hide it from me and the others. For tonight and tomorrow, let’s not get involved with the two in front of us or anyone else here or in Saskatchewan or Vancouver please.”
“Fine,” she said in a bit of a huff.
“Are you that enamoured with the constables?” I asked.
“Of course not, I’ve just met them,” Teigan retorted. “I’m very intrigued with Emiko and I don’t want you to dismiss my feelings so easily.”
“I’m not dismissing them,” I said. “I’m just asking for restraint and caution and a discussion with the others. We have plenty of time to get to know her and verify if her intentions, if she has any, are above board. We’re a team and we all have equal say in our relationship.”
She sighed and then nodded.
It took another five minutes to over the bumpy trail leading to a one lane road and then to a normal two way road into town. We parked in the Town hall parking lot and the two RCMPs got out to lead us into the building.
“Maybe when you’re done with your dinner, we could meet up afterwards for a drink,” Corporal Carl suggested just before we got to the room while looking at Teigan.
“And you as well,” Constable Abbie added quickly, looking at me.
“We thank you for the offer, but one, we’ve got an early morning ahead of us, and two, we’re both only sixteen so we won’t be able to join you at a bar,” I responded with a regretful smile. “It’s much appreciated, as was your help this evening.”
“Sixteen?” Abbie asked. “Really?”
“Really, really,” I replied with a grin. “Maybe we’ll see you in the morning, if you’re interested in seeing our space ship lift the submersibles into the air and put them in the water.”