Chapter 3

Saturday morning, I worked out in the hotel gym and then went for a run before showering back in the room. With everyone still sleeping, I worked with Base for a while to modify designs of space craft to add more defensive capabilities to protect them from collisions or other ships. We also looked over dad’s latest designs for the space port in Dryden and found areas that we would add countermeasures to defend it from any air and ground assaults. Those would mostly be added to the roofs of the buildings or pop up from below the roof through a hatch. Others would defend the buildings from incursions by adding additional security doors as secondary checkpoints that would lock down in an emergency. Robots and static placements inside the hangers would defend a more direct assault.

We started the design for an atmospheric fighter craft and then another for only space, labelling them AddlerFive-a and AddlerFive-b. They were meant to be small, sleek and very deadly. Lasers, rail guns and adding space for a couple small missiles was designed in, though our missiles would be based off our probe designs and be like nothing anyone on earth had. Extra probes could be launched at the same time for additional defence or offence capabilities.

Finally, we designed a large fighter carrier for the fighters to carry them with a fleet, with the ability to launch and land them while in space. It was even bigger than a AddlerFour cargo ship but shaped much differently. It had to be longer to allow the fighters to launch out one end and land in the other end, all the while avoiding the AIPS rockets at either end of the ship. Then the fighters had to be moved away from the launch and landing deck for storage and repair/restock. Add in extra storage for all supplies, cabins for the carrier personnel as well as the fighter pilots and maintenance crews, and it became several stories high and longer than a couple football fields. This was something we would have to build in space and at a location away from everything else. It was an obvious long-term project when real space exploration took off or if we found ourselves being attacked by other countries or other races, hopefully in the far future. It was fun to at least design something like that. We decided not to name it yet and keep it to ourselves. We would, however, build at least one fighter for here on earth and a couple for space soon though.

I looked at the clock and we had only been at it for an hour. I marvelled at how fast we could get things done sub-vocally while using Base’s projected holographic designs that only I could see. We moved on to space suits, jet packs and then ways to shoot tethers to other ships or asteroids to reel them in. That moved on to discussions on how to alter the course of a large body if it was going to hit a craft, the space station or a colony or planet.

‘The Telans would use lasers, rail guns and missiles to impact the meteor to break it up or deflect it enough to alter it’s course to miss the target,’ Base said. ‘Obviously, you need to detect it early enough and bring enough firepower to do that far away from it’s target. Probes help with that in space flight but for stationary bases, stations and planets, early detection is critical. We should launch probes around the solar system to do that and set up a system to monitor and warn everyone. Once that is set up, then earth would have to set up a countermeasures team to deflect or destroy them far enough away. That means outposts with missiles, probes, and space craft in many locations.’

‘I know there are already systems to track a lot of objects in space and I’m sure they have plans in place but don’t have the technology until now to even attempt an interception,’ I responded. ‘It was a big deal when a couple movies came out the same year to use space ships and nuclear devices to split the asteroids.’

‘Yes, they were very amusing in their portrayal of how it was done,’ Base replied. ‘Telans have much more experience in this and we will put in a system to monitor and then provide countermeasures that will work. The same systems will work on a smaller scale around a ship, station or a base. All are needed and we will work on that before any manned flights, stations or bases are operational.’

‘Sounds good to me, thanks,’ I responded. ‘So, since our house is actually closer to the airport than it is to the town of Dryden, what do you think about making tunnels into one of the new buildings at the space port?’

‘Already planned for that and will start the machine tunnelling after the deal for the land goes through and the approvals are all signed,’ Base answered. ‘We will have one large tunnel direct to one building, probably the one where we build new space craft, and then smaller offshoots to the other buildings for family and robots to use.’

‘Great minds and all that,’ I responded. ‘What else should we talk about?’

‘I think we have done enough for this morning and I see your lady is stirring,’ Base observed. ‘Take some time to relax this week once you get home; fish, cut wood and spend time with her before the meeting because however it goes, it will get very busy. Enjoy a few days of downtime.’

‘Understood and I’ll talk to you later,’ I agreed and looked over at Riley as she sat up.

“Hello Gorgeous, how did you sleep?” I asked.

“Good actually,” Riley replied. “You probably got up hours ago, right?”

“A couple but I got my workout and run done so we just need to eat and pack up after you shower and we can be on our way home,” I told her. “Do you want a coffee?”

“Yes, please,” Riley answered as she stretched.

“I’m on it,” I said as I saved my work and got up.

A few minutes later she was sipping a coffee as she went into the bathroom to shower. Mom texted to tell us to eat breakfast in our room and be ready to go in an hour. I sent her back an okay and went into the bathroom to let Riley know the schedule.

“I’ll just have a breakfast sandwich and some hashbrowns please,” she ordered.

“Alright, see you in a bit,” I said and closed the door before ordering via the room phone.

I ordered a second order for Reece before I went back to talking to Base.

‘What do you think about building a house on the property where your base is?’ I asked.

‘It has its merits,’ Base responded. ‘One of my companies already owns all of the land on either side of where the base is located as well as the land it’s on, all the way to the road from the edge of the lake, so it would be easy to transfer a part of it to you. After the final inspection, we can drill tunnels to connect to the base. It could be a shelter for you as well as a workshop. One of your small new ship designs can be built and stored in the top level of the base for emergencies.’

‘Let’s keep this between ourselves for now, I’d like to surprise them if possible,’ I said.

‘That would be best,’ Base agreed.

We started designing a two-storey house with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms on both floors along with the usual kitchen, pantry and laundry rooms, a den and a living room. We even put two offices in it. The basement had the usual utilities, a workout room, another bathroom and a couple larger open rooms for whatever we might want to do with them. A final room would be where we would connect a tunnel to once we took possession. We did this all on a holographic design that Base stored for me until I needed to use it to get the building permit. There was a knock on the door and I made sure it was a waiter with food before letting him in. We put all the food on the table and I gave him a tip before he wheeled out his cart and I locked the door behind him.

“Riley, the food is here,” I told her through the washroom door before walking to the connecting door and saying, “Reece, we’ve got breakfast over here.”

Riley came out in shorts and a tee shirt with a towel on her head to join me at the table and then Reece came over, looking like she just got up.

“Coffee,” she demanded when she sat down.

I passed over the carafe and the fixings and then kept quiet as neither of the sisters were morning people.

We quickly ate and then Reece went back to her room to shower and pack while we took our time to pack up our stuff into our suitcases. Eventually Reece came back with her suitcase and we let the parents know we were ready. A few minutes later we met them in the hallway and dad led the way down to the main floor and out into the main airport terminal. We had to walk a bit to get to a different part of the airport to find our plane out on the tarmac. We boarded the small two-engine prop plane, big enough to hold eight, after helping the pilot load our suitcases. It took fifteen minutes to taxi in line with other planes before it was our turn. We raced down the runway and got up into the air well before the end of the shorter runway. A quick bank to the east and we were on our way.