Discovering Alien Technology Part Two
Copyright© 2026 by GMet
Chapter 4
Monday morning, I swam for my exercise and then fished before showering. Dad was up when I got out and hopped in the shower right afterward. We drove into town and picked up the hot water heater and the shower enclosure. Dad went back for the lumber, both some two by four studs and plywood sheets, while the robots and I installed the hot water heater and plumbed the cold water to it and the hot water out of it to attach to the shower and sink.
Dad came back with the lumber and the robots helped us unload it and place it in an open area. It took only a few minutes with everyone helping and then we installed the floor and the walls of the shower, aligning the holes in the floor and one of the panels with the plumbing for the drain in the floor and temperature dials and the shower spout. Everything was glued and screwed down and then the plumbing was all finished an hour later.
“Alright, that was fast and it looks good,” Dad observed as we swept up.
“Yep, just need to make the walls and then put some plywood up and then a frame for a door,” I said.
“Crap, forgot the door,” dad responded.
“Why don’t you go get a pre-framed one while we work on the stud walls,” I proposed. “Before you go, let’s just chalk out where we want the two walls.”
We measured out where we wanted them and used a chalk line to mark the floor and a pencil line to show where the new walls would meet the garage stud walls. We made sure we had enough room in there for a table or shelving or whatever else the ladies would want to put in to hold a change of clothes. We added a small cabinet with a mirror to the list as well as a couple towel racks and another shelf to hold clean towels and hand cloths.
The robots and I quickly built two stud walls on the ground with sixteen-inch centres and, when done, lifted them up and nailed them to the garage wall. A few concrete anchors were put into the floor to hold both walls tight as well as screws to hold the two walls together to make a ninety-degree corner. We left a thirty-six-inch opening for the door and started putting up the plywood on the outside of the stud walls. We were just finishing the final screws of the last piece when dad backed up the truck to the garage door. Everything went into the washroom except the door as it was immediately fit into the opening and shims placed to fill in the space between the frame and the studs. Fifteen minutes later and it was working with the hardware installed for the lock. We hung the mirror cabinet over the sink and then the towel racks near the shower so you could grab one from the shower. The shelf went above the towel racks and we were done with the shower after a final sweep and clean up.
I had another swim to clean off while dad went in to shower. I did the same afterwards and we ate lunch with the ladies.
“Okay, washroom is up and working, you ladies need to get a shower curtain and fill it with supplies and towels etc.,” dad told them. “Any news from the outside?”
“The US government, NASA, and the military are all up in arms about what you did, flying the ships to the moon and then landing them up here in Canada,” mom told us with a grin. “We just informed them that the US military wanted to confiscate our ships and we were not going to allow that to happen. All we did was move up the scheduled flights to the moon by a few days and everything went well. Between the greediness of their governments and the proposed seizure of our space ships, we decided to find a different solution to where we would fly future missions and build our space ships.”
“Did you send that to them or put it out to the press?” I asked.
“Both,” Reece replied with a wicked grin. “You should see what the world’s press is saying about it and what the US has had to say to defend themselves.”
“There have been a dozen offers to allow us to use facilities and build our space ships around the world,” Riley added.
“And those will help get good terms from the Canadian and Ontario governments on Thursday,” Rachel stated. “I’ve already had calls from some of the Dryden councillors wondering if we’re still going ahead with the space port here.”
“Good, we need them to give us some good tax rates and speed up the red tape on buying the property, the building permits and authorizations,” dad responded. “We’ve got options on all the property to the north of the airport’s runway but a couple of the roads will need to be moved as the new runway will go right through them. We might have to buy a couple properties with houses on them and move them at our cost a bit further down the road.”
“All the governments will have to help with that but in the end money will have to be used to persuade them to move,” I said. “We don’t want any bad publicity about forcing anyone from their homes.”
“Understood,” dad agreed. “Rachel and I will start that process as soon as we get approvals from all three levels of government.”
“All good news so far, thanks everyone for all your hard work,” I replied. “I think it’s time to get those bonus cars for three of our ladies as well as the raises for all.”
“Finally,” mom said.
“Yes!” Rachel added.
“Excellent,” Reece replied.
I looked over to Riley who was looking left out and said, “Don’t worry, you get a new car in a year. What would you like for now? A new laptop, a new wardrobe, some nice jewellery or all of above?”
“I’ll think about it,” Riley responded with a smile. “Thanks, I knew you wouldn’t have forgotten about me.”
“And remember, Reece has to chauffeur us around in her new car until we’re old enough to drive,” I reminded the sisters.
Reece stuck her tongue out at me but was still looking happy as she asked, “When can we get them?”
“Anytime you want,” I replied. “I want all of you to get all wheel drive SUVs with another set of winter tires on separate rims as well as the usual navigation system, cameras and safety sensors. Make sure they are all five-star rated and have everything you need. I don’t care what make you get but try to at least get different colours so we know which one is who’s.”
I turned to dad and asked, “You want a new truck?”
“No, I’m good for now, it’s meant for work, not luxury,” he replied. “Thanks for the thought. I’ll let you know what you can get me after I put some thought into it.”
“Alright, I’ll let the accountant manage the money from my account to pay for the vehicles,” I said. “Maybe we could even make them a company perk to save money on taxes.”
“We’ll lease the vehicles for the company and they can be exchanged every two years,” mom stated. “There are Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep, GM and Ford dealerships in town so look up what you might want. I’m thinking a Jeep Grand Cherokee in burgundy.”
“I like the Ford Explorer in black,” Rachel said.
“And I’m thinking the GM Terrain in red,” Reese added.
“Alright, good choices all around,” I said. “Make sure you get the top-of-the-line models with all the bells and whistles and safety equipment.”
“Girls, a shopping trip is in order,” mom announced.
All four got up and raced to their bedrooms to change. Dad just rolled his eyes and pulled up his laptop to work on the space port land purchases while I worked with Base on various fighter designs and then on larger carriers to transport them with a fleet. The cargo carriers, AddlerFours, could also be modified to carry large amounts of people by adding floors to an existing carrier or making new people carriers or space liner designs. Those would come with smaller people carriers to get the passengers down to the planet or to a space station. All of the space ships needed emergency evacuation plans with pods or ships for all aboard in case of a disaster. That added weight and space constraints for all of those extra craft as each needed AIPS on each along with life support, food, communications, sensors arrays and seating for six to fifty or more depending on what size ship the pod or ship was for.
Once we had a few things designed up, we worked on updating probes to be missiles to intercept asteroids, meteors, air or space craft, and other missiles. The sensor units were made smaller so there was a place to put in an explosive charge, a laser or a rail gun or a combination of those. Larger probes would be needed for larger objects or multiple probes at the same time.
A couple hours later and the girls came back looking exhausted but pleased.
“How did it go?” I inquired.
“Good, we got them all ordered and it will take a few weeks to get them here,” mom responded. “They didn’t have exactly what we wanted so we had to order them. We’re stuck with our vehicles for a bit longer.”
“Well, sorry for that but it will go by quickly,” I replied.
“What did you two do while we were gone?” Rachel asked.
I turned to dad who replied, “I worked on the land appropriations and possible road moves needed for the longer runway.”
“Good,” she responded.
“I did some design work on some new ships and carriers as well as life pods and smaller ships for transporting people on and off the big ships,” I told them. “After that I worked on modifying probes to intercept or destroy asteroids, meteors, other missiles, ships etc. No use having the Addler AMDS and not have something to resolve the issue.”
“You have ways to stop an asteroid or meteor or a missile?” Riley asked.
“Working on it,” I replied. “Rail guns, lasers and explosives will only do so much to a large one but multiple probes with multiple shots could carve off junks at a time well away from the target to hopefully make a difference in its trajectory. We’d have to make bigger ones for bigger targets and maybe use a ship to deploy a whole bunch of them to take them out well away from the planet or station. It’s a work in progress design wise but rail guns and lasers already exist but will have to be miniaturized somewhat but using the AIPS power units to increase their output.”
“Well, I’m glad to see that you’re doing more than just thinking about it,” Riley stated. “All anyone else is doing is trying to discover and track the objects but that isn’t working that great right now.”
“I’m going in to the shop tomorrow and start working on some prototypes and then we can launch a few to the asteroid belt and see what they can do,” I responded. “I’ll need to research lasers and rail guns. The CSA and the government will have to provide any explosives if we want to try that out as well.”
“We can approach them on Thursday if things go well,” Reese suggested. “Will you have something to show them, like a prototype probe or at least a simulation?”
“I’ll see what I can do on both,” I told her.
“And here we were worried that you wouldn’t have anything to do for six months while the space port was being built here,” mom said with a grin.
“Always something to do,” I replied.
Everyone split up after that, with Riley helping me on probe designs on the big monitor in our room. Dad and Rachel worked on the space port appropriations and Reece updated the presentations yet again. Mom had lots to do with the finances so we all kept busy until supper. After supper, the girls forced me to watch a movie with them with Riley trying to distract me the whole time it was playing. I didn’t mind as I didn’t want to watch the movie in the first place. Riley pulled me upstairs while Reece looked a bit forlorn as she went to the spare bedroom. It was lucky I was in good shape or I’d pass out before Riley was satisfied.
Tuesday was a running and a weight day in the morning before dad and I headed into the shop. Dad went into his office while I explored the lines in the first shop and then what they had going on in the second.
A small ship was being built and when I asked, Base told me it was one of the fighters we had designed as a surprise for me. It was a two-seater with AIDS in the front, aft and smaller ones around the ship to control steering and altitude, as necessary. The wings were small and swept back, basically to hold any weaponry as much as helping with lift while in the atmosphere. I looked in the cockpit and saw monitors instead of dials to read the various functions. Both seats had the same configuration and could fly or fight as required.
‘Probes can be attached to the bottom of the wings, much like missiles on your current fighters,’ Base explained. ‘Lasers, rail runs, and even Gatling guns can be added inside the wings and above or below the AIPS in the front and the back. Additional countermeasures can be added to intercept missiles and other known offensive threats. It has a small set of bay doors to let any other missiles or bombs drop as well. This will be a formidable fighter in the atmosphere or in space.’
‘Wow, this is excellent,’ I told him. ‘I assume it will have our coatings and other items to make it stealth and heat resistant.’
‘Of course,’ Base responded. ‘It should be ready in less than a month for trials. In the meantime, I’ve ordered the material needed for AddlerThree, AddlerFour and AddlerSeven but haven’t given a destination for it at this time, though it will probably go to Winnipeg. We’ll be ready as soon as we get the go ahead Thursday.’
“Good news,’ I replied. ‘Shall we work on some probes, for deep space detection for the Addler AMDS and also for the Addler Asteroid Meteor Interception System or AMIS for short?”
‘We have some probes made up for the detection portion but the Interception probes need to be bigger to hold any weapons,’ Base explained. ‘Let’s go to the new probe line we’ve made up in the first building to see where we are at.’
I walked back over and found the new probe line where several robots were assembling a standard probe along a fifty-foot conveyor, each putting in something to add to the probe along the way.
‘This is a standard emitter and detection probe for the AMDS,’ Base stated. ‘We will need thousands of these to cover a good portion of the solar system so we’re just making as many as we can. That should take a couple of weeks as we’re making one a minute or fourteen hundred and forty a day. In a week we’ll start launching them from the previous vertical launch site at the old mine.’
‘Excellent, that will quickly provide our system with all the data it will need to warn us of approaching issues,’ I responded.
‘After that, we’ll convert this line to the interception probes, being larger but with less emitters and sensors so we can pack in whatever we think is best in terms of weaponry,’ Base continued. ‘By themselves, each probe can only affect the path of small asteroids with a powerful laser or rail run, but with dozens of probes aiming for the same area, larger chunks can be broken off each time. Other probes with explosives can be used to detonate at strategic locations to further fracture a large object. The Telans have used these for centuries to protect their planets, ships, and stations.’
“Okay, we have a plan and a solution,’ I said. ‘Can we make up three probes with a laser, a rail gun and one for an explosive warhead to show people on Thursday if things go well?”
‘I’ll make them on another line so as to not disturb this one,’ Base responded. ‘Obviously we don’t have the weaponry yet but we can mock something up.’
“Excellent, we should have a lot to show them, hopefully enough to get them to go ahead,’ I said.
‘From what I have intercepted, all three governments want the space port and are willing to give some tax breaks to get it done,’ Base informed me.
‘Good news, things are finally looking up,’ I stated.
Base and I had robots making up a new production line for the Interceptor probes and material was brought over to make the frames and the outer skins. We had the new designs posted on the monitors and the robots soon had the larger frames cut and put together. I left them to it and went to my office to see what else was up.
I had a hundred emails to go through but most were spam or people wanting to sell me something. A dozen were from suppliers and I passed them on to the appropriate people. Six were from various space agencies; Europe, Russia, Japan, India, China, and Australia, so I read them through. They each proposed a collaboration with us, offering free landings and takeoffs on their long runways as well as reduced lease rates for at least one large hanger. Other offers for reduced taxes on imports and exports to space were also laid out. I passed them to the team as well. I spend the rest of the day reviewing lasers and rail guns and improving their designs with Base. Dad got me at five and we drove home to the ladies. They had us go look at the new washroom and we found it to have a shower curtain, a bath mat, towels and washcloths as well as shampoo and body wash already to be used. We thanked them for finishing things off and we would start using it in the morning. We discussed using other country’s runways and facilities but decided to wait until after Thursday’s meeting with the Canadian government before opening discussions.
“So, while we were in town, we saw that the Ice Dogs were holding open tryouts this week and thought you might want to tryout seeing as you might have a bit of time on your hands,” Riley told me. “It wouldn’t take all your time so you could practice and go to the games and still work in town or at the airport when it’s done.”
“That’s interesting,” I replied, thinking it over.
“As long as they know you sometimes have commitments you can’t get out of,” mom stated.
“I’m sure they will be somewhat flexible but this is a professional team, not a house league so some commitments will be needed,” dad warned. “Don’t tryout without knowing the schedule and all that is required and let them know what you might have to miss if something big comes up.”
“I’ll do some research and then set something up with the management to discuss things tomorrow or Friday,” I said after thinking about it for a few seconds. “I miss playing hockey and challenging myself against others. The coach wanted me to tryout last year but you have to be fifteen so I know I qualify now.”
I pulled out my phone and did some quick research while everyone ate and talked about something else. I found out that there were eight teams in North West Ontario, from Kenora farther west to Thunder Bay to the east with two teams, with another team just over seven hours away in Ironwood Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula. The rest were clustered to the north and south of Dryden. Each team usually played two games against the same team within a day or two before travelling to another town or back to their home town.
“I’m not sure about this, they seem to be on the road a lot and play a couple games at each place all over Northern Ontario, from Kenora to Thunder Bay and even down in Ironwood, Michigan, over seven hours away from here,” I said. “I don’t think I want to spend that much time away from here, especially with everything we have going on.”
“Maybe you could just play the games here?” Riley suggested. “Or a few at the closer places. You probably don’t want to travel to the States for a while after what we pulled last week.”
“True,” I agreed. “Let me ponder on it and maybe I’ll see what the team says about just local games.”
“You’ll just have to get your private jet built right away so you can fly to each place,” Reece quipped.
“That is a good idea,” I told her. “Though the whole team will want to come along so it would have to hold forty people and equipment. That’s much bigger than I had planned.”
“Or just build it how you wanted and fly to the games by yourself and come back if you need to in between games,” mom said. “If they want you bad enough, they’ll put up with some eccentricities.”
“We aren’t going to have that private plane ready for a couple months, building it in Winnipeg, unless I move some things around,” I mused. “It might be too big to land in some of the smaller towns anyway.”
We left it like that and finished dinner before we split up for the night.
“We met up with Sage and Teigan today,” Riley told me once we were settled into bed.
“How did that go?” I asked.
“Good, we’re thinking of having them over for a barbeque and a swim on Saturday,” she replied. “It was okay with our moms, but we wanted to make sure you and your dad are okay with it. The Moms will ask your dad and I’m asking you.”
“I don’t see why not, four gorgeous young ladies in bikinis is better than two,” I said with a grin.
She both poked me in the side for that.
“Sage wasn’t too happy to hear that I was with you but Teigan was okay with it,” Reece added. “Sage been off guys for a couple years now so just try to be civil with her and avoid any ogling of us and them while we’re in our swimsuits.”
“Like I could stop that,” I responded as I rolled my eyes. “I’ll try my best but I’m not going to just avoid looking at you.”
She had her way with me before we fell asleep for the night.
On Wednesday, I swam, cut up downed trees on the other side of the house and then carried the logs to the pile. I then cut them up into manageable sizes to split on the weekend. After a shower in the new garage bathroom, I went inside and started breakfast for everyone. I actually had to go up and wake Riley and coerce her down with promises of coffee and a nice breakfast.
“I suppose you’ve been up for hours?” Riley asked after taking a couple sips of coffee.
“Of course, I swam, cut up some trees on the other side of the house, dragged the logs to the garage, cut them up, had a shower and cooked this meal,” I replied with a grin.
“Fricking Energiser bunny,” Riley commented with a shake of her head.
“You didn’t seem to mind last night,” I responded with a grin.
“True,” she replied, grinning.
“Alright, Ben’s endurance aside, what’s on the agenda today?” mom inquired wryly.
“Getting ready for tomorrow,” Reece said. “Just need the updated presentation from mom and Chris.”
“We are finalizing the presentation today,” dad spoke when mom looked over at him. “We’ll put in the status of the acquisitions, the road moves, house moves and the latest design of the space port. We’re including a vertical takeoff pit in case of emergencies or the shutdown of the runway. It will be big enough for the big cargo ships but can also handle all the probe launches. It will have a thick concrete pad and a water reservoir to take the heat of the ion rockets.”
“That will be great if we can get that passed rather than having to launch at the mine hours away,” I stated.
“We’ll get it passed now when they want us rather than after the fact,” mom said. “Okay, I’m working on funding all the ship builds as well as new probes someone is already building for the new detection and interception systems.”
“I’m trying to keep up with someone who keeps designing new probes and ships so that the designs are up to date and submitted for patents,” Riley added.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“The AMDS system probes are being made now, the AMIS systems are being designed with new probes to hold lasers, rail guns or explosive warheads, a new fighter ship is being built in the second building and I’m going to finalize some research and make major upgrades to current lasers and rail guns,” I told them. “The government can provide warheads when we need them, but we will have that discussion and get them prepared to provide them when necessary. Lastly, I’ll contact the Ice Dogs and set up a meeting and maybe attend this afternoon’s tryout.”
“Busy day for everyone, who needs rides where?” dad asked.
“I’ll need one into town to our shops and then after lunch to the arena,” I answered. “I’ll get my hockey equipment ready after breakfast and I’m good to go. Might need to get my skates sharpened and a couple sticks at the sports store before heading to the arena.”
“Okay, we can head out in an hour,” dad said before looking at the ladies.
“We need to shower so we’ll drive in around the same time,” Rachel told him.
“Alright, let’s get to it,” dad said as he finished his plate.