Discovering Alien Technology Part Two
Copyright© 2026 by GMet
Chapter 6
Friday morning the ladies remembered that Sage and Teigan were coming over Saturday so Riley and mom decided to stay in Dryden. I was sorry to miss seeing the beautiful blondes but insisted that Rachel take pictures of the four in their bikinis to which I was pummeled by Riley and Reece. Of course, I had Base make sure video and still pictures were covertly taken for my enjoyment when I got back. Dad and I packed gym bags and put them in the truck, grabbed my hockey equipment and then spent an hour at our shops to detail what was to be loaded up for Winnipeg, including some AIPS, various electronic systems’ components, wiring bundles and structural material, before he dropped me off at the arena.
The Ice Dogs tryout was more of the same but with the addition of some skating drills and timed runs around the rink and a radar gun to measure the speed of everyone’s slapshots. This time they set the time trial just like the All-star course with the nets at the top of the crease instead of their usual spots so it was easier to go around the ends of the rink. The coaches deliberately left me for last and I sat with the rest of the team watching each run. My partners Alex and David were the fastest with fourteen point two and fourteen point three seconds respectively, excellent for normal seventeen-year-olds.
“Addler, you’re up,” Coach Gilbie finally said. “For those of you that haven’t seen the video that went viral, Ben did a harder course last year at thirteen point nine when he was fourteen. He’s bigger and faster and this course is easier so we’re all interested in seeing just what he can achieve.”
I set up just before the centre line and prepared for a couple seconds. I nodded to the coaches and waited for the buzzer. As soon as I heard it, I powered forward, skating hard down the straight along the wall before starting the crossover of my legs as soon as I went by the pylon. I kept it up around the corner and the past the net and around the second corner, hardly slowing down. I poured it on down the far straight away and then did the same crossover around the far end of the ice. A last acceleration on the straight and a stretch to hit the finish line completed the run as I slowed down and circled the ice.
“Twelve point eight seconds,” shouted Coach Haskel, manning the electronic timer.
“Jesus, that must be a new record!” shouted David.
“Yeah, Matt Barzal did it in thirteen point one seven five, back at the twenty-twenty all-star game,” someone told us.
“Holy Shit,” Alex said when I stopped by the bench near my two linemates.
“No, I shit normally,” I replied with a grin.
“Alright, great run Addler, keep it up,” Coach Gilbie said. “Alright, now we know what we have in skating talent, let’s see what we have in power.”
Again, I was left to the last and I put a lot into it but not everything as I didn’t need to break both records the first time I tried.
“One hundred and eight point four miles per hour!” Coach Longbow shouted out.
“Chara posted a one hundred and eight point eight to be the hardest shot ever,” someone told us.
“Oh well, I have some time to beat that,” I responded with a grin.
“Alright, we’ve recorded all of your first attempts and we’ll hold this a few times over the year,” Coach Gilbie stated. “Let’s have a scrimmage before we call it a weekend.”
I was pumped up and kept up my energy on the ice, disrupting their offence and terrorizing their defence. Alex and David had multiple goals and I even put a couple into the net during the half hour scrimmage.
“Alright, the coaches will meet over the weekend and we will have the first cuts ready for Monday morning,” Coach Gilbie announced. “Check the bulletin board outside my office at eight am where we’ll post who is still in the running. Those who didn’t make the cut, we thank you for you time and interest and we’ll keep you in mind should we need replacement players during the season. While our decision is final, we will be available from eight to nine to discuss what we think you need to improve your game if anyone is interested. Practice will be at nine for the guys left and we’ll also have a second one at four in the afternoon. That will be our schedule, nine and four every weekday and we’ll schedule exhibition games on the weekend for the next month until the season starts in September. There will be further cuts after a week, so the following Monday morning will be the final cuts. Those that don’t make that cut will be held on our first list of call backs during the year. Any questions?”
There were none so everyone left the ice, with Coach Gilbie telling me to see him in his office when I was changed. I quickly showered, dressed and packed up and said goodbye to the guys before heading to his office.
“Hey Ben, have a seat,” Coach Gilbie said, pointing to a seat at the table where all four coaches were already seated.
“Alright, you’ve exceeded where we thought you would be after what we saw last year so without further ado, we’re happy to offer you a position on the team,” he continued.
“Thanks, I appreciate the opportunity,” I replied, shaking his and the other coaches’ hands.
Coach Gilbie slid an envelope over to me with a few papers sticking out.
“In here is our offer sheet, some rules, a stipend weekly payment, our schedule, billet information though we know you live here in Dryden, and an information packet on Junior A hockey,” he stated. “We modified our standard contract to take in your unique situation in terms of away games and possible conflicts due to your business. Obviously, we’d like to see you at every game but we will definitely take what we can get. Once the season starts, practices will be on off days or skipped between back-to-back games unless we need to work on something that developed in the first game.”
“Understood, I’ll read all this over and have my parents sign over the weekend and bring it back Monday or have a list of questions to answer before they sign,” I replied.
“Are you still in school?” Coach Haskel asked. “If so, we’ll need to get your schedule changed as necessary once school starts.”
“No, I’m done with school,” I replied. “I wrote the SATs and got a perfect score and then spent a week at MIT before they agreed that the only thing I could do there was teach. I run my companies now. The Space port is a go here in Dryden as well as the building of some of the space ships in Winnipeg until we get our buildings up here. I’ll fly to Winnipeg a few times to get things moving but the first thing I’ll build is a fast passenger craft to make that a very quick flight back and forth. Just let me know of any other team meetings in advance please and I’ll do my best to work around them.”
They just stared at me for a moment before Coach Gilbie spoke up, saying, “I can’t believe what you’ve got going on at work on top of being a top Junior A player already. I have no doubt that you will be a top draft pick in the Major Junior and then the NHL as soon as they can get you eligible for the draft.”
“It’s a little premature to talk about that,” I told him. “Who knows if I’ll have time for that with what I have going on. I should say that the only team I’ll be playing for is the Dryden Ice Dogs. No trades will be allowed as I’ll just quit.”
“Understood, we can write that in,” Coach Gilbie. “You can write that that on your copy before they sign it.”
“Good, I think that’s it,” I responded. “Alright, I’ll see you on Monday morning at nine if there isn’t anything else?”
“Alright, we’ll see you then,” he agreed.
I shook their hands again and left the office with my equipment and the paperwork, meeting my dad in the lobby.
“I gather from the envelope that things went well?” he asked as he took it from me.
“Yep, I’m on the team if everything looks okay,” I replied. “Did well on the time trail and shot miles per hour.”
“How well?” he asked, sounding curious and cautious.
“12.8 seconds and 108.4 miles per hour,” I told him.
“Jesus, those are great numbers,” he said as we walked out of the arena.
“True,” I said with a shrug. “Moving up here has been good for me.”
“I’d say,” he agreed dryly. “At least I don’t have to worry about you being picked on during the game. They’ll never catch you and won’t want to get anywhere near your shot.”
“Here’s hoping,” I said with a grin. “I’m not too worried about that anyway; I’m as tall as most of the players trying out and probably faster and stronger. With a full-face shield, and an automatic game misconduct to taking off your helmet, fighting has been basically eliminated from Junior A hockey.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he replied.
“Alright, we ready to go to Winnipeg?” I asked.
“Just have to drop your equipment off at home to put it out to dry before we get to the airport,” he replied.
“Sounds good,” I said as we got into the truck.
We quickly drove home and hung up my equipment, taking the laundry into the house to throw in the washer. After wishing everyone a good weekend, with Riley making sure she got a hug and kiss, we drove to the airport, taking the long way around as the roads were already getting ripped up this morning. The same pilot and plane were ready for us and we boarded as soon as we parked and were taxiing to the runway right after. The takeoff and flight to Winnipeg was uneventful and we had him turn off to our side of the runway and taxied right to the hanger. The pilot assured us he would be back Sunday afternoon before he headed back towards the end of the runway.
We were greeted by P1 thru P4 inside the hanger and we informed them about the plan, including the fact that a bunch of robots and material would be here tomorrow morning to start the new craft builds. I looked around and found it cramped with the two spacecraft inside the hanger. We might be able to build the passenger craft, AddlerEight in there, but it would be tight.
“We need another hanger here,” I told dad as we looked around. “It’s either that or we put these two outside and that’s a security issue.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “Let me go see if the one next door is available or we’ll have to buy the land on the other side and put one up very fast.”
While he concentrated on that, I worked with Base and the four robots to move things around to give us the maximum space for the first build while putting all the tool chests and material somewhere other than the space for the actual build. Dad came back in an hour with good news, of a sort.
“Okay, can’t get any of the hangers but we can buy the land next door and put up a large hanger, double the size of this one,” he told me. “That should be big enough to make one AddlerSeven fire fighting ship and one AddlerFour cargo craft in there or AddlerThree, AddlerEight and one of the big ones. I’ve run the numbers through mom and she’s on board. It’s one and a half million but we need it now and probably in the future as we’ll need a few cargo ships and a second fire-fighting ship and places to put them all.”
“I’m good with it, I think we’ll need it as well and we don’t want to wait a half year to start building,” I agreed.
“Alright, the land sale is immediate, like tomorrow but the hanger will take a couple weeks to put up, even with a big incentive payment to expedite it,” he told me. “They can start on Monday morning.”
“Okay, we’ll start on the passenger craft in here tomorrow and then AddlerThree and the firefighting ship in the new hanger in a couple of weeks,” I decided. “Fighters at home and then the Cargo craft and a second firefighting craft after the new hanger is empty. Hopefully by then, we’ll have the hangers up at home to store a few.”
“Alright, what’s left to do here today?” he asked.
“Not much, P1 through P4 can finish up and get ready for tomorrow’s shipments,” I replied.
“Okay, let’s go get a room and find some food,” dad suggested. “We have to be back here for seven in the morning so we should get to bed early.”
“Sounds good, same hotel in the airport?” I asked.
“That’s okay with me,” he agreed as we told the robots the plan and that we would see them in the morning.
We locked the door as I booked an Uber to drive us around to the front of the airport. Twenty minutes later we were in a two-room suite so we both had our own bedroom and bed. We each had a shower and then found a steak restaurant nearby to eat at. We came back and split into our rooms, agreeing to be ready for six am to go get some breakfast before meeting the trucks at seven. I texted with Riley for a bit before falling asleep after another long day.
The weekend was spent unloading all the robots, well actually getting them powered up and let them walk off the trailer. We then had them unload the next truckload of materials from Dryden and another two from suppliers. They put it in piles around the two spacecraft to save space and then started the frame build of the passenger craft right away. It was amazing to see all of them work together welding, riveting and bolting the composite material together and then start the AIPS install while others started the systems install.
We decided not to hire anyone as the robots could receive material and sign for it and even input into a spreadsheet. Dad and I helped as best we can with some of the systems install on the passenger craft before we finally headed home Sunday evening. We arrived home after supper but just picked up a burger and ate it as we drove home.
The ladies told us how much fun they had with the Stuart family as Sage and Teigan’s mother Nancy joined them at our house. They had just left after having dinner at our house. No pictures were shared but Base did show me some nice bikini pictures of all of them in and out of the lake. Later, after my lovely lady had fallen asleep in exhaustion, he showed me some videos of the girls and the moms spending last night together in their separate beds. The younger four hardly got any sleep Saturday night as they first paired up by age and then the older girls paired up with the opposite younger sister to make them scream into pillows when they came.
He also showed me a smaller sample of the moms getting it on, with Nancy and Rachel teaming up to remove any hesitation that mom might have had of having two women in her bed. I admired the mothers of the girls as they were both in great shape and seemed very comfortable with each other, suggesting they got together regularly. Base assured me that they didn’t plan anything when talking amongst themselves, other than to have a good time with mom. I wouldn’t kick either out for eating nuts in bed, that was for sure. Nancy was a real blonde, with long legs and a tight butt and a very svelte body, while Rachel was a slightly older version of Reece, but still very attractive and downright sexy.
Monday morning, I ran, swam and took the boat out to fish before mom dropped me off at the arena around eight-thirty. The ladies went into our shop as dad had headed to the airport early to supervise the construction efforts. I glanced at the list to see my name there, just to be sure before handing in the signed paperwork, with both my parents’ signatures as well as my own, to Coach Gilbie.
“Thanks Ben, glad to have you on board,” he said as he shook my hand. “I’ll see you out on the ice in a few.”
“Sounds good,” I responded and went to get changed.
With less than half of the guys left from the original two locker rooms full, I found a cubby in the main Ice Dog change room and quickly got changed and out onto the ice. After the normal stretching, warm-up skate and shooting on the goalies, the coaches gathered us up at centre ice.
“Alright, those who have made it so far, congratulations,” Coach Gilbie started out. “We still have ten extra skaters and an extra goalie so don’t relax just yet. That means two extra lines and two pair of defencemen too many to carry and we have to pick two out of the three remaining goalies to stay. I hope everyone of you makes it a very hard decision for us.”
He paused and looked around before continuing, “We don’t have time to waste as we have an exhibition game lined up on Saturday with the Sioux Lookout Bombers here at one pm. Everyone will play so at least all of you can say you had a game at Junior A level. So, we’ll split up into lines and defence to go over some plays and then we’ll spend some time on five-on-five plays in all areas before we do some drills and have a scrimmage. So, forwards with Coach Haskel to the left, defence to the right with Coach Longbow.”
Coach Haskel had us working on carrying the puck into the zone versus dumping and chasing it into the corner and then cycling the puck with each line. There were white boards to show plays and diagram the position names and where to go for each.
“We’ll give each team member a play book to study everything so you know where you should be as well as your linemates and the defence,” Coach Haskel said. “For this week, we’ll just have a few plays you should be able to remember as we’re going to practice them a lot.”
After fifteen minutes, we teamed up with the defence and were shown breakout plays from our zone as well as neutral zone traps to clog up the middle zone and then defences for our zone with all five players. Another fifteen minutes for penalty kills and power plays and then we finally got a chance to use all of it in a scrimmage, with the coaches yelling out what play to use as we transitioned to a new line. I tried my best to follow their game plan each time and we did see some benefit to the various plays when they were done correctly. After the two-hour practice we were told to change and then meet in the upstairs conference room for an additional meeting.
All the rules of conduct, on and off the ice were gone over, billeting, travel, the weekly stipend and then the plays were gone over in detail again for all. Even the goalie going out to stop the puck from going around the net was discussed as well as checking and the extreme penalties and suspensions for fighting. They provided boxed lunches for everyone and then let us go until the four pm practice. I left my hockey stuff hanging in the locker room where the equipment personnel took my jersey and other undergarments and promised they would be back before practice.
I jogged over to our shops and said hello to everyone before doing some work on the first AddlerFive fighter craft. I specifically wanted to make sure the mechanisms for the small doors and equipment for the deployment of the lasers, rail guns and probes were robust, quick and sealed properly. Base and discussed every aspect of the systems as I physically tested their strength with my hands to ensure they wouldn’t have an issue in flight.
Most of the rest of the ship was completed, so I helped with install of the actual lasers and rail guns into each wing while other robots loaded up the interceptor probes, again with small lasers, rail guns or with weights where a warhead might be installed. Even a probe with just extra weight inside would do significant damage to whatever it struck. Other robots were testing all of the electronics, guidance, life support, bottom bay doors, ejection system for the pilots etc. The whole cockpit would be flung away from the ship, including the clear cover to save the pilots. It had a parachute that would deploy in atmosphere as well as small AIPS units for some steerage way in space. Obviously, we would have to test the actual deployment outside and somewhere isolated in the near future.
Reece came and got me when it was three-thirty and drove me to the arena.
Everyone got dressed and out to the ice for warmups and then practice was the running through the plays that we had been taught in the morning. They added a couple new ones to learn and then we broke into teams for a scrimmage, though the coaches would call out plays to run and then stop us to discuss what happened every so often. The last fifteen minutes we were left alone to just play and I improvised a couple times to get the puck into the zone and set up David and Alex for easy goals. Each side had three lines and three pair of defence so we had lots of time on the ice.
“Alright, gather around,” shouted Coach Gilbie after blowing the whistle to end the game. “Good practice and good scrimmage. I see some definite improvement and you’re running the new plays well. Keep it up and we’ll show the Bombers we’re not to be trifled with. Have a good night and we’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine on the ice.”
Everyone left the ice and we had to shower and get dressed quickly as everyone was hungry. I found Reece and Riley waiting for me in her mother’s minivan.
“Hello ladies, thanks for coming to get me,” I said after I put my equipment into the back hatch and got into the back via the side sliding door.
“Hi Ben, how was practice?” Riley asked as she looked back with a smile.
“It was good Riley, how was your afternoon?” I responded.
“Good, I got a lot of the designs separated and labelled so mom can file the rest of the patents,” she told me. “I have testing flights for AddlerFive scheduled in September, flying out of Dryden Airport with CSA and Transport Canada buy-in. You think you’ll be ready?”
“Definitely, we were just putting in the armament and testing the mechanisms and the systems today,” I told her. “We have a week left of testing and then we can disassemble the wings and get it on a flatbed to move it the airport and put it back together. Some quick AIPS testing on the ground and then we’re good to go. I hope it’s early September for the testing.”
“Right after Labour Day,” she replied with a grin. “I knew you well enough to book it as early as I could.”
“You two definitely know me well and I appreciate that,” I said, smiling at her and at Reece looking back in the mirror.
“You can show me just how much when we get home,” Riley responded with a sultry look.
“Definitely,” I agreed.
“No fair,” Reece pouted.
Dinner was ready when we got home, and I really tried not to eat too fast. Riley was grinning at me the entire time and volunteered us to clean up afterwards, just to prolong my agony.
“How about a movie?” Reece asked with a wicked grin.
“Nope, not gonna happen,” I told her as I grabbed Riley and kissed her hard.
“No movie,” she said a half minute later.
She pulled me towards the hallway with Reece grinning at us.
“You might want to stay in the living room for a couple hours,” Riley said to the adults with a grin before she pulled me up the stairs.
The vixen demanded my utmost attention and my endurance for the next two hours and then later in the night whenever she revived. I was up for the task but didn’t bother getting up early to exercise the next morning.
The rest of the week was almost routine with two hockey practices a day, working on the fighter craft and spending a bit more time with my girl whenever we had time in the evenings. The adults were just as busy and focused on the space port build, the partnerships as well as the new patents. All of us had to set aside some time to meet with the government and agency teams as they started to want meetings, thankfully online for this week. They all planned to start moving up to Dryden after Labour Day for the testing of the craft.
The probes for the AMDS and AMIS were being stockpiled in the second building. We had made more of the Detection probes to start with as we needed to cover a vast area of space around our solar system. The Interceptor probes would launch from near earth to counter a specific intrusion so the numbers could be less to start. Besides, we still had to test out the weaponry in space before we installed them in all of the empty probes.
The teams decided we could launch from the mine a few hours away from Dryden to test both detection and interceptor probes. The military man assigned by the prime minister was on the call and said he would arrive early next week to discuss matters prior to our launch of our first interceptor probes. He was being vague but dad and I both knew he would want to see a couple warheads tested on an asteroid. That meant sending the interceptor probes to the Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We all decided sending detection probes out there first and then launch the interceptor probes against one of the asteroids picked by the detection probes so the detection probes could then monitor the results. We added some cameras to the detections probes to send us back video of the tests.
Dad and I figured we would need a flatbed to carry all the probes and the launch frame, with a lift truck at the back to unload everything from the flatbed and then lift the probes into the launch frame. A full-size bus was needed to carry the team members, some robots and the computers and monitors to track them while we were there and on the way back. The team decided that we would travel on the Sunday a week from this weekend and launch on the Monday. I made myself a note to let the coaches know about my absence on Monday and possibly Tuesday due to the launch and travel.
Reece helped with the booking of the vehicles and stocking the bus for the trip. We needed food and drink and places for everyone to sleep so it had to have bunks or foldout beds for eight – dad, Riley and I and five from their team that were going to fly in for the meetings next week.
Saturday morning, I worked out in the garage and fished a bit, trying to relax before the one pm game against the Sioux Lookout Bombers. Everyone was coming to watch so the ladies would drive in later in mom’s new SUV which arrived on Thursday. Dad drove me in early and wished me luck before he split off to the concession stand while I went down the hallway to the dressing room. We only had the one dressing room today as the Bombers had the other, but my stuff was hanging in my stall rather than having to find a spot. All I had to bring was my laundry home if I didn’t leave it there for the team helpers to wash. I found an Ice Dogs home jersey along with new hockey pants, socks, gloves and a new helmet, all matching our colours. The jersey and the helmet had the number forty-four on it as per my choice of available numbers and Addler on the back of the jersey.
I got dressed and then went out to the ice to stretch and warm up by skating and shooting some pucks. The rest of the team soon joined me and we did some drills after everyone was warmed up. Mostly three on twos and some breakouts from out zone with a full compliment of five players. All too soon the horn blew and we had to get off the ice to let the Bombers have their forty-five minutes on the ice. I looked up at the crowd to see it the place only half full so far.
We relaxed in the dressing room, with players getting equipment looked at, sticks taped and skates sharpened. The coaches came around to talk to the lines, with the three forwards sitting next to each other as it should be. Alex, David and I were assigned to the second line, even though most knew we were the fastest and would probably score more than the others over time. The coaches explained to us that they wanted the returning first line, which included the captain and an alternate captain from last year’s team, to be the senior and first line, at least for now. One of the defencemen was last year’s other alternate captain and would keep that for this year as well. I didn’t mind as I wasn’t going to play every game and didn’t need the hassle from the team or the media about that if I was an alternate captain.
At a quarter to one, we went out, had a five-minute skate on our half of the ice and then all but the first line and first pair of defence went to the bench while they lined up at the blue line for the introductions and the national anthem.
The game was soon started with a face off at centre. The first lines were tentative, dumping it into each other’s zone and chasing rather than carrying the puck in. Once our guys got it out of our zone, they dumped it back into the Bomber’s far corner and peeled off to the bench where we jumped on. I motored towards the puck carrier as he slowly carried it out of their zone. I met him before the centre line and he panicked, shooting it into our zone before he reached the line. One of our defencemen went back to touch the puck and the whistle blew for an icing. The linesman carried the puck back to their zone for a faceoff.
We lined up in the right-side faceoff circle and I won the puck back to the defenceman behind me. I immediately skated to the net and turned around to wait for a tip off the point shot. It came in low through the forward going out to block it. I put my stick in it’s path and deflected it up past the surprised goalie and into the net over his shoulder for the game’s first goal. I pointed to the defenceman as everyone gathered to congratulate me.
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