Chapter 10

They woke up at their usual time, with everyone in a good spirits after the sexual activities of the previous night. They gave each other good morning kisses, before heading off to the washroom for their morning ablutions. Then they got dressed to start their day.

Mark and Annabelle invited Maren to spend the day with them, but she declined the invite, saying she had duties to return to on the orbiter. She gave them both a kiss before departing for her shuttle.

Mark promised he would see her again soon, hoping to spend more time with her on the trip back to Atlanterra.

He wasn’t sure who would come along for the trip, actually. He hoped that Annabelle would come and the girls sort of had to come along, as that was their initial destination. He then thought they should invite Elisha and Gerald, so they could record or possibly broadcast from there. He doubted Joe or Kat would come since they couldn’t leave the ranch for any length of time. Jason likely wouldn’t come either as he still had school and needed to keep his grades up, Annabelle was consistently at the top of her class and could probably catch up or work ahead easily.

Mark and Annabelle joined everyone else as they assembled for the morning workout. They decided on a different workout this morning. One that was 45 minutes, since they now had Maria making breakfast.

After the workout they showered and then went up to the lobby for breakfast. The smell of bacon overtaking their senses as they exited the lift.

The morning breakfast was the usual, ‘what’s everyone got planned today’, and then general chit chat. At 7AM the alarms went off to start the chores.

Joe looked at his watch and shook his head, “I guess we really don’t need to start so early anymore, it doesn’t take very long to turn the horses out or do the chores now. Why don’t we all delete that alarm and we’ll just work off the clock in the office?”

Everyone said that sounded like a good idea, as they deleted that alarm from their phones, then Joe and Mark went out to do the chores.

There was no crowd of people anymore, they had all went next door, plus they had put a gate at the end of the lane. One that Kat could control by a button in the office, and then it opened automatically when cars were leaving the lane after hours and Cricket operated the gate for incoming vehicles. They also posted an actual business hours sign at the lane entrance, 8AM to 8PM.

Feeding and mucking didn’t take long with the new system Solara created. Mucking the stalls was super easy now that there was a disposal track that ran along the back wall of the stall, under the hay, feed and water trough, so once the horse was out of the stall you just go in with a squeegee or broom and push everything to the disposal track. Then up to the upper floor where they stored the hay, straw and feed. Each stall had a chute for hay, a smaller chute for any special feed and automatic waterers. Then open a trapdoor for each stall and throw down some new bedding.

She offered to simplify turning out the horses by making a remote control to open and close the gates to the paddocks and pastures. Joe didn’t mind the partially automated mucking as that was a shitty job anyway, but he initially kibosh’d the automated gate idea, stating, “There’re some things you just don’t automate at a ranch and gates are one of them, because then it’s not a ranch, it’s a feedlot!”

After thinking about it for a while, he decided maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. Not so much for turning the horses out in the morning, but it made bringing them in at night easier. Plus, if Annabelle and Jason both ended up leaving the ranch, it would make it so that one person could do the job.

With the chores completed, they returned to the lodge for some hot beverages.

It was Monday morning and the lodge only had a few people in it, almost all were reporters or correspondents for one news network or another. The chaos of the weekend behind them and with some luck, things would be back to normal soon.

Solara joined them as they were drinking their coffee. She had brought a holocube with a design of the lodge, incorporating most of the upgrades that everyone had decided on and wanted to show Joe, but he suggested going over it in the living quarters, away from the prying eyes of reporters.

Once everyone was present and the door closed; Solara turned the holocube on and everyone walked around and studied it for a minute.

The upgraded lodge looked like an old square fort. Solara had taken out the living quarters, gym and workout area and expanded the kitchen. There were square staircases that went from the basement to a covered lookout tower on each corner, except for the main entrance. There were still 5 rooms on each wing, double queen rooms on each end, and king-size rooms in the middle. All the rooms were slightly bigger now that they all had their own bathrooms.

The lobby now was just open to the courtyard area and the kitchen now spanned the width of the wing with a concession stand type window open to the courtyard and another one open to the outside, complete with a force field to keep dust and insects out. So rather than sitting down and dishing up, it was more soup kitchen style where you grab your plate and cutlery, dish up, then go sit down and eat.

Joe and Kat’s room was in roughly the same location at the end of the wing, but they had a door to the courtyard and one to the outside. It was the size of two rooms, so they could still have their bedroom and living room. Maria now had her own room beside the kitchen, and Sofia had the room between them. Mark, Annabelle and Rayven had the first room around the corner, then Jason and T’Soona, Laruun, Solara, and Candy.

The courtyard area was slightly larger now that it was square and a force field covered it, keeping the temperature amiable. There was still the big central fire pit to sit around at night, the large hot tub, and there were a few hexagonal picnic tables with umbrellas and some scattered hedges and bushes.

The big upgrade was the entire basement. It was the size of the entire lodge, including the area under the courtyard which had some strategically placed courtyard garden features to provide natural light to the lower level.

The basement contained a large open area, central under the courtyard, which was now an event room with stage. The workout area and movie theatre were in the same place as they were in the residence, but a gym area was built off to the left side of the workout area, the shower room and playroom were moved around to the right side of the workout area and movie theatre. There was also a bunch of storage rooms for event tables and chairs at the back, where the playroom used to be.

Joe and Kat looked at it in awe, and said, “Wow!”

Joe then spoke for both of them, “You didn’t increase the footprint too much, yet doubled the amount of rentable rooms and amenities for other events,” he then looked at Kat who gave her nod of approval, then he said, “Do it!”

Most of the reporters were up now and finishing their breakfasts, so Kat told them they were going to do some upgrades on the lodge in a few minutes and, of course, most of the reporters asked if they could record it.

Joe said, “Sure, go ahead! I’d probably suggest setting up in the lobby, as you don’t want to be anywhere that’s going to be moving.”

After about 15 minutes, they accounted for everyone, except Solara, in the lobby as the lodge transformed. The structural process of the walls only took a few minutes, ending off with the new clear force field top. All the other stuff inside the rooms and the basement took longer because of wiring, lights, electrical outlets, the PTACs, the beds and the washrooms. All of the current rooms were left as they were, except a washroom was added, they would be reconfigured later when they were empty.

Once the upgrade completed, everyone was wandering around looking at things, while Kat was taking pictures to update the website.

The courtyard was an awesome addition, and somehow felt completely new since they now surrounded it by the lodge, and that it appeared outside, but was room temperature just made it seem surreal. Also by not having the gym and workout area and open to the lobby just made it seem that much bigger.

A crash came from the kitchen, so everyone went running.

They found Maria lying on the floor in front of the cooktop with a potato near one hand and a pan near the other.

While Kat and Sofia attended to Maria, Mark and the others looked around the new kitchen. It now spanned the width of the wing, the walls and floor matched the rest of the lodge with the wooden log look and wood plank floor. Both sides of the kitchen appeared identical in design, probably so that two people could work together if required. The only difference was one side had black appliances and the other side had white.

On the left side, each counter had a double oven with a large section on the bottom and a smaller section on top. Beside it was a decent sized solid cooktop, with an exhaust fan above it, and next to it was a wooden cutting board counter, with a sink that had one of those spring-spray faucets. At the right end of the prep area was a couple of cupboards and drawers with computer displays on the front that looked like a point of sale terminal with commonly used utensils, pots, pans, and the like.

As Maria came to, they gave her a glass of water and then helped her to her feet so she could explain what had happened.

She had discovered the food synth terminal and had figured out how to make a potato and other items. Then, when she was looking over the cooktop, she noticed the cabinets with the computer screens. She selected the pan, opened the cupboard, took out the pan out and closed the cabinet. But then the cabinet wouldn’t open again, so thinking she had to tell it what she was putting back, she selected the pan and then when she opened the door there was another pan already there. When she realized she would never have to wash dishes again, she fainted.

After everyone had a quick laugh at her expense, Maria said, “I love this! All of you leave, this is my playground, let me play!”

Solara smiled, held up her four hands and said, “Wait! Maria, you probably don’t realize what being connected to the Federation network means for a kitchen. I mean, you can continue to cook your own creations and we should probably show you how to upload your recipes, but let me show you what is now at your fingertips.”

Solara then directed everyone to the terminal on the counter. She showed how to search and browse recipes and how to save recipes to the favourites list. Since they typically did soups and sandwiches for lunches, they found a soup that looked good, and when Solara selected it, it prompted her for the number of servings. There were many people staying at the lodge so Maria said 40 servings, so Solara set it to 40 servings and then pressed the MAKE icon just like on the drink dispensers.

Suddenly the recipe, adjusted for the number of servings, displayed on the wall above the prep area and the food synth started putting the ingredients into bowls and pushing them out onto the prep counter. Even the spices were in little pre-measured bowls and the vegetables were already cubed or sliced. All you had to do was follow the preparation and cooking instructions and, if it required baking, it would even set the temperature and start the oven, complete with automatic timers and temperature sensors so you didn’t under or overcook anything.

With Maria’s mind totally blown, they left her to get acquainted with her new kitchen. You could see the gears turning in her mind by the size of her smile and the sparkle in her eyes.

About an hour after the lodge upgrade was complete, everyone was drinking coffee in the new courtyard and the reporters were still looking around or chatting and drinking their own drinks, as a black SUV came driving up the lane.

Since it didn’t trigger any alarms, it proved that it was unarmed, as it stopped in front of the lodge. A man in black jumped out and opened the rear door for a man in a very nice suit and a briefcase.

The man walked into the lodge and stopped at the edge of the courtyard and announced, “I’m John McAlistair, the Minister of National Defence, I’m here on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office.”

Most of the reporters grabbed their microphones and cameras, wanting to record whatever the Minister was there for.

Joe asked, “Welcome! What brings you to our ranch?”

The Minister looked at all the news crews and stated, “I’m here because you are harbouring illegal aliens and a wanted felon. We’re here to take them in.”

Joe laughed, “Well, that ain’t going to happen!”

Just then they heard thrusters outside as a shuttle landed behind the black SUV on the driveway, then Liyana, Gyges and Maren exited the craft and made their way into the lodge.

Liyana said, “Good morning, my King, and to you as well, Joe and Kat. Oh, I like the upgrades to the lodge!” as they grabbed some hot beverages and sat down at the table.

Kat did the introductions, “Liyana, Gyges, Maren, this is John McAlistair, the Canadian Minister of National Defence, he says he’s here to take in the girls for being illegal aliens and then to take Mark in as well, because he’s a fugitive.”

They all laughed, as Liyana said, “Good luck with that!”

John said, “This is not a laughing matter! I’m the Minister of National Defence for one of the most powerful nations on this planet! If you don’t hand them over, I’ll take you all in for obstruction of justice and bring you all up on those charges as well!”

Liyana smiled and said, “You guys haven’t even figured out how to sneak onto a ranch that built a security system out of some spare parts from a crashed cargo ship using basic science! What makes you so powerful?”

John stated, “Canada is one of the most advanced nations on this planet and we are a nuclear power!”

Mark said, “Well, that would be stupid to risk a nuclear attack on your own soil to get rid of a few people who aren’t bothering anybody!”

John demanded, “Well then, surrender yourself and hand over the aliens!”

Before Mark could answer, Liyana spoke up. “This ranch is under the protection of the Federation right now and our future King is here. Any attempts on Federation citizens or our future king could be considered an act of war. A war Earth stands zero chance of winning. Besides all the aliens will be leaving this planet soon and will be out of your reach anyway.”

While the minister was contemplating how to respond, Liyana continued. “Hey, I just thought of something that might wake up this planet! Kat, can you please grab your phone, I would like to do another broadcast.”

As Kat got her phone, Liyana sat down beside Mark and showed she was ready, ‘People of Earth, my name is Ambassador Liyana of the Atlantean Federation. This is my second broadcast using your social media, but something has recently come to my attention that I need to clarify.

I recently met with a senior government official of this country. They were ordering the ranch to turn over the ‘illegal aliens’, who have done nothing to cause anyone any reason for alarm. Their request has obviously been dismissed!

We are but one of several space-faring civilizations that we have encountered in over 3,000 yahren of exploration among the stars. So far, we have only encountered three species that are not very friendly, but who knows if there’s more?

While we will not give our technology to a planet that is not part of the Atlantean Federation, we will defend planets that cannot defend themselves from these invasive species, if we happen to be in the area.

Fortunately, this is our ancestral home, so we visit frequently. You probably don’t even know that we defended Earth from invasion a few dectahren ago. Had we not intervened, none of you would be alive today.

Even visiting today, we still do not detect any weapons on this planet that would be effective against a true planetary threat. By establishing a Federation presence here at Henderson Ranch—Earth is now under our protection.

We will be leaving for Atlanterra to attend the coronation of our new King once the embassy is operational in a few days. I would like to reiterate that this ranch, and the family that runs it, are under the protection of the Atlantean Federation. We could consider any attempts to harm them as an act of war—a war Earth would not win, but we do not want to be at odds with our ancestral world ... Earth needs friends!’

Kat turned off her broadcast, then shared the video so they could post it to some other sites.

The Minister sat down in a chair, “Future king? An act of war you say? And you’re serious about the other races out there and that you’ve defended us from the bad ones before?”

Liyana said, “Unfortunately yes, there’s a bug species that literally eats other living beings for food, and they also impregnate beings to serve as incubators for their offspring and they eat you from the inside when they’re born. We keep an eye on them so they haven’t been an issue in a while. Another race simply destroys planets mining for something, they have no regard for any life that happens to be on the planet and just move on once the planet breaks apart. The last species we know about, we have encountered three times. We won two of the battles.”

John asked, “What about the third?”

Liyana then asked Maren, “Could you please pull up the Rylen IV video from our library?”

As Maren was pulling up the video, Liyana gave some background info. “It was our first encounter with this race and it was a planet we hadn’t discovered yet.