Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 11

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Once they dressed and had eaten, the girls all asked if they could go with him as they'd never actually been to an Earth city... they'd only seen them on the Internet and in movies.

Mark said they could all go, but they had to wear their personal shields, which really was a moot point since everyone wore their belts all the time anyway, even Liyana, Gyges and Maren always wore their belts, which looked just like the standard Federation belts. This was going to be the first time they would be in public outside of a Federation controlled area.

After a quick glance at the clock, he added, if they left right now, they could get some sight seeing in.

Soon they were all loaded into Mark's truck. Solara sat in front with Mark as she was the tallest and that gave her more leg room, Liyana sat behind Mark, Rayven sat behind Solara and T'Soona was in the middle of the back seat.

It felt weird to be driving a truck, as he hadn't had to drive anywhere since he had moved to the ranch. He definitely preferred the speed and efficiency of the shuttles. The drive to the city was uneventful, they saw some wildlife that were fortunately well back from the road. There was lots of conversation about how beautiful the countryside was, and how scenic the mountains looked from a distance.

Once they could see the city in the distance, they started commenting about the colour of the air due to the smog. Calgary usually doesn't have noticeable smog, unless it happens to be a cool day with no breeze, and this was one of those days.

When they got into the city limits and off the main highways, the talk turned to the amount of traffic and how much space was wasted for roads and parking. Then once the traffic got heavier and the speeds were reduced, they commented on how much time was wasted in people's lives just sitting in traffic.

It prompted Mark to ask, "What's it was like on Atlanterra?"

Liyana looked depressed as she said, "Very different from this! This is just sad what you've done to your planet. We take care of our planets, you will see. With the exception of walking or bicycles, no transportation touches the ground and there's no pollution.

Mark asked, "We're having a meeting regarding a building. What are buildings like on Atlanterra? What we build here should be similar to what is there."

Liyana had a far away look in her eyes, "Our cities are much different from this, mainly because everyone walks, bikes or takes transit. People don't drive and park and most of our cities you would barely see since we don't have many buildings taller than the trees. The tall buildings are only in the hubs.

Hubs, so you know, are ocean born cities, meaning they float on the oceans so they do not impact the ecosystem. They are the business and office hubs, many people work there, but no one actually lives there. Outside of the hubs, the tallest buildings on our planet are sports stadiums, which are very much the centre of each community, but even they would be dwarfed by many of the buildings I see here."

Mark nodded his head, "OK well that gives me something to think about anyway. I'll definitely need to do some research on the network to see more of what the buildings are like."

Since they were so early, Mark took them by some of the places he had lived, so they got to see the various communities, then eventually ended up at the main viewing area on the Southwest corner of the airport. They had grabbed some snacks, then sat and watched the planes landing and taking off. They asked him a variety of questions about how the airports worked and he tried to explain borders and border security.

After a while, Mark took them around to the West side of the city, where the 1988 Winter Olympic Games were held and then South to the Spruce Meadows equestrian centre.

Of course, everywhere that they got out of the truck, people would stare at them and many asked if they could get a picture taken. Fortunately they hadn't encountered any idiots today.

Maybe people were starting to accept that aliens actually existed and that they may start seeing them more frequently?

When the time for the meeting was approaching, they started heading toward the skyscrapers, taking them past the Saddledome and the Stampede grounds and into the downtown core and city hall.

After parking and then walking into city hall nearly a half an hour early for the meeting, the security immediately scrambled, but staff quickly assured them it was OK and they were directed to an empty meeting room, to wait for the mayor and his staff.

Liyana looked sad, so Mark asked her, "What's wrong?"

Liyana said, "I understand now why we need to have a building or hub in a city, I just hate the idea of supporting this type of infrastructure, it's like I'm helping to encourage a bad habit."

Mark acknowledged, "I know, I now feel the same way, but all we can do is work within their system to try and show the people that there is a better way."

Mark then tried to cheer her up by saying, "Look on the bright side, what we will build will not be polluting or damaging their system any further, and depending on whether we can find a building, to be demolished, or some contaminated site, that needs to be reclaimed, we will actually be helping the planet a bit."

Just then the mayor came in, joined by 3 other gentlemen. They introduced themselves and Mark introduced Liyana and the girls. The other gentlemen were from the city infrastructure, building permits and city planning departments. The mayor started out by welcoming them to the City of Calgary, and asked if Mark could outline the purpose of the meeting, for his colleagues.

Mark began, "Gentlemen, I'm looking to start up a few businesses to allow you to experience Federation technology, without actually giving the technology to you. I would like for the world headquarters to be here, since this has been my hometown for years and where I'm the most familiar. We currently only need one building to house all these businesses in, but what we are looking for is a site that you would like to have repaired or rebuilt.

Some place that has a building that needs to be demolished or a site where the land is contaminated and needs to be reclaimed. We are looking to construct our office building using Federation technology, which means we won't need to connect into the electrical grid, the water, the sewer or any of that stuff. Probably communications only!"

The Mayor asked, "So why did you want to talk to me?"

Mark replied, "For a number of reasons actually... First, everything we do is closely watched and scrutinized and could be cause for turmoil. We haven't done anything to provoke problems, but there's a lot of wackos out there, that just can't handle change or things they can't even begin to understand. If you don't want the attention of us making this place our world headquarters, tell us now and we'll find elsewhere to build... but I think the attention would be good for the city, something that's unique that no where else on the planet will have. Plus our close proximity, will also mean when we lease our technologies, Calgary will be the first to experience them.

Second, you've no doubt seen the videos, our building technology, which is 100% eco-friendly and has worked for hundreds of years on other planets, circumvents a lot of the primitive rules required for standard construction on this planet. Which is why we are looking for an eyesore, or spot of contention, that either the private sector or the government can't, or doesn't want to, foot the bill to take care of."

One of the men looked concerned as he asked, "So you're asking for a junk land title, if we would turn our backs to the building codes you will blatantly disregard in the construction of your building. I suppose you won't want to pay any property taxes either?"

Mark replied, "Actually, we would gladly pay property taxes. We just won't pay for utilities like electricity, water, sewer, garbage and the like that we won't be using. As for blatantly disregarding your building codes... yes and no... I'm willing to bet, our building standards far exceed your current codes, and you are welcome to inspect and check the building out prior to tenancy."

The mayor laughed and said, "We've seen the video, your construction technology is definitely unique and interesting! As long as you're not going into the construction business and it's just going to be this one building, I think we can probably work out something. Now, on the phone, you said you would only be hiring local workers?"

Mark replied, "Yes, we will only be employing local workers, our extraterrestrial friends will work with us, but not from this location. They'll be outsourced in a way, just not to a location on Earth. There will likely often be extraterrestrial visitors in our building, but not stealing jobs from local citizens."

The mayor asked, "So why do you want to start these businesses?"

Mark explained, "Well, as I'm sure you are aware, Atlantean Federation law dictates, that we cannot give our technology to a planet that is not part of the Federation. By having private businesses that I own, being that I'm a Canadian citizen as well as the future king of the Atlantean Federation, I'm more or less allowing you utilize and reap the benefits of some of our technology, without actually giving it to you."

The Mayor asked, "So what businesses are you going to start?"

Mark then outlined his business plans, "The first will be a bank of sorts. As trade and visitation grows between our civilizations, people will need a way to exchange currencies between Earth based currencies and Federation credits. So more or less it will just be a simple currency exchange until it grows into a bank.

The second business will be a transportation business. We are currently talking to the Federal government, about the possibility of using the airports as our shuttle pickup and drop off points to get people up to the embassy. Should we not be allowed to use the airports, we will use our own building as more or less a helicopter pad, similar to the tops of some buildings, unlike Earth-based aircraft and helicopters, our shuttles make less noise than a standard motor vehicle, so noise and flight paths don't really pertain to us.

The third business will be a security business. We will contract assistance to help security guards and possibly even the police to do their jobs better and safer.

The fourth business will be an identification business. We aren't sure how receptive people will be to this, but as more and more people visit the embassy or other planets, interest in it may grow. Imagine a world with no amber alerts, if all children or criminals were identified, we could locate a person anywhere within seconds!"

The Mayor asked, "How about your medical technology, I heard it can fix pretty much anything. I imagine a lot of people are going to come from around the world to get healed?"

Mark explained, "We expect that as well, but doing medical procedures on the planet would require us to physically locate our technology on the surface, which would conflict with the local healthcare system and impact jobs. By doing that in orbit, beyond anyone's sovereign space, we can reduce the conflict. It's also not something we charge for, as all medical is free in the Federation. So we need to make it more difficult to access rather, than just having a place where people can line up to get healed."

Mark felt the need to explain, "The technologies and delivery methods I've chosen are ones that will not greatly impact the employment of others, for instance we will never start a construction, communication or medical business here and our transportation business will only be covering a niche that can't be done efficiently or safely by any other provider on the planet, we will never offer local or international flights."

The Mayor felt obliged to ask, "You've given us a lot to think about, how soon do you need us to make a decision on this?"

Mark replied with no hesitation, "Well, if you don't want us to setup here, I would like to know as soon as possible, otherwise, I do plan on leaving the solar system in the next week or so, so I'd like to have the ball rolling before I leave, as I don't know how long I will be away. If you choose to allow us to build and give us a site, we could probably have a concept design to you within a day. Then if you approve the design, we could have the ground repaired and the building built inside of another day."

The Mayor and the men with him, obviously were not used to working at such a fast pace, the Mayor looked at his counterparts and asked them what a reasonable response time for this request should be. The city planning guy said he already had a dozen or so properties in mind that were deemed contaminated. With that being said, the Mayor asked, "Can you give us 3 days to get back to you with a yes or no and a list of contaminated properties?"

Mark said, "Sure thing! Here is my card, if you need to contact me, please send me an email, phone's don't work very well around our technology and we've got an Internet link, so I can receive an email, even if I'm between galaxies."

At that conclusion, everyone stood up and shook hands and said they would be in touch.

The drive back to the ranch was very subdued as everyone seemed to be reflecting on what they had seen today and what had transpired in the meeting. They agreed that the city would probably welcome them to setup there. So then the discussion evolved to what features the new office building should have.

Pretty much everyone agreed that the building should have a landing pad on top of it and some living quarters. Mark said it had to be wheelchair accessible and would need to have areas that were secured from public access. It would need to have underground parking for staff and a kitchen with a food synth and drink dispensers.

Then Mark suggested that it should probably have a communications array too. That would greatly increase the Internet gateway speed by having the primary link for the Federation network being in the city rather than the limited wireless broadband speeds out at the ranch. Liyana thought that Maren could probably set it up to allow the ranch to use the faster Internet in the city too.

The conversation did come up about how much money Mark had and how much he thought it was going to cost to get the place setup, staff hired and started.

Mark told them how much he had, but said he had no idea of how much the land would cost as property values varied greatly across the city. He doubted he would be able to afford anything near the downtown core.

He also decided that he should probably sell his truck and trailer as that would give them some more seed money, and he didn't think he would really ever be using them again.

Driving just seemed so slow and tedious compared to the relative speed and efficiency of the shuttles, which he was growing very accustomed to.

When they finally got back to the ranch, Liyana showed them some of the cities and architecture on Atlanterra. They looked similar to most Earth cities in their design except with a network of narrow paths, lots of green spaces and very clean.

The commercial and higher density housing was closer to the middle, then moving to lower density housing and eventually estates further out. Just like Liyana had said, almost everything looked like it was no more than 2 storeys high and you could easily see where the schools were as there was sports facilities there.

Each community seemed to have its own transit system that looked like it was some sort of elevated track train system except the cars separated and left the track. Then if you had to go out of your town or city you called a lift, which was like a shuttle except autonomous. It did appear that most people did in fact walk everywhere.

The day after the meeting Mark was antsy, he knew having government involved would take time, even if it was at the municipal level.

The girls tried to keep him occupied and kept him down in the playroom for most of the day.

Late Thursday afternoon, Mark received an email saying the City of Calgary would welcome the opportunity to host their new headquarters and they also provided a list of thirteen addresses of sites that were contaminated, most seemed to be old industrial sites, former landfill sites or former gas stations.

They had listed the prices of each of the parcels of land, which were a lot lower than what Mark had expected, likely due to the sites being contaminated, and to sweeten the deal they said if they cleaned up the site, they wouldn't have to pay the title cost or property taxes until after the first year of business, the only thing that needed to be paid immediately was the legal fees. So they now had one year to generate enough income to pay the title and property taxes, which meant Mark's money could be used for the currency exchange.

One parcel however was just outside of the downtown core, it was an old concrete site where the soil was contaminated with creosote. It had been used as a car dealership parking lot for the past half century or so.

Mark asked Liyana and Solara, "How big of a deal is it going to be to reclaim these sites?"

Solara replied, "There is nothing to it really! We just define the coordinates of the boundary into a construx, and drop it with directions, to return the various layers of soil to a prime condition down to a certain depth, and then deactivate. It would probably take about a day. Why?"

Mark smiled, "I'm thinking about being a nice guy!"

Liyana looked at him skeptically, "You are already a nice guy, but what are you thinking?"

Mark explained, "They've identified these sites as ones that are problematic to get funding or resources to decontaminate them. We could help them and the planet by reclaiming all of these sites. It would give them a clear signal of our friendly intentions... a Thank You gift of sorts."

Liyana smiled and gave Mark a big kiss, "I like it, we would be doing a little bit more to help the planet."

Mark was deep in thought for a minute, "I just came up with another business idea for helping save the planet, is it possible to scale up our molecular reconstruction process to an industrial scale? I'm thinking of reinventing landfills."

Liyana asked with confusion on her face, "Reinventing landfills?"

Mark explained his vision, "Yes, they could dump their garbage, and our system would more or less create piles of raw materials, they can use for recycling. Piles of plastic pellets from any plastics, piles of glass pellets from any glass, piles of wood chips from any wood products, piles of ingots of the various metal types, etc. There would be almost no waste and anything that isn't one of those materials, we can transform into something compostable. It wouldn't impact jobs much, if at all, but they might get redefined a bit."

Solara cracked her knuckles and grinned, "Sounds like a challenge! I like it! Obviously Calgary would be our test subject?"

Mark smiled, "Of course, so you're dealing with a city of well over a million people and all their garbage. It's going to need to be efficient as they probably deal with over a thousand trucks each day. My new goal with our friends that have decided to take a chance on us is to help them become the cleanest and safest city on the planet.

It will be a living demonstration of the benefits of our technology and in showing that we can truly help humanity recover from what they've done to this planet, but without interrupting their flawed way of life.

If Solara can figure it out, I'll have to come up with a plan to deal with it. Obviously we can't give our technology to non-federated planets, so we need a way we can maintain control over it somehow to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.