Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 11

Maybe we'll have to petition city hall to privatize the landfills and we can take them over or something?"

Mark then thought out loud, "Although, if there's any technology we could build and leave a non-federated planet as a token of good will, that would be it! Even if a planet does or doesn't join the Federation, they would likely need something like this, at least as an intermediary step to help clean up their planet. It would just have to have a self destruct or safety that would prevent anyone from getting ahold of it to reverse engineer it... why not?"

Solara went to work in her workshop in the old ship, with the list of contaminated sites. Her first priority was reclaiming the sites. Everyone else decided to hang out in the courtyard for a while and relax, read, research or play games.

At lunch time Solara said she was finished the soil reclaimer construx programs. She also had a design for the recycling machine, including ideas for a self destruct, but she was just trying to work out scanning so it could process and sort the garbage fast enough.

Mark messaged Maren back at the embassy, asking her questions about the communications tower and whether it could go both ways. They could have a much higher speed Internet gateway, if they used a tower in the city versus the one out at the ranch, but maybe they could speed up the connection at the ranch by linking them into the city connection using the tower. He was planning to have the communications tower a big part of the building, he was looking for something iconic, yet functional and expandable.

After coming up with an idea of what he wanted, he started researching other Atlantean technologies they might be able to make use of. It turned out someone had already developed a recycling system similar to what he was thinking about, a few years ago, but the project was scrapped by the current monarchy, citing that it wasn't needed on the federated planets and they were never going to give their technology to planets not part of the Federation.

Mark contacted the developer to speak with him about his invention, as he would like to use it on Earth. His recycler could process thousands of tonnes of material per hour and it used this hovering teleport type technology to sort non-organic material into piles and all organic material was conveyed elsewhere. He also had another version that more or less turned garbage into energy, yet could also create other raw materials on demand.

He informed Solara about his find, as they sat down and came up with a rudimentary design for the headquarters, which they drew out on a sheet of paper and the girls added a few extra features. Then Solara took the drawing and went down to her workshop to design it on the system. Within a few hours, she had it roughly developed and saved to a holocube.

They composed a response to the Mayor's email, informing him what site they wanted and that they had decided, as an act of good faith, to decontaminate all of the sites on their list and that they had designed their office building. If he had time, they'd like to show him and the other planning guys their plan, which they unfortunately couldn't send via computers due to compatibility issues.

The plan was to decontaminate all of the sites and be at the downtown site at 2PM to go over their plans and the mayor and planners were welcome to show up if they wanted.

After supper, Solara pulled up the holocube and gave everyone the tour of the proposed headquarters. Everyone seemed to like the design with only a couple more modifications proposed to the exterior. They then had a group brainstorm around the design on the interior.

Once the brainstorm was done, Solara again retreated to her workshop to refine the design.

Mark awoke between Rayven and Annabelle as was the norm. Good morning kisses were given, then dress, workout and breakfast. Then the kids got ready for school, while others did the chores. Rayven now helped with the chores almost every day and the horses were now comfortable around her. After chores, the girls and Mark loaded into the truck for the drive into the city.

Driving was just so slow and Mark said, "We need to get a shuttle down here to travel back and forth between the ranch and headquarters. Wasting 2 hours each way is such a waste of time."

Liyana suggested, "Maybe we could put in a lift system that only has a couple of cars, to go between the office and the ranch. It wouldn't be as fast as a shuttle, but it would be significantly faster than driving and we could cloak them."

Once they reached the city, they followed a route that took them to each of the contaminated sites. At each site, Solara launched a drone, which hovered above the site just to verify the borders and dimensions. She would then update her data pad with the actual readings from the drone and uploaded the program to the construx. Then she would take the construx, walk to the edge of the site and throw it toward the middle like a grenade. They then proceeded to the next site and repeated the process.

They had all but two sites done by the time it was lunchtime, so Mark introduced them to McDonald's, which they ate, but said they didn't care for it. The girls then proceeded to console him for having to live off that while he was in captivity.

After lunch, they finished the two remaining sites and it was about 1:45 when they showed up to the downtown site they wanted. Solara launched the drone, checked the program on the construx and threw it.

At 2PM the mayor showed up with two of the men from the meeting. They shook hands as they watched the site transform to a nicely manicured site with black topsoil, versus the grass that was left covering the other sites.

The mayor acknowledged the gesture to reclaim all the other sites, but said it was unnecessary as they would clean up their own messes.

Mark apologized, "Sorry, all the other sites have already been cleaned!"

The Mayor was all smiles as he said, "You people are efficient! So you've already got a design for the new building on this site already?"

The one man seemed to be upset about being pulled out of his office and asked, "Why couldn't you just send the plans via email like everyone else does?"

Mark replied, "It's because your computers aren't compatible with ours and wouldn't be able to handle our data file," Mark said, then gestured to Solara to proceed with the holocube.

Solara took out her data pad and looked at it, as she walked toward the centre of the site, then placed the holocube on the ground and returned to the group.

"Gentlemen, here is our vision!" Mark announced as Solara activated the holocube which generated a full scale version of their design.

All any of them said was, "Whoa!"

Mark smiled, as he said, "This is why we couldn't send it to your computer."

The grounds had waist high raised planter sections, complete with full sized juniper trees and small street lights between them to illuminate the parking lot. The parking lot had two entrances, since there was a one way road on both the north and south sides of the property.

The parking area had spaces for almost 100 vehicles, it was a basic surface lot with decent sized spaces. There were 4 blue handicapped spots to the southwest side of the lot, they were extra wide and beside the ramp that followed the building curve, there was also a designated drop-off zone for taxi's. There was underground parking off to the east side of the parking lot, which was the same size as the entire lot was, but it would be used for staff parking only.

The office building itself was shaped like a big crescent, that was two levels high and had the communication array mounted on top in the middle of the crescent. The upper level was bigger than the bottom level so the walls were angled inward toward the base. Unlike the antenna out at the ranch, this one had 3 swept arches that disguised the antenna. It kind of looked like the Space Needle in Seattle except the legs had a much more pronounced sweep and didn't arch back out at the top.

The middle 80% of the crescent, facing the river to the north, was a solid wall of transparent material.

The Mayor and his men were standing there staring at the hologram, when Elisha and Gerald came walking across the site.

The Mayor straightened his suit and acknowledged the news crew, then asked Mark, "Do you know anything about this?"

Mark shook his head no, "I'm as surprised as you are!"

Elisha overheard their conversation so she explained, "This is as impromptu as it gets, we were actually on our way back from another location, when we saw this big building appear out of nowhere. I knew it had to be Atlantean so we came... If you build it they will come, as it were."

The Mayor asked for a moment and went to huddle with his people. After a couple of minutes, he returned and said, "We might as well make this official! Let's turn this into a live press release."

Elisha smiled and positioned herself between the Mayor and Mark, as Gerald got ready with his camera and gave them the silent countdown on his fingers.

'I'm Elisha Romanson with Global News Calgary. I'm standing here today with the Mayor of Calgary and the King of the Atlantean Federation. What is happening here today, Mr. Mayor?'

'Thank you Elisha, Mr. Phoenix came to us a few days ago about setting up a couple of businesses in our city. These businesses will be private businesses that will allow us to experience some of their superior technology, without actually giving us their technology. Before deciding to grant them permission to establish a business here, there was much discussion. These businesses will employ local citizens and pay local taxes, just like everyone else. It was also agreed, that we would forego enforcing our own building codes, to allow them to use Atlantean construction, which far surpasses our building codes anyway.'

'Wasn't this site determined to be contaminated?'

'Yes, it was! It surprised us when one of the criteria they were looking for was a contaminated site, where funds just were not available for the cleanup. This was one of many sites we gave them the option of.'

'Why did you want a contaminated site, Mr. Phoenix?'

'Well, Elisha, part of the Federation way of life is respecting and caring for the planet. We have a technology that can return soil to a pristine condition within a few hours. As our gift to the city, we have already decontaminated all 13 sites they had listed for us.'

'Wow, thank you! So what are these businesses you are starting?'

'Sorry Elisha, I'm not ready to divulge those details quite yet. I've got to wait until the lawyers cross all the T's and dot all the I's. What I can say is that, we will not be using or introducing any technologies that will put local people and companies out of work. We will be offering value added services, that will simply help them do their jobs better and safer.'

'So what's this building behind me?'

The Mayor cut in, 'Mr. Phoenix told us he couldn't send us his building plans, as our computers were incompatible and that he would have to show us his plans, so that's what this is... his proposed design for his office building. Remarkable isn't it?'

'It certainly is! Are we going to be able to witness this being built, like we did out at the ranch?'

'I'm not sure, we haven't received any approval of our design.'

The two gentlemen nodded their heads to the Mayor who then said, 'Mr. Phoenix, you have our approval to construct this architectural marvel.'

'Thank you Mr. Mayor, construction will begin immediately. Please watch your footing, as you are standing on the future parking lot.'

The image of the building disappeared and it began constructing itself, right before their eyes. Within about 15 minutes, the parking lot and exterior were completed.

'Can we go inside now?' Elisha asked.

'Unfortunately no, landscaping and the external shell construct relatively quick. The internal details, power, lighting, waste management, water and furnishing will take a few hours. We'll begin moving in and setting up computers tomorrow, but we'll still be a week or more before we're open.'

Gerald had filmed the entire external construction process, so once that was done, they did her little 'This is Elisha Romanson from Global News' to close the segment, obviously they would do some editing to make it fit into a shorter segment.

The Mayor asked, "Wow you guys work fast, is this what it is like all over Atlanterra?"

Liyana spoke up at that point, considering she was the only one that had ever been there, "This is the way all new construction is done, except we would not have parking lots covering the ground."

One of the Mayor's men asked, "Where do people park?"

"Park what?" Liyana asked.

"Their cars or vehicles, how they get around from place to place," one of the men said.

Liyana explained, "We did away with vehicles like your cars and trucks many centuries ago. You either walk or use the one of the transit systems. The only people that don't use transit are medical, security and companies that haul around a lot of equipment and tools."

The Mayor asked, "But what about shopping, concerts, sporting events and festivals? Your lift system can handle tens of thousands of people leaving an event at the same time?"

Liyana answered, "Easily! When large public events are registered, the details regarding expected attendance, type of event, and whether the exodus is mass or distributed have to be provided. The system then increases the lift concentration in the area accordingly. You will eventually see, after we return to Atlanterra with Elisha and Gerald and they get a chance to record what it's like."

Mark spoke to the Mayor and his people, "Well I think that's about all for now. If you guys want, the interior of the building will be done by tomorrow and we hope to be open for business within a week. So come by anytime you want to do your inspections."

At the conclusion, everyone shook hands and said their goodbyes. Then Mark and the girls began their drive back to the ranch.

It was just before supper when they got back to the ranch, so they got to enjoy quesadilla's with salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

Since the lodge was empty and not everyone had money, they introduced the girls to strip poker. It didn't take long before most of them were naked and out of the game. Surprisingly, T'Soona, who was only wearing one piece of clothing, won!

Since everyone was naked, a quick orgy ensued before everyone turned in for the night.

Shortly after midnight, Mark awoke with a start as he could hear a phone ringing. Naked, he walked out of the room and went to the office to answer the phone, "Henderson Ranch, this is Mark speaking."

"Mr. Phoenix, this is Constable Kirkland from the Calgary Police Service. I wasn't sure if I'd reach you at the ranch, but that was the only phone number, we could think of, to call you at. The phone number we had, said it wasn't in service. There has been an incident at your new building and we need you to come down, to check things over and file a report."

"Seriously? What kind of incident?"

"A car bomb, it looks like someone tried to drive a vehicle through the front doors, but the bomb exploded outside your building."

"Was anyone hurt in the explosion?"

"Besides the occupant of the vehicle, we don't think so, there hasn't been any reports of injuries."

"They couldn't have done anything to the building, there won't be a scratch on it. Why do I need to come down?"

"It's still protocol, we need you to file a report. You're seriously not concerned about your building?"

"No, it's Atlantean, there's nothing on this planet that could damage it!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Phoenix, but we do need you here to file the report."

"Fine! I'll see you in a couple of hours," Mark said, as he hung up the phone.

Cricket said, "Actually you'll get there faster than that. I've already awakened Maren and she's on her way with a shuttle."

Mark thought, "Thanks babe!"

Mark went back to the bedroom and got dressed, trying not to wake anyone up. As he exited the lodge, he could hear the hiss of the lateral thrusters as Maren landed the shuttle on the driveway.

The ramp lowered, he walked on board, gave Maren a quick kiss and climbed into the co-pilots seat. Seconds later they were headed toward the city.

When you travel direct, with no corners or traffic, it significantly shortens the trip, they flew over the site and landed in the northeast corner of the parking lot, where there were no other vehicles. In all, it was less than 15 minutes since he had hung up the phone.

Seeing the shuttle land, the constable began making his way over to introduce himself to Mark. "Wow that was the fastest couple of hours I've ever seen! Hi Mr. Phoenix, I'm Constable Kirkland, there's some reporters here that are going to want to talk to you. I do need you to fill out that report at some point though, so come find me after you've had a chance to check things out."

"Sure thing!" Mark said as he shook the Constable's hand, who then turned and left, as a throng of people with microphones and cameras were waiting for him. Seeing the crowd, Maren chose to stay in the shuttle, so Mark told her to land it on the roof and go inside to the residence.

Mark asked the crowd, "How is everyone tonight?"

Questions started coming at him left and right. He couldn't discern one question from the other as they were so random.

Mark held up both his hands, "Please, can we try to have some sort of order? It's late and I don't want to be up all night answering the same question a dozen times." Suddenly the questions stopped and most of them raised their hands in the air. "There that's better," as he pointed to a reporter in the front.

"Mr. Phoenix, has your building sustained any damage?"

"I've just arrived, so I haven't had a chance yet to look at the building, but I'm familiar with our technology and I seriously doubt there's anything on this planet that could damage that building. I'm just glad no one around got injured," Mark said as he pointed at another reporter.

"Mr. Phoenix, do you have any idea who would do something like this?"

"I have absolutely no idea. I can only presume it was a group or individual that is having difficulty coping with the new reality. Some people just aren't ready to believe that Earth is NOT the centre of the universe and we are NOT the only life out there, nor are we as advanced as we thought we were," he said as he pointed to another reporter.

"You will eventually be employing people here, will it be safe to work here?"

"Absolutely! In fact, it would probably be safer working here than at any other building," he said as he pointed to another reporter.

"You said you doubted there was anything on Earth that could damage this building. Do you think it could withstand a nuclear bomb?"

"Yes," Mark answered without hesitation.

"How do you know?" the same reporter asked.

"This building is made out of the same material as our shuttles, the Embassy, and our other ships. I know it can withstand a nuclear attack, because the Chinese have already launched one nuclear missile at the Embassy and it didn't do a thing. Shook us a bit, but that was about it. Haven't you seen the video we put online?"

"The Chinese attacked you? Why haven't you retaliated?" another reporter asked.

"We didn't retaliate, because we are here in peace. We didn't make a big deal of it, because we are being civilized, and in all honesty, the only damage may have been a broken glass or two in the restaurant."

"But if you wanted to retaliate you could have?"

"Yes, we could have, and would be well within our rights to do so, but we don't want to throw the entire world into chaos, because of one country's stupidity," he said as he pointed to a young female reporter that still had her hand up.