Chapter 15

They got the email late Friday, saying the City of Calgary would welcome the opportunity to host their world headquarters, and the following Wednesday they provided a list of thirteen contaminated addresses, most seemed to be old industrial sites, former landfill sites or former gas stations.

They had listed the prices of each of the properties, which were a lot lower than what Mark had expected because of 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 the first year of business, only the legal fees were due immediately.

So they now had one year to generate enough income to pay the title and property taxes, which meant they could use Mark’s money for the currency exchange.

One site was just outside of the downtown core. It was an old concrete site where creosote contaminated the soil. They had been using it for a car dealership parking lot for the past half century.

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 instructions 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 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 do a 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 could 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 taken 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 must 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.

Maybe we must 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 basement, with her priority to configure construx to reclaim the list of contaminated sites.

Everyone else hung out in the courtyard for a while and relax, read, research or play games.

At lunch time, Solara said she finished the soil reclaimer construx programs. She also had a rudimentary 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 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 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 current monarchy scrapped the project, citing that federated planets didn’t need it and they would never 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 conveyed all organic material elsewhere. He also had another version that more or less turned garbage into generic storage matter for creating materials on demand.

He informed Solara about his find, which now freed up her time to design 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 they would take the downtown site and, as an act of good faith, to decontaminate all 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 for compatibility issues.

The plan was to start the decontamination process at all 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.

Once everyone had eaten 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.

After the brainstorm, Solara again retreated to her workshop to refine the design.

Mark awoke between Rayven and Annabelle, as was the norm. Good morning kisses, dress, workout, showers 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 in her presence. 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 over 2 hours driving each way is such a waste of time.”

Liyana suggested, “Maybe we could put in a lift system that only goes 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 to verify the borders and dimensions. She would then update her data pad with the actual readings from the drone and upload 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 before lunchtime, so Mark introduced them to McDonald’s, which they ate, but said they didn’t care for it. The girls then consoled him for having to live off that while he was in captivity.

After lunch, they finished the two remaining sites, and it was about 1:45PM 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, just like 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, we have already cleaned all the other sites!”

The Mayor was all smiles as he said, “You people are efficient, and you’ve got a design for a new building on this site already?”

The one man seemed 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 simple computers aren’t compatible with ours and wouldn’t be able to handle our data file.”

Mark 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.

Mark announced, “Gentlemen, here is our vision!”, 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 computers.”

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 four entrances, since there was a one-way road on both the north and south sides of the property. The parking lot was primarily west of the building, but also wrapped around the north side.

The parking area had spaces for around 250 vehicles. It was a basic surface lot with decent sized spaces, after all it used to be a car dealership. The parking lot directly in front of the north side of the building had 10 blue handicapped spots, they were extra wide and beside the ramp that followed the building curve, there was also a designated drop-off zone for taxis. There was underground parking off to the east side of the parking lot, which was the same size as the building and the north lot, but they would use it for staff and overnight parking only.

They shaped the office building 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 they angled the walls 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. “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 enormous building appear out of nowhere. I knew it had to be Atlantean, so we came ... If you build it they will come, as the saying goes.”

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.

‘This is 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 some 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, which would violate Federation laws. 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 contaminated?’

‘Yes, it was! It surprised us when one criterion 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, our way of life is to care for and respect 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 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 offer 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 is! Are we going to witness this being built, like we did out at the ranch?’

‘I’m not sure. We have received no 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 was complete and the exterior of the building appeared complete.

Elisha asked, ‘Can we go inside now?’

‘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 things up tomorrow, but we’ll still be a week before we’re open.’

Gerald had filmed the entire external construction process, so once completed, they added her closing segment. Obviously they would do some editing to make it fit into a shorter time slot.

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 we do new construction, except we would not have parking lots covering the ground.”

One of the Mayor’s men asked, “Where do people park?”

Liyana asked, “Park what?”

“Their cars or vehicles, how they get around from place to place,” one man said.

Liyana explained, “We did away with vehicles like your cars and trucks many centuries ago. You either walk or use the transit system. The only people that don’t use transit are emergency services and companies that haul around a lot of equipment and tools.”

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

Liyana answered, “Easily! When they register large public events, they provide details regarding expected attendance, type of event, and whether the exodus is mass or ad hoc. 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 have time to record what it’s like.”

Mark spoke to the Mayor and his people, “Well, I think that’s about all for now. Tomorrow morning the interior will be ready 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.

Mark made a quick call to two city Internet providers and to request service installation, and one of them said they could schedule it for tomorrow. Mark booked it for 10AM and then he 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 quesadillas 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. T’Soona, who was only wearing one piece of clothing, won ... everyone thinks she cheated, but wasn’t sure how!

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

Shortly after midnight Kat came into the bedroom and woke up Mark, saying there was an urgent phone call from the Calgary Police and that he could take the call in the office.

Kat went back to bed, as Mark extracted himself out of the bed and, not bothering to put any clothes on, he went to the office to answer the phone, “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, check things over and file a report.”

“Seriously? What kind of incident?”

“A car bomb. It looks like someone tried to drive a vehicle up the steps and through the front door, but the bomb exploded outside your building.”

“Was anyone hurt in the explosion?”

“Besides the driver of the vehicle, we don’t think so, there has been no 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 protocol, we need the owner 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 need you here to file the report.”

Mark said, “Fine! I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” 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-pilot seat. Seconds later they were city bound.

When you travel directly, 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. It had been less than 20 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 are some reporters here that want to talk to you. I need you to fill out that report at some point though, so come find me after you’ve checked 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 stayed 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 the 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 employ 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.

“We made this building out of the same material as our shuttles, the Embassy, and our capital 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?”