Cowboys and Aliens

40. Taking Out the Trash

They were only a dozen steps outside of the office, so they went back inside where Henry and the girls were still in the meeting room.

They were doing just what Mark was going to do, looking up New York City's trash situation!

Internet search results revealed that DSNY's budget was over $2 billion per year to manage over 14 million tonnes of garbage, with some of it even being shipped overseas for processing.

Jacob had a huge smile on his face, this was exactly what his invention was built for. It could save that city a lot of money and make a significant positive impact on the planet.

The request was submitted by the Commissioner of Sanitation, they were interested in 50 units as a test, 40 hopper units to upgrade existing trucks and then 10 collection bins, and then they wanted to look at building a conversion facility in the future.

Mark then asked the question, "How easy is it to re-assign the teleport destination for existing collection bins?"

Jacob informed them, "It's actually automatic, if the owner ID has a conversion facility, all bins they own will automatically redirect to it."

Mark then decided to throw a curveball, "What if a big city like New York decides to build multiple conversion facilities?"

Jacob said, "Why would they want to do that? One facility could easily handle all their trash."

"True, but many large cities are not very traffic friendly for large commercial vehicles hauling bulk materials. They may want their conversion facilities scattered around the outer edges to reduce traffic on the city streets."

Jacob, Henry and the girls thought about how that might work, but before they solved that conundrum, Mark smiled and added, "Here's another scenario to consider! What if New York City pays for the collection bins, but then multiple private companies build the conversion facilities and just contract themselves to the city? Company A has a contract for 1 million tonnes, Company B has a contract for 2 million tonnes... or maybe an actual manufacturer builds their own conversion facility to completely eliminate the need to truck raw materials in?"

Everybody realized these were scenarios no one had even considered.

Jacob said, "The system isn't designed to work that way, a customer could log into each individual collection bin and assign the destination facility of their choice, but the bins themselves can't redirect to multiple facilities."

Mark then got an idea and had a big grin... "Maybe they can!"

Everyone looked at him, wondering what ingenious idea he had just come up with, as he stood up and started walking around, "What if ALL collection bins teleport to the moon factory and then the conversion facilities just withdraw the amount they need from there? That configuration will keep both businesses completely independent and capable of handling any scenario!"

Henry said, "Maybe we should have come up with two companies... one for the collection business and one for the conversion business?"

Mark said, "I guess that is an option, but I think they can all still be Trash Converters, just have a Collection Division and a Conversion Division."

The girls suggested they could edit the home page to more or less be a landing page and then each division could be its own site.

Henry said, "Sounds good, make the changes! Good thing we are dealing with this now and not having to restructure months or years down the road."

Annabelle then added, "Yes, and I think we should do two announcements, maybe we do one now, just for the collection bins, and then do another later when we have a conversion site we can demonstrate."

Mark said, "Do we have a collection bin that we can use for the demo?"

Jacob said, "No, I've already deconstructed the unit I did my last tests on after I was told the teleport setup at the moon factory was operational."

Mark said, "Setup a bin with just the Trash Converters logo and colours and we'll do the segment behind the office. Maybe if we can find a box to demonstrate a garbage truck hopper unit also. Then we just need to find some trash for the demo!

Since we don't really have trash, I'm thinking we could visit one of the nearby shops and get a couple of their shopping bags, then we can collect some trash in the park by asking people to put their garbage in our bag instead of the recycle bins. Once we have a few bags full we can go to the collection bin and record the demonstration."

Jacob said, "I've got both construx here, we just need somewhere to put them, and by default they already have our colour scheme and logo... even the hopper units."

Annabelle said, "We'll get some bags and go collect some trash."

Mark and Annabelle walked towards the west bridge since there was a convenience store on the corner beside the path. They walked inside and the store owner was surprised that the King and Queen were visiting his shop, as he introduced himself as Sharam and asked if there was anything he could help them find.

Annabelle outright asked, "We are actually looking for bags to collect garbage in, we're launching a new garbage recycling business and we need some garbage to do a demonstration."

The shopkeeper was disappointed that they weren't actually looking to buy anything, but then an idea dawned on him, "So you just want some trash for your demonstration right and it's going to be a video that's broadcast everywhere?"

"That's right!"

"I have a deal for you then! I have some stock in storage on the roof that I haven't unpacked yet. What if I unpack some of it and you can have all the trash, it's mainly cardboard, plastic, styrofoam and pallets. Then I can give you some bags with my business name on them that you can stuff with the garbage and inadvertently advertise my business."

Annabelle smiled, "How about this instead! How would you like to be in our demonstration video? Rather than just staging it behind the office, we could put the bin on your roof and we can record you putting the trash into the bin?"

"I will be on video? Do I have to say anything?"

Annabelle smiled, "No, I'll be talking to the inventor of the bins as he will be explaining the recycling process. Your hat has the name of your business and do you have signage on your roof?"

Jacob then walked into the shop, since he saw where they had gone.

When Annabelle saw Jacob, "New plan Jacob, let's setup the collection bin here and Sharam will have garbage when he unpacks his stock, including pallets."

Jacob then pulled out a construx and said, "Where do you want it?"

They went to the roof, where Sharam, Mark and Jacob unpacked a couple of pallets of product. They were wrapped in plastic and then the boxes contained multiple smaller boxes for sale, then a couple of the toys had styrofoam packing inside them and one box, with fragile contents, had foam packing peanuts inside. Then once those were unpacked, there were two pallets to dispose of.

By the time they finished unpacking, Liyana was there with her AFNN camera.

Liyana started by introducing Queen Annabelle, who then introduced Jacob and the new company.

They recorded placing the construx device and creating the collection bin and then he explained how the system worked.

All the while Mark and Sharam were tossing garbage into the bin and the camera caught the garbage as it appeared to turn black and fall apart, leaving the bin empty, clean, odour-free and ready for more garbage.

Once the segment was done, the AFNN crew on Atlanterra edited the clip down to be a nice 30 second promo video and sent it back. They thanked Sharam for the use of his shop and Jacob paid him 100 credits, which made Sharam really happy.

They then put that clip on the both the Trash Converters website and the Atlantis website and made a press release about the new business.

They then sat down and made a call to the DSNY Commissioner to discuss the order. They had just seen the demonstration video and asked if there was a demonstration video for converting trucks?

At the end of the call, it had been decided that they were going to quickly fly over and convert one garbage truck for free, and then record it as the demonstration video, since there were no garbage trucks on Atlantis.

Mark messaged Maren that they were going to take a quick trip to New York City and that they would be back at the palace within a half hour.

Cricket said, "

I'm shipping down the New York order. I know they haven't paid for them yet, but you might as well have them with you if you're going to be meeting with them.

"

"

Good idea, thanks!

"

Mark then informed everyone that the 50 units were being shipped down so they could deliver them at the meeting.

They were all waiting on the landing pad when the delivery drone dropped off the small crate containing the 50 collection bin construx. The crate was only about the size of a full-size suitcase.

They boarded the shuttle and within an hour they were approaching the address, provided by the DSNY commissioner, and were landing in their yard which contained hundreds of garbage trucks.

They transferred the funds for the 50 units and Jacob installed one hopper conversion unit in each different style of truck, figuring they may as well demonstrate as many scenarios as possible.

Then they recorded the maintenance staff themselves doing the conversions.

The group then returned to Atlantis with the promise to follow up the next day after the converted trucks were used on routes.

After returning to Atlantis in the late afternoon, Jacob excused himself to begin moving stuff into his new home, as Mark and Annabelle relaxed in one of the parks until the gang joined them for supper at the pavilion.

Mark woke up the next morning and went through his usual routine and reports then, when everyone was up, they would walk to the pavilion for breakfast.

Just as the group sat down with their breakfasts, Cass joined them.

Apparently Beth had spent the night at Eric's place and Jacob is now moved into his new home.

Annabelle teased Cass, "So when are you going to tell Jacob how you feel about him?"

Cass was shocked, "I'm going to kill Beth, she wasn't supposed to tell anybody."

Annabelle laughed, "Beth didn't tell us, everyone could see it yesterday at breakfast."

"Really? It was that noticeable? Why hasn't Jacob noticed then?"

Mark said, "Jacob has a lot on his mind right now with the new business, plus his new house. Once he relaxes he might take notice."

Annabelle laughed, then added, "He's a nerd, like Mark was. He'll be oblivious to your attraction and won't make the first move anyway. You'll probably need to back him into a corner, rip down his pants and give him a blow job for him to get the picture. At least that's what I did with Mark!"

"Yeah that's what Beth said too, well not the blow job part, but that I'd have to make the first move."

Mark laughed, "In defence of most guys, we don't recognize subtle hints very well, we pretty much need flashing neon signs and loudspeakers to take notice."

That made pretty much everyone at the table laugh.

After breakfast they walked back over to the office, where Jacob and Henry were in the meeting room looking at the stats from the collection bins, they both had big smiles on their faces.

Mark cleared his throat to get their attention, as the men then turned around and invited the trio into the meeting room, Beth also saw them at that point and joined them as they entered.

They had just finished a call with the DSNY Commissioner, the new devices were working out so well that they increased the order to 2,400 hoppers and 1,000 bins. The garbage trucks with the Trash Converter units were significantly more efficient than the old trucks. They never filled up, so they never needed to unload and because they never stored any garbage the trucks used considerably less fuel.

The bins they had distributed to a few of the transfer stations, where traditional trucks were dumping into those instead of into the compactors.

They were going to convert every garbage truck, but they were also going to use the bins at the transfer stations to collect refuse coming in from the other sources and from trucks that hadn't been converted yet. Once they no longer needed the transfer stations, they would move the bins to other locations.

Mark looked at the statistics on the display and, with New York being 3 hours behind Atlantis, they had just barely started their first workday and they had already collected thousands of tonnes of garbage with only 50 collection devices, the collection bins handling significantly more trash than the individual hopper units.

Cricket then notified Mark of a news broadcast of interest that had just started, so Mark told everyone to watch.

Cricket brought up a video feed from a news station where the DSNY Commissioner was holding a press conference about their decision to switch to Trash Converters to handle the city's garbage and that the technology would save the city over one billion dollars in the first year alone. They even had one of their trucks handy to demonstrate the technology.

When the reporter asked the Commissioner where the garbage went, they were told that it was sent to the factory on the moon that Atlantis had built.

When asked what the Atlanteans were going to do with all that matter, they said it was explained on the Trash Converters website, but they were going to build facilities around the world where companies will be able to purchase various raw materials that will be created from the material for use in manufacturing.

Annabelle said, "We may need to ramp up production of those construx! Something tells me, we're going to get overrun with sales by the end of the day."

No sooner than Annabelle had said that, they started seeing message notifications popping up on the display.

Mark asked, "Do the FAQs explain where the garbage goes?"

Beth answered, "The FAQs page says that the garbage is broken down into a super dense matter that can be teleported to the moon for storage. It then gets teleported back by the conversion facilities, which can then turn the super dense matter into other raw materials."

The notifications were still popping up, as everyone was sitting down in shock. Beth and Cass started going through the messages and saying the names of the cities that had requested to be contacted. Most of the largest cities in the world were quick to the site and contact form, they'd already been contacted by Los Angeles, Chicago, São Paulo, Paris, London and others.

As they were watching all the notification pop ups, Mark smiled and asked Jacob, "So, what are you planning for your next magic trick?"

Jacob laughed, "Last night I got thinking about something you had said... regarding how cities, or even companies, might want to build their own facilities.

While I still think we should offer the big conversion facilities, I was thinking maybe I could build something smaller for manufacturers who may only require one or two raw material types. If they could have their own raw materials on-site, they wouldn't have to travel anywhere, that would have a profound impact on the planet. Immediate resources, no traffic, no trucks, no fuel..."

Mark grimaced, "You might want to hold off on that a bit! I think it's a great option to offer eventually, but I think if you make accessing the raw materials too easy, it's going to put a lot of people and companies out of work. Mainly trucking companies and any business related to them such as fuel and maintenance. Plus, I think we will be able to manage the conversion facilities easier if there are fewer of them."

Jacob asked, "Do you have any ideas that are related to this that I could start looking into?"

Mark smiled, "Actually I do! There are numerous places in the world where they pump manufacturing waste and even raw sewage into the public waterways. I think you should look at building some sort of recycling system similar to what you've already built, that can turn whatever is coming down the pipes into good clean water."

Annabelle added, "Something like that might be useful for places that don't have good clean drinking water too. It would be a mass water purification system."

Jacob was overjoyed that his company was going to be very profitable, very fast and that he now had a new project to work on. With a big smile on his face, he said, "I'd just like to remind everyone that you are all invited to my place on Saturday for a party."

Everyone confirmed they would be there as Mark and Annabelle got up to go about their day.

As they were leaving the office Jacob ran out to talk to them.

"My king, I can't thank you enough for the opportunity to pursue my passion and help me turn it into a profitable reality."

Annabelle smiled, "Speaking of passion and now that you are going to be wildly successful, you should start looking for someone to share it with."

Jacob looked depressed, "I've never had much luck when it comes to women. I just don't know how to act or what to say, I'll admit I'm also terrible at reading body language."

Mark laughed, "Yeah there's not a manual for that, you kind of have to learn by trial and error! What you need is a strong woman who already knows you for who you are, so that it takes away the how to act and you can just be yourself, also if it's someone you already know, that often helps with the what to say also. Do you have anyone in mind?"

Jacob said, "There's a couple of girls I wouldn't mind going out with, I'm just not sure about how to take the first step."

Annabelle had a twinkle in her eye, "So are they here on Atlantis? Is it anyone we know?"

Jacob laughed, "Yeah there's one on Atlantis, the other was a girl I went to school with on Atlanterra, she was always a popular one in school and I helped her with some of her classes, but I don't think she ever saw me as much more than her tutor."

Annabelle was prodding now, "So the one that's on Atlantis... do we know her?"

Jacob wasn't sure if he should talk much more, so Mark jumped in and saved him, "You don't have to answer that, Annabelle is just being nosey because she knows someone who has an interest in you, but if you're anything like I used to be with the analytical calculating mind, you're probably just overthinking things. In all honesty women aren't logical, they're moody, unpredictable and often irrational, you're better off just playing it casual and shooting from the hip."

Jacob was intrigued now, "You know someone that's interested in me?"

Annabelle just smiled, "Maybe? But hey, if you're having a house warming party at your place this weekend you should casually invite her."

Jacob mumbled something that they couldn't quite hear, but then said, "I'll do that. Thanks!"

Jacob then turned around and started back toward the office, as Annabelle and Mark turned to continue toward the city centre.

When they were far enough apart, Annabelle asked, "Do you think it's Cass?"

"I'm not sure, but when he mumbled it kind of sounded to me like he said she was already invited. It is possible, but it's tough to say for sure as about 75% of the employees in that office are women."

Lost in thought they continued walking toward the palace, stopping to sit at the edge of one of the fountains so Annabelle could rest. Being 6 months pregnant she wasn't at the top of her energy levels, but she wasn't totally drained or exhausted either. Sitting on the edge of the fountains was just something a lot of people did in the city centre.

As they were sitting there, Cricket notified Mark, "

I suspect something is coming through Rift 5.

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"

So if you can't see anything yet, what makes you think something is coming through?

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"

It's a small nebular cloud of gas, it's constantly moving, but there has been a visible increase in turbulence over the past few minutes. I suspect that's a sign of activity, there's no other reason why the nebular cloud would change.

"