Deep Space Settlement - 4. DSS Chapter 4

Lucas was very pleased with the plans, and he forwarded the copy that has the purpose of each room, not included in the plans, sent to the New Zealand Embassy in New York, so they could forward them to the City of New York, with the property named as the “Commonwealth Embassy Compound”.

A few hours after sending the plans, Lucas received an email from the New Zealand Embassy in New York.

“Very impressed with the plans that you sent to us, and I have sent copies to the other three embassies for them to look at, they will inform me of their views, which I will forward to you.

Another patch of land, almost identical in area size, located 5 blocks to the south, also situated between the river and West street, would be ideal for an additional Commonwealth Embassies, that may want to be in a similar Embassy Compound”.

Lucas decided to not worry about the suggestion of the second compound, and once he has received feedback from the other embassies, he would get to work arranging for the building material from Ganymede to be transported to New Zealand, on Earth, while the construction team would be based at the Earth base near New Zealand, and be shuttled to New York each day to work on the construction of the Embassy Compound, including the carpark/apartment building.

Before construction began thou, Lucas would have most of the construction work done in New Zealand and have one of the cargo ships sent from Ganymede, to lift and transport the large pieces of each Embassy building to the site in New York, that way the construction would be done a lot quicker.

The only part of the construction, that would involve a local building firm, would be the laying of the concrete pad, and the footings, which would be twice as thick than normal building pads, and twice as deep, the only problem being that with the river being so close, steel pipes had to be placed inside the holes of the footings, and the water pumped out, before reinforcement steel rods and concrete could be put into each footing holes, plus the 6-metre high boundary wall, which is 1 metre thick, with just two entry points to the compound.

Three months later, when 50% of the construction work for two buildings had been completed, the two-vehicle gates for each entry point to the compound were installed, and locked, before the cargo ship began delivering the first of the sections of the first building to be constructed and that is the carpark and apartments building, followed by the Embassy Convention Centre.

Within 18 months the first four buildings were completed, including the Australian and New Zealand Embassy buildings. When ready for the big move to the new compound, the two embassies hired 8 freight trucks, and with Embassy staff driving the trucks, at 8 pm at night, they began the long night of moving everything. An hour before dawn, the last truck had been unloaded, and the trucks were parked outside the gates of the compound, waiting for opening hours, to return the trucks to their depot.

The New Zealand Embassy has a total of 28 staff, while the Australian Embassy had 30 staff, and they had moved into their new apartments a few days earlier, so as to be well settled before the big move.

One of the key items in the design of the Embassy complex is the security measures, with each Embassy staff member requiring to swipe their ID card, then place their hand on the pad for a palm scan, to match the ID card with the palm print.

If they do not match, then an alarm is sounded in the security office, and they take any action required to apprehend the person, who has not matched the ID card with their palm print. Access to the elevator or door to the stairs requires the additional retina eye scan, of which all three must match.

A week after the two embassies had moved into their new facilities, work began on building the last two embassy buildings, at the south end of the complex. The UK Embassy has a total of 34 staff that work at their embassy, while the Canadian Embassy has just 32 staff.

Two flag poles at the north gate, fly the Australian and New Zealand flags, with the two flag poles at the south gate, flying the Union Jack and Canadian flags. At the entrance to all Embassies, are body scanners, that are more advanced and twice as efficient than the usual scanners used at most airports.

It also has powerful senses, to pick any scent of explosives, guns, and all kinds of drugs, and signs at the entry to the compound notify all that enter of the strict search procedures, and that any illegal items found on any person will be dealt with severely.

While all of the construction was happening at Earth Base and in New York, Lucas has been based at the Earth Base near New Zealand and has been making monthly trips to the United Nations, for regular meetings to try and find a solution to the Prometheus crisis.

So far, the North Asia Space Consortium has been staying away from Prometheus, and instead have begun working on building their own Luna base on the moon, some 40 kilometres away from Prometheus.

With a shuttle making a regular visit to the United Nations, it was no longer an unusual sight to see the shuttle land, on the vacant block of land across the road from the UN building, which Lucas had arranged to purchase, and with the approval of the City of New York, work will soon begin on the construction of a massive, two-level car park.

This will cover nearly the whole area of the vacant block, plus a 3-metre high wall on the north, south and eastern sides, to protect the adjoining buildings, from the engine blast, when the shuttles are taking off and landing.

The huge flat roof of the car park complex will be the site of the landing pad for the URPS shuttles, when visiting the United Nations, and is at the same height as the raised FRD Drive road.

Back on Mars, Quinn was working on a separate project, with the construction of a new colony base, next door to the academy, that will be the home for 600 new citizens, who will arrive from Sahndrol, once the settlement has been completed.

With the construction work well ahead of schedule in New Zealand, the last two embassy buildings were constructed in just 6 months, and once again, an all-night move was held, to get the furniture and everything moved to the new buildings, and like before the Embassy staff had moved into their new accommodation a week earlier, to get settled in before the big move.

New Zealand and Australian ambassadors and their staff were extremely happy with their new buildings and accommodation, as are the UK and Canadian Ambassadors and staff, especially with the separate Convention centre for all Embassy functions, meaning that huge gatherings for functions are kept away from the administration areas of each Embassy.

With the Embassy compound now completed, Lucas was now looking at another project, and with the approval from the High Council of the United Republic of Planets of Sahndrol - URPS, he purchased a large plot of land that is 74 acres in area, at Morgan’s Point, a ½ acre property Moresby Point, with a large mansion and guest house on it, and another plot of land of 9 ¼ acres, on Cross Island, where The America’s cup village once stood, all on Bermuda Island.

The purchases were made after approval had been received from the Bermuda Government, and the British Government, since it is a British Overseas Territory, to establish a more central Earth Base for the United Republic of Planets of Sahndrol.

The property on Cross Island will become the main Space Terminal for all flights between Earth and any URPS locations, with a 4-storey octagonal building, that will have the landing pad on the roof.

With a 120-metre long causeway and a retractable 20-metre long bridge between Bermuda and Cross Island, it makes access to the island a lot easier to control. The property with the mansion on it, is just 350 metres to the south of Cross Island, with unrestricted views of the island, while the property at Morgan’s Point is situated 9 kilometres further to the south, and also has a direct line of sight to Cross Island.

This much large property, Lucas had another plan for and is also located at the end of a 45-metre long causeway, which is the location of the Caroline Bay Marina, which Lucas is hoping to relocate to nearby Georges Bay, so as to have the causeway as the gateway to Morgan’s Point.

When the purchases of the land on Bermuda had been finalised, with construction once again being done in New Zealand, Lucas made a trip to New York in the URPS shuttle, to visit the Embassy Compound, and he sent a message to them via the New Zealand government, since he was still based at the Earth base near New Zealand.

This was the first visit for the shuttle at the Embassy compound, arriving in the late afternoon on a Saturday, and the pilots did a good job of landing softly on the 5 combined roofs of the compound, and central lower deck door opened out onto the Convention centre, where he was greeted by all four ambassadors, which was a little surprising for Lucas, knowing that they are very busy.