Aquaria - 22. Aqu Chapter 22

When the dinghy was almost on the rocks, I threw the backpack then the suitcase into the dinghy, and I dived into the water, swimming out away from the rocks, so I could be pulled onboard. Once in the dingy, we headed out to sea, in a North East direction, and I soon saw the submarine come into view, as it was sailing away from the island.

Stopping to allow us to board from the deck 4 boarding platform, I grabbed my luggage, and climbed the stairs to the deck 3 main entry door. “Permission to come aboard” I said as I reached the top of the stairs, and the door swung open.

“Permission granted, welcome back Trent” my uncle said to me, and I glanced back down, to see the crew were storing away the dinghy in the external storage locker and followed me up the stairs. Once we were on our way, we changed directions and headed south towards Macquarie Island, which is about 2,600 kilometres from Lord Howe Island, and would take five days to get there.

“Before you go and settle in, we need to have a little chat in the executive conference room upstairs” Jonah said to me, as I followed him inside and into the elevator, “So your father informs me you were fairly tired from the flights from Wake Island to Brisbane” Jonah said to me as the elevator took us upwards.

“Yes, very tiring and boring, I couldn’t even sleep because of all the turbulence that we endured” I responded, and a minute later we entered the large conference room, and Uncle Jonah indicated for me to sit down, which I did.

“You father placed a sealed envelope into your luggage, while you were in Brisbane, can you retrieve it now please” Jonah said to me, and I looked at the Captain in surprised, before doing as he asked, and I quickly located the envelope and placed it on the conference table in front of me.

“Open it” Jonah said, and I did, and pulled out a thick plastic card, which has a reflective chip near one end, and a bar code at the other end, plus a business card which had “Lloyd Family Corp” written on it. “There are only three of these in existence, your father has one and we each have one.

On the back of the business card you will find a barcode identical to the one on the plastic card, along with 6unique numbers and letters, this is your individual authorisation code, as is the card. Although we are a peaceful research submarine, we are armed with a top-secret weapon, that some countries are building and testing, but we are the first to have a fully operational one.

It is a Non-Nuclear EMP weapon, that will disable anything that is electrical or electronic, within a range of 20 kilometres long and 60 metres wide, from Aquaria, in case some fool of a government decides that we are a threat to them, and fires torpedoes and drops shock drums onto us, then we have the means to defend ourselves.

This weapon is only known to be in existence, by 12 people only, including yourself, but only three of us have the authorisation and access to use it. Please memorise that 6-digit code, then lock it in your safe in your office, the plastic card you always need to keep with you Jonah informed me, and I was shocked to learn that we had a weapon onboard.

“Were exactly is this weapon that we have onboard?” I asked nervously, “Good question, and until your father told me, I had no idea where it was either. It is on deck 8, one located on either side of the crew recreation lounge.

In the foyer before there, where the elevator is, you will see a door on each side, with Restricted Area – Authorised Personnel Only written on the doors.

You will need your special card to gain access to the area, and there is not much to see in there, just two giant tube type things, which are the weapons themselves. One last thing, we had you join us here at Lord Howe Island, I had two guests onboard, that being my wife Natalia and my son, who disembarked at Norfolk Island” Jonah explained.

“I see, thank you for letting me know, I’m going to go and settle into my suite, I will talk to you later” I said as I stood and gathered up my luggage and left the room. A few minutes later I arrived at my suite and Travis was standing just inside the door, and quickly grabbed my luggage.

“Welcome back sir, it is good to see you again” my butler said happily, which made me chuckle, wondering how much trouble, my cousin may have caused during his visit. “Thank you, Travis, I will be just relaxing for the rest of today, and maybe after lunch, take a walk around the vessel to see what is happening” I replied.

“Very good sir, will you be requiring your lunch in your suite, or will you dine out?” Travis replied, and I thought about it for a few moments, “I think I will dine out today thank you” I responded, as Travis unpacked my luggage.

After having lunch in one of the restaurants, I went for a walk around the vessel, starting from the observation bridge on deck one, all the way down to deck nine. During the five- day journey South, I settled into a routine, spending half of my time assisting with science research projects, and the other half doing the administration of the Aquaria.

Ensuring that the vessel was well stocked with supplies, and arranging for a visit to Hobart, once the trip to Macquarie Island is completed. When we arrived at the island, Uncle Jonah and I met with the sub-Antarctic science team that are currently stationed on the island, and we put together a series of research projects to be done over the next two weeks.

I was very happy with being back onboard the Aquaria, and working as part of the research team, even if I am the son of the big boss, and I tried to be just an ordinary crew member, like everyone else. When the research work on the island had been completed, we set sail for Hobart, where the crew would be getting 48 hours of leave, before heading off to our next destination, where ever that may be.

After dinner, on the night before our planned arrival to Hobart, Uncle Jonah called me to the executive conference room for a private meeting. “Any idea where we are heading next Uncle?” I asked as I sat down in a chair.

“I do in fact, we have been ordered to travel to Cockburn Sound, to have some minor alterations made to the Aquaria, which I have been told will take about a week to complete” Jonah replied, and just then my father appeared on the Video conference screen.

“Good evening to you both, I hear that the trip to Macquarie Island was very successful and productive” my father said to us. “It was, and the Science team already on the island, were very thankful for the additional assistance, and the use of our facilities” I replied.

“Good, now the reason that you are travelling to Cockburn Sound, is to have a docking unit built into the bottom of store rooms on level 9 of Aquaria, so as to accommodate docking with a newer but smaller and faster Deeps Sea Vessel, to be known as Oceania” my father announced.

“Oh, this is a real big surprise Hamysh, when is this new vessel going to be operational” Jonah asked his brother in law, and we saw my father smile broadly. “It is operational now, just waiting for its new Commander to arrive to take possession of it” my father said.

“What me?” I said surprisingly, “I can’t think of anyone more experienced and qualified to be a skipper of their first vessel” Jonah said, “I fully agree with that statement, she is in Cockburn now waiting for you to get here Trent, then you will travel together northwards up the West coast, and stop at Darwin for resupplying, before continuing East, back to home base” my father announced.

“You said that she is smaller and faster, can you give us some more details?” I asked. “Yes son, I can. The Oceania is 282 metres long, 42 metres wide, with a 7-metre draft. She has just 5 decks, has a cruise speed of 27 knots, and maximum speed of 31 knots, cabins for 57 crew, consisting of 9 officers, 32 general crew and 16 science crew, and 12 guests, and will have an identical docking system as what the Aquaria will have” my father said.

“Wow, that is fast, you will have to keep up, old man” I said turning to my uncle who frowned then burst out laughing and commented, “Cheeky sod”, between laughs. “I already have additional crew trained and ready to go, but I am afraid Jonah, that I am allowing my son to choose 12 crew from Aquaria to transfer to the Oceania, so you will be getting some of the new crew members” my father said.

“That is understandable and fair enough, so who is it that you will be stealing from me, nephew?” Jonah asked. “Hmm, I will have to think about that one, give me a few days to come up with a list, is there any chance that I can have more than 12?” I replied, and Uncle Jonah groaned in annoyance, and my father chuckled.

“Well it is a 3 ½ day journey to Cockburn Sound, plus the two days that you will be stopping in Hobart, so that gives you five days to make up your mind, I want that list 12 hours before you arrive in the Western Australian Port” my father said to me, “You will have it” I replied.

I already knew exactly who I wanted to take with me, with only 4 in total, but I decided to let my uncle sweat it out a while, as I headed back to my quarters on deck six. With just over 1 ½ days to go before we arrived at the Western Australian port, I sent a message to my father.

“Sir, I only require four crew, that I wish to join me on the RSV Oceania – Science Officer Derek Overton, Administrator Jocelyn Overton, & Stewards Travis Patterson & Nigel Patterson. This way Jonah only needs to replace one officer, the other three are my staff anyway. Regards Trent”.

Just twenty minutes later, I was asked to meet the Captain in his office, knowing full well what this meeting was about. “Are you sure this is all the crew that you want to join you?” Jonah said as soon as I had arrived and sat down. “Yes Uncle, that is all I want, I am happy to break in a new crew, and Derek will be my chief science officer” I replied.

“Very well, if that is what you want, do you want to break the news to those who will be joining you?” Jonah asked, “Yes, if you don’t mind” I replied, “Very well then, after tonight, I will have Derek rostered off duties, so he and his wife can pack, and your father has sent the layout plans of your new vessel, it looks very impressive, I have forwarded them to your office, that is all” Jonah said to me.

I rushed back to my office on deck six, and Jocelyn followed me in after seeing me rush past her, and I opened up my emails and clicked on the latest email received from Jonah, before looking up at Jocelyn, “Can you please ask your husband, Travis and Nigel come here right away please, I have a special announcement to make to the four of you” I said to Jocelyn.

Ten minutes later, I had the four crew members standing in my office wondering what is about to happen, and they all looked nervous, which made me chuckle quietly. “Relax, no one is in trouble, the four of you are to be reassigned to other duties, effective the moment we arrive in Cockburn Sound in just over a day’s time.