Oceania - 6. Oce Chapter 6

For the next few months, while we patrolled the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean, we kept our relationship a secret, although we found it very hard to do that when onboard Oceania. Eventually, Travis came up with a solution in regards to our working relationship, with him taking on the role of Senior officer’s steward, and Nigel became my personal steward and assistant.

During a late night conference with my father, I announced that Travis and I were now partner’s and that Travis was now doing other duties, onboard Oceania, so as not to complicate things.

“About bloody time, you found someone, I am very happy for you both” Dad said after making the announcement to him. “Thank you, sir, I think…” Travis said in response, which made Dad and I laugh, and we chatted some more over the next ten minutes, before signing off and heading to bed.

The following day, we made a ship-wide announcement, that Travis and I are now partners, but Travis now has new duties as the Senior Officers steward. Everyone on board was pleased to hear of the news, with some of them stating the same words as my father, ‘About bloody time”.

We had to wait till after we had visited Easter Island before we could make our way further East to the Falkland Islands, where the Deacon of the Anglican Cathedral at Stanley, had agreed to marry us.

Dad travelled down for the special event, and Derek agreed to be my best man, and Jocelyn agreed to be Best Woman for Travis. Dad had agreed to take over as temporary captain of Oceania, while Travis and I were on our two-week honeymoon holidays in Chile, where same-sex marriage is recognised.

After two weeks of exploring the wonderful country of Chile, we flew to Auckland, New Zealand, where we would spend a few days, before we rejoin Oceania once more, as it starts a new assignment of patrolling the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, while the Aquaria will patrol all of the Pacific.

When Travis and I arrived onboard Oceania, we were directed to the operations meeting room on deck 2, where Dad was waiting for us, but what surprised us a lot, was that Daniel Atkins and his executive officer from the Aquaria were there also.

“Gentlemen, now that we have our newlyweds back, we can finally have this meeting, please sit,” my father said after we entered.

Over the next twenty minutes, Dad announced that Lloyd Family Corporation will be dramatically expanding its fleet over the next few years, with the introduction of three more Oceania sister vessels. He also announced that work had been completed on building extensions for the Aquaria, which will be attached to the vessel, and pressure tested over the next 12 weeks.

The extensions are on the bow and stern of deck 9, where there will be a new mini-submarine hanger, and maintenance hangers in the stern, and a larger crew family quarters, with 20 larger family suites, and lounges. He said that once the families have moved into their new quarters, the place where they use to be will be used to expand lounge and living space for guests.

With the expanded fleet of vessels, I would become the new director of OGE - Ocean Guardian Enterprises, and I would be stationed onboard the Aquaria, where there are bigger and better facilities available for me to run the organisation from.

I was about to ask if I could keep my main administration staff, when Dad said that Jocelyn would remain on Oceania, along with her husband Derek, as he will be taking over command of that vessel, but I will have my two-personal staff, of which one is my husband.

With a bigger fleet of vessels, we would be able to patrol the oceans more efficiently and be able to keep a closer eye on any major events on the oceans and seas, with the United Nations, unanimously granting us freedom of access to all oceans and seas, where ever they may be, and that any countries exclusion zone for access would not apply to the OGE vessels.

The Aquaria would soon have on board at all times, a United Nations Special Envoy, who would be with us for a period of three months at a time, rotating with 3 other UN Special Envoys, tasked to assist in any way, when any diplomatic issues arise.

Changes would be made to the VIP suites on deck 4, with two fewer suites on each side of the vessel, and one suite on each side made 30% bigger, which will be occupied by the UN envoys, who will have access to all guest areas on Decks three to five and part of deck six, and limited access to deck one.

The envoys would have their income and travel expenses paid for by the UN, but Dad had agreed to cover all living costs while they are on board the Aquaria, and the use of the VIP guest offices for their office space.

I asked where the Aquaria is situated at the moment, and Daniel turned to me. “Where do you think it is?” he said to me with a big grin. “On the bottom of the harbour, hiding from the public, would be my best guess” I responded, and we all laughed.

“It is actually parked underneath three of the NZ naval ships, over on the next main jetty over,” Daniel said and my mouth dropped open in surprise. “Yes, the NZ Navy know it is there, and are happy to allow us to do this since the Aquaria is so large” Dad added.

With Oceania being 282 metres long, it is still nearly 100 metres longer than any other submarine in the world, and now docked at the secondary Naval Jetty, it is attracting a lot of public attention.

The following day, Aquaria made an appearance in the early morning, with it being tied alongside Oceania, with the city of Auckland on the south side of the river, getting a good view of both vessels from high vantage points. During this time, Travis and I moved back onboard the Aquaria, into our executive suite on deck six.

After nearly a full day of being in full view, both vessels set sail out of Auckland, heading north to Whangarei, where the additions will be fitted to the Aquaria.

While this is happening, Daniel will be joining Derek, on Oceania to train him on the finer points of being the captain of the vessel, while Travis and I will remain in Whangarei, to supervise the work happening on the Aquaria, while its crew enjoy twelve weeks of paid leave.

Dad had booked us into a Hotel 4 km’s upstream from the shipping yard, so we were reasonably close by, to keep an eye on the work, as we would be the only crew onboard, while the work is being down on deck nine.

During the fitting, work crews would only be able to get into the vessel from the Deck Nine airlock, and I made sure that all access to stairs and elevators above deck eight were locked, so the workers are limited to where they can go.

Double airtight doors would be installed between the new sections and the rest of the vessel, so if there are any leaks or changes in pressure, the airtight doors would slam shut after a twelve-second alarm bell is sounded.

Although I would miss being onboard Oceania, Travis and I spent each weekend over the twelve weeks totally redecorating our suite and the OGE Administration Centre.

A week before the work was due to be completed, Daniel arrived back with Oceania, and he and I did a check on how work was progressing, and we were pleased to see that it was nearly all completed. Travis and I had spent the past week working flat out, organising the purchase of furniture for the 20 new family suites, 4 family lounge rooms and the one large family recreation area, including paintings and fixtures.

Daniel was very happy with how we had set up each of the family suites, each having its own unique style, and with everything that we had done, as we settled back into our quarters onboard the Aquaria. Two days later, Dad sprung a surprise visit on us, and we showed him all of the changes, once the workers had left for the day.

It was decided that we would just have a skeleton crew for the one week of test trials that we would have, once the work was completed, with no family crew included in this, so we could keep a close eye out for any problems, without having to put any crew ort heir families at risk, if there is any, and Dad would be joining us for this.

It was while we were doing these sea trials, that Dad suggested to us during dinner, that we allow the general public to have a limited tour of parts of the Aquaria, between the forward and after stairs, on decks three and six.

Giving the locals an idea of how big exactly the Aquaria is and what it is like inside. He suggested that we have all elevators locked down and that stairs will be the access points between those four levels, with crew posted just beyond those levels to stop any visitors from trying to sneak into restricted areas.

Reluctantly Daniel and I agreed to this idea, and Dad said that he would invite a television crew in Whangarei the chance to do the tour first, to promote the offer to the public to tour the world’s biggest submarine, which we will have to have moored at a public wharf, and the South Pacific Gateway Marina, near the mouth of the Hatea River, had been the only location that would be suitable for this event.

With just one pedestrian entry point, and enough room for the vessel to be alongside the 180-metre long marina wharf, to allow the visitor’s access to the vessel, Dad would be employing a local security company to manage crowd control, and to do the required security checks for non permitted items, like video recorders, mobile phones etc, which visitors will be advised to leave at home, or risk having them confiscated, and handed into the local police station.

We would have the media crew visit on the Friday afternoon, shortly after we have arrived back, and announce that public tours of parts of the inside of the giant submarine would commence at 12 noon, so as not to affect the local businesses in the area.

Dad had already been in contact with the local police force, to get their approval for the event, and Dad had arranged with the local council to slash clear, some of the vacant industrial blocks of land near to the marina, for parking for visitors.

During the five hours that we would be open for tours, there will be three officers on duty on each of the four levels, as well as three crew at each stairwell, to stop visitors going any higher than deck three and any lower than deck six.

There will also be two crew members at each end of the tour area, to stop visitors going into the restricted areas beyond the elevators and stairs, on those four levels, while another 12 crew members will act as guides for each of the groups of twelve visitors, with each tour starting five minutes apart.