Ocean Research - 22. IOR Chapter 22

“Having problems my friend, I am on my way down,” Joshua said, “Ok, it seems I can’t get past this idiot in the east foyer,” I replied, which made Joshua laugh, before he ended the call. The guard frowned at me, when I called him an idiot, and he still refused to let me pass, and a few moments later, Joshua stepped out of the elevator, and walked rapidly in our direction, stopping in front of me and wrapping me in a tight embrace.

“You know this man, Mr Alliston,” the guard asked, “Do think I would be hugging him, if I didn’t? this err… Marty, is my good friend Mr Kipling Ashburton, who is an old Uni buddy of mine and also second in charge of Abrolhos Ocean City, who has been a way a short while recovering from an incident,” Joshua responded, after looking at the guards name tag.

“My apologies, I was not informed of his arrival,” the guard responded, “Hmm, I did send a memo to your Chief of security, regarding his arrival today, I will have to have a word with him, about lack of communications, that will be all for now,” Joshua said, dismissing the guard, and I followed Joshua to the elevator, where he handed me my misplaced ID card.

“It was in the MV Storm, I forgot to pass it onto Amanda to give to you,” Joshua whispered, and I swiped my card on the scanner. A few moments later we were on the first level, and we walked through the Sky restaurant to the reception area of the Cities administration.

“Jennifer, this is Mr Kipling Ashburton, he is my 2^nd in charge of this city and also chief scientist, his office is the one closest to mine, can you let the other three executive staff that there will be a meeting in the board room at 4 pm this afternoon please, and we are not to be disturbed for two hours thank you,” Joshua said to the lady seated at the reception desk, as he led the way into this executive office.

“I forgot how incredible the view is from way up here,” I said as I gazed out the window, “Yes, one of the perks of being the administrator of this fine city,” Joshua replied smiling. “It is good to be back, even if it has been just a short time,” I commented.

“Right now, down to business, as my grandfather said to you before, we are now at full capacity with staff, and the fishing boats and skippers will be arriving at the end of this week. Before then thou, will be the arrival of your research facility, that will arrive in three days’ time, as it is being loaded up as we speak.

Grandfather mentioned to you about four permanent anchorage points for your facility, which are six giant reinforced concrete blocks that have been dumped in the ocean with chains to secure the barge at six locations along the barge, so that it doesn’t move around too much.

The locations are 50 metres East of the south corner of North Island, in the Wallabi Group, 350 metres South-west of the corner of Long Island, in the Wallabi group, 150 metres North of Eastern Island, in the Easter group, and in the bottom end of Fish Hook Bay, of Pelsaert Island,” Joshua said as he pointed out the location on a giant wall map of the three island groups. We have determined that these would be the most ideal locations for you to do your marine research, and Amanda will take you and your team on a cruise tomorrow to check out the three locations,” Joshua announced.

“That sounds good, thanks for that, so is everyone fairly settled into their new home on the sea?” I asked. “Yes, it seems so, although there are a few senior staff, who have families and they have asked if it is possible to have their partners and children live at the city also, and I am currently thinking about that request. The only problem is that we only have a total of size family suites available, which should be reserved for hotel guests, and I have spoken to Grandfather about it, and he is also thinking of ways to overcome this,” Joshua replied.

“Maybe you could have a similar setup to what my research barge is, and that way the families have their own separate area, you could fit about eight two bedroom family suites on each of the two levels, keep the kitchen, dining area the same, the conference room can be a multi-purpose room and on the upper level you could have a recreation lounge and another multi-purpose room,” I suggested, just as Joshua’s mobile rang. “It’s my grandfather,” Joshua said before answering the call.

“…Yes grandfather, we were just talking about that, and Kipling here has a great idea, I will hand over the phone to him so he can describe his idea,” Joshua said into his phone, and after I spoke to Mr Lloyd, I handed the phone back to Joshua, who listened for a moment, said ok and ended the call.

“He likes your idea very much, and he is going to get to work to build it as quickly as possible and he agrees that 16 two-bedroom suites will be perfect,” Joshua said to me smiling happily. I think that we could moor the family accommodation barge to the plant rooms end of the city, as it has the two passages there, beside the desalination plant and the waste treatment plant, which can be a connecting access to the city, you will just need to extend the landing to nearly the full length of the barge” I suggested.

“Brilliant thinking my friend, I knew I hired you for a good reason,” Joshua said happily. After the meeting with the other executive staff, that being the Fisheries officer, the Parks and Wildlife officer and the Chief Medical officer, it was decided to go ahead with plans to build a landing jetty on the north end of the city, so as to moor the new barge to it, when it is completed.

It was also decided to employ a second Air traffic controller, as the airfield on Rat Island was getting quite busy with regular tourist flight to the Abrolhos Islands, as well as the regular supply and transport flights for the city.

To accommodate the extra person and any future people, it was decided to have the Senior Administrator, the Chief Maintenance Engineer, Accommodation Manager and the Senior Air Traffic Controller to four vacant government accommodation suites on level one, and that would give room for the extra air traffic controller and three more staff when needed, and it left two government suites still available when needed.

When the small cargo ship arrived with the research facility, Amanda assisted me with towing it from beyond the reefs to the sheltered cove at the bottom of Eastern Island in the Easter Group of islands, which is 7.5 kilometres NNE of the city, and just 3.5 kilometres east of where I was attacked by the sharks.

Once we had the Research facility secured to the anchor points, Amanda and the crew on the Silver Cloud headed back to the city, while I checked to see that everything is in order on board the facility. I also had my research team with me, so I gave them a full tour of the barge, so they know what to expect when we do field work on the facility.

After the tour, we set off back to the city in MV Warambie, where I was surprised to see that the submarine had arrived, and it had attracted a lot of attention from the residents, as it was moored alongside the Silver Cloud. Once the science team had stepped onto the jetty, I locked up the MV Warambie and followed them inside, where I saw a large group of people gathered in the two foyers trying to get a good look at the submarine.

“Just the person I need, is the Ashburton facility secured, and which mooring did you put it on?” Joshua asked me when he appeared from the elevators. “Hi, I put it at the closest location of Easterly Island, why?” I replied, “I think we may have to use it as a mooring bay for the submarine, as it is causing a lot more problems than I expected,” Joshua replied.

“Sure, that’s not a problem, but I am not sure about the draft of the area on the north side of the barge, I would have to go and check on that,” I said to my friend, “Could you do that right away, grab a few of the crew from the Silver Cloud to assist you, of better still get Olivia to take the MV Storm out with you, and you can leave it there for the sub crew to use to get to the city for shore leave,” Joshua suggested.

Half an hour later, I reported back to Joshua, that there was enough clearance for the submarine to be moored at the research facility, and a few moments later Joshua reported back to say the submarine was on its way. While waiting for the submarine to arrive, I locked up the research labs and offices on both decks plus the executive private lounge, which I wanted untouched, as I had decided to make the rest of the facilities available for the officers and crew of the submarine.

When the submarine arrived and was moored to the outer side of the barge, I invited the skipper and officers to inspect the facilities, and after a brief tour, I informed the skipper that all areas that are not locked are available for the crew to use, and that all locked areas are off limits.

With the two swath vessels moored at each end of the barge, the submarine made the barge look like a dwarf, as it is just over double the length of the research facility. Leaving the keys of the MV storm with the skipper, the crew of four plus Olivia and myself, returned to the MV Warambie and headed back to the city.

As I entered the city, the same guard that I had trouble with a days ago approached me and I groaned, expecting more trouble from him. “Sir, I have been asked to pass on a message to you the moment you return to the city, you are requested at administration immediately,” the guard said to me.

“Good, thanks for that, err Marty wasn’t it?” I replied, “Yes sir, that is correct,” the guard replied, “Very good, carry on with your duties,” I responded as I headed for the elevators, and a few moments later I stepped into the reception area of administration. “Board room sir, you are expected,” Jennifer said to me and I changed directions and soon stepped into the boardroom, where the other executive members were seated.

“Sir he has just walked in,” Joshua said loudly as he indicated the telephone, “Good, take a seat please Kipling,” Mr Lloyd said over the loud speaker. “Now that everyone is here, I have spoken to your administrator about the disruption that the submarine Poseidon caused on its arrival, and so for the mean time it will remain where it is when not on patrol.

Because the company is putting so much money into this venture, the Poseidon will be permanently based there at the Abrolhos, but it will soon be backed up by an additional vessel, an Austal 22 Patrol Boat, which is 22 metres long, 6 metres wide, has a cruising speed of 19 knots, and a range of 325 nautical miles, with a crew of three.

Both the submarine and the patrol boat will have weapons on it, but are retractable until needed, so there is no need to let anyone else know this, and their main aim is to patrol and protect the Abrolhos Islands and the city. We have an agreement with the Federal government for a joint partnership in regards to protecting of the city as well as protecting fisheries and wildlife in the Abrolhos National Park as it is now known.

Although the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has controls and regulates aviation safety within Australia, since we have a privately run and operated airfield, we have control over air traffic within the Abrolhos Islands, with the Geraldton Airport being the next closest controlled airport to the Rat Island Airfield.

In regards to the idea of having a separate barge building for families that live and work at the city, I think that is an excellent idea, but a more important reason to build the barges, is to accommodate the fishing crews away from the city, with a regular ferry service from the fishing barges to the city, to they can still enjoy our hospitality.

Doing this will create less conflict between the permanent staff and guests with the fishing crews who will be smelling of fish after a hard day at work. So, I have already put into place an order for a total of 13 fishing barges, with each one containing 4 Lower and 8 Upper two-bedroom suites, plus 12 storage lockers, with one suite and one locker for each boat based at that barge.

It will have a similar layout as the research barge, with all the desalination, waste treatment and power plants onboard, as well as recreation cooking and dining facilities. Each evening, the barges will be delivered evening meals as well as pre-made breakfast packs and lunch meals for each fishing boat.

The skippers have not been informed of these changes, and won’t be informed until just one month before the three barges are constructed and delivered to their designated mooring locations, which are the ones that are currently in place. A new mooring base will be installed when a suitable location has been chosen by Mr Ashburton, Captain Anderson, the skipper of the submarine, and Captain York, when he arrives with his patrol vessel, the MV Armada,” Mr Lloyd announced.