Deep Space Settlement - 12. DSS Chapter 12

After a lot of deliberations, the locations suggested by the USA were rejected, because there would be the same issues regarding US visa’s, which has been a major issue in the past few years, so this left the locations on Bermuda.

The British government has already guaranteed that all staff visiting the UN would be granted a visa, so now it was just a matter of which site.

With the issue of safety and security for all that work at the United Nations, and with the new design, provided by Sahndrol, both locations would be ideal. The site closest to the Capital is 14 kilometres by road to the Airport terminal, while the Paget Island site is a short boat ride and 7 kilometres to the Airport terminal.

In the end, it was Paget Island that was chosen for the new site, because it was an island, and also reasonably close to the Airport. At 36 acres in area, the island had a centre area, that is approximately 12 acres in area, that is already mostly cleared, and would be the location of the new United Nations Complex, as it has been designed by Sahndrol Architects.

The remaining 24 acres will remain parklands for the UN staff to enjoy, and the jetty on the south-west side of the island near the middle, will be made bigger and stronger, and a fence will be built around the island, just 20 metres in from the water's edge to provide additional security.

All but one large house and one cottage on the western end of the island will be demolished to make way for the new building, while the heritage-listed Fort Cunningham, will not be affected by the new building, and will later be fully restored.

With the decision for a new location made, a copy of what the complex will look like and its outside layout was delivered to the Bermuda government, so they had an idea on what the new complex would look like, and this was made available to the residents of Bermuda, for them to make any comments or criticisms before construction begins.

Once again, most of the construction will take place in New Zealand, and then a Sahndrol Cargo ship will travel to Earth to assist with transporting all the sections and assisting with putting them together, and it was estimated that it would take 9 months to complete the construction of the new compound.

A report done by a committee put in charge of coordinating the move to the new Headquarters, has stated that it would take a total of three weeks to have everything and everyone relocated. It was decided that for two weeks, all business in the United Nations Headquarters would be suspended, so as to allow for the move, and to allow all the staff to settle into their new apartments.

At 1240 kilometres South-East of New York, it was decided that all United Nations staff would be transported to Bermuda on a chartered Cruise ship, which will take all of them in one go, and it would take 1 day and 11 hours for the journey, arriving at 0700 hours local time, which is an hour ahead of New York.

Four days after that is to happen, all office furniture, office equipment and documentation that has been packed up and loaded into shipping containers will be loaded onto a cargo ship and will take all of that to Bermuda, where the containers will be off-loaded, and the crates inside are transported to Paget Island by barge.

This will give the UN staff a chance to settle into their new accommodation, and have a look around the islands, before getting back to work, and getting settled into the new UN complex.

With the new complex being built from Sahndrol materials, it is guaranteed to be able to withstand any sized hurricane that may hit the region, because the building materials are so much stronger than conventional building materials on Earth.

When the new complex was completed, with the main building in the centre, now being the tallest in the whole of Bermuda, it can be seen from quite a long distance, and as the UN staff began to settle into their new surrounds, they began to get back into a routine and were soon applauding the Sahndrol people for a magnificent complex and a wonderful location.

Although the United States government was not too pleased about the UN being relocated away from New York and the United States, it is still reasonably close by, so as not to be too much of an inconvenience for them, and the rest of the member countries were saying that they are extremely happy with the new complex, especially with the quality of accommodation for everyone.

In a way, Martin Lenegan was also happy with the location, as it meant that the Sahndrol Earth base is not that far away either, with the distance being just over 1100 kilometres away to the South West of the Sahndrol Islands, which is just a short journey in the mini shuttles.

With the Earth Base and now the UN Headquarters relocated, the Sahndrol High Council wanted to concentrate on matters within the United Republic of Planets, and with a large metals mine located on one of the smaller planets around Jupiter, now providing all of the building materials for any new building projects, there is plenty to do, with expanding the Sahndrol Colonies, and the enlarging the space station that circles Mars, and expanding the Space Research and Training Academy on Mars.

The End