Reborn
Chapter 1
"This looks better than I could ever dream of." I thought as I walked through the corridor. It had the aroma of wet paint mixed with seaweed. My dream of an underwater city came true. Well, almost, it is not as big as I wanted it to be, but then, those were the restrictions given to me by the Australian government.
The city, called Orca, is named after the Oceanographic Research Centre Australia. It is a joint venture between multi nations, and the private sector to build various research labs, both underwater, and land based around the world. This one is located in the Great Barrier Reef, and is the first of its kind.
Other underwater labs were nothing more than large tanks tied to the bottom, and tethered to its life support on the surface. This is built out of many large spheres, connected to each other by various passageways. There is a new security system. It prevents unauthorized personnel into certain areas via the use of barcodes, magnetic strips on Id cards, and by retina or fingerprints. At maximum capacity, it will be home to approximately 300 people. These include, lab technicians, maintenance crew, and their family, and the support staff.
Although there is a platform on the surface, if it was disconnected, the city could function normally. The platform is an old oil drilling platform, cleaned up, and given a new look. The platform can hold up to 20 large boats (30'-50'), over 30 PWC, and has a hanger that can hold 2 full sized helicopters. These vessels are all stored inside of various garage like structures, all watercraft are dry docked to prevent damage during rough seas. The helicopters are raised and lowered on the their respective helipads, and the roof, comes over the top like a clam shell.
One of the many questions everyone asks is, how do you get posted to Orca? The simplest way is to apply. If you are tops in your field, we will find you. Many people ask about children. Can they come aboard, or is it for adults only? It surprises people that we have many facilities that are centered around youth. They include school, and various recreational facilities, all with the needs of the youth in mind.
There is a uniform for Orca, however it isn't enforced. You could see someone in the uniform, or a swimsuit, or even a wetsuit walking through the corridors. The uniform is cotton shirt and bottom - shorts or pants. The colours are lime green, yellow, and blue. These colours are for ensuring that the city doesn't have the feel of a battleship. Bland colours are shunned. Even the wetsuits, and swimsuits must be of those colours. All clothing was provided at no charge. Swimwear was provided, and was a certain style to allow proper movement. The women and girls wore a one piece style, and men and boys wore a racing brief style.
One of the things most people notice is that all of the seams and portals on the exterior of the spheres leak. They were designed to leak. If they didn't, they would blow out, causing the sphere to be scuttled. On average, in the lower compartment of every sphere there is as much as 100 litres of water. This water aids in reducing the buoyancy of the sphere. There are two pumps in each sphere, each pump can pump out about 2000 litres per minute. The water that enters the spheres, is filtered, then desalinated so that it could be drank. In any given minute there is about 1000 litres of freshwater, and about that same amount of salt water in the city.
The electricity is supplied by many methods. First, there is the 1000 solar panels attached to the platform. They supply mainly the platform's needs. On the platform there is also 4 large windmills. On the ocean floor there are over 100 current mills. These miniature windmills use the ocean's currents to turn the blades of the mills. As a last resort there are five 10,000 MW diesel generators.
Everyone must be able to swim well, and be able to use snorkel equipment. Adults must additionally be able to use scuba equipment. All youth go for stroke improvement classes. When they arrive, they also are taught scuba. The average person who has been onboard for over 3 months can swim to the mainland, which is over 50 kilometres. There is a yearly contest among the inhabitants, a race - to the mainland. It is separated by male and female, and also by age - under 18, and 18 and over.
The city is divided into 4 sections. They are; the mechanical, the labs, recreational, and living quarters. Mechanical includes things like the generators, the desalination plants, and the sewage plants. Besides the research labs, there is also the school located in the same area. In the recreational area, there is various games rooms, a indoor 50 metre swimming pool, and the diving well. All cabins are located in the same area. Generally they are as far away from the mechanical area as possible.
I walked to my cabin, looking at the details of the corridors. I walked through one of the gangways that connect each sphere. It was all plexiglass. You can watch the fish swim by, and not get your feet wet. I slid my Id card through the door sensor. The new barcode cards will be put in before the first real habitants arrive. The door automatically opened, and I stepped in.
The room was tricoloured. Near the floor it was green, the ceiling was yellow, and everywhere else was blue. The main room had a kitchenette, and a sitting area with a video screen, which is also connected with the video communications. All rooms have a video phone setup. These can be turned to audio only for privacy reasons. There is a washroom, that has both a shower, and a bathtub. There is either 1, 2, or 3 bedrooms. Most cabins for families have only 2 rooms, one for the adults, and one for the youth. Mine was a one bedroom style, one of the larger ones.
I put my things where they belonged, and proceeded to the platform.
Part 2
I slipped back into reality. That was nearly a year ago, but most things haven't changed. I now am in charge of the mechanical aspects of the city. We had our first typhoon 2 weeks ago, and survived without any damage.
I climbed out of the ocean, and up on the docking platform. I didn't feel like cooking this morning, so I headed to the mess hall. I was still dripping wet from my morning swim, but I decided I was more hungry than cold. It was over 35 Celsius outside, although, with the light breeze, it felt cooler.
In ORCA the temperature and humidity was set up such that I didn't feel cool. The climate controls are designed that it could freeze out there, and you would be comfortable in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
As I walked through the passageway one of the resident of the city asked, "So, how was the swim?"
"Not bad, but I think I'll go earlier. I'll start at sunrise, and swim towards it." I responded. I proceeded to the mess hall, which was in the living quarters. They were the top row of spheres. There are 4 rows.
In the mess hall there weren't many people here, not at this time any ways. Lunch is the busiest time. Almost everyone is in here, except fro the night crew. With about 150 people on board at any given time, this place is never quiet.
I finished my meal, and headed up to the bridge, the center sphere on the first level
"Sir, do you have the list ready?" I asked the commander as I walked in, still in my swimsuit.
"Yes, mostly the usual maintenance. Also, can you check why all of the faucets on Alpha level, 4-2 are pouring out water and soap at the same time." Commander Berkas told me chuckling at the idea.
The levels of spheres are labelled alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Each sphere is numbered 1 to 4 according to its position relative to true south. Sphere 1 is closest to true south, and the rest are in according to a clockwise numbering system. Each sphere has up to 6 levels depending on what is in the sphere. The living quarters have six levels, the recreation area has two levels, the research labs have four levels, and mechanical has two.
"What was it last week, somehow sugar got into the water system for all of alpha one? I think while im at it I will check with security about installing more cameras and infrared cameras" I responded.
For the last month we have had glitches appear in various things from having helium mixed in with the air supply to having the lights connected with all switches in the sphere. It is never in the same place, and it is all annoying things, nothing damaging. At least not yet.
I grabbed the PDA, and headed to the lockers. The lockers held everything that you might ever need. I grabbed a pair of chemical resistant coveralls - rubberized coveralls that prevent anything to get between it and your body, and a PAST - personal air supply tank, unlike a scuba set up, this has a regulator and hose connected to a small tank that will last about one hour. I also grabbed a chemical mask. I put them on, then proceeded to the only access point before the water heads to the spheres; nicknamed the water tank.
I opened the door, walked along a metal mesh gangway to the pump controls. All of the various gauges were reading as they should. I walked along the gangway, looking for tampering on or near any pipes, especially those leading to the affected area. Everything looked as it should, which is very odd. The only other place that it could have been tampered with is outside the spheres. Which of course means a swim outside.
I headed back to the locker room, changed out of the clothes I was in. I hung the air tank back up, unused. I grabbed my wetsuit, and scuba gear, then headed to the dive well.
The dive well is designed to permit people to enter the water without diving from the surface, or to enter a pressurised chamber. ORCA is pressurised to prevent implosion. Various levels are at various pressures. The dive well is actually 3 chambers. The first from the inside is a mini compression/decompression chamber. This brings you to the pressure of the sea from the pressure of ORCA. The second one, is a dry well, the opening to the sea never gets above a certain level. The thirds chamber is outside. It allows emergency closing off of the area. With the latest technology, it takes less than five minutes to go from the outside to the inside of the station.
"Anything interesting going on out there?" I asked as I got into my dive gear.
"Aside from the normal stuff, no." the dive instructor responded.
"Has anyone noticed anything unusual? Something on one of the spheres?" I asked him.
"No, why?" he asked.
"Something weird is going on. Things don't work as they are supposed to." I tried to explain.
"Do you have any idea as to whom may be doing these things." he asked.
"No idea, but I will find out" I told him. I put the regulator in my mouth, then slid into the water.
The water was crystal clear, typical of the area. While under construction special blankets designed to filter out particles were used. They were in the shape of a box that went from the sea floor to the surface, nearly 50 metres. Fish swim rather close to the city. It isn't unusual to see fish come as close as one metre from yourself.
I swam towards the affected sphere. There are small access panels on each sphere to allow repairs to various systems. The panels are difficult to remove, for the first time at least. A good way to tell if it has been tampered with would be if I get it off easy.
The diving well was on gamma level, which meant that I had over 20 metres to swim. All portals are designed to allow you to look out, but not look in. All spheres are labelled, so all I would have to do is look for A4.
I swam around to the access point on A4. A special tool is required to remove the fasteners. The panel was 40 cm by 40 cm, too small for me to climb in. Actually, to small for just about any one to go through, except a small child. The panel had a small chain that prevented it to drop to the abyss below. I removed the last clip, and the panel fell off, stopped only by the chain.
"Someone has been in here," I though as I reached for my flashlight. I shone my light into the area inside. It had various panels. The area inside was about one metre cube. On either side was electrical cables, which looked fine. The top was video feeds, which looks how it should. The bottom was for sewer, which looked fine. The back was for the water supply. The panels that covered it was not sitting right. I grabbed my reaching hook, and opened the panel.
I could not believe my eyes. There was a four litre jug attached to one of the hoses labelled 4-2. "How in the world did that get here?" I muttered to myself. "This is going to be interesting to remove."
I swam back to the diving well.
"Shut off the water for Alpha 4-2, and re route the water supply from 4-3" I said to the commander over the intercom when I got into the diving well.
"Pardon me? What was that?" The commander came back.
"Someone has connected a jug of soap in the line. It will be a while till I can get it out." I responded.
"A repair crew has be dispatched." the commander informed me.
As I was walking to my office I tried to figure out how someone could get that in there. It was designed to not allow access, except for robotic equipment. We have one, but its has been out of commission for about 2 weeks. If someone did get in, they would have to be small, smaller than most kids. I typed in the criterial into HELEN, the computer, and had it list the results with the smallest first.
The first one is Jake Reilly. The "computer wiz", nicknamed Froggy. Waist size 6. I brought up all information on this child. Camera views, equipment usage, even how many times he was out of the city. The most recent time that he was out of the city was 30 hours ago, about the time that the problem arose. He had used his wetsuit, a pair of goggles, a PAST, and his swim fins. He went out diving with Brett Bates who used simular things, except he had a proper diving mask and a proper breathing apparatus. I decided to pay our frog a visit.
Part 3
It was early evening, and the computer confirmed my thoughts that he would be at his cabin. I walked up to his door, and rang the chime. The door opened, and his father was standing on the other side.
"May I help you?" he asked me.
"Mr. Reilly, may I speak with your son, Jake. " I ask him.
"Hold on" he said, walked a way, and called for his son.
"How can I help you?" Jake asked me after running from his room.
"I need to speak to him regarding something. Is it ok if he comes with me to my office?" I said to his father, then showed my ID card that said that I was with the officer staff.
"Sure, I guess, how long?" Mr Reilly asked.
"I doubt longer than a half hour. " I told him.
His father nodded his head, and we left headed to my office.
"What would you like to talk about?" Jake asked me.
"I'll tell you when we get there, Jake." I told him.
"Call me Froggie, everyone else does." he informed me.
It took less than five minutes to get to the office. Once there he sat across from me at my desk. I punched a few things on my computer. Then I looked directly at him.
"Is there anything you would like to tell me?" I asked him.
"No," he said quietly.
"If you tell me now, your parents may not find out." I informed him, trying to let him feel like it was in his best interest to talk.
"I don't know what you are talking about, sir." he told me.
"What size pants do you wear?" I asked.
"Six, why?" he said.
"Well," I started. "Someone, about your size has sabotaged the water system."
"Do you have proof of whom did it?" he asked, rather hesitant of what my answer might be.
"I have enough that would cause the persons involved, plus their families to be removed from ORCA." I informed him. "One call, and 2 children, and their families are gone. I don't want to do that, but if you have information I might be more lenient." I tried to persuade him.
"How lenient?" he asked, sounding interested at the possibilities.
"Well, the 'lucky' persons, would assist in removing the equipment. Their parents wont even be involved. They may not even find out." I told him, hoping he would do what's right.
"They'd find out. Parents have a way of finding out." he told me.
"Do you know who I am?" I asked.
"Ya, you are the person in charge of the maintenance of this place." he said.
"Yes, but I am much more. I actually designed and built this place." I told him.
"Ya right and I am superman." he said.
"Fine, if you don't want to be of assistance, I will bring these files to the commander. I suspect you, your family, and Brett Bates, and his family will be taking the next boat back to the mainland." I told him, giving up on the niceness. He was not going to help. So why give him the chance out of trouble?
Froggie sat there for a moment, and didn't say a thing, he just looked at the ceiling, feeling upset that he had to betray a friend, to ensure they didn't leave.
"We did it." he said quietly. "We hooked up the container to the water supply. Please don't tell my dad, he'd kill me if he found out." he said, disheartened for the things he just said. "Please don't tell Brett I told you, he was just my safety diving buddy. He didn't do anything 'cept make sure I didn't drown."
"He may not have hooked it up, but he did more than what you have said. He got the bottle. He got the clamps. And he got the schematics for the water system." I told him, showing that I DID know what was going on.
"What will our punishment be?" he asked, scared of what I would say.
"Have you and Brett meet me in a half hour in the diving well with you swim suits on. We will fix the problem. I will inform both of your parents that you and him are assisting me in business related to city safety. Something that I can not do. I will make it sound good, not bad." I reassured him.
"Ok," he said.
"You may leave." I told him.
I called both parents, and informed them that their child was needed to assist with a city repair, that we could not do without them. Their parents, hearing this, were more than willing to have them assist.
I was standing outside the door to the diving well in my swimsuit. I heard two children talking as they approached. As they came closer, I saw it was them. They were dressed as I had requested, in their swimsuits.
"Ok, now what we will be doing is you two will remove everything you put in the water system and I will be there if something goes wrong. I will be making sure that you do as you are supposed to." I told Froggie and Brett as we walked into the change rooms. They both nodded, not wanting to say anything. I put on my wetsuit, and helped both of them to get theirs on. I then helped Brett put on his breathing apparatus. As he did it up, I put mine on. Froggie grabbed for his PAST, a pair of goggles, and internal nose plugs. He put the nose plugs in, then put on his goggles, and we all walked to the entrance to outside.
"Brett you go first. Then Froggie, you go. I'll follow. Wait for me outside." I said to them.
"Ok," they both said. And with that, Brett put his regulator in his mouth, and slid into the water. Froggie put the mouthpiece of the PAST into his mouth, and dove headfirst into the water. I put the regulator into my mouth, slid into the water to meet up with them.
They were waiting for me. We swam up to the panel, that I had left off.
"Ok, get into there, so that you can remove the stuff you put there." I told them over the intercom. Froggie took off his PAST, and placed it into the access room. He then pointed his hands inside as Brett pushed him slowly inside. He allowed himself tu curl up so as to not take up space. There was barely a few centimetres clearance around him and the frame of the access room, and him. Once he was in fully, he wriggled around so he was uncoiled. He reached for his PAST, taking a much needed breath.
Brett passed him a small bag that had some tools that they had used; a couple screwdrivers, a hammer, 2 adjustable wrenches, and a few locking plyers. Froggie proceeded to shut the waterline off. He then disconnected the hoses leading into the sphere. He also disconnected the hoses leading in from the water supply. He removed the venturi connector, a device used to mix a liquid with another on a high pressure line. He passed the venturi connector, with the soap container still hooked up to it to Brett. He put the tools back into bag, then passed those to Brett. He put his PAST down, and pointed his hands out. I pulled him out slowly, careful to avoid him getting caught on the sides of the panel frame. Once out, he reached in, and grabbed his PAST, put it in, and took a much needed breath. They both assisted me in closing the access panel, and we headed back in.
The boys came out of the dive well ahead of me. They waited until I came out.
"We are sorry that we did that." Brett said to me.
"Lets get out of our wetsuits, and we will talk about that." I said as we headed to the change area.
We put our wetsuits away, and we headed up to my office, in our swim suits.
"Are there any other 'incident's' I should be aware of?" I asked them when we were sitting in my office.
The looked at me, scared of saying anything. Then Froggie looked at me and said, "What do you mean?"
"Well, we have had many things occurring that are simular to this, in which, the things done were annoying, but not too damaging. Did you two have anything to do with it?" I asked.
They said nothing.
"If I was to go back through the computer's logs, would it be a coincidence that you two were around the area, and had access to the things used to cause these problems?" I asked.
"Well..." Brett started.
"Things may look that way, but.." Froggie continued, but trailed off.
"But what? If I have to go digging in the computer to find out the truth, I will, but your parents will find out. And, if anything ever happens again, you two and your families will be escorted off the city. I don't want to do this, but I need to ensure the safety of everyone aboard." I explained to them.
"If we say things to you, your not going to say anything to our parents? They'd surely find out." Brett told me.
"They don't know the truth about this. They think that we need your help to fix something that we can't, and its not a bad thing, or caused by you. Everything else, they don't know about. Not yet at least" I told them, knowing full well that they did some or all of the things that I have been fixing for the last month.
They looked at each other, then they looked at me and Brett asked, "what are the things, and we shall tell you truthfully if we had anything to do with them."
"Well, the first thing happened about a month ago. Some how the helium tanks were connected to the air supply, and the air mixture was changed to lower the amount of nitrogen in the air, not affecting the oxygen amount. Did you have anything to do with this?" I asked.
"Yes," They said in unison.
"Did it cause any damage?" Brett asked me.
"A couple of people came down with headaches, but nothing serious, or long term." I told them. "What about hooking up all of beta 3 lighting system so all lights would turn on, or off when anyone would turn on or off any of the switches? Did the two of you have anything to do with it?" I asked them.
"Yes, we did do that too, we didn't mean to do any damage. Was any damaged done?" Brett told me.
"No, just a lot of annoyed people. You are lucky that they don't know who did it. I don't know what they would do, but it wouldn't be nice" I told them. "Now, what about sugar? Did you two do that too?"
"We hate the taste of the water, we thought it would make it taste better. It did, so I guess we were half right, that it would do what we wanted it to." Froggie told me.
"Are there any things that I don't know about?" I asked them.
"No, not yet..." Brett told me.
"...and it wont happen. We wont have this conversation again. If we do, the two of you will be on the next boat out." I cut in. "If you promise me that you wont play any pranks, or do anything to anything I wont tell your parents. I will make a log of this, but keep it confidential. Ok?" I asked.
"Yes, we wont do anything again. Please don't tell our parents." Brett said. Froggie nodded his head in agreance.
"You are excused. You may go back to your cabins. I don't want us to have this conversation again, I don't want anyone to have this conversation with you. Am I clear?" I asked sternly.
"Yes" they said together.
"Thank you for not telling our parents." Froggie said.
"Ya, thank you sir." Brett said as they walked out.
"We are lucky." Brett said quietly to Froggie when they were just out of view of me.
"Boys will be boys," I muttered to myself as I turned and looked back to my computer. I entered the information into the computer, shut it off, then headed out the door to my cabin.
Part 4
That was my life, it always would be my life. I have no children. I am not married. I have no desire to have either, because, I am all most 45, and I feel that I would be too old to raise kids. I can barely keep up with the 50 or so kids here.
Not that I am saddened by it. I just have no desire. This city, the people in it, and the many cities simular to this one, they are all my children. My work is what I will be remembered for. I don't need a family. I see my sibling, whom are all over the world, at Christmas. We go to whomever turn it is. My parents are long gone, natural causes.
My sibling's children love me. They have spent many a summers here. They are like me in certain ways. They love the water, they love sea creatures, and they love natural beauty. When I visit, they can always expect something from the area.
I have 2 sisters and a brother. I am the oldest, my brother, the youngest, lives in Britain. He drives truck for a major company. He loves the company, and loves it there. My youngest sister lives in California, just outside of Los Angeles. She commutes an hour to and from work each day. She makes twice as much as me, but has less happiness. When she comes here, she has told me that it is too slow. I guess that she is too used to the hustle and bustle of big city life. Sidney is too slow for her, and I find it too busy. My older sister lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She loves it there. They live in the country. She has her own business. A small restaurant, it makes good money, and she loves the work.
And then there is me. When I was 25, I got the first job I could get on a tanker leaving Vancouver's harbour, headed for this area. I got here in two months, one oft he worst rides I have ever been on, but they were paying me over $3000 a month, expenses paid. Once here I work as a forklift operator in Sidney harbour. In my spare time, I came up with the drawings, and the plans to build this station. I would take weekends and learn the area. I would learn how to scuba, and how to surf. Being from Edmonton, I never thought I would be surfing. It was rather fun.
My plans finally reached the senate, for a review to see if it could be permitted. They past the amendment to allow it on my 33rd birthday. The best gift I have ever received. The money to get it built was another thing. To come up with the roughly 20 million to build it would be difficult. I contacted all research companies that were involved with oceanography, the study of the ocean. Most would give about one million, providing that I allow them to post some of their scientists onboard. I gladly said yes. I still needed about half, or $10 million. I headed to major governments, the Australian, USA, Canada, Great Britain, China, Japan, France, Spain, and The Netherlands. All gave about one million each, providing that they could post people here as well.
They had started construction when I was 39, and took three and a half years to complete. During those years, I live out of a boat moored to the platform. If a storm was predicted, such that it would be unsafe for me to stay here, I would head to shore, and life in what is now the land base for this city. My office was able to be occupied when I was 43 and I was glad when I was able to finally stay underwater. Here there is a certain calmness. Even if the seas are the roughest in 30 years, even if there is a war going on. Down here is immune to that.
People working down here do it for many reasons. The biggest, is the fact that you have the Great Barrier Reef with in a twenty minute swim, or a five minute boat ride. With in a twenty kilometre radius of the city is over 35 islands, most are less than one square kilometre. There are 5 that are over one square kilometre. One is so big that is may become a resort, if certain companies have anything to do with it.
Since the beginning, we have about two typhoons a year. The latest one was a category two. Not the worst ever, but worst this has seen. No damage was done. And underwater, you couldn't tell if there was something going on. That is the good thing about down here, storms will do damage to things above, but we don't get any of the problems down here.
We are not in the Great Barrier Reef. We are about a half kilometre away. We were not permitted to build closer. Greenpeace hates us because we are so close. One time they were given a tour, and to their surprise, this place is built better than the boats that they use to travel around with.
I have lived a good life. A hard one, but a good one. I remember of the many dreams I would have as a kid. A beautiful ocean that I would call home. Kind of odd coming from someone who grew up on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Since I was two, I could swim, by ten, I could out swim anyone on my swim team. Most people thought I would become an olympian, but, well, that is kind of hard to explain. No money to go further, no chance to get better. I was working at 18, doing over 70 hours a week, just to make ends meet. I put myself though college, and university studying aquatic biology. I graduated with honours, but could not find a job in that field. So, I pack up what I needed to survive, and headed to Vancouver to make my childhood dreams come true.
I sipped on my tea, relaxing and reminiscing on the past.
"I think I ll go for a swim." I though. I put on my swim suit, grabbed my swimming goggles, and my towel. Then I headed topside.
There are four beacons place one kilometre away from the platform. They are at true north, south east and west. My swim was always to one, and back, going to each. On average it would take about an hour and a half to do all eight kilometres.
The water was calmer than normal. There was no wind, which was very unusual. I put my goggles on, climbed up to the top of the one story building and dove in, heading for true north. The drop was about 15 metres to the surface of the water. I made a perfect entry into the water, and started swimming.
I had just gotten to the north beacon, and started to head back. I had about three quarters of a kilometre to go. I started to feel something weird. It was as though the water got extremely cold. It was like I was shivering, but not a cold induced shiver.
I barely made it to the edge of the platform. I grabbed the edge, pulled myself to the intercom, and pressed the emergency button.
I passed out.
more to come