Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

CHAPTER 1

‘It is good to be home,’ thought Jona Quimby.

He had arrived from the states and had boarded a large chopper which was revving up it tandem rotors at a private hanger across from the domestic airport of Manila, Philippines.

The chopper is a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter formerly purchased from the United States Navy by his organization. The usually sparse interior was decked out with a number of comfortable airline seats good for 18 passengers leaving a large space at the rear for cargo which was being loaded with different sized crates.

“Jona? How the heck did you get this navy chopper?” asked his companion as he stowed his bags in an upper compartment.

His name is Tony Hallbright, a marine biologist Jona met at a scientific symposium he attended at Seattle, Washington. Tony was young and was only 2 years in his field. From out of more than twenty experienced marine biologists Jona met with, he chose Tony because he was the most eager and not hampered with the traditional habits.

Jona smiled at him and said, “I have a friend in congress, a retired admiral, who believes in our project.”

“So, where are we flying to now?”

“Well, we’ll fly for about 3 hours going southeast to the Pacific side of Luzon,” Jona said, “… to a protective bay called San Sebastian in the province of Bicol.”

Tony was speedily typing out San Sebastian Bay Bicol on his search engine of his smart phone.

“Aha, is this it?”

Tony showed him a Google map satelite image of the bay on his phone. Jona gave him the thumbs up.

“Relax for a while, Tony. I have to talk to the pilot.”

Jona entered the cockpit to where the pilot and the co-pilot were going over their checklist.

Maj. Jerome Roque was a retired pilot of the Philippine Air Force. Jona first met him some ten years ago during the Marawi City conflict. Jona was a marine officer on a reconnoiter mission about five blocks deep into the city. He and his six man squad were on top of a seven storey structure when he noticed an OV-10 Bronco, an airforce twin prop plane diving straight at them. Jona was rivetted as he traced the trajectory of a single bomb drop. He thought they were dead and he so wanted to punch out that pilot’s lights. But the bomb by passed the building they were in and impacted into a structure across the street from them which to his surprise flushed out a great number of insurgents. Weeks later, he met that same pilot, a Captain Roque at that time, and they became close friends after that.

“Hi Jer, kumusta?” (‘how are things?’)

“You sure took your time getting back,” said Jer as he turned to face him. “You were supposed to be back a month ago.”

“I had to stay a little bit longer,” said Jona. “Our backers wanted a more extensive report and they also took their time to put a delegation together.”

“Another inspection? Don’t they know we launch in a couple of days?”

“They wanted to be there for it. This deligation is going to be with us a long while.”

Jer rolled his eyes up, shaking his head. “Well, I pray they don’t turn this into some kind of publicized stunt.”

“Don’t worry, Jer. Our backers like ourselves do not want to attract too much attention.”

“So, Jona? Who are in this delegation? Is that young guy back there, one of them?”

“No,” Jona snickered. “He’s a young enthusiastic marine biologist I picked up at Seattle.”

“Young? How experienced is he?”

“Well, he’s a little green…”

“What?!” Jer smirked. “Oho ho ho ho… Mae is going to kill you. She is expecting a more experienced guy.”

Jona smiled impishly. Jer’s face lit up with understanding. Laughing out loud, he got up out of his seat. “I’m just going to have a peek.” He peered through the cockpit door at Tony Hallbright then quickly sat back down in his seat, chuckling. “She’s going to have him for breakfast. As for you… you better get off and catch a plane back to the states.”

“Ha ha ha! Very funny.”

(To be continued…)

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Note from the author:
Oceanus Adventure is a fun effort on my part to enter the wonderful world of creative writing. It’s a story of a group of people who launched themselves into the Pacific Ocean on an artificial island to solve the Great Pacific garbage patch. My hopes is that this will end up into a TV series.

Comments and idea suggestions will be most welcomed. I hope you enjoy.