Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

CHAPTER 2

“Oceanus… a Titan from Greek mythology,” Hallbright said.

“Yes,” said Jona. “He was the Titan god of the river Okeanos, which was believed to encircle the world and connect the earth to the heavens and the underworld. Anyway, Oceanus is an artificial floating atoll and it is all floating on… trash!”

“Trash! Incredible!” said an excited Hallbright, “I recalled watching videos of a floating island made of thousands of recycled plastic bottles in the Caribbean coast of Mexico… built by… ah… Reishee Sowa.”

“In fact, his designs and experiences were a large factor into the workings of the Oceanus Project,” explained Jona. “Of course, our floating creation is a lot more extensive than Mr. Sowa’s little island.”

“To what end?” asked Alicia who had her camera on him.

“The Oceanus Project is not just a floating city. She is our answer to the Great Pacific garbage patch. Now, before you ask any questions, the pilot is going to orbit Oceanus twice and then we will land. Enjoy the view.”

As Alicia turn the camera on Oceanus, she zooms in for a better look. Jona called it a floating atoll. By definition, an atoll is a ring-shaped reef that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. This is definately ring-shaped and it brought to mind another man-made atoll in Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah; except that this one floats. As they orbited closer, she saw that there were actually two rings; the outer ring of which is narrower than the inner. Both rings had foliage. As they came closer, she recognized that the foliage on the outer ring were mangroves. The inner ring seem to have more variety of foliage including the recognizable palm and coconut trees.

‘How in heaven did they get mangrove and coconut trees to grow on floating trash?’ she thought. ‘A definate question to ask later.’

By the look of it, the diameter of Oceanus is about twice the length of one of those supertankers, about 4000 feet or so. The rings, however, did not form a complete circle, however. In actuality, the atoll is made up of two arcs, their ends of which were attached to two superstructures, one of which seem to be the bow of a freighter which was cut in half.

On the other end was another superstructure but a lot more different from the bow. As the chopper flew by it, she saw that this superstructure was about nine stories high above sea level. The structure itself is built up on twin catamaran hulls, but by the look of the darker colored waters underneath there seem to be more underwater. The opening between the hulls is the gateway into the lagoon. By the look of it, a sailboat can go through it with space to spare. Now, the chopper was giving them a better view of the lagoon.

“I see that you expanded the inner side of the ring,” it was the Admiral’s voice.

Alicia saw that from the inner side of the ring, the floating land roughly extended out. On it were about twenty or so dome huts.

“Well, the villagers needed more ground space for their cottage industries,” Jona said. “They’re quite enterprising. Did you know that the women figured out how to convert seaweed into toilet paper? We are slowly and surely becoming less reliant to outside supplies.”

“What’s that big island?”

“That’s the staff’s residence island. That’s where we will be staying.”

Alicia panned the camera to the big island mound near the bow. On it were six dome structures encircling a larger double decked structure also with a dome roof.

“The smaller island is still under construction,” said Jona. “That will be eventually fused with the residence island.”

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.