Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 12

‘Behind me is the trash that we collected from the open sea, some 130 miles from the Republic of the Philippines. According to the chief of operations, our expedition from two days ago pulled in about 25 tons of plastics and other man-made objects.’

“Hey Alicia, are you trying to get yourself into trouble again?” asked Tina, one of the video producers. “Robby said only 10 tons was collected.”

“Well, then, I’ll look forward to getting a whole ear full from him,” Alicia said delightedly.

‘Earlier today, the expansive net that we used to gather all the trash was opened up and it’s content was dumped out. The next part of the process was the draining of the sea water. I was assured that the water was filtered of any man-made contaminants, that is residual chemical elements and compounds, before it was pumped back into the sea.

‘The trash was allowed to dry in the sun for about 3 hours. During that time, a number of Bajao women and their kids were allowed to scrounge through all that stuff by the administration to glean for recyclable items. One of those ladies came by to show me a pair of plastic children’s stools and a still fairly new Coleman cooler. I surmise that it recently fell overboard from someone’s boat.

The video transitioned to the trash being mechanically pushed into another greater pile which was also being fed into a conveyor that led to a building situated in the trees. Video transitioned again into an interior shot of the processing plant with Alicia standing infront of the conveyor with trash blurringly passing her.

‘We’re inside one of Oceanus’ two processing plants ready to turn these…’ She held up a handful of plastic bags and other discarded plastic items. ‘…into this…’ In her other hand, she held up a multi-colored cube (12 x 12 x 12 inch).

‘Now, we will show you a step by step process of…’ Then, there was a loud banging sound in the background. In the video, Alicia visibly flinched and alarmingly said, ‘What the @#$& was that?’ Alarms can be heard then the screen went blank.

“Well, Tina, will we be able to finish this video soon? I hate to broadcast an episode late. When did Robby say we shoot again?”

“He said repairs will be completed in 3 days. Meanwhile, we’ve got other materials to put together for an alternate subject.”

There was knock on the door.

“Come in,” Alicia said.

The one who entered was her sound man, Arturo.

“Ma’am Alicia… Ma’am Tina, I have some news about the breakdown. When I was storing the equipment, I overheard one of the plant supervisors talking to Director Quimby that this breakdown was no accident, but that is not all. This was not the first incident”

After Arturo told his story and left, Alicia was elated. “Tina, we’ve got an award winning story here. Imagine this headline: ‘SABOTAGE ON THE HIGH SEAS by Alicia Buenaventura’.”

“Well, boss, what’s the plan?”

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.