Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 16

Two days later, Alicia was reviewing a video that her crew finished editing earlier today. 

‘Oceanus has six power plants,’ Alicia reported, standing in-front of an electrical console with six monitors displaying several colorful graphs depicting power generators. 

According to Director Quimby, each power plant can generate enough electricity for a large town or even a city.’ 

She approached Jona Quimby who was busy surveying another screen on the navigation station. ‘Director? Your processing plants practically run 24/7, consuming a great amount of electricity. Now, I have been up and down your facilities, so far I have seen some solar panels and a number of wind vanes, but I have yet to see any large generators that can feed your massive production.’

Jona Quimby invited her to accompany him out onto the protruding port wing of the Bridge. ‘Do you see the outer ring?’ asked the director. 

The video camera panned and zoomed in to the outer ring section closest to them. The floating shoreline was dramatically bobbing up and down from the 30 foot swells.

‘You see, the waves constantly move the outer rim in an up and down motion. What you don’t see is what is underwater. Let us go back inside.’ 

The camera followed them back to the same console that Alicia started this video report from. He tapped on the screen of one of the six monitors. The graphics changed into an animated horizontal illustration of the outer ring and the main island ring which had a greater mass than the outer. Attached underwater from the main to the outer is an extended arm. 

‘What you are looking at is the technology to generate sustainable energy by converting the kinetic energy of the ocean waves into electricity. As the rim bobs up and down, the extended arm harvests energy from the ocean waves which drive a piston generator system located many decks under the main infrastructure. Though Oceanus has six generators, we actually only utilize two of those power plants at a time.’

Alicia paused the video when her soundman came through her door with one of his recorders.

“You’ve got to hear this, boss,” said her soundman excitedly. “Your hunch to bug different areas of the crew mess paid off. The bug I set up at a corner table picked up this conversation probably in an adjacent table. Now, they were whispering, so I had to boost it up a lot. Listen.” He pressed play.

“Adakah anda meletakkan peranti itu, belum?”

“Tidak belum lagi. Terdapat kerja pembaikan di laluan merangkak.”

“Bilakah anda akan cuba lagi?”

“Dalam dua hari. Saya tidak boleh mengambil peluang untuk dilihat di kawasan yang saya tidak ditugaskan juga. Bilakah kita sepatutnya pergi?”

“Apabila mereka mengumumkan ‘meninggalkan kapal’.”

The rest of the whispered conversation faded as if they walked away.

“What language was that?” asked Alicia.

“My translation program identified it as Malay. Here’s the printout with the English translation.”

Alicia read the sheet then her eyes went wide.

“When was this recorded?”

“Time stamp made it about 48 hours ago.”

Alicia was silent for a long while, which was a big surprise to the soundman.

“I have to see Director Quimby right away.”

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