FREE   on  the   SEA

  ARKON   CH-01 Getting on Station

All six modules of ARKON-1 launched on New Year's Day to great fanfare. After 3 weeks of sea trials they hooked up with their Agro- Sembly barges and headed out for their rendezvous station (15 N, 175W), cruising at 7 kph, twice as fast as most ocean currents. February and March being the minimum storm period. When on station they will be carefully bolted and welded together into a large hexagonal floating island, 1000 m across, with protected slot anchorage for cargo and guest boats.

Just as they were finishing their second glass of red wine in their cabin, after dinner in the cafeteria, Logan and Tango were surprised by the blinking of their wall screen and their commo pods laying on the counter. 'Now all hands hear this. In celebration of our passing sea trials there will be a Beer and Pizza Party on the fantail this Saturday night. All hands not on watch or work welcome.' "Wow!" said Tango, "Captain Jensen gets high marks for social awareness." "It is certainly good for morale," said Logan, "Now how about some serious pounding?" "I'm up for that, and it looks like you are too," she giggled.

Their cabin, at 4 by 3 meters, was a little bit compact but they had been living in the same size room on shore at the training compound. Plus the soft requirement that applicants be 1.4 to 1.7 meters height made the 2 meter ceiling height tolerable. It came with a counter and a small sink with a 1.5 cubic foot refrigerator underneath and a hot pot on top. There were two shelves above the counter. On the opposite wall was a bed large enough for two friends with cabinets and drawers underneath. It was not luxurious but allowed them to save money for a baby in the next year. There was no one under the legal age of 16 in the initial crew. There was a park and sporting activities like a jogging track, tennis, indoor shooting range, and gyms to give them an outlet when they needed to unwind from the close space.

At work the next day Logan asked his buddy Jack, "What do you think about the fantail party Saturday night? Are you going?" They were both in the Lectra Powa guild and were stringing some cables for a new bioreactor project. The output of the three new bioreactors would be blended to produce snack bars that are nutritionally balanced and provide 500 calories each. "Yeah, Bonnie and I are going," replied Jack, "She was surprised Captain Jensen was relaxing a little bit. He was always such a stickler for rules and regulations. I told her it must have been his wife's idea. Bonnie is on the noon to 18.00 shift this month so we will probably drop by around 20.00. Why don't you look us up there?" "That sounds like a good idea," said Logan, "Tango and I have the same shift this month and get off at 12.00."

Work schedules on Arkon were arranged in 6 hour shifts from 6 to 12 day shift, noon to 6 afternoon shift, and six to midnight evening shift. There was a seldom scheduled graveyard shift from Midnight to 6 a.m. Sometimes they would change, say from days to evening, on a monthly basis depending on work requirements.

At the party Saturday night Bonnie said, "One of my friends in Lektra Sigs said the idea for the celebration came from  Commodore Kaiser's wife. His designated Flagship is Arkon-A which is leading the flotilla.... I'm glad we're in module D. It's never good to be too close to command central, heh."

"A lady I know working in Hospitality said one of her customers bought shares in a new LA- Dago real estate venture," said Tango, "She said it was going to be a floating crime-free island just off the coast. Open for business this December, called Babylon." "Well, the design is open source," said Logan, "I wonder if they will give us competition?" "I don't think so," said Jack, "it is a big ocean. I wonder if that is related to an email I got from a friend in Hong Kong. He said some Asian 'Garks and Geeks had a new real estate concept to sell shares in. A high-tech luxury condo Island 2000 km Southeast from Japan. It was to be called Shangri-La, ready for business in February next year."

After 65 days of uneventful cruising the Arkon flotilla arrived on station, about 2000 km southwest of Hawaii. This was not by accident because their route had been planned to take them north of the typical typhoon storm tracks. In 2020 the global temperature was about 14 deg C and now it was down to 13.5 due to the quiet sun. This made the equatorial-  polar temperature gradient much bigger creating more powerful storms.

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