The Ocean Raider headed north at a steady 25 knots.
Early next morning at breakfast, the guests and some of the crew became agitated and excited, at the awesome and unexpected sight of countless gas tankers moored mid ocean.
The ships were taking on gas from a massive floating terminal that stretched 2km across. From the deck of the Ocean Raider, this looked like a straight horizontal line against the horizon, but had they been able to look down on it, they would have seen a shape like a giant starfish.
The floating pontoons extended out from the central hub by about 1km, and kept perfectly on station by numerous engines fueled by harvested gas. Along the top of the pontoons, ran massive pipes with flexible joints and motorized failsafe valves at each end, where the pontoons were connected.
In the event of a bad storm the ships would depart, and even if the segments of the terminal broke away from each other, the gas remaining in the sealed pipes would power the navigation engines for days. One of the reasons for choosing this location was the stable fine weather.
There was much speculation on the ship about the purpose of the terminal and Captain Steel quickly found out all he could about the spectacle. He made a ship wide announcement that the terminal was the visible part of a gas-harvesting complex. A few government departments and energy companies knew of its existence, but because it was small scale and not in anyone’s back yard, it was ignored.
Ocean Raider skirted around the terminal, and headed to where the gas tanker had exploded looking for wreckage, but they found nothing.
After reading the report from Max and Carla, Sam ordered the ship back to Hamilton for a few days. Everyone could relax onshore until it was time to meet up with US1.