Welcome to Atlantis
Now that the capital had been explored, everyone just seemed to congregate in the shade of the trees between Cleito's Temple and the Palace, wondering what to do next.
Mark decided maybe he should make an announcement, "So you are probably all wondering... we've explored the capital, what now?
As the first people to visit Atlantis, everyone here has the unique opportunity to be the first to explore the rest of the island. For those of you wishing to permanently relocate to Atlantis... by all means go off exploring. We have a lift system here already, so you can pretty much go anywhere on the island. The lift system is free if you use the public lift terminals as they function more like public transit, but you can only go to other public transit stops. If you need to go elsewhere, you'll need to use your wrist consoles and then the lift is private and you pay for it, although without anything else on the island, you really can't go anywhere except the public transit stops, so why pay?
Also effective immediately, I'd like all shuttle traffic to go through the spaceport, since it is operational, just currently unmanned. For efficiency, the shuttles can drop you off directly on the roof rather than making you walk through the port terminal.
For everyone from the Embassy, today and tomorrow will be moving day, so make sure anything in your rooms or work areas that you want to keep is packed up and on a shuttle. I don't mind if those shuttles don't use the spaceport, since they're moving stuff to the surface, just no long term parking.
For those of you that are not looking to relocate, I'd appreciate if we could get some volunteer kitchen staff to make meals in at the pavilion for breakfast, lunch and supper. Once transports start arriving, there will also be meals at the pavilions in the respective sections.
Starting tomorrow, I'd like to have at least minimal personnel in medical and kitchens as well as administrators running services, like the Planning Office, and getting things organized and ready at the port terminal.
From what I've been told, the first few transports full of people will be here in two or three days and it could get busy around here and I imagine some of the prime real estate spots will go fast. So even if you don't build at this time, it might be worth it to claim your lot! Likewise if you are looking to start a business in Acropolis, you can choose a location for your business and visit the Planning Office.
I'm not sure of the shuttle plans or schedules, but if you find yourself stuck here after they all leave, we have plenty of rooms here in the palace. All embassy staff can stay here at the palace to be closer to your work areas, until you find a place to call your own.
If you don't want to explore right now, the ocean is 12 kilometres to the East, Poseidon's Garden is at the base of Mount Pnyx to the West or you could relax in one of the parks around the city, or maybe grab some sports equipment and have a game, it's your time to do with as you please."
As everyone started to disperse, the breakfast club stuck around, which made Mark ask, "
Cricket, we do have Internet access on the island right?
"
Cricket said, "
Of course, we are linked to the Embassy in orbit and to the routing devices that the staff in Calgary have at their homes, plus the communications array at the ranch is still linked to an Earth-based Internet provider."
Mark said, "
Something in orbit? We were going to deconstruct the embassy, maybe we should repurpose it somehow?
"
Cricket suggested, "
Why not turn it into a security station? All other Federated planets have at least one, Earth could have one too!
"
As Mark finished his conversation with Cricket, Zack informed him that there were several hundred messages and voicemails that had been received through the website and the phone number on it, including several from governments and organizations.
Since it looked like Mark was going to be busy for a while, he suggested that the girls go tour the island without him. He was going to go up to the office with the breakfast club and go over an action plan to handle the website inquiries and return a bunch of messages and calls.
After the girls had left to explore, Mark and the breakfast club went up to his office, since that was the only place he had to make phone calls.
The kids were in awe at the residence as they sat down at some tables on the northwest balcony outside his office, looking out at the mountains. Each of the kids was carrying an iPad, which was what they all bought with their first paycheques, and they were sifting through all the feedback form submissions.
When it came to the phone messages, they gathered in Mark's office with the kids sitting on couches around a square coffee table and Mark at his desk.
Most of the messages were from activists condemning the construction of the island and that they were destroying the balance of the Earth and ruining the ocean ecosystem, etc. Oddly enough there was also some activists that liked what the Federation was doing and they wanted the Federation to help the rest of the world clean up.
They decided to take the phone number off the website right away and just leave it as email only since the web form had spam protection and flood limiting. Then they were going to manage the valid inquiries and just relay stuff that had to be dealt with by other people.
As for the phone messages that weren't from the perpetual pits of gullible hypocrites, most were from other military or political officials and leaders, welcoming Atlantis to the planet and then vowing to meet at a later date to discuss trade and other world matters, and several were from news stations wanting to come visit.
Mark invited all of them to fly out to Atlantis, just make sure they messaged first with the ID of the plane they were on, but if they came out today they would get a fighter escort into the airport.
Once all the calls and messages were returned, everybody topped up their drinks and went out to the balcony to relax and look around.
While the breakfast club was doing that, Mark touched base with the girls, who were now on the south side of the island, travelling around the island clockwise scouting out possible locations for the new ranch. Annabelle told him to go check out the port, if he had a chance, it was very eye-catching and something that was very unique to the entire planet.
Mark fixed himself a cup of coffee and headed out to the balcony, where he found the breakfast club sitting at a table along the edge, where they had a spectacular view of the mountains.
As he sat down on a lounge chair, he asked, "So what's on your minds?"