I met Professor Pitts on the Surface; he’s one of the few people I might just as easily have run into in the Depths. One of the rare ones who hold office both Above and in the Abyss. He straightens his bow tie as he sits down at the table.
“Good afternoon, Professor, and thank you for accepting my request.”
“Look, young man, I didn’t really have much of a choice. Off the record: the President himself told me I had to sit down with you. I’ve given plenty of interviews already, so let’s just get this done.”
“May we start with the technical questions? About the Reef and how it moves across the ocean.”
“Of course. The Patch—or the Reef, as the locals, and you people too, like to call it—covers close to 17,000 kilometres every year. Roughly 10–12,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic, from the Caribbean up to Greenland, with stops in New York and Ireland, not to mention the Bermudas and the Canaries, where we dock as well. I see you’re taking notes. Let me spare you the calculation: 2 km/h, that’s 1.08 knots. On average, since there are days when we go faster and months when we go slower. That’s part of why the crews of the escort ships love serving here. They stop for an hour or two, sometimes half a day, take a swim, and catch up with us in just a few hours.”
“As head of the joint S/A committee, may I ask about the Reef’s propulsion?”
“The Reef’s propulsion—and in fact its entire energy supply—rests on the ITWR plant. Even before the Troubles, there was a mutual agreement in place, which has since been reinforced, but the core of it is the ITWR. That plant, more than 100 meters deep—I can’t give you the exact number—basically powers both levels. What’s more, we even recharge the fleets that protect us. Except, of course, the 2nd USN and the 1st PLAN fleets, since they’re nuclear self-sufficient. As for us, we’re fine. If we could, and if it were permitted, we would export energy. Look, we circle the Atlantic, between the EU and the USA—at least what’s left of them. The Patch would obviously love to sell its energy, even its technology. But we can’t. Since the Troubles, this is the only thing that keeps us safe. It’s what binds the Uppers and the Lowers together. If there’s one thing we all agree on, it’s this: the fusion reactor is ours, and maybe the only thing on the Reef everyone will say, ‘It belongs to us.’ The fusion is beneath us, the fusion roams the ocean, and we don’t believe it should be sold to either shore.”
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