South Pacific - Book I

Introduction

02:11 – 11 September, 2066 – Rio Chico, Santa Cruz, Argentina

An earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale nearly split South America in two, creating a huge rift valley stretching across Patagonia. Two billion people were evacuated out of the entirety of the continent south of the equator. Scientists were confused as to what caused the earthquake, since the rift occurred nowhere near a fault line. It was tentatively concluded that it may have been caused by the shifting of the Antarctic and Nazca plates due to some unprecedented recent seismic activity in the Pacific, but to be sure, more in-depth studies would have to be conducted. The government of Venezuela decided to send down a team of seven scientists and researchers down to Patagonia to investigate.


17:24 – 27 December, 2070 – Torres del Paine National Park, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena, Chile

The seven scientists arrived at Rio California, a semi-self-sufficient research base constructed by a joint effort of the Venezuelan and Chilean governments. The base is positioned a safe distance away from the rift, in the forest, near the coast of the South Pacific Ocean. It is equipped with an airstrip, hangar, greenhouse, and many other practical and recreational amenities. The crew, most fresh out of grad school and all from different parts of the world, were sent to the base on a seven-year mission to discover the causation and undetectability of the earth-shattering tremor. Little did their superiors know that the group would form close friendships, deal with drama, discover themselves, and even find love and romance in the duration of their stay in southern South America. The stories they take home with them will certainly be interesting…but is home really home when your heart is somewhere else? Like, where you've met all your closest friends? Join the team at Rio California base and enjoy the stories they'll tell to their children—and some they won't.

This is South Pacific.