Depths Of Paradise Preview Chapters 1 to 4

Prologue

Prologue: The Creation of Niihau Base

On January 17, 2020, the Japanese government purchased the privately owned Hawaiian Island Niihau. The smallest of the Hawaiian Islands, Niihau covers an area of seventy miles. Officially, the land and the surrounding waters were purchased to train dolphins and other marine life for usage in water parks across America and Japan. Unofficially, the island's true purpose is to train attack dolphins to locate and destroy any hostile marine threats that threaten the Japanese islands.

Land Construction

To make project Niihau a reality, a small airfield and boat dock were created to provide work crews with transportation to and from the island. Next, important buildings like work crew shelters, warehouses, and a hangar were built to hold vehicles and months of supplies. Niihau was known to experience long periods of drought. To combat this, large water distillation tanks were assembled to convert the local sea water into drinkable water. For the island's permanent staff, a housing unit was built that could hold up to seven people. The outside of the house had the appearance of a simple one-story home. What was simple on the outside was state-of-the-art on the inside. The inside of the house had top-of-the-line private quarters, kitchen, living room, and medical supply room. The basement of the house held a state-of-the-art laboratory and recreation area.

To further aid in hiding the island's true purpose, the large areas of land not used for storage or housing were converted to a wildlife refuge for critically endangered species. The public was informed the wildlife was tracked by a network of ground sensors, equipped with HD cameras installed across the island. Photos of flora and fauna could be found on the Niihau wildlife preserve website. The deception worked, hiding the sensors' true purpose of locating any intruders on the island.

Fencing

A massive network of underwater fencing was constructed half a mile from shore. It stood seven feet above the water line and surrounded the entire island. The fencing served a dual purpose. Primarily, it would act as the dolphin's habitat; secondarily, it acted as a barrier to keep unwanted vessels from entering the area. The fencing also played a role in the dolphins' intelligence testing. Bottle nose dolphins can leap fifteen feet. The test was to determine which dolphins learned they could easily clear the fence. Occasionally, the dolphins that learned this would escape and go for a swim outside the training zone. Dolphins that failed to return on command or by themselves shortly after leaving were tracked down by GPS and removed from the program. Failed dolphins were sold to zoos or marine aquariums across the world.

It took a year of nonstop work from hardworking Japanese and American contractors, but in early 2021, the job was finished. Now, the facility at Niihau was ready to create the first wave of the new Japanese marine defense force.