Final Summation Review Report and Log of Science Team Executive Lieutenant Dr. Lana VanDavis - June, 2032 -
OUR CREW OF TEN BOARDED THE SANTA VOLTA IV (SV-IV), the largest of our four modest ex-navy vessels, and sailed for three days off the coast of the Azores to get to the North Atlantic Gyre. The Santa Volta fleet a fortnight prior had their hulls painted thick with POP neutralizer. Active polymer disruption that caused further breakdown of the minute plastic decomp, making it easy to pass in digestive systems. This was important because over the course of the next 3 weeks we intended to oversee the "baking process" of this massive island of plastic from a free-floating swirling mush pile into a dense land mass capable of supporting infrastructure and use as a way station for ocean preservation and wildlife rescue. We couldn't beat it, so we were in the process of joining it.
Our projected eight-week mission at the burg of trash included armaments such as sonic deterrent, airplane cable and depth coagulant in order to float as much detritus as possible at the surface while keeping the sea life population at a safe distance. All had gone accordingly, and now we were operational as engineering set to install the cage perimeter and peripheral entrapment units which would more solidly collect any garbage that came within a twelve meter radius. Even poor currents would be in our favor and if this worked, we thought, the Santa Volta fleet could very well quadruple and become a household name overnight…
But things turned out a little differently.
Functionality within new mission and crew of SV-IV for the ten days had proceeded as planned. We then discovered that we were the first humans to "come down" with what was later simply termed “Gyre Syndrome." On a brief recreational fishing expedition lead by Captain Max Goldwell, we discovered more advanced stages of Gyre Syndrome had already occurred in some populations of larger sealife- turtles and whales specifically. It sounds like a terrible thing, but really it managed to be an extraordinary physiological phenomena tantamount to a mid-21st century evolution. The last collusion in the name of the pursuit of perfection between man’s desires and nature’s will.
Very quickly we understood that we were to remain unafraid of 'gyre syndrome,' because it made us more adaptable, and strangely, happier. I believe this is so for a few key reasons.
Firstly- we were becoming maps- mosaics. Our temporary time-susceptible physical make up was being replaced with something we then understood to be much more beautiful. Sebaceous. Subcutaneous. Colorful on a broad holographic spectrum. Often magnetically manipulatable. We began to notice that the searing days and bitter cold nights on the SV-IV were more tolerable and required less protection. When exposing ourselves to these drastic elements, we soon required only POP neutralizer boots, and the tools our daily workload required.
Finally- as a team we felt even more impelled to continue the tasks relevant to our mission. To collect the Gyre in the name of creating a living landmass. To this date, many expeditions have been made to the Gyre's new centralized lookout and command post. Our bodies have begun to take on the saturated and reflective grey-pinks and blue-greens which now indicate to us that the new landmass is becoming viable as ingestible sustenance.
In consideration of the above, it is now our firm assertion that the sinking of the Santa Volta fleet has been the right decision.
The Gyre is our home now.