The adventures of John Storm and the Elizabeth Swann. John Storm is an ocean adventurer and conservationist. The Elizabeth Swann is a fast solar powered boat. During a race around the world, news of the sinking of a pirate whaling ship reaches John Storm and his mate Dan Hawk. They decide to abandon the race and try and save the whale.

Professor Douglas Storm (apparently) died at the age of ninety in an 'accident' while involved in the testing of a top-secret and very high speed underwater craft - in mysterious circumstances - that were never fully investigated or explained. And no body was ever recovered.

He was the designer of the Elizabeth Swann and creator of Hal, an artificially intelligent program that learns by itself from experience, to protect the Elizabeth Swan and her occupants. Hal is designed to function with Captain Nemo and the other autonomous operations of the Swann.

Professor Storm also invented the Ark, a sophisticated DNA synthesizer, after his nephew discovered a Homo Erectus skull in Tanzania. The Ark is unique in all the world, being able to sample DNA and convert to digital code for long term archiving, but also being able to reconvert the digital code to living biological DNA, from which the life form (flora or fauna) might be regenerated given the right conditions.

With the ongoing advancements in miniaturization and automation, the Professor was able to design an automated laboratory compact and portable enough to be installed on the Elizabeth Swann.

While the core technology existed, the capabilities of the ARK represents a significant technological advancement. For instance, it is able to:

- Synthesize extremely long or complex DNA sequences with high fidelity.

- Do so at a much faster rate than current technology.

- Potentially synthesize entire genomes or even create artificial chromosomes.

It soon became obvious to Professor Storm, and later to John, that such technology could enable the colonization of planets, and terraforming. Thus making both men high value subjects for agencies like NASA, the ESA (European Space Agency), and the Chinese and Russian equivalents: China National Space Administration (CNSA), is the government agency responsible for overseeing China's civil space activities and international space cooperation, headquartered in Beijing. Russian space agency, Roscosmos (Роскосмос), the state corporation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research, headquartered in Moscow.

For this reason, the Professor armed the Elizabeth Swann with layers of anti-piracy protections, including tasers (Pendragon) and lasers (Excalibur). And Merlin, an advanced early warning system, to detect attacks from the air, other vessels and submarines. Where the taser system warns pirates and other unauthorized persons not to board the ship, and if they persist, shocks the intruders.

The high efficiency fuel cell generator onboard the Swann is also the subject of much official interest, including the extremely efficient solar panels that supplement the hydrogen powered ship. Making it a very fast zero emission vessel. 

The Professor supported John Storm in his ambitions and taught him a great deal, helping to prepare his nephew for what could be a potentially rocky road ahead. He was a great friend of George Franks, who took care of patents and engineering developments that were left in trust to the Professor's successors and various academic institutions for the benefit on mankind.

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