Jack of Harts

The Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll is one of the most famous areas on Earth and beyond. Namesake for the far more enjoyable ladies swimwear that men have loved for centuries, it is the nuclear testing that wiped out several islands in the atoll that made it famous in more serious matters. The massive effort it would have taken before the Great Space Race to clean up the radiation and other damage was never expended, and then the Second Great Depression removed all ability to complete it. But when the polluted fog banks began rolling off the Chinese coasts to envelope the various Pacific island chains, America put greater effort into developing and mass-producing the kind of air and water purifiers required to keep the pollution at bay. The clan chiefs of Bikini Atoll traded in some favors, some blackmail, and more promises than they cared to think about to acquire some of those new purifiers. Then they cleaned the various islands up, rebuilt them over the centuries, and returned their people to their quiet, idyllic home. And though they have access to all the best technologies now, they will never forget how the outside world cost them their home for so very long.