Ocean: The Sea Warriors

by Brian Herbert

  It would be a day of interesting developments, beyond anything that he or Alicia had anticipated….

  ***

  Chapter 13

  While Kimo was on the first training dive, Alicia watched the others swim freestyle. At the outset, Gwyneth McDevitt stood out from the others as an extremely skillful underwater swimmer, able to do aquatic loops like an air show stunt pilot and then swim away in any direction with smooth strokes and kicks. Even so, because of her obvious communication difficulties, Kimo gave her a third-tier yellow ribbon (which she didn’t object to), and told Alicia they needed to take extra care with her. But it looked to Alicia as if Gwyneth rated much higher than that, and she suspected that the British teenager was going to contribute a great deal. If one of Kimo’s earlier dreams was correct, and Gwyneth had in fact received a flood of information about the ocean, it meant that her mind could be a storehouse of data about the seas of the planet. Alicia wondered if this was, in fact, the case. Autistic people were socially challenged, so it would be difficult to determine the workings of her mind. But Alicia liked her, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

  Gwyneth went with Kimo on his second dive, along with around the same number as he had taken down the first time.

  While they were down deep, Alicia became aware of something very unusual. Swimming near her, Pauline Deveaux was gleeful that a number of colorful reef fish were following behind her or swimming alongside, staying with her whichever way she turned. It reminded Alicia of the way fish followed Kimo when he swam, except with Pauline it was only small reef fish who were attracted to her, such as lemon butterflyfish, tubular-shaped trumpetfish, and red-and-white-striped squirrelfish.

  Gradually, other types of sea life found their way to some of the other volunteers. Foley Johnson, a stocky black man, had an affinity for turtles, who came to see him from their usual haunts and encircled him. He didn’t seem to mind, and swam playfully with the creatures, trying to elude them and watching their own remarkable swimming abilities as they kept up with him. It amused Alicia to see him trying to copy what they did, and this seemed to intrigue the shell-backs as well.

  Another match-up that Alicia thought was interesting involved Fred Earhart, a ruddy, red-haired Irishman who found himself surrounded by swordfish and sawfish, as well as by flying fish and spear-nosed sailfish that performed spectacular leaps into the air around him, as if they were happy to find a human being who liked them. She was also intrigued by Jacqueline Rado, a large woman who was already able to lead white sharks, hammerheads, and great barracudas anywhere she pleased, even taking them halfway to shore with her and then turning back—which must have given the people with binoculars a good show.

  Still another recruit, Phil Austin, a heavyset man with lamb chop sideburns, held hundreds of little leafy sea dragons and tiny seahorses in thrall. The sea dragons looked like delicate, floating plants shaped like whimsical dragons. The seahorses, notoriously weak swimmers who often hooked their tails onto plants to keep from being knocked around by ocean currents, were nonetheless able to follow Austin around in the water, whichever way he swam, and attempted to replicate maneuvers that he made. Both species even understood him when he wanted them to remain in one place and wait for him to swim away and then return to them.

  Alicia noticed that some of the volunteers did not seem to have a close affinity to particular species of ocean animals, but those that did suggested the intriguing possibility that Sea Warriors could cause creatures to behave in certain ways that were beneficial to the survival of particular species while keeping them away from predatory or careless human activities. The creatures could also be used to close down beaches, just as Kimo wanted them to do.

  As Alicia was swimming on the surface, thinking about these exciting developments, she was startled to see Gwyneth McDevitt sitting on the back of a large humpback whale, massaging its thick gray skin as it sped along the surface, while an escort of pygmy killer whales swam on each side of her. Finally, Gwyneth slid off the back of the whale, near Alicia. The humpback swam a safe distance away from any of the recruits and then breached, lifting most of its body out of the water in a stunning display of the beauty and power of nature. The killer whale escort swam in the same direction, until their tail fins dipped beneath the sea and they vanished….

  When Kimo returned from his last dive of the day, he said to Alicia in disgust, “We found a garbage dump of cans, bottles, and other junk down there, apparently pushed into a hole by ocean currents. I know it’s just the tip of the iceberg of trash in the ocean, but I had the recruits bring up what they could, and I want to go back down there and clean it up.”

  “Good idea,” she said. She was about to tell him what she had observed, when Kimo said, “First I want to do some practice runs, seeing how we can disrupt beaches with sea life—I have two remote stretches of sand in mind that shouldn’t have any swimmers now.”

  “All right,” Alicia said. “Now wait until you hear this.” And she told him about Gwyneth and the whale, and about all the sea creatures that had congregated around some of the other Sea Warriors, and how the animals seemed willing to follow the hybrid humans.

  Kimo listened intently, looking around at various Sea Warriors as Alicia talked about them.

  “I see tremendous potential for our program now,” she said. “If many of our recruits can lead different types of sea creatures, we can customize the demonstrations we want to make against bad human behavior on the seas. Gwyneth, for example, might cause whales to interfere with the large-scale fishing operations that are depleting the ocean of fish species, and if Jacqueline Rado can control sharks and barracudas, they might be used in sweeps to clear beaches of human swimmers, as part of the demonstration we have in mind for the Hawaiian islands.”

  She saw his face light up with pleasure. “Fantastic!” he said. “That’ll make my job easier. I had intended to round up a number of species, position them at the beaches, and see if our new recruits could keep them in place. I can still do some of that, but it looks like Deveaux, Johnson, Earhart, and Rado can summon their own critters—especially Rado, since she’s already made a run with ‘cudas and sharks toward a beach.”

  “And Gwyneth is a possibility, too. With smaller whales, anyway, such as those pygmy killer whales I saw escorting her. The larger whales would not be of use to us in shallow swimming areas.”

  “Let’s keep her out of the beach practice sessions, at least for now. Due to her mental and social difficulties, I don’t want to press her too hard. If Jacqueline Rado can be the Pied Piper of sharks and barracudas, maybe she can summon other dangerous predators as well.”

  “Could be. I think I should stay with Gwyneth during the next training phase, to make sure she’s all right, and to assess her more.”

  “OK, do that,” he said. “I have more names for our list, too—at least a hundred more from recent dreams. I’d like to get them written down when we go ashore—but I’m sure I can hold off for a few more hours. With these additions to our list, it’s like my memory has kicked into a new gear. I can summon the new names at will, all of them, and the original names, too. I even ran a quick check of the names backwards, and they all came to me as well, with crystal clarity. On the last dive, while I was supervising the removal of garbage, I felt momentarily as if I was dreaming again, and the names and faces of future Sea Warriors were arrayed before me. Though Moanna seems unwilling to provide us with information on the dreams, or even verify that she’s connected to them, I suspect that she is getting the information to me—and I hope she’s pleased with the success of our recruiting and training efforts.”

  “She’s revealing specialties of the recruits quickly,” Alicia said. “Things are happening fast, because the ocean does not have much time. We need to act as quickly as possible.”

  “Right. With that in mind, let’s see if anyone can lead the jetfish instead of me, so they can go and pick up additional recruits around the world.”

  Kimo led the S
ea Warriors to the most remote beaches on Loa’kai, the nearest of which—Lunalilo—was a twenty-minute swim away. The second, Kalakaua Beach, was only a few minutes farther. On the way, a new talent was revealed, as Dirk Avondale, the former Navy animal trainer, assembled a force of dolphins that followed him, and did as he commanded.

  Because of Avondale’s military experience, Kimo and Alicia conferred with him about how to attack the beaches. He made a number of useful recommendations. Then, for almost two hours, the Sea Warriors made practice runs at the isolated beaches—starting with Lunalilo, followed by Kalakaua, and then expanding to involve both at once. They made eight runs in all, improving with each one, and culminating with what Kimo called the “grand finale,” in which he led an assault of poisonous Lion’s Mane jellyfish against one beach, while Dirk Avondale and Jacqueline Rado filled the swimming area of the other one with aggressive dolphins, barracudas, and sharks. In each case, there were other creatures of the sea visible on the surface behind the front lines of assault, as recommended by Avondale, so that large formations of animals were involved, making a more impressive display.

  Something quite different happened as well, in the last practice attack of the day, at Lunalilo Beach. With Kimo and the poisonous jellyfish in the lead, surging forward, and other sea creatures behind, he noticed that white-and-black gulls were flying low overhead in a vee-formation. When he passed through the swimming area, the birds stayed with him, and continued in formation overhead as he went out into deeper water, finally setting down in the water near him and floating.

  Thinking the birds might be willing to help the Sea Warriors in some way, Kimo immersed himself completely in the water and attempted to transmit specific molecular commands to them. Resurfacing, he saw the birds lift into the air and circle him, then go into another vee-formation as they flew back toward the beach, before returning and settling in the water again. To his amazement, it was exactly as he had specified.

  This told him that Moanna’s molecular communication system extended to these birds, because they were in direct contact with the ocean when he issued the commands.

  Our force is growing, Kimo thought.…

  Late that afternoon they returned to Crimson Cove, where Jiddy Rahim had arranged for a new police perimeter, to ensure the group’s privacy. Kimo conducted another meeting on the sand, this time to discuss what the recruits had learned. He asked if any of them had noticed an ability to sense variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, which would give them a constant awareness of where they were, and in which direction they were swimming.

  Stunned silence followed. Then, gradually, a handful of members mentioned little things they had noticed, something strange that prevented them from getting lost even when they could not see land. For all of them it had been an innate or subconscious feeling just beneath the surface of their awareness, and which Kimo had just made them think about for the first time.

  As she listened, Alicia realized that she had this ability as well. It was so subtle, so basic in her awareness that she had not focused on it. But it was there nonetheless. She was certain of it, and it made her much more at ease in the water, giving her an even stronger feeling that she belonged there.

  “So we’re like birds now?” someone asked. “Like carrier pigeons?”

  “Not just birds,” Kimo said. “Some creatures of the sea have this ability as well, such as whales, dolphins, and even crustaceans. They know where they are at all times, and don’t ever get lost. Now you are like this as well, my Sea Warriors.”

  It was an incredible revelation for Alicia, one that gave her not only a stronger feeling of connectedness to the sea, but to the planet itself. She wondered what additional, as-yet-unknown changes her body had undergone in the transformation, and if she would be left to discover them herself or it Kimo would tell her about them when he decided it was appropriate. She trusted his ability to determine what was best. He had lived much his life in the sea, while she was just beginning to learn some of its fascinating details.

  Kimo went on to describe the larger public demonstration that he wanted when the Sea Warriors were ready—shutting down as many of the major beaches in the Hawaiian islands as possible for a day, to publicize the plight of the ocean.

  As he spoke of the demonstration, Gwyneth rose from a driftwood log where she’d been sitting, went over to him and spoke in a low tone, then took a seat on the sand in the front of the group.

  Alicia was close enough to hear Gwyneth say in a halting voice with her slight British accent, “Not enough … to close beaches … Need more. Need to close off … Hawaii from … the sea. Surround all islands … stop all boat traffic.”

  Kimo repeated her comment to the assemblage, and a handful of people nodded their heads in agreement. Then he said, “I understand Gwyneth’s sentiment, but we need to begin at a more achievable level, and not attempt anything too large. We only have a couple of hundred warriors, so we’ll focus on the main beaches for now, and see how that works. Our organization will get larger, and eventually we can mount larger demonstrations if necessary.”

  Gwyneth scowled, but did not say anything.

  Alicia spoke next, saying that one of Kimo’s cousins, whom she had not met yet, was arranging with a garment manufacturer to produce a line of clothing that would be sold to raise funds. “One of the ideas is to have individual endangered or extinct species on each item,” she said, “such as the Steller’s Sea Cow that went extinct in the eighteenth century because of over-hunting by humans.”

  A number of people made suggestions of other animals that might be featured, and Foley Johnson recommended a cooperative effort with organizations involved with saving endangered land-based species. A woman said that this particular sea cow was the ocean’s version of the dodo bird, whose extinction was also caused by humans.

  “These are all good ideas,” Alicia said. “Kimo’s cousin has already developed new swimwear for us—black suits emblazoned with the name ‘Sea Warriors’ in ocean blue, and the stylized images of endangered ocean species on them. We should have the suits soon. He’s developing tee-shirts as well, for those Sea Warriors who want to contribute without being transformed into a hybrid.”

  “Why don’t we just swim naked?” Monique Gatsby asked. Tall and auburn haired, she had a classically proportioned face and large blue eyes.

  With a smile, Alicia said, “Everyone does not have your perfect figure, Monique. Besides, we are an army, we are Sea Warriors—and armies wear uniforms. They do not go naked into battle.”

  “I guess I’ve been put in my place,” the actress said. Looking hurt, she sat back down.

  “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that Kimo and I have discussed so many details of how to get this organization going that we’ve already covered that subject—no pun intended. Maybe I’m a little tired right now, and didn’t answer you as tactfully as I should have.”

  “No apology needed,” Monique said with a broad smile that showed her perfect teeth—a friendly expression that relieved Alicia.

  Then Monique said, “If it’s all right with you and Kimo, I’d like to use my Hollywood contacts to get sympathy for the Sea Warriors, and big donations. They can also stage protests, and maybe even produce a documentary film about us.”

  “OK,” Kimo said, “but I don’t know about a film, unless all the profits go to the welfare of the ocean.”

  “I might be able to help arrange that,” Monique said. “If it’s OK, I’ll go into town now and make a couple of phone calls.” She smiled. “I brought a credit card, just in case.”

  Kimo waved her on, and she set off at a brisk pace, on her bare feet.

  Just before sunset, Danny Ho catered a meal for those who wanted it—which turned out to be only a few people. This caused Jiddy, who was enjoying the food, to quip that he wished he had another metal storage chest in his cave for the leftovers, along with electricity, a refrigerator, and a freezer.

  Kimo scowled. “I know you don�
�t really mean all that, my good friend, because you have basically opted out of the system—except for occasional forays into smorgasbords that might be presented to you, of course. But it reminds me of an important point. Human beings need to stop over-consuming, taking more from this planet than they give back to it. I hope we can do something about the ocean portion of that unbalanced equation, and if we are successful, perhaps the message will go even farther, to things people do on the land and in the air as well. It’s just a hope I have.”

  “And a good one!” Jiddy said, as he nibbled on a piece of pineapple upside-down cake.

  That evening, the warriors camped on the beach. Alicia snuggled with Kimo, and she couldn’t help noticing some of the other pairings—including Vinson Chi’ang and the pretty young Pauline Deveaux, who went off somewhere to be by themselves. This seemed to upset one of the other members, Emily Talbot, who watched them leave together. Earlier, Alicia had noticed Emily trying to get Chi’ang’s attention, and having some success—although he seemed to prefer the company of Pauline.

  A week and a half ago, when Jeff Ellsworth received the warning from Pauly Tahina, he had flown his tour helicopter out over the sea and dumped his computer and everything else that might tie him to drug trafficking. Then he’d flown back to the ranch and performed an even more thorough cleansing of the craft’s cargo hold than he’d done before, using strong chemicals. But as days passed Jeff had been worrying increasingly about the helicopter itself. News reports said the cops had drug-sniffing dogs that could smell the residue of illegal substances even after the most stringent efforts to clean them up.

  So late one afternoon he took off again, telling the maintenance crew he was going to pick up a date and show her the sunset. That was the farthest thing from his mind. Instead, Jeff flew several miles offshore and dumped most of the fuel in the ocean, then got in closer to the shore of an uninhabited portion of the island, where he waited for the fuel to run out, and ditched the aircraft in the water. He swam ashore, wearing a lifejacket.