Ocean: The Sea Warriors

by Brian Herbert

  That evening, he reported to his grandfather that he’d run out of fuel on the way to pick up a girlfriend, and had crashed in the sea, barely escaping with his life. He showed him a bruise on his forehead, supposedly from the accident, but it was actually self-induced, an intentional bump he gave himself before ditching the aircraft.

  “It was careless of you not to check the fuel before taking off,” the old man said, “and it’s going to cost me some money.”

  “But you have insurance.”

  “With a high deductible, twenty-five thousand dollars. I’ll call my agent tomorrow and notify him of the claim.”

  “I didn’t know the fuel was low; the gauge showed that I had plenty, so it must have been malfunctioning, and the maintenance guys didn’t catch it.”

  “Did you look inside the tank yourself before taking off?”

  “No,” Jeff said. “I guess I was thinking about the girl I wanted to take out. I’m sorry, Grandfather.”

  Preston Ellsworth did not look pleased, but Jeff had seen him that way before. Finally, the old man said, in resignation, “Well, there is a silver lining, I suppose. With our tour income down so much, maybe we only need one helicopter anyway.”

  Jeff’s action may have reduced his chance of being apprehended, but this concern competed with another very large problem. Because his drug earnings had been curtailed, he needed to find a way to replace that income stream so that he could make the payments on the Ferrari and oceanfront condominium that were in Pauly’s name, in accordance with the unwritten agreement they had entered into. Pauly’s guest was leaving in a couple of weeks, and a short time after that Jeff was scheduled to resume the payments—and if he didn’t, the drug lord did not need anything in writing, or any threat of legal action.

  He had other, more effective methods of enforcing his agreements.

  ***

  Chapter 14

  Alicia stood on a wave, surging forward at the head of one of the squadrons that the Sea Warriors were launching against the major beaches of the Hawaiian islands—a military-style operation that encompassed tactical recommendations made by Dirk Avondale.

  In the short time Alicia had known Kimo, she had become radical in her beliefs, and felt strongly that human beings needed a wakeup call—and a loud one. She hoped that the demonstration she and her fellow Sea Warriors put on today would be exactly what was required, and would be heard around the world. Jimmy Waimea would run the first story in the Honolulu Mercury News, informing the public and the state government why Kimo Pohaku and Alicia Ellsworth had decided to shut down the major beaches, and how humans needed to radically change the way they treated the ocean and the creatures and plants that lived in it.

  A number of environmentalists were already Sea Warriors, and many more wanted to join as associates, even if they were not on any recruitment list and would not be physically transformed. Many scientists were also clamoring to join, including Fuji Namoto, who had managed to get past the police that morning and had spoken briefly to Kimo. Impressed with her, he’d accepted her as the organization’s first associate member. Even though she was an oceanographer, Fuji was going to set up an office to coordinate fund-raising, and manage the other associates who would be based on the land. It was something she wanted to do, in addition to any scientific expertise she could provide.

  Alicia felt a warm breeze on her face as her fast-moving squadron passed Barbers Point on the southern shore of Oahu, and then entered the channel on the way to Kauai. In the channel, a wind picked up from the east, and whitecaps danced on the bright blue carpet of the water, but they did not buffet Alicia’s own wave much, because she was able to make adjustments. Looking back, she saw her aquatic companions faring well, too, their speed steady and undiminished.

  Immediately behind Alicia swam fifty hybrid Sea Warriors, some of them commanding the sea creatures in her squadron—thousands of Lion’s Mane jellyfish, schools of aggressive reef fish, and even the hard round shells of hawksbill and green turtles, looking like small Civil War submarines that had surfaced. On the far right and left, flying fish leaped in and out of the water, looking impressive with their airborne bodies sparkling in the sun.

  As if lifted by the cause of the ocean, some of the species were displaying swimming abilities that were beyond anything they had previously been known to possess—and they were stronger as a group than they were apart. Some of the species were led by hybrid Sea Warriors, such as Foley Johnson, while other sea creatures proceeded under another command, having answered a call to action that Kimo had made underwater, using Moanna’s molecular communication system. As Kimo worked with the creatures, trying to get them to do his bidding, he was discovering that some were easier to persuade than others.

  At the rear, Alicia saw Gwyneth swimming on her own between a pair of humpback whales—animals that would not be used in today’s assault but which kept the teenager busy while the other species were used to clear the beaches. Both whales had barnacles on their heads and tails—organisms that usually attached themselves to humpbacks in the arctic, and then fell off when the animals migrated to warmer tropical waters.

  Alicia had taken it upon herself to keep an eye on the autistic girl, and didn’t want to put her under too much pressure, not until Gwyneth became more comfortable working with the Sea Warriors. The girl already seemed quite at ease in the water, and that was a big step in the right direction.

  Alicia’s assignment was an important one—beaches on Kauai and Niihau. A mile behind Gwyneth, she could see another Sea Warrior squadron, this one led by Kimo, heading toward the heavily populated island of Oahu, which had many attractive swimming beaches. Two additional squadrons—one led by Dirk Avondale and the other by Jacqueline Rado—had been assigned to the Big Island, to Maui, and to a cluster of smaller islands that included Loa’kai.

  Kimo even planned to shut down one popular swimming beach with what would look like an infestation of poisonous red tide, but was only a harmless pink algae that would look frightening, but would cause no injuries. At another beach in a shallow cove, he was depositing numerous sea cucumbers that would discharge strings of organic material in the water and on the seabed—sticky, repulsive extrusions from their guts that would frighten away waders and swimmers.

  In addition to the other animals under Alicia’s command, her Kauai-Niihau operation would involve crabs and lobsters that would nip at the ankles of swimmers on the beaches, without seriously injuring anyone. To set up the crustacean portion of the plan, Vinson Chi’ang and Emily Talbot—both of whom had demonstrated the ability to direct the creatures—had gone ahead of Alicia, getting their portion of the operation organized and ready at both islands.

  Reaching the other side of the channel, Alicia slipped off her wave into the water and began to issue additional molecular commands to her squadron, instructing them to divide into eight sections—seven for Kauai and one for the smaller, less populated island of Niihau. Confirmed by responses she received in her mind, these commands were received by her squad leaders, including Chi’ang and Talbot.

  On Kauai, Alicia started by observing the jellyfish, reef fish, and aggressive turtles as they swarmed into the swimming area of Mahaulepu Beach, and then she proceeded around the island, observing the assaults on the other major beaches. In each case, sharp-clawed crustaceans had already done the advance work of sending the waders fleeing from the water, while the other creatures dealt with the swimmers. In short order, all of these beaches were evacuated, amidst warning sirens and the blue strobe lights of police cars.

  By the time Alicia rode a wave to Kapaa Beach Park to the north, she realized that Gwyneth was no longer with her, and neither were the girl’s two whale companions. Alicia sent her a molecular command to return, but received no response, and no information on her from any of the other Sea Warriors in Alicia’s squadron, or in the other squadrons that were performing their duties throughout the Hawaiian islands. No one knew where the teenager had gone.

 
Alicia worried about this, but she had her priorities. So she continued her rounds, including the small island of Niihau. Afterward, as she was crossing the Kaulakahi Channel on the way back to Kauai, she heard a complex amalgamation of sound. Part of it was sonar, as from the echolocation noises made by whales, while other portions of it were high-pitched or deep, and unidentifiable. In their midst, like a common sound, she thought she heard something resembling Gwyneth’s voice….

  When Alicia left for Loa’kai with the warriors in her squadron, Vinson Chi’ang and Emily Talbot remained in the waters off Kauai, saying they would leave later that evening, but wanted to do a little exploring first on their own, looking for a species of crustacean that they thought would be even better than the ones they already had.

  Swimming side by side, Vinson and Emily crossed over a limestone shelf, on which grew a garden of coral in splashes of orange, red, green, and purple, looking like clumps of colored cabbages growing in the sea. As the pair approached, small fish sped away, while eels and worms slipped into their protective holes and crevices in the rock. But not crabs, who showed no fear and scuttled around excitedly on the seabed.

  Emily flipped over a mushroom coral quickly, and scooped up a handful of tiny worms from the sand beneath it. She offered some of the wriggling creatures to Vinson, but he shook his head, so she stuffed them in her mouth and swallowed, then dug around and found a nest of sea snails, which she also ate. Instead of that fare, Vinson used quick hand thrusts to capture little golden cardinalfish, and swallowed them whole. Emily tried this herself, but was unsuccessful, so he captured several for her.

  After eating, they dove deeper into a hole between rock formations, the bottom of which was perhaps fifty feet below the surface. At the bottom, Vinson saw that the currents had brought in pieces of metal, plastic and other trash. Something golden was glinting between pieces of garbage. Reaching into the trash pile, he pulled out a small gold statuette, bearing a face that made him think of Incan or Mayan sculptures and artwork he’d seen in museums. Then, rummaging deeper, he found gold and silver figurines, including stylized renditions of horses, birds, fish, and other interesting objects. He examined an exquisite golden carriage fitted with small green and blue gemstones, which he presumed to be emeralds and sapphires. It looked very valuable; all of the items looked valuable.

  He handed a tiny golden fish to Emily, saying to her in a transmitted thought, “A little trinket for you.”

  As she slipped it into a safe pocket in her waterproof backpack, she thanked him. With her broad face and small eyes, she was not nearly as pretty as Pauline. But Vinson was coming to realize that he had more in common with Emily, and he might even like her more.

  “Maybe we’ll run into more treasure,” he said, keeping a small golden bird for himself, and slipping it into a pocket of his own pack. “But just in case we don’t, let’s remember where this place is, and come back when we have time. I suspect there’s a lot more treasure somewhere nearby. Maybe a Spanish galleon sank around here, and there were no records left of its whereabouts.”

  “You could be right,” she said.

  “It’s probably not a good idea to tell anyone about this.”

  She nodded, but he noticed a glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes.

  Keeping his thoughts to himself, he tucked the bulk of the items back under the garbage, and pushed some of the heavier pieces of trash over them. Then, thinking of something just before leaving, he took an old glass bottle and tucked it into his own backpack, and handed a couple of smaller bottles to Emily, to show Kimo that they were cleaning up garbage wherever they found it.

  During their swim back to Loa’kai island, Chi’ang thought of how many fabulous treasures must be concealed beneath the waves of the seas of the world, and not just valuable artifacts that had been lost by human beings. He’d also heard that there were vast deposits of valuable minerals on the bottom of the sea—manganese, platinum, and even veins of gold, silver, or diamonds in some places—some of it reflecting historical changes in regions where land had once been, and had been inundated by seawater. He wondered if he might set up a mining operation to exploit those resources. That could be years in the future, he surmised, because first he needed to fit into the Sea Warriors, and then see what money-making opportunities arose for him.

  I prefer living on land, he thought. And he visualized the lavish lifestyle he might lead one day, instead of being an oceanographer and a modestly well-known author. He longed for more fame than that, more riches and respect than a man who traveled in scientific circles could ever attain.

  I am an animal, he thought, and I want to change my niche….

  In the deepest canyons of the ocean, in the darkness where few humans had ever gone, large creatures were stirring, and swimming nearer to the surface. Many of them were animals that had, despite their great size, been able to elude men over the centuries, except for occasional unconfirmed sightings. Some of these denizens of the deep were the nightmares of mythology, but they actually existed—even creatures that resembled dragons with long tails, rows of fins on their backs, and fearsome teeth. Others were not ferocious at all; they were just immense herbivores. Some of the animals were assumed to have gone extinct millennia ago, but still swam in the seas and in lakes and rivers that were linked to the seas.

  A number of these monsters of the deep could move very fast through the water, and from around the world they sped toward the Hawaiian islands. Others—the slower ones—set off as well, with the same destination in mind.

  It was dark in the islands when Gwyneth McDevitt greeted the first arrivals off the south shore of Oahu, swimming joyously in their midst beneath the starlight, knowing where the massive creatures were without the need for much illumination. Around her were blue, sperm, bowhead, and humpback whales, giant squids and octopuses, ocean sunfish, whale sharks, huge groupers from the deep ocean, dugong sea cows from Australia, and long-necked plesiosaurs that had been mistakenly thought to be extinct.

  As soon as enough of the large creatures had arrived, spreading across the water like a single, sprawling organism, she dispatched them on the assignment she wanted, the one she had recommended to Kimo in the presence of other Sea Warriors, and which he had refused. Despite his wishes, she intended to seal off Hawaii from the sea by surrounding the major islands, preventing all boat traffic from either arriving or leaving. She sensed strongly, very strongly, that it was not enough to only strike the major swimming beaches—the demonstration of ocean power needed to be bigger. The protest needed to be bigger. And if this was not enough to get humans to change, Gwyneth had an even more extensive plan.

  While numerous species of marine animals had responded to her call, Gwyneth felt a special affinity for the whales—not one type in particular, but all of them, collectively. They gave her comfort, and she knew that more whales were coming, and more of other species as well. She heard the songs of whales, the vibrating of air inside their bodies that could be heard many miles away. She even heard the sounds of whales coming from the arctic regions of the north Atlantic, such as narwhal (unicorn) whales, unique animals with long, gnarled tusks. Thankfully, the whale populations around the world were considerably larger than scientists had estimated, because many of these animals—like other large creatures—had been using their intelligence and instincts to survive, diving deep to stay out of the way of humans, keeping themselves from extinction.

  Since joining the Sea Warriors (whose efforts she still admired), an odd sensation had been coming over Gwyneth, that she was more fish than human, more a creature of the ocean than of the land. Her family and all of her human experiences were fading memories in her mind; there had been so much pain that she didn’t want to think about that part of her life anymore.

  For some time, ever since the data about the ocean began flowing into Gwyneth’s brain from a mysterious source that she later identified as Moanna, she had felt a more special relationship with the sea than ever—a sea that had been bec
koning to her to her for years before that, inviting her to dip into the water and swim with the creatures that inhabited it.

  Curiously, though, the flow of ocean information had ceased entirely after Gwyneth’s transformation into a hybrid, as if the teenager had absorbed all she possibly could, and there was no room for more. Or, perhaps—and she didn’t see how that could be possible—she had every bit of information there was to have. She didn’t think that was the case. In fact, she was certain of it, because she learned new things every day she was in the water. Or thought she learned them. Maybe they were actually details that Moanna had already programmed into her, but became effective gradually, like the nutrients in a time-release vitamin.

  And she realized she had the answer to this question, at least in part, because there were different sources of information, including the kind you were told, or learned from personal experience, or which you already knew from instinct.

  Gwyneth felt a peculiar, but undeniable sensation that she was changing into something else entirely, something that owed no allegiance to humankind. And not just emotionally and intellectually; she was undergoing a physical metamorphosis. Whenever she touched her face, she felt the features smoothing over, flattening—and her eyes were growing larger. Something was happening to the rest of her body as well, though not as quickly. The changes were not painful at all; in fact, she found them exceedingly pleasant, and looked forward to their completion, when she developed into whatever the ocean wanted her to become, whatever Moanna wanted her to become.

  ***

  Chapter 15

  Yesterday, after shutting down the major beaches of Hawaii, the Sea Warriors had all been very tired. Returning to Loa’kai late in the day, some of them had gone into town to eat, while others decided that the small quantities of food they’d eaten from the sea were enough. That evening, back at Crimson Cove, they’d all fallen asleep on the sand. All except Gwyneth, who had vanished on the way to Kauai with Alicia. Everyone was worried about the missing teenager.