Ocean: The Sea Warriors

by Brian Herbert

  Not knowing about that yet, Kimo had been alone with Moanna in the misty red darkness. He had taken that opportunity to describe in some detail the strange, independent behavior of the large marine animals, and he’d asked her why they seemed to be of one collective mind, and if she knew why they were refusing to disperse.

  “I know you told me that the Sea Warriors have to solve this problem,” Kimo had added, “but it’s gone beyond anything we can possibly handle. And I fear it’s going to get far worse.”

  She had only glowed dimly, as before, and he still worried about her. But her whispering, murmuring voice had grown a little stronger today, and she’d said a lot more than he expected. “I do not know why the whales and their companions are acting this way. Even with molecular communication through the particles of ocean water, I do not know. It is as if –“ She had then paused for a long moment, during which her amorphous, ruby-red glow pulsed in apparent agitation, before growing smoother. “It is as if the animals have their own free will on a scale that I never anticipated, and it is of a collective nature. They are moving in concert, like the morphic fields that shape formations of birds, and I have been unable to detect the force that guides them now—or intervene with it, though I have tried. Like you, I am extremely concerned. Their behavior is … is most unexpected, and quite worrisome.”

  “Alicia told me she is concerned that it might be a mass suicide of the largest species on the planet. She mentioned past incidents of dolphins, whales, and other creatures beaching themselves by the hundreds, and occasionally in larger numbers, and dying. But this is a bigger event, Moanna—much, much bigger, and horrifying. Alicia fears that the large animals are killing themselves by defying the most powerful military force in the world—hastening the process of their own extinction that mankind has already set in motion, making the inevitable happen sooner.”

  “Yes, that is a disturbing possibility, a most disturbing one.”

  “And under that theory, the large-bodied sea creatures have used Gwyneth McDevitt as a catalyst, in which she galvanized multiple species into collective action, and once that was set in motion, the animals themselves took it to another level—led by the most intelligent among them, probably the whales.”

  “I fear Alicia is right. A sense of deep despondency in the core of my being tells me that if this continues, there could be a snowball effect in which billions of creatures of the sea kill themselves. A terrible mass suicide in which almost all ocean life ends in the upper food chain. And regardless of whether or not that occurs, there is a troublesome trend in the ocean in which large dead zones are appearing that have no oxygen, so that marine microbes and most marine animals cannot live there, nor can plants. In a matter of only two centuries, the seas of this planet could be entirely devoid of oxygen and dead—leaving them suitable only for jellyfish and certain chemical life forms that do not depend on oxygen for their survival. The death of the ocean, of course, would eliminate more than half of the oxygen production on the planet, and both animal and plant species on the land would die off catastrophically. Some land species are likely to survive, even on limited oxygen. Humans, being highly adaptable, are likely to survive, though in greatly diminished numbers.”

  “What would become of you?” Kimo had asked, feeling dismal.

  “I would vanish, of course. As the seas live and breathe, I live and breathe, for I am Ocean.”

  Deep in thought, Kimo had said, “Gwyneth started the process of mobilizing the whales and other large creatures. Doesn’t it make sense that she could also be the key to reversing it? Do you think she is lying when she says she can’t get the animals to disperse?”

  “She is not lying. Of that I am as confident as I can possibly be, from my own special knowledge of her. However, she may very well be the key to reversing the process. You could be right about that. The problem is, we don’t know how to use that key.”

  “Maybe she knows,” Kimo suggested. “Maybe somewhere deep in her soul she knows. Can you work with her?”

  A long period of silence ensued. Then: “As difficult as this is for me to say, and as difficult as it must be for you, I must counsel you to give her as much free reign as possible. Other than myself, she has more information about the ocean than anyone, because she has been a repository of data that has flowed from me through you, into her.”

  “I dreamed that, but I didn’t think it was real.”

  “Why not? The names that appeared in your dreams turned out to be real.”

  “I was not in the water when you passed information to us, and neither was Gwyneth. How then did you –“

  “You are not prepared to know the reason for that, Kimo.”

  He felt as if his mother had spanked him. “So, Gwyneth is a very special repository of information about the ocean.”

  “Yet, she is no more special than you or Alicia, because all three of you are essential parts of what I want to see happen-which is the complete reversal of bad human behavior when it comes to the ocean. In Gwyneth’s case, she has the most raw data, that is true—but she is not always able to access it. Think of your own mind, or that of any other human. Large amounts of information are in storage, and not always retrievable. It is like that with Gwyneth as well, but on a much larger scale. Her mind is a huge repository of facts—and the answer to our problem may be somewhere in her custody.”

  “But not in yours, too?”

  “She has her own extremely special connection with whales, and through them with other ocean animals, her own unique linkage that even I do not have. She knows things I do not. Remember, too, that she is a creature of the land and of the sea, while I am solely of the sea—and keep in mind, too, that whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on the land eons ago, before going to live entirely in the ocean. Beyond her very special nature, and those of you and your other Sea Warriors, I have sought assistance from human beings because humans have damaged the seas terribly, and it is only right that humans should restore them as well. Considering everything, I must step back far enough to allow Gwyneth, and all of you, to exercise your good human qualities to aid the ocean.”

  “So, Gwyneth is the brain of the Sea Warriors, while Alicia and I perform other functions.”

  The murmuring voice weakened, but Moanna continued to speak. “It’s not quite that simple. Think of it this way. You are intelligent in different ways than Gwyneth is, and you must use your own intellect, instincts, and leadership skills to bring certain aspects of hers out, to encourage and counsel her to make the best possible use of her talents, while giving her as much free reign as possible. She is very troubled now because of what has happened with the floating barricades, very uncertain of herself. And this makes her hesitant to act, hesitant to explore the tributaries of her mind where the answers could very well lie, because the sea barriers she envisioned have gone farther than she expected—they have become unmovable.”

  Kimo thought about these things for a long moment, and found himself so stunned by the extent of the problem that he was unable to think of anything to say.

  Moanna then filled his mind with even more. “I, too, have a hesitancy that is affecting my decisions and my actions. In the past, I exercised too much power, generating huge storms at sea and immense walls of water that flooded much of the planet. In different human cultures there are parallel legends of ancient floods. Those stories all have a basis in fact, and I caused many of the ocean-related ‘natural’ disasters, to my eternal regret. The biblical forty days and forty nights of rain were also of my making. You must realize, however, that there are other supernatural powers at work on this world, other ‘gods” and “goddesses,” as humans like to think of them—and I caused the rain and flooding at the request of another deity. These entities, including myself, sometimes work in concert, and sometimes we work separately, and even at cross purposes. I also parted the Red Sea, much to the awe of human beings.”

  “I had no idea you did all that.”

  “I did. And lik
e you I have emotions. In what you call ancient times I lost my patience with mankind for a variety of reasons—precipitating disasters that almost wiped out all life on the land—failing to see that the planet needs a balance between the land, the sea, and the sky. I went too far, because even I have never been perfect. Now I seek a new equilibrium, because that is what life is all about—both on the micro and macro scale. It is about balance.”

  “But now you are dissatisfied with humans again.”

  “Yes, but this time I am in a much weakened state, and even so, I have the wisdom to see that there are exceptions in the ranks of mankind, good people such as yourself, Alicia, Gwyneth, and other Sea Warriors. Good people such as your adoptive parents, as well as the ocean scientists and environmentalists who want to join the ranks of the organization as associates. What I would like to see now is for you to assemble the good humans into a formidable force that will not only lead sea creatures, but will also alter human behavior, to make the planet a better place for all species of animals and plants—a utopia for life forms of all kind.”

  “Moanna, this is more than you’ve ever told me at one time before. I always sensed you had something special in mind for me, but I had no comprehension of the sheer immensity of it, the scale of it. I thank you for allowing me to be the first human to be transformed. I will do my best to not disappoint you—to not disappoint the planet Earth.”

  “The planet Ocean, you mean? Shouldn’t this world be called Ocean instead, because the seas are so much more extensive than the lands?”

  “You’re right,” Kimo said.

  “I have been waiting to see how you would develop, my child. I like what I see, and besides, I do not have the strength or the abilities to do everything….”

  Now as Kimo stood on the beach he became aware of the warmth of the sun above him, of the nutrients flowing from that distant fireball into his body, and he thought of the miracle of all life on this planet that he would forever call Ocean, and of his part in taking it to another level. He had been feeling renewed determination since seeing Moanna today, a determination to oversee as much as he possibly could.

  In Honolulu, Fuji Namoto had the Sea Warrior office up and running, staffed with volunteers who were helping her coordinate an aggressive internet public relations and funding drive. Public opinion had steadied, and the organization had raised more than $17,000,000 in only a few days, with most of it being poured back into promotional efforts. Fuji reported that she had thousands of applications for associate memberships, and that she had set up a screening process to make sure the applicants were worthy, and were not moles who were only seeking to collect inside information for an opponent. It would be impossible to ever be completely certain of the loyalty of every applicant, both Fuji and Kimo realized, so they could only do their best to weed out the bad ones. So far, there had been no known disloyalty problems among the associates, but Fuji and a team of her trusted advisers were remaining wary, and alert.

  Because of the government investigation that Governor Heinz Churchill had ordered, the Sea Warriors faced legal challenges, so Fuji had begun to obtain advice from a high-powered attorney. The biggest legal concern, she reported, had to do with the decision one of their members had made to take independent action that had cast the Sea Warriors in a bad light in many circles—the decision to blockade the Hawaiian islands. There was also the matter of the Navy spy who had attempted to become a hybrid Sea Warrior, had been discovered by Moanna, and had died mysteriously underwater. So far the Navy had said nothing publicly about this.

  The action to cordon off the Hawaiian islands from the sea, however—and the beach shutdowns that preceded it—had generated a huge amount of sympathy from environmental groups around the world, and it was from their ranks that most of the applications for associate membership were coming, along with financial support. When Fuji added this to the many demonstrations by environmentalists in support of the Sea Warriors in cities around the globe, she told Kimo the momentum was good. So far, the backing might be coming from a minority of people on the planet, but they were a fervent bunch, and it was making up for the numbers of people who opposed him, people who thought the Sea Warriors had gone too far even in their attempt to shut down beaches.

  All of Fuji’s efforts for the radical ocean-rights organization had strained her relationship with her husband, Governor Churchill, and rumors were swirling that they would soon be divorced. As it was, they were barely on speaking terms.

  Though Kimo was from Loa’kai and had established an interim place to gather his Sea Warriors at Crimson Cove, he was beginning to see the benefit of changing his headquarters to Oahu. Fuji had set up their land-based office in Honolulu, where they had better access to big-money donors and volunteers. Besides, Kimo realized, Oahu was not that much farther from Moanna’s deep ocean locker than Loa’kai, making the travel times manageable.

  Late that afternoon, Kimo met with his hybrid warriors at a beach on the eastern shore of Oahu. For the first time, the organization had their own security force, half a dozen burly male guards that Fuji had organized among the volunteer associates. Dressed in casual shorts, they wore dark blue tee-shirts identifying them as “SECURITY,” and kept reporters, photographers, and members of the public away from the meeting area.

  As Kimo waited for everyone to arrive by sea, he received a report from Dirk Avondale on the progress of the newest one hundred ninety-seven recruits—all of whom had swum here with Dirk, after their deep-ocean transformations. They sat on the white sand below Kimo, who stood on a high point where he could see the sparkling aquamarine waters of the ocean. As Dirk gave Kimo the report orally, the other ocean warriors began filtering in, more slowly than Kimo wanted. He’d transmitted all of them a message underwater, and was feeling increasingly concerned about the delay. By the time Dirk finished his report a few minutes later, only around half of the original members had arrived, and Kimo was worried about the others.

  Then he saw a group of them swimming toward him, with Gwyneth in the front, reaching the shore first. She looked different, and so did many of the others. Startlingly different. Previously, Kimo had thought he’d noticed changes in Gwyneth’s face, a flattening of the features, but he had not been sure. Now, he was absolutely certain. The teenager was almost unrecognizable, a strange swimming creature with an oddly familiar elfin face and short, curly brown hair. The eyes were still bright blue but larger, and the mouth was smaller. Her ears and nose had gone flat, and only small orifices remained visible. As before she was quite proficient at swimming in the sea, but her body was wider and heavier now (too large for her Sea Warrior swimsuit, which was gone) and she was swimming differently, making undulating motions with her body instead of relying on her arms and legs for propulsion.

  As she stepped out of the water, Kimo saw that her torso was flat in front, and he realized that her arms were shorter, seemingly having drawn back into her body. Her legs were considerably shorter as well, and she had trouble walking on them. Any previous physical indications of her gender were missing, or at least he could not identify anything in that regard. Her skin looked rough-textured, and had a gray cast to it.

  “I’m becoming more a creature of the ocean than of the land,” she said to Kimo when he greeted her at water’s edge.

  Then his attention shifted to others who were wading ashore. Jacqueline Rado still had a normal appearance to her body, but her face had lost some of its human qualities. In a way it still looked like her, but it was a blending of human and fish features, as if a distorted version of her countenance had been superimposed over the snout and wide mouth of a shark.

  Some of the warriors were unchanged in facial or bodily appearance, but a small number had morphed into something different, almost frighteningly so—and he recognized a pattern. Except for Gwyneth, the ones who had changed resembled at least one of the species of sea life that they commanded. This was true of Jacqueline. It was also true of Fred Earhart, but he had become completely
unrecognizable, and had to be identified for Kimo by someone else. Earhart still had a human body, but his ruddy Irish face had vanished into the countenance of a swordfish, with a long, sharp protrusion that appeared capable of causing a lot of damage to the unwary. He was perfectly content with the alteration, and could still speak reasonably well. He could also smile, which looked really odd to Kimo. In staring at him, Kimo noticed one of his former features remained—a patch of red hair on top of the fish head, clinging there like a wig with strong adhesive.

  Another change involved Phil Austin, who had metamorphosed into a large, rotund seahorse, and demonstrated an ability to make hundreds of tiny seahorses perform tricks underwater, as if choreographed by Busby Berkley—with the small leafy sea dragons gathering around and watching, as if they were an attentive audience. Some of the Sea Warriors were amused by the antics, but Kimo had no time to think of entertainment. He catalogued the various changes in his mind, deciding for each whether it was something that could help the cause, or not. Austin, while not appearing to be capable of any aggression, might still provide amusement for his comrades. That was something, anyway.

  By far the most strikingly beautiful of all the hybrids who underwent further change was Pauline Deveaux, whose interest in reef fish turned her into a human-sized, rainbow-hued fish with a countenance that had some of her original attractive features, especially her pretty blue eyes and gentle facial expressions. Resembling a mermaid more than any of her companions, she swam as far as she could toward the beach in the shallow water, and then remained partially immersed for her comrades to examine. “I guess I can’t go on the land anymore,” she said, because she no longer had a human body at all. “But that’s all right. I actually remember being a little girl and looking into a tank of tropical fish, wishing I could be like them.”