“I’m going to respond right away,” Kimo said to Alicia and Dirk. The Hawaiian man swam toward the rafted boats of the environmental activists, with Alicia and Dirk close behind him. Wearing their black Sea Warrior swimsuits, they climbed up a rope ladder onto the main deck of the largest boat. Stepping aboard, Alicia noted that the vessel was weathered like its companions, and showed evidence of extensive repairs. It moved slightly under her feet in the light waves.
“I’d like to address the Navy and the government,” Kimo said to a long-haired, bearded man who held a loudspeaker microphone.
“Of course,” the man said, recognizing him instantly. He handed over the tubular mike.
A few feet away, Alicia saw Monique Gatsby climb aboard the boat. The actress knew several of the activists, and they gathered around her with boisterous greetings, then fell silent as Kimo prepared to speak.
“Now this is our response,” Kimo broadcasted, with his voice coming out of multiple speakers on the rafted boats. “I could not get all Sea Warriors to surrender if I wanted to—which I don’t. President Vanness, you know what Chi’ang and Talbot did on their own, as well as the earlier blockade of the Hawaiian Islands that another member initiated when we were only supposed to temporarily shut down the major beaches. We have already shown our good faith by turning Chi’ang and Talbot over to the federal government.
“And now, to show you that the Sea Warriors mean business, we intend to disrupt shipping on the mainland of the United States if you do not cease all hostile actions against the blockades in these islands, in that same forty-eight hours! Because of your continued aggressive actions, which are harmful to the ocean, we have just moved up the original timetable. You no longer have the seventy-two hours that was published in the latest edition of the Honolulu Mercury News. You are losing this fight in Hawaii—this Battle of the Hawaiian Sea—and if we expand our operations you will lose on all other fronts, as well. You cannot win. You will not win!”
Kimo handed back the microphone and went to the railing of the boat, where he looked out at the large, lumpy shape of Gwyneth, who was nearby, still riding on the back of the killer whale, with the rest of the pod assembled near her.
“You heard what I said to them?” Kimo asked, after motioning her to come closer.
“I heard!” she said, in her throaty voice. On the whale’s back, the humanoid teenager was only a little below Kimo’s eye level, a short distance away. “You are quite poetic. The Battle of the Hawaiian Sea has a nice ring to it.”
“Too much blood has been shed here,” Kimo said.
“I know.”
Making sure no one was eavesdropping, he leaned over the side and said to her in a low voice, “Gwyneth, I want you to leave for San Francisco within the hour. I’ve already sent for a school of the fastest jetfish to get you there, in a sealed, high-speed pod. They are in the French Shoals, and are on their way. Three other Sea Warriors will accompany you—Jacqueline Rado, Professor Marcus Greco, and one of the impressive young recruits, J.D. Watts. Of that group, only the oceanography professor has not shown any obvious bodily changes, though he is still a functioning hybrid with gills and other underwater capabilities. Because of his normal human appearance, he will bring shoes and street clothes in a waterproof pack, so that he can go freely onto the land whenever necessary.”
“San Francisco,” she said, also keeping her voice down. “That’s what I recommended two days ago.”
His eyes were sad. “If we have to blockade that port it will be a major escalation, sure to provoke the rage of the U.S. government. I hope we can avoid taking that step, but I’m not optimistic.”
“If we go through with the blockade, should I set it up at the Golden Gate Bridge?”
He paused. “A couple of hundred feet away from the bridge would be better, to keep anyone from using it as a platform to drop explosives.”
“I can swim very fast myself,” she said. “Perhaps I don’t need the jetfish pod.”
“I want you to stay with your team. The jetfish will form a water-filled reservoir for you onboard, so that you can remain moist during the trip and will not suffer. It will be in the forward section of the passenger cabin, and you will still be able to speak to the others when your mouth is out of the water. As
soon as you are in San Francisco Bay, you can try to interact with me by molecular communication, and I’ll let you know if the President has backed down.”
“I’ve been thinking about the molecular transmission system,” Gwyneth said, “and even if we could communicate in that manner across a great distance, there would be a delay factor of three or four hours. If our unique form of communication were merely a matter of the speed of sound through water—which is almost five times the speed of sound through air—it would be theoretically possible to send each message between Hawaii and San Francisco in less than an hour. But our system is more complicated than that, and would take longer over that distance.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “In that case, send Professor Greco ashore in street clothes after the forty-eight hour deadline is up, to see if the U.S. government has accepted our terms. If not, you know what to do.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
Kimo looked at her somberly. “In wartime it is not possible to think of everything. And make no mistake about it. We are at war with the United States of America, and potentially with the rest of the world.”
***
Ocean: The Sea Warriors Page 23
