Ocean: The Sea Warriors (13 page)

“I understand,” Kimo said.

“I don’t,” Alicia said. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand that old man. I’m ashamed to admit I’m even related to him.”

***

Chapter 16

Alicia stood with her companions at One’ula Beach, on Oahu. Just beyond the coral reefs offshore, the water was teeming with large-bodied creatures that had been there for almost three days now. It was an overcast morning and cold for Hawaii, with a cool breeze blowing in from the sea. The weather reflected Alicia’s dismal mood. Beside her, Kimo was somber as well. They were frustrated at not being able to reduce the tension of the situation, and how it had escalated beyond their control so quickly.

For the time being, the Navy had pulled their warships back into Pearl Harbor, but there were rumors that they would soon take even more aggressive military action against the animals. This was very troubling to Alicia, and dangerous. She didn’t want to see any bloodshed, but emotions were running high among the opponents of the Sea Warriors.

Kimo and Alicia also had concerns about some of their members. For the most part they seemed to have good attitudes and were dedicated to the cause, but Alicia had noticed something troubling the last time they were all gathered on one of the beaches where Kimo liked to hold his meetings. She had seen Vinson Chi’ang and Emily Talbot sitting off to one side, deep in conversation, not paying attention to the instructions Kimo was giving to all of the members. Something bright and golden had glinted in Emily’s hands. Noticing Alicia’s gaze, Vinson had said something to Emily that caused her to slip the object into her waterproof backpack. Alicia wondered what it was, and why the two of them were acting so secretively. She had mentioned the incident to Kimo, Dirk, and Jacqueline, and all of them were now keeping closer tabs on them.

Vinson already had personality problems that most people had noticed. While initially a number of members had been interested in what he had to say about oceanography, his egotistical manner had worn on them quite quickly, to the point where most were avoiding him—even Pauline Deveaux, who for awhile had been so enthralled by him.

A short distance down the beach, the governor of the state, a number of naval officers, and scientists stood together. So far there had been two meetings between the Sea Warriors and a combination of groups on the other side—the first taking place the day before at a new, partially furnished office for the warriors that Fuji Namoto had rented downtown. The session had been tense, led on one side by Kimo, Alicia, and Dirk Avondale, and on the other by the Admiral of the Third Fleet, Mack Turner, and his predecessor (now the governor of the state), Heinz Churchill. It ended with the Sea Warriors promising to try to convince their rogue member (whose identity they did not reveal) to reverse course and disperse the animals—and if that could not be accomplished, to increase their own efforts to clear the channel. During the meeting, there had been a surprisingly testy exchange of words between the governor and his wife, Fuji Namoto, over their differing views of who was responsible for the current crisis—but the two of them had pulled their punches, and had not escalated the argument….

After yesterday’s meeting, Kimo, Alicia, and Dirk had spoken privately with Gwyneth, once more attempting to convince her to change her mind—but the teenager, as expected, had not budged. As a result, Kimo had again entered the water and attempted to transmit commands to the whales and other large animals, but his efforts remained unsuccessful. He then ordered his followers to test their own powers to influence these or other sea creatures, to see if some combination of them could open pathways through the mass of flesh ringing Oahu and the other Hawaiian islands. Schools of barracudas, sharks, dolphins, tuna, and other species were then brought forth in varying combinations in attempts to push through without bloodshed, but to no avail. The larger animals would not move. And none of the Sea Warriors commanding those species were able to transmit commands to the large creatures in the sea barricades, either.

At the same time, Alicia had worked to increase the power of her waves, conducting practice sessions a mile offshore. Thinking she might disrupt the animals with the action of water, she tried to form a new wave shape, a “vee,” while concentrating most of the forward energy at the point of the wave. She hoped that the point might act as a wedge that would make a small opening in Gwyneth’s line at first, and then enlarge it as the wedge continued forward—finally using lateral wave action to keep the animals from regrouping and closing the passage. By the end of the day, Alicia had the water-shape she wanted, and was able to increase its speed over that of her earlier waves, yet only slightly. It was nightfall when she finished, and she had not yet tested it against the floating barricades Gwyneth had created. That test was scheduled to take place later today….

The second meeting between the Governor and Navy on one side, and the Sea Warriors on the other, had concluded within the past hour. It had been an impromptu session, with the military and governmental authorities approaching the Sea Warriors on the beach, making demands of them and informing them curtly that they had ordered a full investigation of the organization. The tension escalated when Governor Churchill and Admiral Turner threatened to use torpedoes and other explosives against the sea barrier if the animals did not disperse immediately.

A shouting match had then erupted between Admiral Turner and retired-Commander Dirk Avondale, and this devolved quickly into opposing volleys of verbal insults from each side. The two officers had never gotten along, it turned out, a disagreement over the cruel training methods Turner had ordered to be used on Navy dolphins, and the injuries and deaths of the animals that had resulted. Their mutual animosity had led to other Navy officers and Sea Warriors shouting at one another as sides were taken and accusations were exchanged. On the beach now, the two groups eyed each other warily, as everyone awaited Alicia’s new effort.

Alicia waded into the water and swam underneath the line of sea creatures. Then, around a half mile beyond them, she formed a vee-wave and pointed it back at them, standing on the rear of it as it gathered speed quickly. Ahead of her, the animals looked at her with large, inquisitive eyes as she neared them. They did not move, except to bob gently in the water on natural waves.

Selecting a place between a whale and a cow-like dugong that were face to face, she managed to nudge each of them aside and then increase the distance between them as the wave surged forward. Then she slowed the wave and used strong lateral pressure on each side in an attempt to keep the animals apart. For a minute she thought this might be successful, but gradually she felt tremendous strength pushing against the sides of her vee-wave as the leviathans pressed against it. It was a losing battle for her, and finally she found herself between the huge faces of the whale and the rotund dugong, but the creatures did not hurt her. With the wave defeated, they allowed her to slip back into the water and swim away.

Alicia made five more attempts, and each time the result was similar, no matter where she tried to break through. Then it occurred to her that she might use a water wedge in coordination with military ships going forward on each side, but she didn’t think she wanted to work closely with the U.S. Navy, and knew Kimo wouldn’t like the idea either.

When she waded ashore, she found Admiral Turner standing with Kimo. She shook her head. “I can’t break through,” she said. “The animals are extremely strong individually, and in a group they are much more so. You’ve seen that yourself, Admiral, the way they manhandle your ships.”

“We have other options,” the tall, impeccably-dressed officer said. “And you know what they are.”

“Give us more time,” Kimo said. “I’m sure we can come up with something.”

Turner scowled. “Radar reports show that more large creatures are arriving all the time, throughout the islands. They’re coming from all over the world, from every ocean.”

“The world is all one ocean,” Kimo said.

“I’m speaking of oceans on the map—the seven oceans, the seven seas.”

“We’re sorry this is happening,” Kimo said. “If I’d known things would go wrong like this, I never would have ordered the operations against the beaches in the first place.”

“Reopening Pearl Harbor is an important matter of national security,” Turner said, “and this blockage constitutes a terrorist act against the United States of America. For all we know, you’re faking your efforts to break through.”

“We’re not faking anything,” Kimo insisted. “Everything we’ve told you is the truth. We don’t want the blockade any more than you do.”

“Give us your rogue member then, and we’ll interrogate him … or her.”

Kimo shook his head. “That person—that hybrid—is a highly sensitive individual, and you could create more harm than good in the interrogation process. I’ll continue to work with that person instead, to see if we can get the situation reversed.”

Rage moved across the Admiral’s narrow face, and he stalked off. Alicia saw him talking to his officers, issuing commands, and Governor Churchill nodding in agreement, with his long gray ponytail lifting in the wind.

In the midst of the Sea Warriors, Kimo and Alicia found Gwyneth, with Dirk Avondale talking to her, still trying to get her to change her mind. “Now they’re threatening to use military force,” Kimo said to the teenager. “You’ve got to end the blockade! One way or another, it’s going to be ended. This situation cannot endure.”

She shook her head stubbornly, then walked down to the edge of the water and gazed out at the line of mammoth creatures ringing the island. With other warriors gathered around her, she said, “The U.S. military is going to regret it if they try to break through again. The government is going to regret it.”

Alicia and Kimo shook their heads in dismay, and he said, “I’m going to Moanna for help.” Alicia offered to accompany him, but he asked her to remain behind and manage the Sea Warriors.

Kimo dove deep, using his innate sense of direction in the sea to swim directly to the region where Moanna had always been. Ever since his childhood, since his earliest memories, he had always been able to locate her.

As he descended from the warm, sunlit upper waters into the colder, darker abyss, he soon saw the ruby-red glow of the Sea Goddess, an illumination that rose from the seabed this time and formed a new route for him to follow. On the rare occasions when this occurred, he knew it was a message from her that she had moved from her previous location—and this time she had shifted to the west in a deep ocean trench.

He swam through the curvature of red light as if it were a stream in the ocean, leading him through the winding trench. Presently the illumination brightened and widened, and he saw the ruby radiance of her underwater presence. It was not as bright as usual, but at first this gave him no concern, because she often changed the intensity of her glow. In the past he’d thought it might have something to do with her moods, or with her cycles of rest.

Often when he’d neared her previously, she’d brightened and enclosed him in the warmth of her radiation, making him feel as if she were welcoming and embracing him. This time, however, she remained much dimmer than usual.

He swam closer, noted an unprecedented lack of warmth in the water around her, and this worried him. “Moanna,” he said over their molecular connection. “I have questions for you. As you may already know, Gwyneth summoned whales and other large sea creatures, and caused them to create barricades around several Hawaiian islands, preventing the passage of boats and ships. Now she refuses to break up the formations.”

Moanna’s voice barely rose to a level he could hear, and did not carry its customary, faint echo afterward. “You must work this out for yourself.”

“It’s important for us to regain control over the animals. It’s creating huge political problems, and is going to lead to violence by human military forces.”

Moanna dimmed even more, and murmured in a voice that sounded fatigued, “This is a human-caused problem. It is why the Sea Warriors were formed in the first place, to deal with human-caused problems.”

“But Gwyneth caused it, and she is a transformed person, a Sea Warrior.”

“Gwyneth did not cause the problem. The problem exists because the U.S. military thinks it owns the seas around Hawaii, which it does
not
.”

“But Gwyneth has stirred things up. She’s trying to do things too fast, without considering the terrible consequences.”

No response came.

Kimo tried several times to get Moanna to say more, but she refused. She had gone silent on him before, and it always meant he was supposed to leave. This time, he did that, but he worried about her as he swam back to rejoin the Sea Warriors at the entrance to Pearl Harbor.