Ocean: War of Independence (9 page)

He heard the rustling of paper and the murmuring of discontent as delegates examined the provisions, and he saw many people shaking their heads. Some delegates were dismayed, while others were red-faced and angry. One of the latter, a female delegate from the United States, held the bound declaration up and said, “I’ve looked at enough to see that this thing is ridiculous. No motorized vessels on the seas? No mining of manganese, cobalt, or other resources? No fishing for wild species? Are you completely out of your mind?” She waved her hands angrily as she spoke, showing gold bracelets and a glittering diamond ring.

Kimo stiffened. “I’m not surprised by your attitude, because the United States is the worst offender on the planet, committing more offenses than fifty other nations combined. Madame, it is not likely that anything
you
say will be reflected in future editions of the declaration. You and others like you need to completely rework the way you think. Get this into your heads: The only
right
you have involving the ocean from now on is to stand somewhere on the land and gaze out upon the majestic, spectacular beauty of the water. You can look, but don’t touch—not unless we tell you how you can touch it.”

The woman sputtered a protest, and sat down indignantly.

“For 30 days,” Kimo said, “we will accept suggestions from national delegates, and will make any changes that
we
see fit. After we produce the second edition of the Declaration of Ocean Independence, with more detailed timetables for compliance, each nation on the planet will have one hundred and eighty days to get into full conformity with the requirements and timelines. On a schedule that is to be determined by a new Ocean Management Authority—the OMA—there will eventually be no power boats on the ocean, and you will only be permitted to take sail- or human-powered boats on the water, if you receive permits from us.”

“So, Roman galleys with slaves at the oars would be legal?” a man shouted. “And kiddy paddleboats?”

Ignoring the interruption, Kimo said, “Effective immediately, all motorized ocean navies—being hazardous by nature and detrimental to the seas—are declared illegal, and will be destroyed by the Sea Warriors if they are found on the ocean. And in time, there will be no sewage dumping and brown water offshore, no barges of garbage hauled out of big cities and dumped in the ocean, no plastic bottles and bags floating in the water and killing marine animals, no oil spills covering birds and fish in black goo, no dead creatures washed up on beaches….”

Paying little heed to the restlessness in the assembly hall, Kimo continued. “Effective immediately, there will be no fishing, hunting, or gathering in the ocean or on the beaches, and no crabbing, lobstering, or oystering, just to mention a few things. Fish farms will be permitted, but only if strict controls are put in place to contain fecal waste, and to prevent farmed fish from escaping and contaminating wild gene stocks. There will be no more dolphins trapped in tuna-seining nets, because no one will be permitted to fish on the high seas at all, under
any
circumstances. All of you
must
and
will
learn to think differently about this planet, whose health is dependent upon the health of the ocean. Your personal wishes are no longer important. This is not about human wants or selfish interests; it is about necessities—survival necessities for every ocean animal on Earth.”

The delegate from Japan leapt to his feet, shouting in English. The stocky, irate man waved the bound declaration in the air. “No more whaling factory ships, no dolphin roundups, no tuna fishing or shark fishing? We will not tolerate that! Our people demand the products from these animals!”

“From now on, your people will have to change, setting up OMA-approved fish and other aquaculture farms to serve the needs of your people.”

“We cannot grow whales in pens!” the man shouted. “Or sharks. We have a big business exporting shark fins to China.”

“That is your misfortune. There have been too many abuses, such as cutting off shark fins and discarding the rest of the animal. And for what? A bowl of shark-fin soup? Can’t you see how crazy that is, how wasteful? Can’t you see how abusive and disrespectful that is to the animals of the sea? These are our terms, and you have no choice but to accept them.”

“This is a radical left-wing document! It is not reasonable!”

“You say it’s left,” Kimo answered calmly, “but I say it’s
right
. It’s the right thing to do! Do you think we expected human beings to do the right thing on their own, when they have been greedy and careless for so many centuries? We don’t expect some of you to understand the morality or necessity of this document today, but eventually you will, and your nations will come to appreciate that the ocean is a blessing that a higher power has placed on this planet. It is something to be
treasured
, to be treated with
love and respect
. It is my fervent hope, sir, that your children and grandchildren will come to understand this, even if you never do.”

The Japanese delegate sat down in a huff, slamming the declaration angrily on the writing surface in front of him. Near him, the Chinese delegate (a tall, elegantly dressed woman) said nothing, but she also looked very unhappy.

“I can put the spirit of this document into a few sentences,” Kimo said. “No harm may be done to the ocean or its inhabitants. Without our permission, you may not touch or tamper with anything to do with the ocean, not even with seawater itself. Until humans treat the oceans properly, you may not even dip your toe in the water without permission.”

Now a number of other national delegates rose to their feet, shouting at the same time, asserting that their economies would be ruined by the severe conditions of the declaration. An elderly delegate from Venezuela said his country would ignore the Declaration of Ocean Independence and would continue drilling for oil offshore, and in Lake Maracaibo, which was a salt water lake connected to the sea.

“Then we will remove your illegal drilling rigs ourselves,” Kimo said, “just as we demonstrated we can do off the California coast.”

“No you won’t, because we will find ways to keep you away, such as at the narrow inlet to Lake Maracaibo.”

“Your methods will not be able to stand the massive tidal waves we will hurl at your entire coast, and at any barricade you attempt.”

The man did not return to his seat. Instead, he tossed the declaration aside and stormed out of the building, pushing his way past other delegates.

“We’re going to sue you!” he shouted at the door, just before exiting.

“Yes, we’re suing the Sea Warriors!” another man shouted, in the Queen’s English of a formal British accent.

“Your courts have no jurisdiction over us,” Kimo countered. “They are courts of the
land
, not of the sea—and land power no longer extends to the ocean. Your courts seek to drain ocean resources and move them to the land, the same thing that imperialistic, colonial nations have historically done to third-world nations. Your courts are puppets of human business interests.”

“Then we’ll take you into police custody,” the man said. “You and all of the others gathered around this building.”

“But we have many more members in the sea,” Kimo said with a steely smile, “and our operations will continue. The ocean will be cleansed, ships will be sunk, sailors, fishermen, and oil-rig crews will die if necessary. From the smallest creatures in the sea to the largest, we have billions and billions of fighters on our side. You have no idea of the havoc we can cause. You have seen only a sampling of our potential.

“Try to swim in the sea without proper authorization, and you will be attacked not only by the box jellyfish, stingrays, and needlefish you’ve heard about, but by razor-beaked, hyper-fast squid, by praying-mantis boxing shrimp that can deliver bone-breaking blows with their front claws, by sea spiders that suck blood like vampires, by sea anemones that fire stinging, toxic barbs to penetrate any wetsuit, by lampreys that can attach to a human face with suction and digest it, and by small cookie-cutter sharks that can attach to the skin of the human torso and cut off large, neat chunks of it. We have conger eels, large clams, octopuses, and squids that can clamp onto swimmers and hold them underwater until they drown. We have animals that attack aggressively and savagely in packs, such as killer whales. Our great white sharks, giant octopuses, and other aggressive animals feel little or no pain when they are injured, and will continue to attack, refusing to give up any fight, short of death.

“Make any attempt to put your ships in the water and you’ve already seen what we can do to them with powerful waves and large marine animals; you have no idea how many ways we have to sink them to the bottom of the sea if necessary. All manmade structures on the shorelines of the world can be destroyed by waves if necessary, and human beings will fear the ocean and its ‘sea monsters’ more than ever—because now the stories will not be myths. They will be a horrific reality. You are vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and you cannot win this fight. Imagine the guerrilla strikes we can make all over the world, and the impossibility of hunting us down. Imagine the scale of the environmental protests if you attempt any wholesale slaughter of marine species. All you can do is to accept the new reality, and adapt to it. Human beings are the most adaptable animals on the planet; I’m sure you will find a way to survive.”

“So now you aren’t even human,” the man shouted.

“Oh, I’m still human, but I’m much more than that, too, as are my companions. We have the passion of human beings who care about the environment, but we are also creatures of the sea.”

“You are hoodlums of the sea!” a female delegate shrieked. With a caste mark on her forehead, she appeared to be from India. “This is blackmail on a massive scale!”

“Call it what you like,” Kimo said. “Your courts, legal terms, and even your insults, have no meaning to us, because they only serve to benefit your selfish business and national interests.”

With that, Kimo turned abruptly and left the podium, then marched out of the building toward the East River, followed by his entourage and then by the other hybrid Sea Warriors in the main lobby and plaza. Several police officers watched, along with a large crowd, but no one interfered with the ocean-rights activists as they stripped down to their swimsuits and dove into the water.

***

Chapter 11

Just before reaching Hawaii, Gwyneth asked to be released into the water. “I must see Moanna,” the humanoid teenager said. “I hear her calling to me. She wants to see me!”

Kimo and Alicia stood in the passenger compartment of the lead jetfish pod, at the edge of the open tank of seawater that held Gwyneth.

“I’m receiving the same message,” Alicia said.

“So am I,” Kimo said. “The Goddess of the Sea wants to see all three of us. For what, I don’t know.”

The Sea Warrior leader knelt on the deck of the pod, touched it gently with both hands and murmured as he commanded it to open underwater, along with some of the other pods. Moments later, the reddish, translucent jetfish separated into individual fish, and Alicia, Kimo, and Gwyneth swam out with all of the passengers.

They went to the surface first, where Alicia saw other open pods and more Sea Warriors swimming freely, beneath a blue, tropical sky. Kimo spoke to Dirk Avondale, leaving him temporarily in charge of the hybrids, associate members, and various experts who were still with them.

Swimming on the surface, Alicia saw a large fishing trawler not far away, with its nets extended. Crewmen were on the deck, using a pair of davits to haul in nets that were full of thrashing yellowfin tunas, along with dolphins that happened to be in the way. She shouted an alarm to her companions.

A fast swimmer, Kimo surged toward the boat, with Dirk and Alicia right beside him. On the way, Kimo summoned a number of longnose sawsharks that were nearby. Five of them appeared quickly, and began ripping into the nets, tearing them open and freeing the trapped fish. Whales surfaced, too, and gathered with the Sea Warriors, as did the freed dolphins and tunas.

On the deck of the fishing boat, men shouted in anger, and one brandished a rifle. Climbing atop a humpback whale, Kimo yelled in return, “We are Sea Warriors, with jurisdiction over this area! We command you to cease this illegal operation immediately, or we will sink your boat!”

The crewman lowered his rifle. Alicia saw the captain on the deck, gesturing and shouting to the pilot on the bridge. The motors started, and the big trawler sped away, trailing fragments of torn net.

“We won’t have to put up with this kind of crap much longer,” Kimo said, bobbing in swells left by the boat.

When Alicia, Gwyneth, and Kimo finally dove underwater and swam toward Moanna’s deep-water domain, Alicia transmitted a message to her companions, “I wonder why she summoned us.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon,” Kimo said.

As Alicia swam beside him, she noticed that he looked worried. “You’re sensing something bad, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he said. “Moanna is more deeply troubled than I have ever known her to be, but I don’t know why.”

With Kimo in the lead, they located an underwater current of glowing redness, which they followed. It led them to Moanna, who was in the same deep-ocean trench where Kimo reported seeing her the last time he’d called on her, but farther to the west than before—at least a hundred miles, he estimated.

“The glow is weaker than before,” Kimo said. Alicia heard the worry in his transmitted voice.

Presently the redness grew brighter, and they saw a glowing orb that marked more precisely where Moanna was. It was not nearly as bright as Alicia remembered, and she shared Kimo’s concern about the condition of the Sea Goddess. He’d told her that Moanna seemed more fragile than usual the last few times he’d visited her. But if she was in a diminished condition, why was she now on the move?

And Alicia wondered, as she had before,
what
was moving westward in the deep trench, what the essence of Moanna might look like, the source of the radiant energy.

The three Sea Warriors swam near the glowing red orb, which no longer reminded Alicia of an underwater sun. Now it was more like a large light bulb, and only of medium intensity. But it gave off enough of a glow to encompass the trio into it, and Alicia felt the presence of the entity, and a very slight warmth.

Now Moanna spoke, her murmuring voice barely audible over the molecular communication. “I have returned to the place where I first became conscious eons ago, when I realized who and what I was, and the obligations I had.”

“This is where you were born?” Alicia asked.

“Similar. It is where I first gained consciousness, and it is where I am going to lose it as well, the equivalent of death.”

“Can’t you prevent that in some way?” Kimo asked.

“Oh no. It is my fate, and it’s happening because the ocean is ill, a condition that has built up over millennia, and has accelerated since dense human population and industrialization made my ocean waters so filthy. I’ve had a belly full of sewage, industrial pollutants, and greenhouse gases. The gradual increase in toxicity and acidity is finally doing me in.” The volume of her voice went up and down like a feeble, fading signal. Her light pulsed, in weakening synchronicity.

Alicia felt an overwhelming sensation of sadness, and saw this on the face of Kimo and on the humanoid countenance of Gwyneth as well. Alicia wished she could do something.

Turning to Kimo, she asked, “Can’t you heal her?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I would have no idea how to accomplish that.”

“It is not possible,” Moanna said.

“You have no physical form, then?” Alicia inquired.

The murmuring voice was barely audible. “Wherever the tides lap against the shore, that is me. Wherever the water surges in a hurricane, forming great waves, that is me. Wherever the sea is becalmed, so that there is hardly a ripple on the surface, that is me, as well. I am rogue and tidal waves, whitecaps, and sea swells. I am the sunlit surface of the water and its dark, mysterious depths. I am every spark of life in the sea … I am Ocean.”

Kimo neared the glowing orb, and reached toward it. The brightness increased, and his hand was surrounded by a small area of more intense redness.

“What will we do without you?” he asked.

Alicia heard the emotion in his transmitted voice, and felt tears coming from her own eyes, even underwater. Both she and Gwyneth swam closer, so that they were beside Kimo, and could immerse their hands in the stronger illumination. The brightness held, and she felt increased warmth.

“When I am gone, all three of you will be quite busy,” Moanna murmured, and now her brightness dimmed and cooled around Alicia and Gwyneth, while highlighting Kimo as she said to him, “Kimo, since your childhood you have been receiving data from me without always being aware of it, as I taught you how to heal ocean creatures—and only recently you realized that both you and the animal you want to heal need to be immersed in seawater, so that there is a molecular connection between the two of you. I provided this additional information to you, as well as how to direct all the creatures in the sea, and cause them to follow your commands. While Gwyneth can lead whales and other large animals, Kimo, you have overall dominion. Even shorebirds fall under your control, and although you have no experience with this yet, so do sand fleas and other tiny organisms in the beaches of Earth.”

The brightest section of water then shifted to the morphed teenager like a spotlight, and Moanna spoke to her. “Gwyneth, your special talent, even more than your affinity for whales and love of those spectacular animals, is your ability to hold vast amounts of information about the ocean in your remarkable brain. You do not have all the data yet, even though your brain has plenty of additional capacity. I have delayed some of it because I have been so weak, and because you needed to assimilate the huge quantities that I have already given you. This weakness also explains why I have lost control of virtually all creatures in the sea, and why I am incapable of interfering with their independent behavior.”

She glowed brighter. “Now I am making a last surge, Gwyneth, transferring directly to you instead of the way I did it before. Being in the water with you so close, this is actually a more efficient, faster method. The other method, channeling it through Kimo as he dreamed, involved water as well, through a more circuitous route that included moisture in the air.”

As Alicia watched, Gwyneth’s entire lumpy form seemed to absorb the redness and become intensely ruby red, so that she was highlighted in the illumination. She floated motionless in the water and her eyes glazed over, a beatific expression on her humanoid countenance.

The murmuring continued. “Gwyneth has received additional information that she, in turn, will transfer to both Kimo and Alicia, concerning even more abilities that all three of you possess, and which are latent within you now. From Gwyneth’s central storehouse of information, you will learn how to make those talents blossom, so that you can contribute even more to the welfare of the ocean. For example, long ago when I possessed the equivalent of full health, I held dominion over more than the world’s ocean; I also extended my influence up rivers that empty into the sea, and to all of the creatures in those rivers. In policing the ocean against future human violations, it would be handy for you to include in your arsenal all of the aggressive, dangerous fresh water creatures, such as electric eels and piranhas, and adapt them to salt water.”

Moments later, the brightest illumination shifted to Alicia, and the young Sea Warrior felt warm radiance suffuse her while Moanna encompassed her in gentle, comforting sounds, “Alicia, you have already received information from me on how to move the waters, enabling you to generate a useful assortment of waves. There are many more types of water movement you can develop, using techniques that will gradually surface in your consciousness—allowing you to create much bigger tidal waves and whirlpools, as well as vee-waves with massive detonation power in the tips. And, with Gwyneth’s guidance, you will also learn how to direct certain ocean creatures to do your bidding, in combination with waves and ocean currents.”

“It seems that all of us still have a great deal to learn,” Alicia said.

“So you do, so you do. And with your powers comes a great deal of responsibility.” The brightness dimmed, so that it was homogeneous around all three of the Sea Warriors, and Alicia felt some of the warmth draw away from her.

A long pause ensued, after which the goddess spoke again, in a weakening voice. “And you will have a long time to learn, for I have extended your lives. The three of you will live for eons, just as I have, giving you time to accomplish a great deal. You will not be immortal in the pure sense of the word, no more than I am. And if the ocean gets healthy, perhaps you will live even longer than I have. Before humans began fouling the waters so heavily in the industrial age, healthier seas sustained and nourished me, made me quite strong and powerful, back in the days when I generated massive storms on the water and flooded the land.

“It can be that way for you as well, but you will need to be extremely wary and vigilant, to ward off further abuses by humankind. They are a devilishly tricky breed, and I must confess that they have worn me down. Now I am giving the three of you what energy I have remaining,
all
that I have left. You are a new triumvirate, each of you having equal authority compared with one another, to rule over the seas of the world. Each of you has special abilities, and in some cases your areas of expertise overlap. Together you will also have the responsibility for creating thousands of new Sea Warriors, giving them specialized skills, just as I have done for the ones who are already hybrids. You will discover that you can amend those skills at any time and shift them around as you see fit, whenever you notice talents and knowledge that will fulfill particular needs.”

Again Moanna paused, like an old person catching her breath. This gave Alicia a few seconds to think, as she tried to grasp everything that was being revealed to her.

Presently Moanna said, “One day, each of you will be able to glow bright red as you have seen me do, and when you draw Sea Warrior recruits into that aura you can learn about them and decide whether or not to accept them into the organization. Never forget the terrible mistake I made in not reading the innermost secrets of Vinson Chi’ang and Emily Talbot. Perhaps it was my weakened condition, or I was too anxious for recruits, causing me to rush, and miss something. Learn from that and take your time with each recruit, and if you work at it hard enough, while immersed in the sea, you can actually read their most secret thoughts, and discern their motivations.

“Maybe Chi’ang and Talbot changed for the worse after they were recruited, a terrible side-effect of the extreme physical metamorphoses each of them underwent, which upset them a great deal. That is entirely possible, meaning you might not always be able to see the potential for problems in the recruitment process. To guard against any members later doing harm, you must set up a method of monitoring them after they are accepted as Sea Warriors, and reevaluating them—something I failed to do.”

Deep in Alicia’s soul, in the farthest reaches of her mind, in the cells of her body, she felt a new ultra-sensitivity, as if she were far, far more closely attuned to the pulse of the ocean than she had ever been before—a progression that really began in childhood when she loved the sea, before meeting Kimo and experiencing any of the extraordinary events that unfolded after that.

She felt a slight disturbance in the water, and Moanna said, “Go now, my brave and noble Sea Warriors, and heal the waters of the Earth.” Then the illumination dimmed, and abruptly the light went out, leaving the ocean trench dark and cold.

While hearing a faint, eerie echo that followed Moanna’s voice, Alicia felt terror and sadness, as did her bosom companions. Able to see clearly despite the darkness of the ocean, the three of them swam to the place that had seemed to be the source of the vanished illumination and warmth. They found nothing there, nothing at all, not even the faintest of sounds, which they could have picked up with their enhanced auditory abilities. The place was intensely, disturbingly quiet.

Minutes passed, in which they remained in the depths, as if thinking that Moanna would return and continue to guide them.