Ocean: War of Independence

Smashwords Edition - 2013

WordFire Press
www.wordfire.com

eBook ISBN: 978-1-61475-112-0

Copyright © 2013 DreamStar, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

Book Design by RuneWright, LLC
www.RuneWright.com

Published by
WordFire Press, an imprint of
WordFire, Inc.
PO Box 1840
Monument CO 80132

Electronic Version by Baen Ebooks

http://www.baen.com

***

Dedication

For our grandchildren and great-grandchildren—may you share our love for the beauty and majesty of the ocean, and for the fascinating creatures inhabiting those waters.

***

Acknowledgments

Our special thanks go to Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Peter J. Wacks, Jessyca Hogue, Keith J. Olexa, Quincy Allen, and Diane Jones of WordFire Press, and our agent John Silbersack.

***

Introduction

One day several years ago, my wife Jan returned from a trip to Hawaii, and she had an idea for a novel that was simple yet large in scope—as many great ideas are—a story about problems in the ocean that she’d been wanting to write for years.

I spent some time brainstorming with her, and in a spiral notebook I made notes about the setting, characterizations, and plot. Then I began typing it up—a story set in Hawaii that had the ocean (and its problems) in the background. She read what I handed her, and then said, diplomatically, “This is good, Brian, but I was thinking more along the line that the ocean is fighting back against humans. What if the ocean is an entity in itself, and is not going to put up with any more abuse from human beings, and decides to take strong action against the violators? What if it declares war on our civilization?”

And she had a title in mind, one that was simple and clean:
Ocean
.

“Oh,” I said, finally understanding. So I set about creating a new main storyline centered on the ocean, discussing it with Jan as I worked on it, showing her chapters that I had written, and obtaining her suggestions. As I got into the book, discussing it with her constantly, the characters and plot seemed to come alive, and I wrote more than 165,000 words in only a few months of intense work—quite a pace for me. You have before you a slightly longer version than that, after the manuscript went through several drafts, improving it each time.

Over the years, I have dedicated many books to Jan. She has always read my material when it was in progress and commented on it, and she did that on this novel as well. But this time I knew in my heart that it was not enough to give her yet another dedication, or even a long introduction such as this one. Truly, she deserved to be the co-author of the book, because this was
her
book, her fantastic concept. These pages reflect the love Jan feels for the ocean and the incredible creatures that inhabit it, marine animals that have sentience, feelings, and souls. She was the inspiration for this project, and the continuing light that enabled me to proceed with it, and to stay on the right track.

I have often said that I could never write unless Jan permitted me to do so. She has always given me the space for my creativity, has always said that it didn’t matter if we had any money at all, that if I ever wanted to sell everything and live somewhere simple, without the daily pressures of owning things and paying bills, she would support me.

For years we have been a creative team—Jan with her painting and photography and me with my writing. On trips to distant lands, we often find places to go where she paints and I write. We sit outside, or in some other place where the creative energy is good around us, and we do our separate projects, with me critiquing her art, and her critiquing my writing. I’ve always known that she was intelligent, but after she brought me the idea for this novel about the ocean, I realized that she is brilliant. Jan is not only the shining light in my life; she is much more. And truly she deserves credit for this novel, because
Ocean
is her story.

Brian Herbert
Seattle, Washington

***

Preface

Because of the passage of more than four hundred years since the great War of Ocean Liberation, some of the details have been lost to history. The part-fish, part-human Sea Warriors who led the revolt did not find it convenient—or necessary—to write everything down during a time of tremendous turmoil and upheaval. Nonetheless, certain over-arching facts are indisputable, dominated by one: This heroic group sought to gain control over the entire world ocean, so that they could give it back to the sea creatures inhabiting it.

All of us know the results of that war, but other details are sketchy, and subject to discussion. Owing to a lack of information about the day-to-day actions of the principals in this fantastic saga (especially with respect to Kimo Pohaku, Alicia Ellsworth, and Gwyneth McDevitt), this is a historical novel that draws upon news reports of the time, eyewitness accounts of their lives, and family journals that have survived the decades—in all, reports by people who were able to obtain some of the details of what was occurring beneath the ocean waves of the planet.

We can say with a certainty that the account you are about to read accurately reflects the personalities of Kimo, Alicia, and Gwyneth, and correctly portrays many of the events in their epic struggle—although for the purpose of telling such an important story, the authors have found it necessary to make educated assumptions about certain specifics, with a minimum of added material.

This, then, is their story, and the story of their brave followers—sea creatures, human-marine hybrids, and untransformed human beings—all of whom dedicated themselves to the cause of ocean liberation.

Let us go back in time now, more than four centuries to the year 2024….

***

Chapter 1

Gwyneth and her team boarded the jetfish pod through separate hatchways that led into the passenger compartment, except her entranceway was larger to accommodate her oversized, lumpy body. Her entryway allowed her to drop directly into the water-filled, forward holding tank that Kimo had arranged for her. She immersed herself in the warm seawater contained by living jetfish flesh, and watched as the others entered through an aft hatch and took seats on a simple bench that the creatures had also formed.

Kimo was just about to seal Gwyneth’s hatchway, when she heard Monique Gatsby speaking to him outside. “I’d like to go on this mission,” the actress said. “I can obtain a great deal of favorable publicity for us, and raise money for the ocean’s cause if I show up in San Francisco and begin the talk show circuit—whether we blockade the Bay Area of not. Simultaneously, I could arrange for a massive pro-ocean demonstration, either in downtown San Francisco or on the Golden Gate Bridge—depending upon circumstances. We’re already a worldwide media story, and I can make it even bigger.”

“The U.S. government considers us criminals,” Kimo said. “You’ll be arrested.”

“Then I’d be careful to only grant interviews to people I trust, from hidden locations. I have a lot of media contacts, as well as important friends in Hollywood and in the activist community. Adding this to what we did in Hawaii, we’d be giving the government another black eye.”

The two of them spoke for several minutes. Finally, Kimo relented and obtained a second waterproof pack and clothing for the actress, so that both she and Professor Greco could go ashore in San Francisco. They both still looked fully human, despite their hidden gills and internal physical changes. “Make sure you know who your friends really are,” he cautioned.

“Oh, I will. You can count on that.”

Presently, when all five Sea Warriors were aboard the pod, Kimo sealed the entrances and sent the strange craft on its way. Long and sleek, the reddish, translucent vessel submerged a few feet and accelerated quickly, speeding toward the West Coast like an underwater bullet….

As the jetfish pod raced across the Pacific, just beneath the surface, Gwyneth lay in the warm seawater of the onboard reservoir. She thought of her earlier act of independence, in which she blockaded the Hawaiian Islands without Kimo’s authorization, resulting in unexpected, and largely undesirable, consequences. As a direct result of the cordons of marine animals that she generated, a substantial number of the creatures had been killed, along with four hybrid Sea Warriors, the Navy frogmen and the helicopter crew. Gwyneth had also considered the matter of the murders of the Navy seamen by Chi’ang and Talbot, and at first she’d felt some culpability, since she had already stirred up the Navy. But then she realized that Chi’ang and Talbot would have gotten upset over their transformed appearances anyway, and would have still gone on a killing rampage—it just would not have involved the Navy.

Gwyneth regretted inciting the wrath of the U.S. government—but now all she could do was to fight back against the aggressors who were killing her beloved sea creature companions, and fight back hard.

Inside the cabin, Monique Gatsby controlled the conversation, though she kept deferring to Gwyneth, asking if the teenager wanted to say anything or require anything—because Kimo had placed her in charge.

As the mission commander, Gwyneth knew what she had to do in order to complete the assignment, but saw herself as more of a specialist than a leader. Even so, it was obvious to everyone involved that her specialty was the key here, because without her unique talent, it would be difficult or impossible to block San Francisco Bay.

Since joining the Sea Warriors and discovering more about her affinity for the ocean and the animals in it, Gwyneth had found that many of her autistic traits had diminished—such as her earlier problems with bright lights and loud noises, and her difficulty socializing or speaking clearly. She actually liked most of the people in the organization, and sometimes enjoyed talking with them for extended periods. None of the members, not even the ones who still had most or all of their human appearances, seemed at all put off by Gwyneth’s unusual body, which bore only a few remnants of its original humanity, and made it impossible for her to go ashore on her own any longer.

From her holding tank in the passenger compartment, Gwyneth conversed with the team during the journey across the Pacific Ocean. It was agreed that Jacqueline Rado would gather white sharks and great barracudas, and would form a security force for the operation. Both Monique Gatsby and Professor Marcus Greco would go ashore in civilian clothes and stay in the house of a friend of hers, located in the Marina district on the north shore of the city, not far from the bridge. They would do a talk show circuit together, with her providing the glamour and fame to gain attention for the cause of the world’s ocean, and the professor providing facts about the ocean and its plight.

The young recruit that Kimo had sent along on the mission, J.D. Watts, had been involved in environmental causes at Stanford University, and had grown up in the Bay Area. His local knowledge might prove useful, and Gwyneth would look for ways to use him as an assistant, for whatever tasks she needed accomplished. There had been significant physical changes in Watts, as he had become an amalgamation of human features and a blue, flat-bodied bubblefish. He also displayed skills in leading bubblefish, an expertise that had previously been confined to Kimo—control over the fish that could form sealed enclosures to take human recruits down to the depths of the ocean and the hidden realm of Moanna.

The Pacific passage was smooth, and late in the afternoon, the pod slowed and surfaced. When the hatches opened and Gwyneth emerged, she saw fog and heard the deep, throaty bellow of a foghorn. A short distance away she made out an immense metal structure in the water, orange in color. It rose into the gray mists, and she could not see the top of it, but surmised it must be one of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A thick gray fog prevented visibility very far in any direction, but by the time the foghorn sounded again she sensed whales nearby, and other large marine animals. Soon she saw some of the animals’ immense heads and bodies in the water around the jetfish pod.

Pleased that a number of her friends were already here, she slid onto the back of a large sperm whale and sat atop it, a safe distance behind the blowhole. Then, leaning forward, she stroked the thick gray hide of the creature, felt her unity with it, and even its smooth, magnificent pulse.

Her fellow Sea Warriors leapt into the water—Jacqueline, Monique, J.D., and the Professor—all of them complaining briefly about how cold it was. But they grew used to it quickly.

Following Gwyneth’s instructions, the whale submerged just beneath the surface, so that she was in direct contact with the seawater. Transmitting by molecular communication, she sent a message to Kimo, informing him of their arrival, and asking him to respond when he received the message. Monique had brought a diver’s watch with her, so Gwyneth advised him of the time. It was the day after they had left Hawaii, 3:22 in the afternoon, Pacific Coast time. She calculated quickly. They had left Hawaii at around 2:30 in the afternoon in the Hawaiian time zone (which was three hours earlier than this one), so the actual passage had taken almost twenty-two hours.

“That leaves us a little less than a day until the deadline that Kimo gave to the President of the United States,” Gwyneth said. She paused, considering the gravity of the situation, then looked at Monique and the Professor, who had strapped the waterproof packs onto their backs, containing their changes of clothing.

“Go ashore now,” Gwyneth said to them, and report back to me tomorrow afternoon, an hour after the expiration of the deadline—or sooner, if you learn any important news earlier.”

Monique and the Professor submerged and swam southeast, toward the city’s Marine Park. There, making certain they were not seen, they would change into street clothes and walk to her friend’s house on Bay Street, where a hidden key was always available for her.

It would take some time for Gwyneth’s underwater message to arrive in Hawaii and for her to receive Kimo’s reply—if it was possible for them to communicate across such a distance in that manner at all. She hoped the system worked. A cell phone or internet connection would be quicker, but more cumbersome, and far less secure.

In the meantime, she would begin to round up marine animals, with the assistance of Jacqueline Rado and J.D. Watts.

With her increasing success at generating both vee-waves and small “tidal” waves, Alicia told Kimo she wanted to spend some time each day practicing, trying to improve her talent. So, while Kimo stationed half of the Sea Warriors near the entrance to Pearl Harbor to monitor the situation and deal with any problems that arose, he left the other half back at the crescent-shaped islet where he maintained his headquarters—the same area where the ones with known talents—such as Alicia with waves, and Pauline Deveaux with reef fish—practiced. Every hybrid in the organization was a fugitive now, being hunted by air and sea.

The evening before, Kimo had received a message from Gwyneth that she and her team had arrived at the Golden Gate channel, and were going to monitor news broadcasts to find out what the United States government was going to do.

It was early morning in Hawaii now, and late morning in San Francisco, almost two days after Gwyneth and her team departed. Kimo’s forty-eight hour deadline was approaching fast, as was the simultaneous deadline that the American president had given to the Sea Warriors, demanding the unconditional surrender of all hybrids.

Today there were more news helicopters than ever around Pearl Harbor, reporting about the ongoing demonstrations taking place on the flotilla of ocean-activist boats, and on the Navy’s efforts to refloat the submarine that had been beached, and to move their own warships that the Sea Warriors had stretched across the channel to form an inside barricade. However, due to ongoing harassment from marine animals that were under the direction of hybrid handlers—and environmental activists watching every move they made—the Navy was not making any progress in either attempt.

So far today, there had been no direct hostilities in this area, only wariness on both sides—with the Sea Warrior hybrids concealing themselves beneath the waves against a foe that wanted to capture any or all of them. So far, Alicia was unaware of any captures or additional deaths among her companions, and she could only hope that the momentum had shifted in favor of the Sea Warriors and their allies, and that peace would reign. Public opinion was holding steady, after slipping a little in the aftermath of the Chi’ang- and Talbot-led massacre. In the public arena, it helped that those fugitives had been turned over for justice, but it had not resulted in any reduction in government efforts to arrest and shut down the Sea Warriors.

Remaining hyper alert, Alicia had found another tiny uninhabited islet not far from the one they used for their headquarters, and she was practicing a vee-wave there, focusing power on the point of the “vee” as it struck a cliff on the island. She found that she was able to increase the intensity, and saw rocks crumble away at the base when she struck them with the power of water.

As she practiced with these waves, she wished she was a fly on the Golden Gate Bridge, able to see what would happen there in a matter of hours. Closing off the channel would be a monumental achievement, but it would give the Sea Warriors two fronts in an escalating war. She hoped the rest of the conflict could be waged politically instead, because if reasonable minds prevailed, the cause of the ocean was sure to advance significantly.

She reconsidered, after catching herself in a moment of weakness. The cause needed to
prevail
. She didn’t want incremental improvements in how humans treated the ocean. Conditions were too drastic for that, with coral reefs dying, the waters used as a garbage dump, and marine species that had been on the planet for millions of years in danger of vanishing forever.

Unfortunately, for the Sea Warriors to prevail, the changes were not likely to occur peacefully. Human beings needed to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the water, forced to stop abusing it in the thousands of ways that they had been doing for so long, for too long. Their bad behavior had gone on for eons, so in the near term, until people learned how to behave, the measures against them would have to be draconian. Alicia envisioned an ideal situation in which a Declaration of Ocean Independence was put into effect, removing the world’s interconnected ocean from human access, and not permitting selfish, careless people to exploit it any longer. No exceptions, no loopholes, no ways for slimy, tricky lawyers to allow anyone to usurp the resources of the ocean.

She reconsidered. There might be legitimate human uses for some ocean resources, such as formulating drugs from marine organisms to treat AIDS, breast cancer, and other diseases. The blood of horseshoe crabs, she’d heard, could be used to heal infections caused by bacteria. And squalene, obtained from the livers of certain sharks, could relieve the suffering of burn victims. Similar discoveries had been made about the healing and treatment properties of a number of coral-reef life forms. She saw nothing wrong with relieving human pain and suffering, but any treatments developed from ocean organisms needed to be closely controlled by the Sea Warriors, the water-adapted hybrids who had the welfare of the ocean foremost in their minds. And it would have to be done with complete transparency.