Free Ocean: War of Independence by Brian Herbert, Jan Herbert Page B

ended the connection before Jimmy could say anything further.
    After making the call, Kimo declined another ride from his friend. Instead, he walked down to the sandy beach, and was about to dive in the water when he noticed that the beach to the north was littered with debris. This surprised him, because he’d been here only a few months ago, and the shoreline had been spotless, one of the prettiest he’d seen in the islands. He walked up the beach, and saw the hulks of wrecked fishing boats and pleasure craft, a large rusted ship’s hull, a rusted automobile, a bent bicycle frame, a motorcycle, torn fishing nets, chunks of dense foam, broken crab pots, and old appliances—all scattered on the shore.
    Examining the sand, he saw scrape marks where the old car body had been dragged ashore recently, before the tide could clean away the marks. A rusted emblem on the back read, “Hudson.” He paused. Maybe it had been pushed ashore.
    But Kimo had not given any command to do this in the Hawaiian Islands.
    Perplexed, he waded into the water and broadcasted a molecular communication to the Sea Warriors in the islands, asking if they knew anything about this. In a few minutes, replies starting coming in. No one had any answers.
    Then, as Kimo swam just offshore, looking at the debris on the beach and trying to figure out what had occurred, he saw a pair of orca whales swimming toward shore, pushing a piece of a floating dock that had many of its planks missing and only part of its white-foam flotation system intact, as if the dock had been ripped loose in a storm. The animals shoved it up on the beach, and even after they swam back out, the dock kept moving forward on the sand, and up a slight slope.
    This piqued Kimo’s curiosity even more, so he swam closer, and saw dozens of green turtles under the dock, transporting it above the high tide line on their backs. When it was in place, the turtles scurried out from underneath, and reentered the water.
    Kimo tried to make molecular contact with the whales and turtles, but got no response. He saw the turtles gathered in shallow water, as if awaiting the next delivery of human-civilization’s garbage….
    ***

Chapter 7
    Early that afternoon, Kimo organized a meeting at the volcanic isle, gathering his Sea Warriors to discuss the strange behavior of the whales and turtles at Kauai, as well as additional scattered reports of similar beachings of junk at other places in the Hawaiian Islands. No one seemed to have any idea why it was occurring.
    He also transmitted questions about this to Gwyneth, Alicia, Dirk, and the other Sea Warriors who were away on missions, but due to the distances involved there would be a delay hearing back from most of them.
    After Kimo sent the transmission from shallow water, Pauline Deveaux swam up to him, and provided a theory.
    Pauline, with some of her human facial features and the bright coloration of a rainbow-hued fish, kept her face out of the water and said, “I’ve been thinking about how the whales and other creatures followed Gwyneth’s instructions at first, creating the barricades, and afterward they refused to disperse. It was as if she energized them to take action against human abuses, and then they did something on their own, no longer heeding her commands.”
    “You think the sea creatures are cleaning up the ocean on their own now?”
    “It’s possible. Due to their distance from Hawaii, I doubt if Gwyneth or any of the remote Sea Warriors did this. At least, not knowingly. Remember, though, that the idea to dump human trash back on the beaches was Gwyneth’s; she did it in the Santa Barbara area. What if the whales and other animals she used for those efforts transmitted messages to others of their kind, even across great distances in the sea, causing them to go on litter detail?”
    “But they’re only doing it on their own in Hawaii.”
    “That’s all we know about so far. I think we’d better send someone ashore to find