Ocean: The Sea Warriors by Brian Herbert, Jan Herbert Page A

stay on this island, and will take you back where we picked you up at the first opportunity.”
    The two of them waited for a minute, looking from face to face, searching for doubt. Seeing none (and with no one speaking up) Kimo said, “All right, the picnic is over and the work begins.”

    The skatefoils were brought in and loaded with passengers on their backs, but not without minor mishaps, as some people fell off into the water, before they were hauled back aboard. Most of the volunteers didn’t bother trying to remain dry, and Gwyneth got herself completely wet again intentionally, as she swam joyfully around in the midst of the fish, with a big, beaming smile on her face. Kimo didn’t know what to make of the autistic teenager, but like Alicia, he worried about her.
    Kneeling on the back of a large skatefoil, Kimo pulled Gwyneth out of the water, and gave her a place to sit beside him. “This is our seat of honor,” he said. “Just you and me on this magnificent fish.”
    Sitting on the skatefoil she smiled sweetly at him, and then stroked the smooth, ivory-colored skin of the creature, as if she were petting it.
    Alicia, bringing a large wave into the shallows and holding it there, was able to load more than seventy people onto it—some sitting or lying down on the watery surface, others standing on it. Then, carefully, she took the wave out from shore a little ways, going slowly to make certain it held together.
    Eventually the strange-looking flotilla was underway, with Kimo and Gwyneth at the head of a school of loaded “taxi” skatefoils, and Alicia with her “bus” behind them, all crossing the aquamarine sea. Kimo felt his skatefoil bounce over the waves, and noticed small whitecaps ahead of them—but nothing to be concerned about. Looking back, he saw Alicia’s fully-loaded wave platform flattening the water as it made its way forward, behind the skatefoils. More and more passengers began standing on the big wave and on the backs of the fishes, while others felt most comfortable sitting or kneeling.
    In half an hour, Kimo saw a huge gray clam shell bobbing in the water just ahead, with the long tentacles of four giant squids curling over it, monsters from the deep. The fluted shell was partially open, like a mouth.
    Gwyneth squealed with delight, while other volunteers chattered in excitement and anticipation. Kimo drew close to the clam shell with his skatefoil, and helped Gwyneth board through the wide, mouth-like opening. She scampered inside without protest, then knelt on the bottom and peered down into the water through one of the numerous natural portholes that were on both sides of the shell. Kimo found her childlike qualities refreshing, and he was beginning to think that she might fit in as a Sea Warrior, though he had no idea what talent she might contribute to the ocean-rescue operation. Hopefully, Moanna would bring that to light.
    Kimo recalled when he first saw a clam shell like this, only four years ago, and how he marveled at the fact that the animal was alive inside, but did not fill up most of the cavity like a normal clam. Instead, this creature lived in the thin, soft lining of the hard shell, on both the top and the bottom, It was one of the many marine animals that responded to his commands, arriving when he summoned it and doing his bidding.
    Kimo unloaded the skatefoil fleet first, followed by the passengers on Alicia’s wave. When all were aboard the colossal clam shell, the lid closed and Kimo felt the interior filling with fresh air. Through the portholes he saw the sea below and the sky above, and though he couldn’t see the sides, he knew the enormous squids—each at least sixty feet long—were moving into position for the descent.
    The soft interior surfaces of the shell had rows of dark eyes that looked inward and outward, so that the clam could see predators whether its shell was open or closed, and slam the shell shut or burrow deep into the seabed. The eyes