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

stared flatly, without movement, and always gave Kimo an odd sensation. He noticed other passengers looking at them as well, and he admonished one for reaching out and trying to touch an eye.
    The huge shell went down at a slight angle, so that one edge was like the prow of a submarine. Deeper and deeper it went into increasing darkness, circling around like a trail around a mountain, as opposed to the direct route taken down by bubble tubes.
    Here and there, bioluminescent fish and other marine animals lit up the darkness and then seemed to vanish, only to be replaced by other illuminated organisms. A dragonfish came into view, with red light coming from under its eyes and lower jaw. A viperfish, looking like a snake with long, barbed teeth, lit up its body briefly and then flickered off, but not before illuminating an owlfish, whose oversized eyes soaked up even the smallest amount of light, enabling it to hunt in the deep without its own luminosity.
    Gradually colors began to splash around the craft, making Kimo think of pictures he had seen of deep space nebulas. The passengers fell silent, except for occasional oohs and aahs, and gasps of delight.
    Finally, they began to drop straight down slowly, inside a tunnel of dim illumination that marked one of the entrances to Moanna’s magical Womb of the Ocean, a tunnel that sparkled with translucent bubbles and diamonds of water. Down the clam shell went, guided by the giant squids, toward the deep ocean—a benthic region that had always seemed like the center of the universe to Kimo.
    They descended through an area of illumination that emanated from minerals and creatures attached to the inside of the tube, and moments later they entered the largest of many lava tubes in this realm, causing small, silvery creatures to scurry out of the way. The tube spiraled downward in gradually increasing red illumination, until the colossal clam emerged into the immense, water-filled cavern that Kimo had been to many times, and where both he and Alicia had been transformed. He saw the ruby-red glow of Moanna on one side, where it always was. The glow seemed to approach them and encompass the shell, so that he felt the warmth of the Sea Goddess and her probing thoughts.
    “In a few moments this clam shell is going to open and fill with water,” Kimo said to the passengers, “but do not be alarmed. This is necessary for the transformative process of your bodies. It is painless, entirely painless.”
    He heard faint protests, but they were drowned out when the shell opened and water surrounded the startled passengers. At first they all seemed frozen in time, floating near the bottom of the shell. Then, gradually, all of them drifted upward and out into the reddish water of the cavern. Their expressions of terror changed to smiles and faces filled with wonder as the volunteers began to swim on their own, breathing through new gills, protected by these and by other features of their altered bodies—wondrous gifts from Moanna.
    She had not rejected anyone.
    Watching the recruits, Kimo saw no problems whatsoever. The adults seemed rejuvenated, swimming about and grinning as if they were children cavorting in an immense underwater pool. The youngest of all, Gwyneth, floated into the brightest section of ruby color, seemingly drawn toward the light like an insect. Except in this case, no harm would come to the teenager.
    The ruby brightness glowed more, a miniature red sun that enveloped the teenager and everyone else. Moanna spoke in her gentle, murmuring voice that Kimo had always found so comforting. “You have all been transformed; you have been reborn. Welcome to my troubled domain, and to the critically important task before you. I have accepted each and every one of you, with all your human flaws and strengths. In your new incarnations, I expect you to rise to extraordinary heights of achievement. Some—but not all of you—will discover that that I have imparted additional abilities