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

special connection with the creatures, something that locks into place between me and them, and they do what I want—it is as if they are an extension of me, as if I am them and they are me. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”
    “Not at all. Not to me. I also feel something strange whenever I generate waves, but my strong connection is with seawater instead of sea creatures—as if the ocean is a life form itself, and I have a paranormal linkage with it.”
    “But it is a life form,” Kimo had said. “I overheard a couple of the scientists talking, and they said that each drop of seawater on the surface is teeming with life, millions of organisms in a single drop of water—tiny plant and animal organisms called phytoplankton and zooplankton that drift with the currents. You might have an extraordinary connection with those life forms. Your waves are on the surface of the sea, just as they are.”
    “Wow. That’s really interesting.”
    “I’ve seen the tiny organisms in a microscope they brought aboard, and I’ve seen them in my dreams—greatly enlarged. Despite its problems the ocean is brimming with life, and both of us have a unique connection with it. Concerning your ability to generate waves, there is more plankton in colder waters than in the tropics, though the tiny life forms are spread all over the world. Another interesting thing—most of the zooplankton dive deeper in daylight hours and come back to the surface at night, to feed on phytoplankton. These facts make me wonder if you might generate even more powerful waves in colder climates., or at night.”
    “Maybe, but I suspect not. I suspect that the entire ocean, every aspect of it, is essentially a single life form, a collective organism, and you and I have a special relationship with it—just as you have with all living members of the jetfish species. Some people say the entire planet is a life form called Gaia.”
    He’d considered that for a moment, then had nodded and said, “I like that way of thinking. Yes, it sounds plausible.”
    “And what if it’s even bigger than that?” she’d asked, hearing the excitement in her own voice. “What if we’ve tapped into the core power that drives the entire universe?”
    “Hmmm, I don’t know. I mean, we can easily say that every human being is tapped into the core power of the universe, because all life forms are connected to it.”
    “Sure, the basic physics of properties in motion, and how they interact on a micro and macro scale.”
    “We’re tapped into something all right,” he’d said, nodding. “The question is, what is it?”
    “Maybe it’s too big for us to ever understand, Kimo, like the concept of a universal god. Maybe we shouldn’t even try, and should just try to do the right thing with the abilities we have.”
    He’d nodded. “The right thing, yes the right thing. That’s what this ocean project is all about, isn’t it?”

    During the voyage, Alicia and Kimo had been receiving questions from the recruits about what they would experience when they reached the waters of Hawaii—but both of them deferred most of their responses for a general meeting that would be held when they were almost there. Alicia had told Kimo he should conduct the meeting, because he had so much more experience than she did.
    When they were a couple of hours away from Loa’kai island, Kimo gathered everyone and began speaking to them. In his bare feet, he wore shorts and a faded green Hawaiian shirt, with the tails out. He said it would be early afternoon when they arrived, and the volunteers would enjoy a picnic on the beach before being taken deep into the vault of the ocean, to the realm of Moanna, the amorphous goddess of the water.
    “It might be your last chance for food from the land,” he said, “at least for awhile.”
    Kimo went on to describe the means by which they could dive deep inside a bubble tube, and what the experience would be like. He spoke of some of the