Enjoy this sneak peek of the first three chapters of Ocean Warriors: The Rise of Robo-Shark by Candice Lemon-Scott

1: Something Fishy 

Wendy rushed over the moment Kai and Emily entered the lab.
‘Great, you’re here,’ Wendy gushed. ‘Harry! Get the bucket.’
Wendy, the submarine’s head of Species Restoration, was unusually excited. Her lab assistant, Harry, stopped wiping down the benches and rubbed his thick hands on his belly. ‘The what?’ he mumbled.      
‘The fish bucket. The project we’ve been working on for the past six months?’ She turned to Kai and Emily. ‘Honestly, how can someone who once worked in an aquarium forget about the fish restoration project?’
Kai and Emily looked at her and just shrugged.
‘Ah, the aquarium. Before they were all closed down after there were no animals left to display,’ Harry sighed. ‘Did I tell you about the time I rescued the leafy sea dragon? Fascinating animals. Shame they’re extinct now, along with everything else that—'
‘Harry! The bucket!’ Wendy screeched.
‘Okay, no need to yell,’ Harry said, and promptly waddled down to the other end of the lab.
Harry returned with the bucket. He went to place it on the bench, but it clipped the edge and began to tip over. Wendy raced forward and grabbed it just in time.
‘Be careful!’ she exclaimed. She turned to Kai and Emily. ‘Look at this.’
Kai tucked his curly brown hair behind his wingnut ears and peered into the bucket. He blinked in amazement at the live creature inside it. Emily peered in too. The closest they’d come to seeing a live fish was in holographic nature history documentaries at school. Neither of them had ever seen a real one. All the fish became extinct before they were born.
They’d been recruited to Extinct Species Restoration just a few weeks earlier. Every kid had to spend the eight weeks of summer camp on a community service program that the school called Environmental Citizenship. Most of Kai and Emily’s friends back home had been given simple jobs like planting trees, counting birds or building and populating bee hives. Some were even cleaning up rubbish washed up on the beaches. But because they were top of their class in science, they’d ended up here. The main difference between Kai and Emily was that Emily was excited about their work on the sub, while Kai would rather be anywhere else than stuck underwater, trying to restore extinct sea creatures. Emily was interested in living creatures and biology. Kai’s idea of science was to get a dream job being a virtual reality game creator, so he could battle holographic monsters all day long. Kai was counting down the days until he graduated primary school, when he could take tech subjects for high school.
They both stared too long at the long, silvery fish wriggling in the bucket. Emily was fascinated, but Kai was grossed out by it. He was slightly pale, and his cheeks puffed out as though he was about to puke, like he did whenever he worked on the sea cucumber restoration project, which was so far unsuccessful. Emily’s green eyes were magnified with awe through her round glasses. She tightened her ginger ponytail, something she only did when she was nervous or excited. It was virtually all she’d done the first day they’d started the program. Despite their different views on the whole experience, they’d become friends in the first week, even though at school, they’d hardly known each other.

‘What do you think?’ Wendy said, grinning.
‘It’s— it’s incredible!’ Emily said enthusiastically.
‘Come on then, let’s release this test whiting into the sea.’
‘Test whiting?’ Kai asked.
‘Yes, it was my idea to send out a test subject actually,’ Harry explained proudly. ‘Or I should say, to test the waters.’
Kai rolled his eyes at Emily at the bad joke but Harry either didn’t notice or didn’t care that no-one thought his joke was funny.
‘No point letting a whole school of fish loose if they’re not going to survive in the ocean,’ he said, interrupting the awkward silence.
‘Yes, unfortunately, we can’t be completely sure its structure has been perfectly reproduced from the original fish species until it enters its natural habitat,’ Wendy said.
‘She means we won’t know if it can swim properly, or survive out there, until it’s released,’ Harry added and grabbed a small syringe off the bench. ‘I’ve created this fish tag, so we can check where the fish is. The tag links up to the computer so we know where it is at all times. I’ll just attach that now.’
‘Oh no you don’t,’ Wendy said, ‘You can’t be trusted with that delicate job.’
‘Kai, can you please hold the fish? Then Emily, you can inject the tag into it while he’s holding it still.’
‘Eww, nope, I am not doing that,’ Kai argued.
‘Seriously, it’s just a fish.’ Emily sighed. ‘I’ll hold it, you tag it.’
Emily reached her hand into the bucket and placed it around the wriggling fish. Harry handed Kai the syringe. Squinting one eye closed, Kai took a breath and stabbed the fish in its side.
‘Good, push the syringe in and the tag will be released into the fish,’ Harry said.|
Now Kai pushed the syringe all the way in, dry retching as he did. Then he quickly pulled it out of the fish, letting out the breath he’d been holding. It was now tagged.
‘Good job! Let’s release it,’ Wendy said.
Harry took the bucket and followed Kai and Emily, who followed Wendy, who followed Harry, who was carrying the fish in the bucket. Kai stayed close behind Harry just in case he dropped the bucket. The real test was to see if the whiting would survive once it was released into the ocean.

2 : A Fish Tale

Finally, they made it to the submarine’s control room with the fish still safely inside the bucket.
‘Take us up to the surface,’ Wendy commanded.
She wasn’t talking to herself, though at times she did come across as a bit of a mad scientist. She was actually speaking to Genesis, the sub’s artificial intelligence. Genesis, Gen for short, automated just about everything on the sub, from washing their clothes and cooking meals to operating the sub itself. The only problem with Gen was that their speech recognition was, well, not that great.
‘Certainly,’ Gen said, and proceeded to paint a moustache on Wendy’s computerised profile picture that was displayed in the control screen under the title ‘chief operator.’ Kai and Emily looked at each other and laughed silently.
‘What are you doing?’ Wendy cried.
‘Making you into a Sir Face,’ Genesis replied.
‘No, surface,’ she said, her face beet red. ‘Never mind. Take us up. Up!’
‘Very well,’ Gen said, erasing the moustache. ‘Submarine set to rise to sea level.’
They made their way up, everything silent except for the sound of the fish flipping and flopping in the bucket.

The hatch opened and they stepped out onto the deck. Water was still pouring off the sides as the submarine emerged, so the deck was wet and slippery. Kai blinked, the sunlight blinding after being underwater for so long. Around them was nothing but the empty indigo sea. He breathed in the crisp salt air and smiled. Harry carried the bucket to the edge of the deck. He’d only made it halfway across when he skidded on the slippery surface. Kai reached forward, but it was too late. Harry’s feet went out from under him, and the bucket went flying as he fell on his backside. Wendy screamed. Emily leaped to catch the airborne bucket. She grasped hold of it, but the fish flew out and landed on the deck. It flipped in a puddle of water, its gills opening and closing desperately.
‘The fish!’ Wendy cried.
Oh great, now he was going to be forced to touch the thing after all. Kai raced towards the fish and attempted to pick up the slippery whiting. It was harder than it looked, and the fish kept sliding out of his reach as he chased it across the deck. Finally, he got hold of it and Emily raced over with the bucket. Kai reached in and released the fish, discovering it wasn’t completely disgusting to touch after all. Wendy stepped over Harry, who was still lying on the ground groaning, and peered in.
‘Oh, thank goodness it’s still alive,’ she sighed.
‘What about me?’ Harry said.
He pulled himself up, slipped again and landed on his backside for the second time.
‘Ouch!’ he moaned.
Emily reached out her hand to help Harry stand. His feet started to go from under him again, but Emily held onto him until he regained his balance.
Wendy sighed. ‘I guess I have to do everything myself.’
‘I can do it! Please,’ Harry begged.
Wendy gave a reluctant nod and Emily passed him the bucket. He crouched down to release the fish into the sea.
‘Wait!’ Wendy cried. ‘First, a speech. Emily, please film this special occasion.’
Kai and Emily frowned at each other. Wendy’s speeches always went on for eons.
Wendy grasped Harry’s arm, her long red nails sinking into his pale arm. ‘If you mess this up Harry, you are fired.’
‘… and ready,’ Emily said, pointing the camera towards Wendy.
Kai stared out to sea while everyone stood tall and silent.
Wendy smiled at the camera and spoke directly into it. ‘And now, let us release this whiting into the sea. The first fish to be brought back from extinction. It has been months, years of work, but with my brains, the art of science, and the assistance of these fine young scientists, Kai and Emily, we will—’
‘What about me?’ Harry interrupted. ‘I’m just the expert on sea animals here.’
‘Yes, yes, okay. And the assistance of my assistant, let us release this creature as the first step to seeing our seas teeming with fish once more.’
Wendy stopped speaking. Emily kept the camera on her and then … nothing.
‘Harry!’ Wendy snapped. ‘Release the fish.’
‘Oh, right. Yes, of course.’

Harry tipped the bucket. The fish plopped into the sea undramatically, a tiny creature in a vast sea. Wendy and Harry cheered. Emily filmed the fish swimming away until it disappeared. She turned and followed Wendy and Harry as they returned to the sub. Kai hung back, breathing in the salty air and staring out at the empty ocean. He hadn’t realised until now just how vast and big the ocean really was. He went to follow the others when he saw a ripple on the surface of the water. He blinked, he must have imagined it. The fish had already swum away. So why was there still something moving out there?

3: Bigger Fish in the Sea

A great white shark circled beneath the waters. His electroreceptor senses activated, he located a heartbeat and instinctively followed it. He locked on to the prey and swam at lighting speed toward it.
Faster than a regular shark, he had metal fins that enabled him to slice through the water. The whiting glided along, its tail swishing from side to side. The shark came in close and snapped at the whiting. Having not eaten a fish in a long time, he missed at first, and the fish hit the edge of the shark’s mouth, propelling it forward. The fish flew into the air with the force, its silver scales catching the sun and turning them rainbow-coloured. The shark thrust himself out of the water after it, using his powerful tail. He caught the whiting in his open jaws, revealing all 300 sharp and jagged teeth that protruded from red, fleshy gums. He snapped his jaws shut, the fish no match for a great white, and fell back into the water, swallowing the whiting in one huge gulp.
The shark swam away, his gleaming metallic dorsal fin breaking through the water’s surface, creating a terrifying, jagged path through the sea as he digested his first fish meal in years. Energised by the food, he moved out of the warm waters of the sunlit zone and drifted back into the comfortable depths of the cool, dark sea below.
Kai blinked and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
‘Kai! Kai!’ Emily was calling his name.
He turned, his mouth still hanging wide open in an O-shape.
‘What’s got into you? Let’s go!’
Kai pointed a shaky finger out to sea. ‘B, b, but. Did you s... s...see that? It was a sh, sh—’
‘What? I can’t understand a word you’re saying,’ she said impatiently. ‘Come on, Wendy’s about to take the sub back down.’
‘But did you just see that?’
‘See what?’ Emily grumbled.
‘There was a swirl of water and then—'
‘A whirlpool?’ Emily interjected.
‘No, it was…it looked like a….it was a gigantic shark. And it ate the fish. Wendy’s fish. Her years of research, eaten in one terrifying gulp.’
‘Have you gone mad? Maybe you have cabin fever. That can happen when people are locked inside for too long. It’s been scientifically proven that—'
‘I haven’t got cabin fever. I just saw a shark leap from the ocean and eat the fish. And, get this, it had metal fins. Silvery grey, like this sub!’
‘Right,’ Emily said. ‘Maybe you just need something to eat.’
‘I am hungry I guess, but I wasn’t hallucinating. I mean those jagged teeth looked pretty real. You don’t think I could have imagined that, do you?’
‘Since you asked, yeah, I do. I do think you imagined it. You know, since sharks are extinct and all. And since even if they were, there’s no such thing as a, um, cyborg shark.’
Emily patted Kai on the back sympathetically and steered him in the direction of the sub hatch. ‘Maybe you should stop playing VR games for a while. There are studies that show excessive amount of time spent on them can distort your actual reality. But let’s get something to eat first, hey?’
Kai turned back to the sea one last time. It was flat and empty. No sign of the whiting, and more importantly, no sign of a robo-shark. Maybe he had imagined it after all.