Lou stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, watching the sunset. The vermilion clouds played a symphony in the sky, heralding the departure of the days light in dance. He was swept by the beauty, the delicate balance of hues in the bathing of refracted light.
      But then there came a discord from the panorama, from one cloud in particular that denied the serenity of the spectacular. From it started coming a vibration in his mind. He tried to catch it with his ears, but it was not that type of vibration, not of the air, but something that denied the air. The menace grew more quickly than he felt should be, and the pain of loss stabbed him deeply as he tried to deny the threat to the endless bounds of the sea of air.
      Then the threat started to single him out, boring its force directly into his mind, squeezing the cells of his mind with an awsome pressure. Lou screamed and began to thrash in a vain attempt to lessen the pressure but it grew without end, and he knew his head was going to implode from the force.
      He lost his balance and was half aware of the fall toward the rocks and water below, lost in the pain of his skull being crushed.
      Lou sat bolt upright in bed, cold sweat covering his body, his breath being taken deeply in fear, his heart pounding. He shivered fiercely, then climbed groggily from bed.
      "Are you all right?" came Syl's voice over the intercom.
      "Medically, I'm fine." he responded, slipping the voice band onto his neck and turning it on.
      "Nightmare?"
      "Yeah. No monsters or boogie men. I guess the bad guy was pressure. I was watching a sunset, and then this one evil cloud ruins the beauty of it and starts pressing in on my head, trying to crush it. Then I fell off the cliff toward the sea."
      "Pretty literal symbolism. My only question is why was the cloud the bad guy."
      "Because clouds are made of water." Lou shivered again. "I'm going for a warm shower. What I'd give to be dry in the sunlight, breathing natural air. And please, Syl, no lectures about atmospheric content at these depths. I'm well versed in the necessity of heliox at these depths. I'm just developing a natural hatred for the stuff."
      "Maybe you should sit through an evaluation."
      "Wouldn't tell me what I already know. My deep diving days are coming to a close. I don't think that I'll be signing on for another tour. The pressure is starting to get to me.
      "Which pressure? The water or the danger?"
      "They are one and the same. I just want to return to the land of the sun. I'm tired of artificial light."
      He stepped into the shower and felt the warmth seep into his body. It helped some, but it didn't relieve the intense trepidation that working six thousand feet below the ocean surface brought. There were just too many things that could kill a person before a reaction was possible. There were many more that could do the job before corrective steps could be completed. He longed to be on the surface where a simple sixteenth inch stream of water couldn't kill a man. He thought of the deadliness of a "squirt gun" at this depth and the aptness of the image.
      He emerged from the shower when he had quit shaking from the cold and dried off under the IR lamps. He returned to his station and dressed. He then went to the common's lounge. Kirk and Lena were sitting there.
      "Sleep well?" asked Lena.
      "Nightmare."
      "This all getting to you?"
      "Doesn't it get to everyone?"
      "Yes, but not everyone will admit it."
      "Now don't start on that again." protested Kirk. "I actually enjoy it down here. So maybe I'm crazy, but I've been around danger my whole life. This is no worse than other demolition jobs I've been assigned. Just have to be a bit extra careful. At least no one is shooting at me down here."
      "Mr. Macho." sneered Lena.
      "Hey, I've heard all of this before. Please. I'm not in the mood to listen to the two of you carry on in your usual animosity toward each other. I'm sorry that I gave you the excuse to get started. Excuse me."
      He turned and went to the diving room where the suits were stored. Syl came and joined him. "I think you need a sedative. You're starting to exceed the anxiety level where you get upset. Do you want to be relieved? I'll not have one of my crew endangering others with a breakdown on duty."
      "Three more days, and we all ride to the surface. And it's getting to all of us. I never was fond of being cooped up in a space this small. And to be sharing it with a couple of bickering jackasses."
      "They are just letting off steam."
      "At anything that moves. Syl, I have determined that people should not be in the way when steam is released. I don't like being made to take sides in an argument that has nothing to do with me. I resent it, it builds steam in me. They are using me for that. They don't use you because you have rank over them. That leaves me as the depository for their abuse."
      "Lou, you have been very good down here. I hate to see you like this. It hurts me to see you starting to crack. I've seen others, but you are something special. You are among the best I've known. Do you want a ride up? I know that you want your bonus for completing the shift, but I want you alive to spend what you've already earned. I could arrange for medical release. That would let you keep your bonus."
      "It's only three more days. I can manage that."
      "Are you sure?"
      "I finish what I start. I'll make it. It's just the pressures. Give me some time alone. I'll get a handle on myself. I'm doing no worse than anyone else down here, including you. You had your nightmare yesterday. I had mine today. I just do better letting off my steam in solitude. Had I been left alone when I woke, no one would have been the wiser."
      "You are sure?"
      "Yes." he assured her.
      "Okay, but if I see you falling in job efficiency or getting careless, I'm pulling you in and sending you on a ride in the bubble."
      "Isn't that always the case, Syl?"
      She chuckled. "I guess I am a little pushy."
      "Isn't that what bosses are for?"
      "Please don't remind me."
      "Hey, look. When the shift is over and we get out of depressurization and debriefing, how about if I take you dinner? Get dressed to the hilt and dine at a fancy restaurant."
      "No dice. How about if I take you to dinner?"
      "The boss picking up the tab? No way. Not after I retire. I buy."
      "Then forget it."
      "You sure are a frigid thing." A smile escaped his lips that were held in a reproving frown, and they both broke into laughter.
      "Okay, Lou. You buy, though it is customary for the retiree to be the one treated."
      "At company expense, not the boss's."
      "Okay. You win, on one condition."
      "Which is?"
      "That you do not treat me like your boss."
      "At that point you will no longer be my boss. I'll treat you like a fine lady, which you are, when you're not being bossy."
      "Oh, quit rubbing it in."
      "I love it when you talk dirty, boss."
      Syl chuckled again. "I want to thank you for being a beacon of sanity while we've been down here. I find myself often wondering why I am your boss and not the other way around. Among other things."
      "Oh. What other things?"
      "I'll tell you after you buy me dinner."
      "That's pretty suggestive, Syl."
      "They are pretty suggestive thoughts." She smiled weakly, showing the strain on her, and patted Lou on the back. "Shift starts in fifty minutes. Will you be ready?"
      "Yeah. I'm feeling better already. Thanks, Syl."
      "My pleasure."
      "Your duty."
      "My pleasure, as well." She turned and left Lou alone in the diving room. He watched her walk away, thinking about the sentiments that she had let slip for the first time in words. He had read them at times in the way that she had watched him. But one didn't embrace long term relationships in a profession that was so dangerous, especially with one's co-workers.

      

 
      The three worked especially hard on the shift to finish unloading the wreck of its cargo. They finished C hold, not wanting to return again to the area where the hull was breached. They had narrowly escaped five accidents from the stressed structure near the huge gash. Twice the floor gave in, once the ceiling fell, and twice they had to cut one of them out of wire snags that occurred from the shifting weight of the cargo that they floated up with balloons. But they made it through the shift without bodily, and more important, suit damage.
      They cycled through the lift lock and set their suits on the opening rack. The machinery started into play.
      "If you handle a torch like that again, I'll wrap it around your neck." shouted Kirk at Lena, the first chance he got.
      Lou stayed inside his suit, turning the sound system off, not hitting the commence button for the opening to begin. He did not want to be a part of the squabble. Syl barged in and began a blistering reprimand of the two. Then she turned toward Lou with concern. She spoke, and he didn't respond. She looked at the external controls and activated his intercom.
      "Are you okay?"
      "It was quiet in here."
      "Anything else a problem?"
      "No problem in here."
      "You scared me."
      "Sorry."
      "Climb out."
      Lou activated the servos and his suit opened. He climbed out with the other three watching.
      "Conference room." ordered Syl. She turned and stomped out. Lou gestured for Kirk and Lena to precede him.
      They got settled. "Well, we hit the quota today, now that C hold is empty. Everything else on the ship is easier and cheaper to replace than salvage. I'm calling the shift finished, now that we have what we need to collect our bonus. In my opinion, remaining down here is not worth the extra few dollars we'd collect. Start packing for the surface."
      "Why quit now?" asked Kirk.
      "Because I've had it to here with this shift. All you and Lena do is argue. That is sign of stress at the acute level. I'm calling the crew psychologically incapable of fulfilling the full term of the dive."
      "But...."
      "I don't care how it looks on the record. If we stay down here longer than we have, it will be written on our obituaries, not our work records. I am no longer willing to be responsible for the risk. We rise in one hour. No appeal accepted. Pack."
      They broke up and went to gather their personal belongings. Lou, used to packing light for the assignments, was first to finish. He carried his duffel bag to the bubble lock room. He left it and went to Syl's room.
      "Lou, you and I are riding up together."
      "Oh. Aren't you afraid that it might raise a few eyebrows?"
      "Not as afraid of how I might get chewed out if I ride with Lena. I don't want to see either of them for a few days. Let them have each other."
      "Sure you can stand to be with me for six days while we decompress?"
      "I could do it standing on my head."
      "Better not. They might section you out on a psycho discharge."
      Syl laughed. "Bless you, Lou. You always know how to liberate my anger without a flare-up. You I can take for another six days. Or seven, if you still want to have dinner with me."
      "I'm not letting you off the hook."
      "Bless you. Do me a favor and call the surface and check if they are underweigh for pick-up. I don't want to sit bobbing in the waves for hours waiting for them to get off their duffs."
      "Sure."
      Lou went to the radio room and activated the ULW. He typed out the query when he received the link confirmation and watched the letters slowly delete off the screen one at a time in three second intervals. When the screen was blank, it started adding letters, again one at a time. Lou never got used to the slowness of the ULW, but no other radio system worked through the more than one mile of water to the surface. The message finally read, "Confirm. In route."
      He shut the system down and returned to Syl 's room. She had already finished packing and was gone. He ran into Lena.
      "Did you hear Syl has decided to take you with her in the bubble?"
      "She told me."
      "Are you going to stand for this?"
      "She's the boss."
      "Lou, I'm not going to spend the next six days with Kirk in a space where I can't get away from him. That is against policy to have mixed sexes in decompression. Talk to Syl. Swap places with me."
      "I'll talk to her, but I doubt that it will do any good. She is not happy with the way that the two of you fought all the time. That's the reason we're leaving early. I don't think she'll change her mind. And to be honest, I think you'd have a better time with Kirk than with Syl. At least Kirk won't blister your ears the whole time. But I'll ask."
      "God! Having to put up with that dirty old man for six days without a break. He'll make a pass at me every time I go to the john and every time I go to sleep."
      "I'll do what I can." Lou went to the bubble room where Syl was checking the read-outs. "Lena is not happy with arrangements."
      "At this point, I don't care. And that is the precise reason that we are leaving now. Why, do you want to ride with Kirk?"
      "Not particularly. But she will file a complaint."
      "Let her. I'll have my own report to file. I'm putting them together so that they'll never work the same dive together again. Six more days together should burn the two of them out on each other."
      "It's your decision."
      "Yes, it is, and I stand firm on it. Pack your bag in bubble two."
      Kirk came swaggering in. "So, we get to go up mixed this time, heh?"
      "Yes, and if you hassle Lena for any reason, it will be your hide. Do you understand? You even look at her with intent, and I'll see that you never dive for this company again. Hear me?"
      "Hey, what did I do?"
      "I don't have the time to itemize my complaints. Go find Lena. You two are launching in ten minutes.
      "Why the hurry?"
      "Don't question me, Kirk. Go get her. And you remember what I said when Lena starts looking too good to resist. You remember it well before then. I expect you to be a perfect gentleman to her until you feel the salt breeze in your face. You'll get your kicks when you're off duty and not before. Move!"
      Kirk left in perplexity.
      "Idiot. Why aren't all divers like you, Lou?"
      He shrugged. "The way of the world."
      She sighed, combed her damp hair back with her fingers, and started programming the bubbles for launch.

      

 
      Pick-up was routine, and Syl and Lou soon found themselves snuggly in a windowed decompression tank with the floor rolling gently beneath them. She closed the curtains and shut off the intercom. She took his hands and sat him on the cot, then snuggled in beside him.
      "I'm no longer your boss, Lou. Loosen up a bit. I don't bite, or should I say that I don't bite unless aroused."
      "Trying to scare me?"
      "No. Just warning. Why are you quitting? You are still planning on throwing in the towel, aren't you?"
      "Yes. Why? I've had enough of the pressure to be absolutely correct. More than that. I'm tired of hoping everyone else will also be absolutely correct. You don't have to be the one to foul up down there to die. Could be someone up here that fouled up that kills you. Suit not living up to specs, plenty of reasons. It's a pressure cooker down there. I don't need to tell you that. I've just had my limit. I'm becoming someone that I don't want to be. That is more valuable to me than the money. Money can not buy sanity. If I go down again, I feel that I might take the first step away from it. I don't want to take that risk. Too many risks I don't want to take any more."
      "What was your turning point in this?"
      "Wasn't at any one moment. It's been growing for several dives now. I'm going to stick to scuba from here on. This is the last heliox I will breathe. I'm not going down there where only artificial light shines. I'm growing quite fond of the sky."
      "I've grown pretty fond of you over the last six dives."
      "That's why you kept picking me?"
      "At first, when I was given my first command, it was because you were the best diver I knew. You're level headed, polite, considerate, good under pressure, careful, and efficient. But then you went on vacation on my third time down, and I realized that I missed you down there. It was a nightmare. Since that one time, I haven't made a dive without you. I don't know if I want to make another if you are not going to be there with me. I guess that I've grown to depend on you. You are something of an anchor to me. Several times I wanted to just scream at those two. But I'd look at you, and suddenly I was back in control, biting the anger down like I should. I depend on you. Not a good habit for a boss to have, huh?"
      "Are you trying to talk me out of quitting?"
      "No. You have reasons. Every diver quits at some time or dies. I'm just wondering if I should quit with you. I'm not sure that I could make it again without you down there with me."
      "That is your choice to make. I can not answer for you."
      "I know. It's my life. Lou, how do you feel about me? I know that we get along. But am I more to you than a boss?"
      "Yes. But how much more, I don't really know. You always took off when we came up, and we've never spent time together off the job. And on the job, one doesn't think about stuff like that. Too busy thinking about staying alive. Why do you ask?"
      "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to give us a try if I were to quit. I think that I could walk away from the job if I had you to look forward to. I don't know. Maybe I'm being an idiot. Am I?"
      "You don't strike me as an idiot, Syl. I don't know either. Here, lie down here on the cot and let me rub your shoulders. You are too tense for my liking. We have days of sitting here in this can to talk about it. Let's both think about it a bit before we say what we feel. You don't even know if I'm a good kisser."
      "Are you?"
      "How would I know? I've never kissed myself on the lips before."
      Syl laughed, which sounded coarse through the neck mike, and hugged him. "That's what I like about you most. You are very good at defusing the tension in me."
      "I'll do a better job if you let me put my fingers to your back."
      "Okay. Do you know what you are doing?"
      "Learned from a very knowledgeable teacher years ago. How close to jelly do you want to be?"
      "All the way there. This dive was a real thorn."

      

 
      They talked for six days, watching the pressure gauge drop so very slowly. Then they had the dinner, and they fought over the check. Lou paid the bill, since he offered his credit card to the waiter with a twenty dollar bill folded under it.
      Syl had decided that it was time for her to quit, until the company came to her and laid it on thick about how they needed her for an emergency salvage job. They had no one else available with experience. They offered her a price that she couldn't turn down. With the bonus, she could retire comfortably for the rest of her life. That made her accept.
      Lou, on the other hand, could not bring himself to go down again. It was difficult between them. Syl tried to talk him into this one last job, and that put a strain between them. The offer came soon enough to prevent them from taking the relationship into the area of romance that they both wanted to explore with each other.
      Syl quickly recognized that Lou would not dive, so she decided to go without him. She asked him to wait for her to return and then pick up where they were leaving off with the relationship. He agreed, but not without reservation. He decided to go along on the job as topside crew. If nothing else, he could write notes to her, or send down a voice message, translated for ULW and then refit into real time digitally. There couldn't be any true conversations, but he would be there for her if she really needed to hear his voice.
      The mission was to recover four nuclear warheads from a crashed plane. The job would take no more than a day, and she was going with two other divers in a submersible, rather than going to the trouble of setting up a station. On the trip to the site, Lou changed his mind and decided to go with her, but the company overruled his decision, finding it too late to fully brief him with the personnel on board.
      They reached the location and activity began in a hurry. The crew had spotted six different ships combing the water, none of which bore American flags, playing tag with the Navy. The military adjutants hurried the preparations even more than was scheduled, nervous of these ships that watched.
      Thus, Syl and the other two divers went down early, before the full procedure could be completed. Her protests were overruled. Lou had a bad feeling about this, and he spoke to Syl to calm her so that she kept her mind on business. It helped her focus.
      Then the craft dropped below standard radio range. They were rapidly descending to better than eight thousand feet. Lou stayed in the control room, back out of the way of operations so that he wouldn't be tossed out.
      Descent took over an hour, counting for the stabilization stops along the way. These were needed while the crew adjusted to changes in pressure in the vehicle and the safety of the cabin's integrity was tested. Then the search for the wreckage took nearly two hours before they found it, despite the fact that unmanned probes had pinpointed its location before the dive.
      Then the two crew suited up and went through the lock. They waited for the lift cable to reach them, guided by radio beam, powered by a motorized probe. Once there, they began the actual salvage operations. The machinery attached to the vehicle made the loading of the warheads into the cradle at the end of the cable possible. They were trained for such operations, and they did their work efficiently. The warheads were loaded, and the surface crews began winching them to the surface.
      The two divers had one last job to perform, which was to retrieve the flight recorder from the cockpit. They went back into the plane under Syl's guidance. She had watched them enter a gash in the fuselage and was waiting for ten minutes, talking to them by radio from the cockpit of the vehicle for recording, when the plane exploded.
      The explosion was not large. It was a charge that had been sent into the plane for this particular mission, designed to destroy the charts and orders given by the military command to avoid embarrassment. The problem was that no one in the salvage operation had been notified as to its true nature. All that was given was that a small devise was to be left on the plane. It was said to be a tracking devise for future salvage, while in reality, it was a remote detonator. But it was an electrical short from one of the suits' lighting equipment that had snagged on a metal tear that brushed against an exposed wire of the detonator that set it off.
      The explosion was not large, but at eight thousand feet, it didn't need to be big to do a lot of damage. The two divers were killed instantly. The vehicle was overturned, and Syl was knocked unconscious.
      Chaos broke out in the control room when communications stopped with the vehicle in mid-broadcast. The military adjutants wanted to load the warheads and be underweigh. The company refused until a probe could be sent down to determine what had happened. An argument broke out with orders shouted and disobeyed. Lou went sick to his stomach.
      He headed out of the control room and started ordering that the second submersible be readied. He went to the equipment room and ordered a diving suit be delivered to the second vehicle without delay.
      While the controllers and overseers were still arguing, Lou had the submersible set in the water with him in it. Once seen from the control room, he was ordered to return the craft to the ship. Refusing, Lou dove.
      He wasted no time on the descent for pressurization stops. He went directly down, not wasting precious time. Not only did he want to reach Syl in a hurry, but he didn't want to lose the cloud of slit that the explosion caused as a location marker. Without it, he would have to search for what could prove too long.
      He managed to locate the plume faintly on his sonar with it turned to full attenuation. He zeroed in and increased descent. The metal structure of the vehicle protested and made him react with a response of fear. He tried his best to override the effects that his body was giving him in the increasing pressure and emotional shock. He managed to find the plane and vehicle on sonar as he neared the bottom. He came in on the vehicle with all lights on, since he saw none below. He pulled in directly in front of the vehicle's window after spotting pieces of diving suit.
      Through the murky water, he saw Syl strapped into her seat, hanging upside-down limply. He settled his vehicle onto the bottom and hurriedly climbed into his suit. While he dressed, he studied the scene before him, and saw the airlock was partially blocked with Syl's craft being overturned. He cursed, then finished closing up the suit. He carefully directed the controls of the manipulator arm to lift the side of her craft so that he could gain access. His vehicle groaned at the stress.
      Then he was out of the lock and making his way to her craft. He managed the air lock on manual since the electrical systems had failed. He was relieved to see no escaping gas from the compartment, but the creaks and groans alarmed him. He got into the compartment and quickly got out of his suit, since it too bulky to manuver in the inverted cockpit. He made his way over to Syl and checked her pulse. She was still alive. He braced her and undid her safety harness. Her dropping weight took him off her feet, but he managed to cushion her against injury. But his landing resounded through the cabin, and a stream of water shot across the cabin, followed by a scream of metal.
      Avoiding the deadly leak, he dragged Syl to the rear of the cabin to where she was safe. He climbed into his suit without closing it and removed her suit from the rack, using the augmentation servos to keep from crushing anything, since it was far too heavy for human strength to handle. He set it on its feet and then climbed free of his suit.
      Another leak began, scattering metal about the cabin. One piece hit Lou in the cheek. He didn't bother with a bandage, but went right to work getting Syl into and sealed within her suit. Two more leaks started while he worked. The cabin started to fill with water quickly. He hurriedly climbed into his own suit, hoping to get her free of the craft before the water level reached the electrical source.
      He opened the inner lock with difficulty, the craft showing signs of buckling. But he got it open. But in the process, the seal was damaged, and he couldn't get it fully shut. The emergency pump in the airlock was unable to equalize to outside pressure with the leak sending the air into the cabin. He worked it as far as he could, then used the servos in his suit to force the door open a crack. Water shot in and tossed them both about. He quickly checked her read-outs on her suit and found her still alive and the suit unbreached.
      He forced the door open the rest of the way and carried her to the other craft. He wasted no time in getting her inside through the lock and getting both of their suits locked into the storage niches. He was out of his suit in better time than he had ever managed. He disengaged the manipulator arm from the other craft and hit the ballast release, and the vehicle pitched to the side as it came unstuck from the silty bottom into which it had settled while lifting the other craft.
      He was slung off his feet and thrown into the bulkhead headfirst. He fought to retain consciousness. He climbed back into his suit after setting the ascent on auto-pilot. He got the suit sealed and felt a massive jolt just as darkness claimed him.

      

 
      Lou woke to a curved grey ceiling before his eyes. He turned his head and saw two suits, both open for entry.
      "Over here, dim-wit."
      Lou turned his head the other way to find Syl lying on the cot next to his. "You're alive."
      "Thanks to you. I thought that you had given up heliox."
      "So did I."
      "I'm glad you didn't."
      "I couldn't have left you down there, boss lady."
      "No more of that boss stuff. That was my last dive."
      "So you decided that for good? No woman's prerogative?"
      "No. No more for me. Doctor canceled my certification. Seems I suffered a bit of lung damage down there. No one would hire me to go down. And after you stole one of their craft, you won't get a deep diving job either."
      "It was worth it to see you alive here beside me."
      "You'll get more than that. You're getting paid emergency wages for the dive. You didn't come out in the best condition yourself. We're both going to be drawing disability. Seems that despite your insubordination, they are grateful for having me back for a personal report. Seems that the military was withholding information from the company."
      "Oh. But that is nothing new."
      "But it cost us two divers, our health, and a submersible, not to mention confidence in the military. They will make money off the affair, and it's in their favor to treat you as a favored son, even if they do go and quietly blacklist you."
      "Well, I was hanging it up anyway."
      "Still interested in seeing how you and I get along on a non-business level?"
      "Do you think I went to all that trouble and risk for the money?"
      "No comment."
      "No comment? Is that any way to start a new life?"
      Syl laughed and winced. "You had better quit making me laugh until I heal a bit. You'll have me hemorrhaging if you keep it up."
      "How long have we been in here?"
      "Six hours. Nine more to go. Then they will helicopter us to a hospital."
      "They better not put us in separate rooms."
      "Already arranged. I told them not to dare try it."
      "Good. Besides your lungs, how do you feel?"
      "A few minor bruises. I'll survive."
      "Good."
      "Dinner when we get out?" she offered.
      "Sure."
      "One condition. I pick up the tab this time."
      "I don't know. You put quite a fight the last time."
      "Not negotiable. My treat or no date. You saved my life, I treat."
      "Stubborn woman."
      "Stubborn man."
      "We are going to make a pair, aren't we?"
      "Argh. I told you not make me laugh."