Where's Buster - Redux

He could see Ava across the room, working the crowd in her gleaming white aquanaut coveralls with her mission patches. She looked as smart and capable as her astronaut sisters, with her beautiful face and long dark silky hair.

Ava had been a bitch all day and David had no idea why. Her answers were abrupt, and she clearly didn't want to be in the same room with him. Once in a while David would catch her eying him across the display floor and she looked pissed.

David walked over at the end of the event. Ava was bending down, just putting away the last of the goodies that NOAA hands out to visitors to the Habitat display. David had to take an appreciative gander at the gorgeous round butt in those sleek aquanaut coveralls. Ava straightened up and said huffily, "What do YOU want?"

David was hurt. Ava was his pal, and she was clearly mad at him. But he didn't know why. So he said, "Let me buy you a beer at Captain Tony's. I want to find out why you're so angry with me."

Ava sighed and looked searchingly at him, and said, "Alright, let me change out of my suit and I'll meet you." Then she added, "But I don't want your wife there."

David was confused. He said, "Why would Olivia be there? I told her last night that we were finished. She understands that there's no going back. She's probably on a plane to Albany as we speak."

Ava just gave him a pitying look and said, "I'll see you in thirty."

David was sitting on the Robert DeNiro stool at Captain Tony's. That's one of the other quirks of the place. It started with Hemingway. But now, whenever a famous person visits, they put their name on the stool that they sat on.

Ava walked in radiating charisma. She grabbed the Arlo Guthrie stool on his right. David handed her the cold Key West that he'd been saving for her. They clinked necks as David said, "You've been acting like something's bothering you and I want to fix it. What have I done that's made you so mad at me?"

Ava laughed and muttered under her breath, "Clueless." She said firmly, "What's the status with your wife? Did she give you a little loving, just to convince you to take her back?"

David huffed, "Certainly not!! Honestly, she offered it - thought that would work. But I set her straight." Ava seemed to relax.

Then David added musing, "I always wondered how I'd respond if Olivia reappeared. I was surprised to discover that I didn't have any feelings for her whatsoever. I told her I didn't hate her, but I also didn't love her. She's more of a pain in the ass than anything else. I guess the opposite of love is total indifference."

Ava said, "You know that she's going to keep hanging around hoping to change your mind."

David said, "What they say about dogs applies to marriage, Once bitten twice shy. I know Olivia was a victim of a predatory guy. But you can't unfuck somebody. So, a long time ago I boxed up that part of my life and shoved it into the attic. The only thing I can assure you now, is that I will never fall in love again."

Ava's face turned sad. Of course David missed her look. Then she seemed to make up her mind. She said, "Well, I wish you the best of luck. I just want to let you know that I'll be down in the Habitat for the next ten days. We're micro-mapping climate change on coral ecology. So, I won't see you for a while."

Now it was David's turn to look sad. He said with considerable emotion, "I'll miss our time together. Buster and I won't know what to do with you gone." He was surprised to find out how empty he felt.

Ava was looking at David expectantly. He was just about to tell her how much she meant to him when his phone rang. He answered it without thinking. Olivia's voice said, "I'm at the boat, where are you?"

David thought, "Oh shit!!!" He was in a rock and a hard place. He didn't want to let his wife know that he was only a few blocks away, since she would come right over. So instead, he said, "I'm finishing up at the Discovery Center. I'll be along when I'm done."

Ava knew who David was lying to. She said exasperated, "She isn't going to give up until you make her do it. In the meantime, I'll be isolated down in the Habitat. So I'll see you in a couple of weeks!"

She finished her beer, slammed it down on the counter, and walked briskly out the door. David was mystified, "Was she crying?" David paid the tab and walked up Greene a bewildered man. He was wondering whether Ava might have deeper feelings for him than he'd imagined.

Olivia was waiting at the boat. She'd gone all out. She was a gorgeous woman anyhow, and she knew how to maximize the things that God gave her. Her pretty face was exquisitely made up. She was in a light, hibiscus print halter sundress that showcased her full boobs and clung to her beautiful long legs.

Olivia's face lit up as David appeared on the dock. She said jauntily, "Hey there sailor. How about I buy you dinner at the Lobster House." That was just a short walk along the dock from the boat.

David said, "Let me buy instead. There's something I need to talk to you about."

The two of them had been together for nearly fourteen years and married for ten. So, it was natural to fall into easy conversation while they seated themselves at one of the big windows. Olivia was feeling her confidence rise as they talked, things were just like they had been before Doug Chapel slithered into the Garden.

She took David's hand and said, "I miss this, don't you?"

David got a sad look and said, "I miss it a lot. I've missed it since you walked out the door on that fatal evening."

Olivia brightened and said, "We can have it again. All you need to do is take me back. I swear on everything that's holy that you won't regret it."

David paused. Ava was right. Olivia wouldn't give up until he made her do it. He had always sought to treat people considerately, especially someone he had invested a good part of his life in. But it was his very civility that was the problem now.

David didn't doubt that Olivia meant what she'd just said. He even believed that she'd learned her lesson. But he would never lose track of her one fatal mistake. Those actions would fester in his mind as everlasting proof of Olivia's innate commitment to her own self-interest and a marriage that is founded on deep-seated resentment is no way to go. So, the time had come to cross the Rubicon.

David had spent hours thinking about his reasons for abandoning his old life. On the surface, his decision to ghost Olivia was an arbitrary almost cowardly act. That is, unless you factored in one inconvenient truth. They were in no way compatible with each other. It was time to be brutally honest.

So, he said as a preliminary, "We were equals when we married, we shared the same values and beliefs - call it a bond if you like. We belonged with each other."

Olivia smiled and nodded. David continued, "But as the good book puts it, we were never equally yoked. I was willing to work at a job that I didn't care about. It was something I did just to be with you. I had no ambition, no desire to alter my situation. While YOU had enough ambition for BOTH of us."

Olivia started to protest. But David held his hand up in a stop motion. He said, "Lawyers get what they want through reason and argument. So, believe me, I understand why you thought that you could talk me into a weekend with a fellow who was a lot more akin to you than I was."

Olivia didn't like what she was hearing, mainly because it was true. She moved in a world of power and influence. Doug's aggressiveness and his naked ambition had been deeply attractive to her - even more so than his reputation as a lover. And Olivia had always sensed that David could be manipulated.

David was still talking, "Lawyers live in a universe of rationalizations. There are no moral absolutes in court, only the theory of the case. So, I'm sure it was natural for you to spin that fairy tale about getting Doug Chapel out of your system. You probably even believed it yourself."

Olivia was appalled. Lawyers construe facts to fit an end. Her argument for fucking Doug had been impeccable. But David had only seen things in straightforward moral terms. If THAT was the yardstick, then the verdict was inescapable -- guilty!!

David's voice was gentle as he said, "You wanted it all, and I was simply too passive to prevent you from getting it. That isn't a healthy situation for any marriage. Your subsequent actions proved that."

David sighed and hesitated. Then he added, "I accept that you were once the person I fell in love with. But the underlying differences in our character and temperament wrote a different story. Neither of us are the people we thought we married. The decision was easy once I saw that."

He took her hands tenderly and said, "Honestly, we can't fool ourselves any longer. I belong in this life and you belong back in New York. More importantly, we don't belong with each other. Look at it this way, the comings-and-goings of two little people don't amount to anything in the great scheme of things. So, we should both get on with our lives. Let's part as friends. I'll accept any reasonable terms."

Olivia didn't take it well. But then again, it was her inclination to be intellectually dishonest that had been the problem. She started to tear up. David knew that she needed space. He dropped the cash to cover the bill and said, "Let's finish this outside."

They walked back to his boat in total silence. Olivia stayed on the dock as Buster came out to greet them the stump of his tail wagging furiously.

Olivia said sniffling, "I have to think about what you told me. But my instinct is to not give up. We have too much history together and you love me, I know it. So, you haven't seen the last of me." Then she turned and marched determinedly up the dock toward her hotel.

David's only feeling was liberation. He had taken the crucial step to put his past fully behind him and the growing awareness of his feelings for Ava Martinez had given him a bright new star to navigate by. His only fear was that Ava didn't share his sentiments.

*****

As all this was taking place, a huge tropical low had formed in the great mixing bowl of the Sahara Desert and swept across Mauretania into the South Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center issued its first tropical storm warning as David and Ava were with the school kids. Then, as it began to increase in power the new storm got a name - Zelda.

Based on the upper steering winds, the NHC projected Zelda's track as going across the lesser Antilles and into the Yucatan. But as Zelda began to push up against the shoulder of South America, she veered onto a strongly northerly track like a billiard ball off a bumper.

David arrived at the Aquarius Support Base as Zelda was proceeding almost due north in the open ocean skirting between Cancun and Bahia de Corrientes in western Cuba. Like every other citizen of the Conch Republic, David was unaware of her malevolent presence. Instead he was hoping to talk to Ava before she deployed with her team to the Habitat.

It was a mystery... really! David wondered why it was suddenly so important for him to talk to Ava. After all, they had been pals for seven months and he'd never obsessed about her before. He'd even listened to her complicated dating history without a twinge. Thinking about those stories now, made David pea-green jealous. It was like he'd been in love with her all that time and had been too stupid to realize it.

The Aquarius Support base is an unassuming structure off of US-1. It's low slung, white and sun baked like every other office building in Florida. But it serves as the nerve center for Aquarius operations. It contains the things necessary to maintain a major undersea operation, compressors for oxygen and nitrox and an equipment service area, as well as a hyperbaric chamber for treating the bends.

The watch desk is the base's main feature. It serves as mission control when aquanauts are in the Habitat. A controller monitors real-time data about the status of the LSB's onboard generators and compressors. While at the same time, the Habitat's various life-support parameters are displayed on the screens that fill the big U-shaped console.

David hoped that he would be able to sort out his strange new feelings once he got to talk to Ava. Janie Ramirez was on duty at the watch desk He gave her a wave and walked into the base's classroom. He was aware that the settling in process at the Habitat would take a while. So, he planned to use the educational feature as his excuse for waiting.

He stayed in his classroom for three hours, working on little projects. Once he was sure that the aquanauts were settled in, he drifted over to the watch desk and said casually, "Looks like you have a mission going on."

Ramirez said, "Yes, Ava Martinez's benthic team is on a ten-day survey mission on the northern part of the reef. They're gathering data about the impact of global warming on the coral's calcium carbonate formation process."

David could see Ava stowing equipment on the split screen monitor. She was the mission commander. But she was working like a stevedore. He felt something that he hadn't experienced for a long time. It wasn't a welcome emotion because he knew that it put his tender heart in harm's way.

He said hopefully, "Maybe I can say hi later on?"

Ramirez looked at David like she thought he was joking and said, "Batman is the only person authorized to use the batphone link to the Habitat and you aren't wearing tights and a cape."

David chuckled appreciatively. But he was exasperated. He had to find some way to communicate to Ava that he'd developed a clue. He hoped that would give her something to think about for the ten days she was down there.

He said nonchalantly, "Well, I think I'll hang around for a while. I have a lot of work to do on the poster board displays and I don't want to drive back and forth between Key West every day."

David knew that Buster would make sure that the boat was secure and the couple in the 46-foot Beneteau berthed next door would take good care of Buster. That had been the case every time he had had to spend the night up at the support base because everybody loved Buster.

As David turned and walked toward the door, he called back over his shoulder, "I'll just get a room at the Fisher and I'm always glad to help if you need somebody on the night watch." David knew that they had a hard time finding people to man mission control in the middle of the night.

Ramirez replied, "Tom Malchak is scheduled for tonight, but he's got four young kids so sometimes he cancels. Leave your cell number and you might hear from me."

Earlier... Zelda had caught the NHC forecasters flat footed. Most hurricanes of Zelda's type drifted north toward the Texas coast. But the steering winds unexpectedly shifted strong westerly and Zelda recurved. Now she was headed directly for the Keys at an extraordinarily high rate of speed. The NCF hastily issued revised hurricane warnings. The last time a hurricane of Zelda's type hit the Keys was 1935 and it killed over 400 people.

The Fisher was located only a minute south of the support base. The room was an arm-and-a-leg when it would've been maybe forty-nine bucks anyplace but Islamorada. But David had a plan. His cell rang as he was finishing dinner. He was expecting the call. He knew he would be filling in because he had called Tom Malchak and told him that he would take his shift.

It had gotten ominously dark and raining hard as David made the short ride back to the base. The wind had also picked up and ocean storm clouds were scudding rapidly along the eastern horizon. Something very menacing was happening out there as the sun set.

Ramirez gave David the usual orientation when he reported for duty. David didn't need it because he had actually taught a course on how to man the desk. But this was his first live situation and protocol had to be followed. So, Ramirez reviewed the logging procedure and status checks with him.

They were recording the Habitat's nitrogen saturation readings and confirming that the oxygen content and Co2 levels fell within parameters when the NHC hotline lit up and the Aquarius controllers learned that a killer was on its way. Ramirez, who was still the duty officer, exchanged a few unfriendly words with the people in Miami, for notifying them at the last minute.

The main problem was that it was 21:30 hours on a Friday. Admittedly there were plenty of people on call and they had a good hurricane response plan. But the reaction force would take a couple of hours to assemble and that would be cutting it close.

The first thing David did was ring Olivia. He told her that she had to get out of Key West fast. Once he'd explained the situation she said concerned, "I'll pack my rental and be on my way right away. But what are you going to do?"

David said, "Ava Martinez is in grave danger up here in Islamorada. I have to help her." Those words put the final stake in Olivia's fantasy. She could see that her husband was risking his life for the other woman and she no longer had a place in David's life.

Olivia said with deep regret, "I love you David. I will always love you. But I'll put together the papers as soon as I get home." David was too busy thinking about his next move to mumble anything more than, "I'm sorry too, Olivia."

Both he and Ramirez were in panic mode. The Habitat was far enough underwater that it would be unaffected by the hurricane. But the LSB was on the surface. Consequently, it would be exposed to Zelda's full force. And if the LSB went, there would be no life support for the aquanauts below.

They couldn't wait-out the hurricane in the Habitat without electricity, air, and more importantly the pressurization to avoid the bends. So, they had to get out of there, pronto. There was only one viable option. The Sea Ray was berthed behind the building, prepped and ready to go. And it was the only boat fast enough to get out to the LSB and back before the full force of the hurricane arrived.

David reached around Ramirez, who was activating the response plan, and picked up the bat-phone. He could see Ava answer it on the monitor. He said, "Ava, this is David." Ava said warily, "This is a surprise, what do you want?"

David said, trying to put meaning into every syllable, "You have to evacuate the Habitat ASAP. I will pick up you and your crew off the LSB, I'll let you know when to surface."

Ava was angry as she said, "Are you telling me to abort the mission? Has that been authorized?"

David was disappointed with Ava for getting mad at him. But then again, aborting a mission was a big step. He said, "Wait one," and handed the phone to Janey Ramirez.

Ramirez said, "This is mission control. We have an NHC emergency evacuation order, authorization code November-Hotel-Charlie-817-Zulu. You have to get out of the Habitat while you can. A hurricane is headed our way and it's likely that you'll be stranded down there without LSB support."

David took the phone back from Ramirez and said, "I'm coming out in the Sea Ray. It should be twenty minutes or so. But it's already getting pretty nasty. So it might be longer. Keep an eye out for me."

That was an understatement, the winds were sustained at 20-30 miles-per-hour as David cleared the Snake Creek bridge and headed into the big Atlantic rollers. The swells were presently in the eight-to-ten-foot range, which wasn't a problem since they hadn't begun to break.

The Sea Ray beat through the waves on its step, throwing up gouts of water as it smacked through the tops. The companionway door was closed and battened. David was in the pilot's position up top, dressed in storm gear and strapped tightly in as the big boat battered along. The wind was driving rain against the enclosing glass like bullets.