Tom headed back inside the base. In the entrance room he dropped off the repair equipment. Then he went through both doors to the control room.

Kyle looking at one of the consoles. "Good job." Kyle said, and gave the high-five sign.

Kyle was still wearing the drysuit and had put on neoprene gloves since Tom left. Tom's gloves were still wet from being in the water, so the high-five made a rubbery sounding "Smack". Tom's first instinct after that was to hug Kyle, but he held back.

"Ok, any updates?" asked Tom.

"Now that the water stopped coming in, the pump should be able to keep up and remove this water." answered Kyle, "I haven't got the radio working though"

"Ok, think, we just want to use the radio to try to cancel the duress code, to assure them that everything's fine, in case they're already preparing to respond with full military action." Tom thought out load "We could do nothing, and take a chance to let that happen."

"What if we just swim away?" asked Kyle.

"Well, first, the other scientists would still be at risk if there'a a military action. Second, if the military see us swimming away, we can't communicate with them and we might get shot." replied Tom.

"What about the mini-sub?" asked Kyle.

"Same thing, they might see it and shoot it down. Wait, does the sub have a radio?" asked Tom.

"Short-range only." Kyle shook his head.

"Damn. We might be best off to just stay here, keep an eye on things, and try to fix the radio."

"Ok" said Kyle

"It's still a risk even if we fix the radio; they might think we're still under duress, like we have a gun to our heads and we're saying stuff, but I think it's worth a try."

"Damn, that's dark" said Kyle

"We're going to start with the radio; where's the electronics for it?" asked Tom.

"In the cabinet underneath the radio"

Tom knelt down and looked in the cabinet. "Ok, turn off the power for this; I'm going to try fixing it."

"Ok," said Kyle as he flipped one of a row of switches on the wall.

"Grab me some tools," asked Tom "like screwdrivers and stuff".

Tom had his head fully inside the cabinet looking around. His visor had its LED light (above and between his eye-cameras) on. Kyle set the tools beside Tom and tapped Tom once on the butt. Tom thought to "That was an odd way to bring it to my attention. Was he hitting on me too?" Tom just decided to focus on the task for now and used a screwdriver to look at some more components.

"Damn, I don't know if I can fix this." said Tom "Do you have any better ideas, or think I should keep trying?"