The fact that she would have Robyn talking her through the process, with a technical manual in hand and a technical expert overseeing her, made the whole idea of this job so much more bearable to May. It was the one reassuring thing she had to hold onto, and once the time had finally come to get ready, May found that things only got worse. It was bad enough that she couldn't pass it off to anyone else, but the suit was very small and tight. There was no room for extra, which meant taking off her clothes before putting it on. That would have been fine, whatever, but the suit was not simple to don, and that meant a technical expert was needed to help her put it on. That was the only stroke of luck she had. The Nautilus came with one technical expert, someone who knew how to put this pressure suit on someone, and the entire crew of the Nautilus was male. Having a strange man help her into the suit after she took off all her clothes was a nightmare, but it wasn't necessary. The Nautilus only came with one technical expert.

But the Ace Ops were all technical experts.

The breath of relief she released when she found out Elm would be the one assisting her was just magnificent. It was such a relief, just about her biggest break, definitely top twenty material. It helped that, while they were putting the suit on, Elm didn't see fit to say anything. There was a lot May did not want to talk about right now, conversations she just didn't care to have. May knew she wasn't, for lack of a better description, the typical young woman, as far as physical biology went. It wasn't exactly blatant, not anymore, but it wasn't hard to notice. Elm, for all her big-ness, had the best tact May could have asked for when approaching that subject; she didn't say a word. It might have actually been that Elm was focused on not screwing up the suit, thus condemning May to a sudden and painful death by extreme air pressures, but the result was the same.

In fact, other than the occasional 'lift your arm' or 'turn around', Elm didn't say a single word until it was time to put the helmet on. She held up the final part of the suit, which had a clear bubble on the front for visibility, turning it around to face herself and lifting it up to put it on May's head. She decided now was the time to make a joke. "Please tell me you're not claustrophobic."

"Absolutely. That's why I came on this submarine mission." She wasn't claustrophobic, but there was a point where any irrational fear became totally rational. She was terrified of all the close walls around her suddenly closing in and crushing her, but it wasn't an irrational fear at all. They absolutely could, and it would be the end of her life. She knew that, and it was why she'd gotten maybe two hours of combined sleep since they set off. She was not comfortable doing this mission on so little sleep, but there wasn't any other options without trying to argue with Ironwood. She let out an irritated sigh. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Elm placed the helmet over May's head and paused. "I guess so. I reserve the right to not answer." She set about sealing the helmet in place.

May asked her question. "Why do you trust Ironwood so much?"

Elm didn't stop working, but she frowned at the question. Obviously, she knew she could just refuse to answer, but it would not be a good look at all. She needed to give an answer to that, and not just shrug it off. Unfortunately, she had to put some thought into her answer, how to word it. She couldn't do that and make sure she was doing the suit right at the same time, so she finished with the helmet before answering. Once it was sealed on, she stepped back and crossed her arms, leaning back against the hull. "I trust the general because he can be trusted. He's never steered us wrong. He fights for what's right, and he doesn't hide behind others."

"...So you don't think he's ever made a mistake, or been in the wrong."

"No." Elm shook her head. "He's absolutely made mistakes. I've seen what he's like when he's wrong. That's what I mean when I say he doesn't hide behind others." She straightened up, taking a step closer to May. "The fall of Beacon. He made a mistake. He thought he made the right call there. He was wrong, and it cost him. It cost a lot of people much more than it cost him. He blames himself for that, but he doesn't let it stop him. He learns from mistakes, and he refuses to make the same ones a second time. He doesn't blame someone else for his mistakes. He owns up to it, and does everything in his power to make amends. That's why I trust him. Because he doesn't point at other people and say it was their fault."

May was silent for a moment, then nodded. "That's fair." She broke off that conversation quickly, moving over to the ladder. They were halfway up the sail, only moments from docking with the platform. They wouldn't know when it was going to happen until they heard a shout from below, at which point May would have to start climbing. She looked down the ladder, idly shifting the suit around. It was a lot tighter in some areas than she would like, though the chest had a bit of room. Her arms and legs were not so lucky. It was really uncomfortable. "This thing sucks. Any chance we can go back and get a better one? Maybe adjust this one a bit?"

"Adjust it? How?" Elm asked genuinely, mostly concerned for what level of discomfort May was going through.

May just shrugged. "It's really tight."

"Oh... well, you saw Commander Dori. This suit was made for her. She's a bit more petite than you... except for the bust." Elm smirked.

May rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll thank you to keep your opinion to yourself."

"Wasn't opinion."

"You ready up there?" It was Commander Dorian's voice.

Elm leaned over the ladder and looked down, shouting her answer. "Ready to go!"

"Start moving!"

"Moving!" Elm backed away, checking up above them quickly. She turned to May. "Time to go where no one has gone before."

"Great." May groaned, stepping up to the ladder and reaching out, taking it in her hand. It was like wearing rubber gloves. "Gross." Regardless, she grabbed onto the sides of the ladder with both hands, putting one foot on the first rung up. She wanted to go faster, putting her foot higher up, but the suit wouldn't let her. She pulled herself up and put her other foot on the ladder. She began the climb up the sail. It took a bit of time, but not much, it only felt like forever because she wasn't used to the stiff movement of the suit. It was made rigid so that it wouldn't be crushed by high pressures, but also apparently it was meant to become more flexible once it entered those pressures. That was pretty neat and she never before in her life wished she could get into deadly high pressures quickly like she did now.

Once she reached the uppermost chamber of the sail, she closed the door behind her. There was a little wheel on the door, which she needed to turn until she couldn't turn it anymore, sealing the door. That actually wasn't too hard, since the pressure was no different between the two chambers yet. Bending over to reach the wheel was the hard part, and so was getting up afterwards, but then she was sealed off from the rest of the world, alone, totally in solitude by herself in a considerably small chamber. Her radio clicked on.

"May? This is Robyn. Can you hear me?"

There weren't any controls on the outside of the suit, so the radio was on at all times. It occurred to her that at least Robyn had heard her question to Elm. She grunted, but then answered Robyn. "Can I file a complaint and a request?"

Robyn was quiet for a moment, probably talking to someone else, trying to grasp radio protocols on the fly. Then she came back. "Go ahead."

"I hate everything about this." She complained with a deadpan tone. As for her request... "I get that this was fitted for Commander Dori, but in the future can we either find a way to make these suits more uniform or just get the commander chest reduction surgery?"

Silence for a few more seconds, then Robyn answered with a tired tone. "I think there are a lot of sailors in here who would not appreciate that."

"I'm joking of course. It's how I cope with intensely stressful situations that could result in my instantaneous and horrific demise." She turned to look up above her at the clamping arms. She was only really looking at the controls for them, how she would be making them do what she wanted. The arms were outside, where she couldn't see them. "Okay, time for these clamping arms, right?"

Once again, she had to wait for Robyn's response. It was a bit longer this time, as Robyn probably needed to relay her question to someone who could answer it. When she came back, it was a negative. "Wait a moment. You need to get ready while we move into position. Look around the top of the chamber, around the hatch, you'll see six handles with latches over them. You need to remove and secure those latches now."

She saw what Robyn had to be talking about. "Okay, I got them. Just pull them off?"

"The latch is attached on the right, secured under covering on the left. Grab it and pull it down and to the right. Pull the handle straight out about two inches, then move the latch back into place under the handle, securing the left end under the covering again."

It looked and sounded complex, but once May tugged on the latch and it moved, she figured out what Robyn meant. The hardest part was moving the handle. It was stubborn and hard to keep from moving up or down, but the way Robyn told her to move it straight out told her that wiggling it about was not going to be a good decision. Once it was out and she put the latch back in place, she moved on to repeat the process for the second handle. It was much easier the second time, and by the third she had gotten it down to a ten second process. She was moving on to the sixth and final handle when Robyn came back over the radio.

"May, are you having trouble with it?"

It must have been because of the radio silence. "No, I've got it. I'm removing the last latch now."

"Okay, that's good. We're about to touch on the docking port. Please remember to keep communication open constantly. You'll worry me." Now that was just emotional manipulation.

"Yes mom." She took the latch off and pulled the handle free. "Securing the latch now." She put it back in place and let Robyn know. "Done. All handles are out. Ready when you are."

"Good job, May. I knew I could count on you." She was silent for a moment, then came back. "We're in position. Take one of the handles and push it straight up. It should go about five inches. If it stops at that point, you will need to push and pull the handle straight in and out from the wall, pushing up the whole time. There's a hole that it's supposed to go in, and you'll have to find it."

"Push it straight up. Okay." She grabbed the handle and pushed it up slowly. It went five inches or so, just as she was told, and then stopped abruptly. "It stopped. Just wiggle it back and forth now, right?"

"That's right. Do not move it left or right."

"Understood." Precise following of instructions was most likely to avoid breaking something. In this situation, a little mischievousness just wasn't in her. She pushed up lightly, moving the handle closer to the hull, and it wasn't long before it suddenly moved up again, slotting into some unseen hole on the docking port. "I'm in! How much farther do I push it up?"

"Another five inches, then pull the handle towards the hull until it stops and pull it back down. That will secure that arm."

"Okay, up." She pushed the handle up, then back to the hull and down just as directed. There was an audible clunk above her. "Robyn, it went clunk. Is that good?"

"Very. That arm is secure. Now go to the handle directly across from that one and secure it as well."

Five more arms to secure. This was going to be a monotonous job. She kept up giving Robyn updates on every stage of it, and found to her relief that after the second arm, which was a little harder to get in, the other arms slid into place without any trouble at all. The securing of the first two, on opposite sides, meant that the rest were all perfectly aligned with where they were supposed to go. She'd done a stellar job, according to Robyn.

"That's excellent. You've been offered a job with Commander Dori's team."

"Which I'll pass on." May said, taking the few free seconds to relax her nerves. "I'm ecstatic that I have been able to do this so far, but I do not want to make a habit of it."

"That's what I thought you'd say."

"Okay, what's next?"

"You need to equalize the air pressure of the chamber you are in with the chamber on the other side of the door."

"Ah. That means... incremental opening of the pressure valves. Slowly." She looked up as Robyn confirmed. She could see four small wheels around the hatch. "Oh, great. They're... up there." She had to reach up over her head, which made the suit pull on her underarms much more than she liked, but once she had a hold on one of the wheels she began to twist it as slowly as she could. It didn't budge. "Uh... how hard is it supposed to be to turn this thing?"

"It won't be easy. There's a lot of pressure on the other side. It's very important that you don't turn it too much at a time. You got that?"

"Got it." She kind of wished she had a wrench. She wrapped her hands around the wheel as firmly as she could and put her foot against the hull to try and get some leverage, then twisted with all her might while trying her best not to turn it too far. The wheel came off and she fell back into the wall. It took her a moment to realize what had happened, and she looked at the wheel in her hand. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh what? What happened, May?"

"The valve... wheel. It's broken off. What do I do?"

There was an uncomfortable silence when felt like forever, and Robyn's voice finally came back with an amazing amount of calm in it. "Look at the bottom of the wheel, where it broke off." She did. There was a six-sided hole in the bottom. "Look where you broke the wheel off. You didn't break it. Those wheels are removable. Put it back on and get back to work. This time, don't pull the wheel. Turn it."

May cursed and stepped back up, putting the wheel back onto the valve. She hit it a few times to make sure it was on. The third time, when she hit it, there was a loud hiss like pressure releasing. "Something happened! Hissing sound! What does that mean?"

"Air is being let into your chamber. Congratulations, you'd be dying right now without that suit. Get to work on the other valves, but be careful. They'll be easier to turn now. Also, that hissing noise is going to be with you for a while, so get used to it."

On a fundamental level, May refused to get used to something so annoying and unnerving. She set about turning the other wheels, which were much easier to turn now that the process had been begun. The hissing got louder, and she was advised to go around opening them a bit more, and then again. The whole process took the full ten minutes she was told and more, but by the end the hissing died down and stopped, indicating that the pressure was now equal. When the hissing was completely gone, it was safe to open the hatch and climb up into the pressurization chamber of the deep sea platform, at which point May would really be setting foot somewhere no one else had ever been.

Turning the wheel in the center of the hatch, unsealing it, she pushed it up and open. It was much heavier than she expected, and that turned out to be because she was also lifting the hatch on the platform. She climbed through past the double hatch and stepped aside, closing it behind her and turning the wheel back to seal the door. She was directed to the pressure valve next to the door. It was under a panel on the floor, which she could just remove and set aside, and then she had to open this valve. Another ten minutes, only this time with the added bonus of potentially being sucked through a space the size of her wrist. It wasn't her favorite concept. She moved around the valve so she could open it without reaching across over it and started the slow process. This is where the air would begin being pumped into the Nautilus. It was going remarkably well. All the terrors she might have imagined, which could have happened at any moment, never came to fruition. Now it was just a waiting game, sitting back in the pressurization chamber and waiting several hours.

That wasn't going to happen. "Alright. All done here, for now, anyway. I'm gonna go explore this top secret facility."

She could hear the laugh in Robyn's voice when she responded to that. "I'm sure Ironwood will be delighted to hear that. Have fun, but don't break anything. And do not take off your suit."

"Of course. We wouldn't want to be underdressed at such an... exclusive party."