The Faces Outside by Bruce McAllister

In a vast underwater tank, a man known only through the Voice that instructs him lives with Diane in a fragile world of ritual, tenderness, and fear. They move through bright water in intimate companionship, haunted by their infertility and by the Faces watching from the view-ports, whom the man comes to regard as evil enemies. His life feels simple and deeply human, yet every gesture is shadowed by loneliness, suspicion, and a longing for a child he cannot have. As the story unfolds, the perspective widens to reveal a colder alien hierarchy and a shocking truth: this "aquarium" is not a sanctuary but a conquered human experiment. Two Terrans were salvaged after humanity's destruction, altered, stripped of most memories, and placed together because their emotional bond made them seem naturally suited to the environment. Their love endures, but it has been engineered, turning domestic closeness into a tragic meditation on control, identity, surveillance, and the vulnerability of human feeling. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.