It had been a long and hard few weeks for the occupants of Thunderbird Three. The group were undergoing a series of final test missions to ensure they worked well as a team and were ready to take over as the new International Rescue team. Only two were the children of the original band of brothers, Mako and Bolin were the sons of John Tracy and Captain Ridley O'Bannon, the rest came from a wide range of backgrounds although all were related to someone from the original team. Asami was the daughter of Brains, who's real name was Hiram Sato and his partner Elizabeth Moffat. Korra was the daughter of two of the team's most adaptable and inventive agents, Senna and Tonraq, she had been born and raised in the wilderness of the Arctic and therefore teamwork and leadership were two of her defining qualities along with strength and courage. Opal was the fifth and final member of the team who was the daughter of International Rescue's new London agent, Suyin Beifong and niece to their head of security, Lin. Several other people had taken up residence on Tracy Island but were not yet mission capable. The death of their London agent, Lady Penelope, and former leader Scott Tracy on a previous mission made it apparent that they needed backup members. These additional people included Jinora, Ikki and Meelo as team members-in-training, Bataar, who was working alongside Asami as their new inventor and Kuvira, the no nonsense officer in charge of covert operations.
*
Korra had been designated team captain and was responsible for the team's decisions, even though Alan and Gordon were there to supervise and judge their successes. Korra had immediately handed over the responsibility of flying Thunderbird Three to Mako once they had received their mission brief from the head of the original team, Virgil. Gordon and Alan, who had set themselves up in the cargo bay unanimously agreed that it was a good call because Korra was using her team's strengths and accepting that some people were better at certain tasks than others, something the younger Korra wouldn't have ever done. Their mission brief was simple: go to Europa and recover what was left of the Pendergast's rover that was lost during their intrepid, if dangerous mission to see if there was life on another planet. Kuvira had reminded Korra that there was little danger from criminals but Korra had insisted on bringing her along regardless of the fact that the sea made her queasy and now that they were approaching Europa, it was too late for them to turn back.
"Mako" Korra barked, "you will remain here and ensure that you keep Three from being damaged by ice geysers, I'll take Opal, Kuvira and Asami with me on Four to retrieve the rover, Bolin, you'll stand by on the crane, Opal, you're on exo duty, you'll go over to the rover and 'rescue' the three people trapped inside it, then you will return to Four, we can then grab the rover with Four's arms and high tail it out of there" Even though the rover had remained empty since the original rescue of the Pendergast's, Alan, Gordon and Virgil had agreed that simulating a rescue was the best thing they could do to test the team
"yes, Korra!" they all nodded and ran off to their various tasks
"Korra..." Kuvira looked slightly green, "sorry to be a pain but the sea makes me queasy"
"Kuvira, you joined the team knowing full well what we do, and I figured a training exercise where there isn't actually any rescuing to be done would be a good place to start you off on finding your sea legs"
"I understand, Korra" Kuvira nodded
"get into Four then" Korra commanded
"Yes, Korra"
They all crammed themselves into Thunderbird Four and Korra gave the command for Bolin to lower them to the icy surface of Europa. "Thunderbirds are go!!" Korra barked enthusiastically and hit the button to heat up the heat bank, as before, Thunderbird Four made quick work of the ice. A few hours later they burst through into the currents of the subterranean sea. Asami immediately activated the sensor array she had designed herself and located the only metallic object a few hundred miles down and a few hundred miles away. "got it!" Asami called. "Turn three hundred and fifteen degrees starboard and head down that tunnel, that should get us within a few miles of the rover"
"Right, once we leave this tunnel, Opal, you'll go and get ready to perform our rescue, I'll have to keep this ship steady so do it quick, right?"
"yes, Korra"
*
They emerged from the tunnel and turned to face the battered but in tact rover, Korra immediately pressed a button. "docking tube released!"
"I'm going for my docking attempt" Opal stated calmly, as soon as she left the submarine she was fighting the currents, eventually she connected the tube and it inflated. Kuvira checked the seal and unlocked the rover's airlock. "I'm back inside, Korra" Opal smiled, enthralled at her success
"alright, Kuv, those people out yet?"
"yup. Fifty three seconds have passed"
"Good, get back in here, Kuvira"
"coming" Kuvira quickly hoisted herself back in to the submarine and sealed the airlock. "release the tube and retract"
"on it" Korra released the docking tube and retracted it, she moved the craft into position before she locked the claws on to it.
Asami breathed a sigh of relief when the claws locked on to the rover, "let's go home"
"Yes, let's" Korra spun the submarine around and headed back the way they came
"easy..." Asami muttered, "easy"
Out of the corner of their eyes they caught sight of something glowing, they turned and tried to pull the submarine up and over the object but the adjustment caused the submarine to fight against the currents and they ploughed straight through the centre of it. "crap!" Korra exclaimed. "alert Alan and Gordon that we've had a little mishap down here"
"Yup alright, Korra" Kuvira muttered. "Four to Three, come in Three"
"this is Three, Mako speaking"
"Put Alan and Gordon on the line please"
"Alan here, Korra, what's wrong?"
"we hit this creature"
"is it alright?"
"yes, it seems to be fine, it just floated away faster than it had been before"
"Return to Thunderbird Three, immediately"
"understood"
Korra gunned the engines and shot them towards the ice above them, she heated the drill and punched a hole in the ice
*
We have to seal the cargo bay" Alan declared
"Yes, Alan" Gordon and Alan rushed to the bridge and quickly took control, "sorry, Mako they had an incident"
"Are they alright?!" Mako gasped before he ran off towards the cargo hold
"No, Mako!" Alan yelled, he took a deep breath, "seal the cargo bay" he ordered with a heavy heart
"what with Mako and Bolin inside?"
"We have no choice"
They watched for a few tense moments while the emergency bulkheads closed, and to their surprise, Mako threw Bolin out of the hold, followed closely by himself. "they're safe" Gordon whispered
Bolin and Mako stood at the auxiliary controls outside the cargo bay, "gonna have to remotely control the crane" Bolin muttered
"you up for this, bro?"
"sure"
"I think it'd be better if I did it" Alan muttered
"whatever you say" Bolin nodded and moved aside while Alan took the controls, he moved the crane into position before he lowered it down on to Thunderbird Four, which had dumped the heat bank nose cone and the rover as soon as it surfaced as a result of the incident. Alan lowered the crane and it clunked into position. "done"
"Get us out of here" Korra groaned
"right, I'll lift them up and you activate the sterilisation systems" Alan
Alan lifted them and returned the craft to the cargo bay, sealed the main doors before Gordon activated all the sterilisation systems. The smaller Thunderbird was exposed to high concentrations of alpha radiation before the cargo bay was superheated and then momentarily exposed to the vacuum outside to suck out all contaminants. "Decontamination complete"
"Alan to Korra, decontamination is complete, may I suggest you and your crew spend a few hours in the decontamination chamber?"
"will do Alan" she directed her crew into the adjacent decontamination chamber and they walked inside begrudgingly.
*
"Mako, Bolin, go and inspect the Thunderbird" a few hours had passed and they had left the Thunderbird exposed to more radiation to ensure it was clean
"sure thing" Mako's disembodied voice echoed in the control room, his holographic avatar reflecting his movements. They walked through the airlock and in to the cargo bay where they noticed scrapes and scratches all over the smaller craft, no doubt from impacts with tiny shards of ice but then, after clambering inside, they noticed something more concerning.
"there's a crack!!" Bolin shouted
"where?!" Mako questioned. Bolin pointed to it and Mako looked horrified. "Mako to Alan and Thunderbird Five, we have a situation!"
"what's the problem, Thunderbird Three?" John appeared on the screen, Korra and the others had all huddled around the holographic display in the cockpit, their decontamination session had left them all hungry and bothered after having to rub jelly like compounds Brains had created for situations like this
"in lifting Thunderbird Four, somehow the crane caused some damage to the hull, there's a crack"
"putting you through to Tracy island"
"Alan! You alright?"
"the crane damaged Thunderbird Four and we've got a potential case of contamination on our hands"
"Right, Alan, breathe in" he did so, "and out" he did so, "now, I want you to set the autopilot for Thunderbird Five, the decontamination chamber there will be more thorough than the one on Thunderbird Three. Hook everyone in to the vitals monitoring system before you do anything else after setting the autopilot"
"will do" Gordon got Korra and the others lying down in the cockpit while Alan entered the autopilot commands
"my hand feels itchy" Korra slurred, she reached up and scratched her hand before Gordon tied her hands by her sides
"can't risk you breaking the skin on your hand and exposing yourself to even more of this toxin, whatever it is" Gordon explained
"you're such a funny octopus, Alan" Korra slurred
"she's deteriorating, fast!" Alan gasped. He hooked her into the vitals machine and moved on to the others, all of whom had started showing similar signs, although none were as bad as Korra's, "whatever it is, Korra must've born the brunt of it" Alan mused before he turned and ran back to the cockpit
"i can't think straight" Gordon muttered, he had plugged himself in to the vital monitoring machine and had sat back. Alan pressed the button that would start the autopilot program as well as the quarantine alarm before he hurriedly plugged himself in to the monitoring system too, he stuck the EEG pads on his forehead and the back of his head and the ECG pads on his chest, stomach legs and ankles, he finally slipped the blood pressure monitor on to his arm and the oximeter on to his finger before he began to feel the beginnings of delirium sneak up on him as well. Everyone else was already far gone and he felt a momentary surge of fear at being the last one left
*
Thunderbird Three shot back towards Earth, all thrusters on full power as well as the ion engine running on overdrive. It had taken them a week to get there but with all the engines on overdrive, they made it back to Earth in just over a day. The thrusters were burnt out and the ion engines badly damaged but they had got back to Thunderbird Five. The craft docked itself with assistance from EOS and John where necessary. EOS then oversaw the movement of the unconscious crew members to the decontamination chamber while John watched worriedly from the control room. "John. John." EOS' voice echoed over a somewhat large void between John and reality
"What, EOS?"
"John, Alan and Gordon are in comas but the rest are only unconscious"
"Oh no..." John covered his face with his hands and cried before he relayed the message to Tracy Island
"Say it again, John" Virgil's voice shook a little
"Korra, Asami, Kuvira, Opal, Mako and Bolin are unconscious, but stable. Alan and Gordon on the other hand are not expected to recover. The scanners cannot locate any trace of what had infected them, whatever it was doesn't seem to have affected any changes upon the others. Bloods, heart rate, blood pressure and scans are all stable and normal, except from in Alan and Gordon, there appears to be damage"
"on what basis are you making this prognosis?" Hiram Sato's voice echoed around the small control room
"I'm sorry Brains, you should probably have come up before they got back" he sighed, "see these scans? The areas in red have detected problems"
Hiram looked at it for a few seconds before he sighed, "massive haemorrhaging in the brain, cause unknown"
"W... Where am I?"
"Asami!"
"Asami can you hear us?" Brains' voice was more stable, more controlled, but that was only due to his intellect
"D... Dad?" Asami stuttered
"yes, I'm here"
"w... Where am I?"
"Thunderbird Five, sweetie"
"Oh yes... So I am" she looked around, her hologram reflecting her movements before she spotted something and went wide eyed, "Korra!!" she exclaimed and ran over to her. "Korra! Please wake up!"
A few seconds later there was a groan, "What, no kiss of life for me?"
"Opal!" Asami smiled
"hey, Asami. Seems we made it, although not sure how" Opal replied groggily
"ugh... What happened?" another voice asked, nearly as groggily as Opal's
"Kuv!"
"Asami... What happened?" Kuvira sat up quickly but swayed a little
"no idea, but maybe dad will be able to fill in the details?"
"sure thing, Asami"
"where's Hiram?" a male voice asked, "Hiram, you owe me a rematch at chess"
"Now might not be the right time, Bolin"
"Bo?" another male voice asked
"Hey, Mako" Bolin's voice replied
"where's Korra?" Mako's voice asked cautiously
"she's here..." Asami whispered, worried for her friend
"yeah Asami kissed her" Opal whispered slyly and Asami went bright red
"about damn time" was all Mako replied
"she's still unconscious!" Asami whispered, still blushing bright red
"And I'm afraid that's not the only bad news... Gordon and Alan were stuck by this odd disease and they haven't been able to make a full recovery as of yet" John interrupted their reunion painfully aware that the jubilation at getting home alive was about to be shattered
"will they make it?"
"It doesn't look hopeful, Asami" Hiram replied hollowly, he had known the boys for most of their lives and after the loss of Scott, he didn't want any more lives to end prematurely
Asami looked down sadly and had a tear running down her cheek. "you four, however, are clean, you can come out of decon now" John added
"I'd like to stay with Korra" Asami muttered
"Where's Alan and Gordon?" Kuvira asked, "I'd like to visit them"
"They're in intensive care, Kuvira"
"No..."
"They're not expected to make it..."
"no...!" Kuvira closed her eyes and a single tear ran down her face
Several seconds later there was a rapid beeping before a shrill high pitched monotone noise echoed throughout the space station. "let me get to them!" Kuvira yelled over the noise
"I'm afraid there's little point, Kuvira" Hiram replied, his voice shook a little
"I can save them!"
"no, you can't. They both had massive haemorrhaging in their brains, it's a surprise they lasted as long as they did"
"Shit... John, I'm so sorry" Kuvira leant back against the wall
"I'm going to unlock the inner decon airlock, unless you'd rather stay in their for the rest of your days?"
"alright, we ought to go down to Tracy Island, the family would probably prefer if they heard what happened in person" Opal sighed, her cheeks wet
"Someone ought to stay with Korra" Kuvira added
"I will" Asami nodded and looked to John who nodded at her
"I'll leave the inner airlock unlocked, EOS, you think you can handle things here for now?"
"Don't sweat it, John. Go and be with your family"
"thanks, EOS"
*
John opened the airlock and everyone except Asami left. Two hermetically sealed coffins contained Alan and Gordon's bodies. The group squashed themselves into the cockpit of Thunderbird Three, avoiding the cargo bay and Thunderbird Four on the recommendation of Brains. Thunderbird Three descended towards Tracy Island. "Please wake up soon, Korra" Asami whispered while she rested her head on Korra's chest and cried silently
"John... What are you doing down here?" Virgil was incredibly surprised, they still rarely saw their brother
"I'm sorry, Virgil" Opal stepped in to the room and Virgil saw the two coffins
"No..."
"I'm so sorry, Virgil!" Kuvira whispered
"Virgil Tracy to everyone on Tracy Island, please come to the lounge, immediately"
Soon enough all the surviving members of the original team were assembled, Virgil, John, Kayo, Brains and his wife Elizabeth Moffat, Suyin Beifong and Parker, the latter of whom had worked for Suyin since Lady Penelope's death, the duo had rushed to Tracy island the moment they had heard the news. Lin Beifong, Grandma Tracy and MAX also joined the group, as well as all the new team save Asami and Korra. "i... Don't know how to tell you this... But Alan and Gordon... Didn't make it"
"No..." those in the group who didn't know collectively sighed before they all began to cry, letting out their grief as one. Asami watched on in silence from Thunderbird Five, wishing Korra would wake up quickly