"It's… it's ok," Korra tried to reassure the distressed Atkovan. "We won't tell anyone." She gulped, looking from the crying parent to the dying son.
This was the first time they had come face to the face with the disease. There were no cyborg-like limbs to replace the frayed, decaying ones. Their flesh wasn't hidden by metal armour, and instead large gashes littered the sick skin. As much as they tried to remain calm, the whole sight was just… grotesque.
"Where… Where would they take them?" Asami asked.
The Atkovan took a moment to catch their breath in between sobs. "I don't know." They wiped their face full of tears. "But the neighbours were taken away just a few days ago. They must have fallen ill, the whole family."
It was terrifying to hear. People seemingly being stolen from their homes was an unpleasant concept, but the crewmates figured there must have been an explanation.
"They're probably taken to quarantine," Korra said. "Your leaders said they're trying to contain the disease."
The Atkovan shook their head. "No one ever comes back."
They weren't so sure how to respond to that. All they could see was fear plastered across the Atkovan's wrinkled grey face.
Korra let out a long breath as she realized there was nothing they could do to help them. They had nothing to cure their son, and if quarantine was the protocol the Atkovans had in place then they had no right to intervene at this stage.
"Do you work there? In the factory?" Korra asked.
The Atkovan nodded, holding out their stained hands. "The nitric acid we use in synthesis makes all our arms sting and darken."
"You don't have protective gear?"
"All of the products we make are sent to the capital." They looked back at their son. "I was hoping my son would be granted a job there someday, and they would be able to leave. But we have no hope now."
A set of bright headlights drove past across the road outside. The light shone into the room briefly.
"Please," the Atkovan composed themselves, "You must go. Quickly before someone sees you."
"Sees us?" Korra said as they were being shooed away, "Why, what's wrong with us being here?"
"We're not supposed to be speaking with you."
The crew mates were shocked, but before they could say anything else, the Atkovan had shut the door behind them, leaving them standing outside staring at the wood.
"I don't like this," Asami said.
"Neither do I. This is nothing like Attara."
They had to head back, and snuck through the shadows the same way they had come before stepping into the thick foliage again.
"I have a lot of questions for Muu tomorrow," Korra said. Her tone was suddenly bitter and angry. "I bet they were going to try and hide the way people are actually living from us!"
"You're right, but I think we should be careful. Don't prod Muu too much."
"What?"
"We don't want them to think we're suspicious of them."
"But we are!"
"Korra," Asami sighed, following behind her as they walked through the vines, "the last thing we want is to get kicked out before we've even had a chance to do anything. We need to be discreet."
"We should just sit tight?"
"What else would you have us do?"
The Commander took a moment to think about that. She had nothing.
The way back was more difficult, not having a pillar of smoke to follow, but they tried to make their way back towards the beach.
"Don't worry, Korra," Asami said. "We'll do our best to help them how we can."
It was true. They would find a way. They had to.
As they walked, the trees around them were starting to look less and less familiar. Slowly, they realized they couldn't find their old tracks through the vines and every piece of shrubbery looked the same in the darkness.
They paused for a moment, looking around. All they could see was thick foliage surrounding them from every angle.
"Korra?" Asami whispered.
"Hmm?"
"Are we lost?"
"No?" She took another look around them. "Maybe?"
They took a few more steps, peeking through the bark as though the path back to the ship would suddenly show itself. There was nothing but dark silhouettes of more plants, and one small, flickering light.
"Do you see that?" Asami said.
"Yeah."
The floating, tiny light hovered from leaf to leaf, and as they took a few steps towards it, more sprung up from the plants. Their faint light was a deep orange, and they seemed to dance through the trees as they moved away from the crew mates.
Korra and Asami followed, trying to get a closer look. They chuckled as they swerved through trees and vines, keeping up with the little lights. Finally, they stopped, and instead circled round a dense patch of shrubbery. The crew mates followed, giggling at the creatures flew around them in a dainty display of flickering orange.
"Are they like fireflies?" Korra said, her eyes darting from one bug to another.
"I think so." Asami held her hand out and the creatures swerved out of the way, before circling back round it. "They're so cute."
"Be careful. What if they bite?"
The engineer chuckled. "They're so small, they won't bite."
Korra held her hand out too, leaving trails through the fireflies' flight. As small as they were, they created an adorable show around them.
"Woah."
As she was busy staring at the bugs, she felt Asami's gloved hand slip into hers. A smile spread on her lips and they stood like that for a little while, just admiring the colourful display.
"I guess even poisonous planets have beautiful things," Korra said.
"At least there's some creatures that don't worry about the pandemic."
"Yeah," the Commander sighed. "It must be nice to be a bug. Not a care in the world."
"Most bugs only live a few days."
"And that's all they need! It's not like they have to wait for their tax return to come in."
Asami chuckled. "I suppose not." She turned towards Korra. "But that's not a lot of time to spend with other bugs."
Korra looked up at the engineer. Atkova didn't have any moons, but the night sky was ever so slightly lit with the light from the distant galaxy, just enough that she could see Asami's face in the darkness. If it wasn't for the helmets, she would have leaned in and kissed her.
"Maybe we won't be bugs then," Korra said. "What about turtles? They live for ages."
"That sounds better." She wasn't going to mention how much pollution the turtles had to endure back on Earth.
Either way, they smiled, tiny flickering lights dancing around them. It was a nice few moments, like they could take a break from the mission and enjoy the Atkovan fauna. But they were both aware that it would soon be morning, and they couldn't stay out much later.
"We should head back soon," Asami said.
Korra nodded, looking back out into the darkness, taking a step to the side. Her boot sunk into something, making a wet, cracking sound. She jumped back.
"What the-" she squinted trying to see what it was as Asami took a few steps back too. As they tried to focus, they saw the silhouette of what the orange bugs had actually been gathering around.
They leaned closer, but it was difficult to make out the details. Curiosity got the better of them, and they reached up and turned on the headlights on their helmets, not caring about being found out anymore. The sudden light made the bugs scatter quickly through the trees, as the crew mates stared at what they just found.
The corpse of the creature looked somewhat fresh, and they could still make out its features. It had four short legs and a long, finned tail. Its smooth skin was light blue, and its back was adorned with colourful coral-like fins. Its head came to a near point with a thin snout and long, white whiskers, but along the edge of its lips there were large boils and sores, still oozing blood and pus.
The two of them stared at the dead amphibious creature, shocked. Its front left leg was bent out of shape, and it must have been the one Korra stepped on.
"It must have eaten something," Asami whispered, pointing at the corroded mouth. "Or maybe it all just built up over time from whatever it was eating."
Korra gulped. "So the first big animal we see… is dead?"
"I knew there must have been a reason why there's so few of them." Asami knelt down next to the body, taking a closer look at the poor creature's face. There were chemical burns all around its snout. "Something's killing them too. And it doesn't look like the Atkovan disease."
The colourful fins on the creatures were no doubt its species' pride, and the animal must have looked so beautiful when it was alive. Seeing it dead in such a painful way was a sad truth that they know nothing about what was happening to Atkova.
"I guess we… we leave it be?" Korra said.
Asami nodded and stood back up. There was nothing they could do for it now.
As they looked out with their headlights, they spotted a trail of cut vines through the trees.
"The good news is," Asami said, "I think that's the way back."
Kuvira sighed, sitting up in her bed. She had been turning restlessly for a little while and she couldn't fall asleep. She stood up, throwing her boots on and walked out into the corridor. If she listened closely, she could just about hear Bolin snoring from his room next door. Other than that, silence. Everyone was asleep.
She headed down to the cockpit, looking for something to do so late at night – anything that might keep her occupied a while. She huffed as she sat down in Mako's chair, booting up the ship's systems. Originally, she was going to have another read of the scans that came through, but there was nothing new at a first glance, so she got bored. Then something caught her eye.
Composition of liquid mass: Mostly Ammonia (NH3)
For composition breakdown, insert sample
She looked at the program for a little while. They really didn't need to do this probably, but she felt restless and the jetlag wouldn't let her go back to her room.
"Oh, what the hell." She took the tiny vial out of the slot and sprung up, heading down the ship, slipping her space suit on, and stepping out. The beach was nearby, and she figured it would barely take any time.
It was dark out, and the light on the tip of her helmet was illuminating her path through the vines. She frowned. There was a path cut into the vines, though she was sure that the plants had overgrown again since they had last left the ship. Something could be out there, and she kept an eye out.
As she reached the ocean's edge, she bent down and scooped a little water into the vial. Then she heard it.
There were voices coming from the thick foliage. In an instant, she reached up and turned her headlight off, hoping to stay hidden in the darkness. She watched the edge of the trees blindly, before she realized she recognised them. Without a doubt, it was Korra and Asami.
The Lieutenant frowned. Though she was shocked, she shouldn't have been surprised. Of course Korra and the new girl decided to run their own scouting missions. Kuvira rolled her eyes to herself and was about to shrug it off as the Commander wanting to spend time with her girlfriend, before she started making out what they were saying.
"Even so, I've never seen people so terrified of being taken to quarantine. What if there's something more to it?" Korra said.
"You think they could be hurting them? Imprisoning them?"
"Didn't the Atkovans on Kythera say they were outcast? Sent into space all alone?"
"Maybe that. I wouldn't want to draw conclusions too soon."
Their voices were distancing themselves, and the Lieutenant stopped being able to hear them.
Without a doubt, they found something out, and whatever it was she was dying to know. She picked up her sample, waiting for the lights from her two crewmates to disappear out of sight, before she started making her way back.
By the time she had gotten to the ship, Korra and Asami must have been way ahead of her and already long gone into the ship as she made her own way in. The corridors were quiet, and the Commander and Engineer would have made themselves scarce, pretending like they had never been out.
Kuvira didn't care. She went back to the cockpit, wanting to get the sample back to the program. She slotted the vial into the compartment and watched as the ship started analysing it.
Compounds and percentages started appearing on screen, one by one, and slower than she expected. There were many carbonates, potassium salts, and traces of more minerals and metals. Nothing stood out to her as the ship was producing risk assessments for each compound, until one line in the table lit up in red.
Kuvira recognised the compound. The same one that she had seen back in the lab when the Atkovans were reading blood samples. C≡N- lit up at about 3.7% composition.
As the ship was printing, the Lieutenant enlarged it to have a look. The software seemed to be trying to emphasise the risk of the compound as Kuvira read through the information.
Prussic salts – derivates of prussic acid (Hydrogen Cyanide)
She frowned, but her heart was starting to beat faster.
Poisonous if ingested.
In contact with water vapour, will hydrolyse to form cyanide gas.
Odour: Bitter almonds
Fatality: Immediate
Kuvira ejected the sample, covering the top of it with her hand. There was water vapour in the air of the ship, but she hoped the low concentrations wouldn't have been enough for gas to form and hurt her. She headed back out, needing to get rid of the sea water, making a mental note to tell the crew about this first thing in the morning.
And to especially question why there was so much cyanide in the Atkovans' blood.
"Wait, you were out last night too?" Bolin said, putting his space suit on. "Was everyone out doing something cool while I slept?"
"Yes. I couldn't sleep. But that's not what matters." Kuvira rolled her eyes. After Korra and Asami had told their story, she informed everyone about the cyanide in the oceans too. "Do you think the cyanide could have killed the creature?"
Asami shrugged. "Cyanide is corrosive but that's not how it poisons things."
"Then how?"
"I don't know, you just… die. Also, since hydrogen cyanide is acidic and ammonia is basic, I would have expected them to neutralise each other on the creature."
"Is someone poisoning the Atkovans then?" Mako said. "I'm pretty sure they drink the sea water. Or sea ammonia. Whatever."
"The disease doesn't look like poisoning though," Korra replied. "How would cyanide eat their skin?"
The crew looked at each other. It seemed like no one knew enough to be able to draw any solid conclusions.
"We won't get anywhere like this," Kuvira said. "We'll just have to demand answers when we're back in the lab."
As they stepped out of the ship, Muu was already waiting for them. They had a smile plastered on their face as they greeted the crew.
"I will be very pleased to show you around the districts on the surface!" They said. "They are the backbone of our Atkovan prosperity. You will enjoy them very much."
The crew smiled and nodded, but something didn't add up.