BOOK I - UNION
Chapter 5: Home Sweet Home
March 22 (D + 7)
"General Braun, this is General Iroh... General Iroh, General Braun." I introduced them as they glared at each other.
After a second or two General Braun extended his hands. "General Iroh, I'm very happy to finally see you. I'm sorry that it took over four days for your request to be processed since you know... Politicians."
General Iroh shook his hands. "Likewise General Braun."
It took four days after I sent General Braun the message about Iroh and the guys from the United Republic coming to our world for the message to arrive straight from the Chancellor giving me the go-ahead to bring the four of them back to our world. The Chancellor wanted to meet them for some "diplomatic maters" which would generally mean trying to squeeze as much out of them as possible. The message also gave me strict orders to continue keeping the existence of this portal classified until further notice, and that appropriate action would be taken if I broke the order. Well here comes the Gestapo tendencies of the intelligence agency.
"Uh so sir, this is Avatar Korra, she's the spiritual... leader... thingy; Miss Asami Sato, she's the CEO of Future Industries which is like the Ford of their world, and Minister Haoyung who is their foreign minister." I presented them one by one.
General Braun shook their hands, smiling, before offering them seats in front of his office desk. "Please have a seat, oh and corporal..." He walked over the other side of the desk and sat down on his chair. "Go get an extra chair from the secretary outside and sit, it would be rude to keep my translator standing throughout the conversation."
"Right away sir." I got out of the office, asked for a seat, came back in, and sat on the side of the table.
"Now where shall we begin... so much questions... ah yes! General Iroh, you ARE the head of your nation's military am I correct?"
"Yes I am General, and I suppose you are...?"
"Oh just a Brigadier General, not those fancy guys up top." he took out a cigarette from a drawer of the table. "Do you smoke?"
"No, thank you. Your corporal here is a very disciplined man, huh hope I could say that to most of my soldiers."
"Why discipline is the heart of an army!" He exclaimed. "Lack discipline and the whole bloody thing would collapse onto itself!" The general putt he cigarette back into the drawer then took his laptop out. "Okay so this is one of our technologies, it has video, uh mail, pictures, and so many more."
"Very interesting." Asami blurted. "Its so small, yet does so much." Heh, that's what she said. "But why would you want to have it larger when your cellular phones have the same capabilities and be smaller?"
"Miss Sato, may I interrupt" I took my phone out and placed it on the table.
The smiled back. "Just call me Asami."
"Uh okay then. True the phone is indeed smaller than the laptop but the processing power is far less. Processing power... its like how many actions it can do in a certain time. For example i want to build a small shack, with five people lets say as the phone I can build it in a few days, but with twenty or more people being the laptop I could build it in just a day or so."
"So just like the output of a production line."
"Exactly."
"I see, that's amazing. All these technologies, our society could improve so much." Yeah, that's if the government didn't put a 'national security' stamp on all of it. "Korra, what do you think?"
The avatar just nodded. "Yeah they're awesome... Asami, the moment we crossed the portal I felt weird. I couldn't feel any connection to the spirit world at all especially after we're this far from the portal now."
Asami frowned, clearly worried. "It'll be alright Korra, hey we're in another world remember?"
"Yeah, I guess so." She gripped Asami's hands tightly before repeating "I guess so."
While that was happening I was busy translating everything they said to the general who was listening closely.
"So, they're a couple? Like married?"
"No sir, just girlfriends."
"Ah, so the four days that you've stayed there how high is their homophobic meter considering they're like the spiritual leader and a CEO?"
"Not very high actually sir, of course there are those few nut jobs like in our world, thinking it'll be the end of the world and such but other than that... meh."
"Right, while they're still talking among themselves." He took a quick glance to see the four of them trying to figure out how to use the laptop which I missed out the first part, before the general continued. "The brass up top wants me to give them accommodation as discreetly as possible and as close as I can get them to an apartment block which will be the meeting place which, by the way happened to be close to your parents apartment in the Berlin suburbs. Oh... Is he going to do what I think he'll be telling me to do?
"Here." He handed me a small brown envelope "Two thousand Euros, enough to buy them some clothes to blend in, food, oh and compensation for giving troubles to your parents." He grinned.
"Uh, sir... I'm not sure about this."
"Hey come on just accept it, it'll be a pain in the ass to send another runner to the General Staff since they insisted that our communications are being tapped my... I don't know, the NSA maybe, so instead they decided to have the old fashioned pen and paper communications."
"Yeah, but sir..."
"Hey if there's any leftovers from the two thousands I gave you then it'll be your bonus then."
"Oh" Okay think about it, give the four some nice clothes, shock my parents and maybe make them hate me, then try to make them blend in in public with the leftovers as bonus, huh. "Is this an order or is it a... favor?"
"What do you want it to be corporal?" Your playing THAT game huh.
"Alright, I'll accept it general. Do I have anyone that's like my backup or something."
"You could if you want to, fine by me just don't pick the talkative one yes?"
"Very well sir." I took another glance at our visitor and Asami had pretty much taken over to being the one pressing the buttons. She really is an engineer by birth.
"There you are Walter! I've been looking for you." I got into the canteen and sat down beside him as he was eating.
He glanced at me before continuing to eat. "What's up corporal?"
"Listen, I've got a proposition for you."
"What is it then sir?" He replied
"General Braun gave me orders to, uh accommodate our guests in my house and I want you to go with me, need some wisdom from older gentlemen like you."
He snickered and took another bite at his sandwich. "Wisdom, ha! I'm in, any other guys coming with us?"
"Nope, just the two of is and the two girls, General Braun wants to treat the two older guys to more formalities and wants the 'younger ones' to have fun."
"Fun?" His eyes lit up.
"Yeah... what, no! Not THAT kind of fun... goddamned it."
"Yeah yeah I know sir, just fucking with you. So where are we going?"
"My house, which is also my parents house in the Berlin suburbs." I leaned in and started whispering. "Listen, the general said that this will be strictly classified and that nobody else should know where our guests are going. It a matter of 'national security.'" I curled my fingers, gesturing the quote. God even I can't believe I'm saying that.
"Uh huh, so for how long?"
"Two, three days maybe. Hey we still need to buy the girls some modern clothes to blend in better you know."
"Wait, what about the guys? Where are they staying?"
"With General Braun I assume, or maybe with other politicians, I don't know."
He went silent for a moment, in deep thought. "Did they give you money?" He finished his sandwich and compressed its plastic wrapper into a ball.
"Yeah, two thousand euros. Though they won't give me anything else, so we'll need to take the ICE back to Berlin."
"Two thousand... wow."
"Hey now, that's taxpayer money your thinking about, lets put it into good use." I pat his shoulders and smiled. "Come on, you done?"
"Yes sir "
"Lets go then."
We stood up from the chairs and after he threw the wrapper away we proceeded back to the general's office where they're having a meal, though the general himself got to the officer's quarters instead since it would be awkward to continue being with the guest while he doesn't understand a thing they're saying.
The two of us walked back to the office building under the bright and sunny spring weather. Getting back to the office, I knocked on the door before opening it and stepping in. Oh, General Braun's back.
I saluted. "General Braun I've made my decision, I would like for Private Walter Ruderford to accompany me on this assignment."
Walter stepped in a moment later and saluted. He took a quick glance at the girls before whispering ever so softly. "Damn sir, they really are hot eh?" I just kept my mouth shut.
"Okay, I'll do the paperwork for it, Walter Ruderford right?"
"Yes sir." Walter replied snapping out of his thoughts..
"Good, well Geraldt ask the girls if they're ready to go."
"Do you have other translators sir?" I asked.
"Yeah, I've got one coming straight from the top, why? Its a matter of 'national security.'" he chuckled. "I like how they say it in order to give me priority over most of the stuff."
"Uh okay sir." I then walked closer to the girls. "Ladies, umm, shall we uhh, go now?"
Korra smiled. "Okay, what do you say Asami?"
"Lets go then, I'm excited to see their trains." She smiled back. Aww how cute, lets get going then.
The two of them stood up and got their backpacks before getting out of the room but not before saying goodbyes with their other companions.
"Oh and Geraldt, Walter!" General Braun said as we were about to get out of the office. "Don't forget to change from your service uniforms into civilian ones yes?"
"Yes sir." I replied.
"Good, both of you are dismissed."
We saluted before getting out of the office where the two girls are waiting.
"You said we were getting new clothes to be less conspicuous?" Asami was standing there with her dull red jumpsuit with a gear patch on the shoulder.
"Yeah, you'll look silly in those, the both of you."
"Hey, this is the most modern style we have." Korra said a she pointed on her blue sleeveless shirt and blue baggy pants.
"Our styles of clothes might be a bit more... revealing than what you're used to."
"How much more?" Asami asked.
"Well, ehhh. It depends. You'll see when we get to the shop, its in the town a few kilom... miles away from the base."
"Okay." Came the reply."we have so much do talk about on our way there."
"Yeah... yeah we do."
"Wow these pants are a lot tighter than I thought." Asami opened the door of the changing room and showing off to Korra who was standing just outside.
"I told you Asami you should get these, what they call cargo pants." Korra lifted her leg to make a point. "See? I can easily fight in these, and their sneakers are so comfortable."
Me and Walter were sitting on a bench opposite of the changing area, looking at the ladies. "Girls, the same anywhere huh?"
"Yes sir." He replied, then continued on playing on his phone.
Korra was wearing a olive green cargo pants and sneakers with a light blue t-shirt, Asami on the other hand had a red t-shirt and showing off the skinny jeans.
"I don't like it, its too tight." Asami said to Korra, then turned towards us. "How in the world do you people wear these?"
I shrugged. "Beats me, I never really understood myself. That's why I wear these fairly loose jeans."
She pouted, then grabbed Korra's arms and headed towards the girl's clothes. "Come on Korra, help me choose something better."
"Alright 'Sami."
The both of them smiling as they started sifting through the clothes, and the store clerk looking at them every now and then. Hopefully he'll think that they're just tourists.
"Spirits, its so long and fast!" Asami exclaimed as the white ICE train stopped in front of us. She continued looking towards the front and back still gawking at the length and size of it. "This is amazing! And the doors, they're automatic?"
"That's modern engineering for you. Come on and lets find a seat."
Asami had chosen to wear a black skirt instead with sneakers and all of us wore heavy jackets as the Autumn/Fall temperature if very cold... around ten degree celcius. She complained a bit in the cab on our way to the station of how I failed to tell her how cold the weather was but there's nothing we could do.
We got onto the train, the seats were arranged on a 3-2 so we decided for Asami and Korra to be seated in the row in front of ours. After several more minutes at the station the train finally started moving and Asami got even more excited.
"How fast can the train go?" She asked.
"On the route we're taking about two hundred fifty kilometers per hour which is, uhh... a hundred and eighty miles per hour I think."
"A hundred eighty? That's... that's so amazing."
"Hey now, calm down Asami." Korra interrupted, smiling, and leaned over for a quick kiss on Asami's cheek. "Lets enjoy the ride and you can nerd it out later."
"Alright Korra, alright." Asami smiled back.
I cleared my throat. "Ladies if I may..." I took my phone out and went to Wikipedia on Mandarin and gave it to Asami. "You can read more about this train system here, its not as much as the English version but its good enough."
She took my phone and the both of them started reading. "This is what you call a smart phone right?"
"Yeah, if you want to read more just tap here, and then the keyboard should pop up." I showed them how to do it, including typing Chinese characters.
"I see, thanks"
"No problem, read as much as you like, the trip will take a few hours."
She smiled back before continue to read on the phone with Korra. How am I going to explain the the holocaust to them? And all those other terrible things this world had done to each other?
The two of them read throughout most of the trip, Asami had become quite adept at tapping on the links on the pages and bringing them to other topics: ICE... German... Germany... World War One... World War Two... Shit, here we go.
"Sixty million dead... what kind of a war was this?" Korra shook her head in disbelief, so did Asami. "How did it get that far?"
"That's world war two for you, six years of gruesome war. The largest and deadliest in our history." I replied.
"A war yes but sixty million, DEAD? These... bombings of cities, all those... murders."
"That's total war, where everything that contributes to the war effort of a nation, be it civilian or not, would be targeted."
"That's so wrong." Asami retorted. "The fire nation during the hundred year war... even when they wiped out the airbenders... they never burnt cities to the ground, kill millions of innocent people... to try winning the war."
"That's the price of technological advancement." Oh boy I can't wait to get to the atom bombs. Sarcasm* "It made killing people a lot more efficient. Yet through that war, technological advancement made leaps and bounds." Fuck I sound like I'm defending the fucking war.
"Its good, but not in a war!" Korra almost shouted, but she was able to control herself.
"Korra you'll need to understand, there is not one day in our history that there isn't a war of some kind somewhere in the world. We HAD made an organization, the United Nations, in order to prevent such a catastrophic event from ever happening again, but it is not enough to stop every war. I envy your world, going through seventy years without a war breaking out in either of the nations."
The girls went silent, Walter then butted in. "Sir, what's that about?"
"World war two."
"Shit, uhh, good luck sir."
"Yeah, I'll need that."
"This United Nations, what is it?" Asami asked.
"Find out for yourselves, type it in in the search box."
She hesitated for a bit before she typed it into the search box. "Is it this one?"
"Its the one with a blue flag... yeah that's it."
She started reading reading with Korra in silence for several minutes. "For how long?"
"Hmm?"
"For how long can it keep the peace? This... beautiful country (literal translation of America in Mandarin) and middle country (literal translation of China in Mandarin) and this... Ru... Russia? They can't even all agree on what to do in the security council. How much longer would it take for it all to collapse?"
"I... they, uhh..." I began scratching my head and leaned back on the seat. "Its not that simple... its, uhh."
"Having a though time eh, corporal?" Walter nudged me.
"Of fuck off... let me think alright?"
"Yes sir." He winked.
"So, umm." I leaned forward to get closer to the girls. "its very difficult for me to explain, its just... politics. Since you would be meeting with our government maybe you should ask them to be more clear?"
"I want to know your opinion on this." Korra replied.
"I... hmm, this system is the best we've got going. There was another one that preceded it, the League of Nations, which failed horribly and failed to stop the Second World War. So far there isn't a third one because of the United Nations." And because of nukes.
"Okay just want to know more being the avatar and all."
"I understand." Well, mostly.
"So, how long till we get there?"
"Uhh." I glanced at my watch. "An hour maybe. Still pretty cold to where we're going."
"Not as cold as where I came from."
"I know." Their world, where there are civilizations on both poles of their planet.
"Here we are, Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station."
"Wow, even the stations are huge." The girls were on the windows of the train looking out and being awed by the structure."
"Don't you have railways in the other side to?"
"Yeah we have, but the stations arn't this big. Even the Central Station in Republic City is maybe just half the size of this."
The train slowly came to a stop and we got out carrying our backpacks, walking around the station the girls kept looking around especially Asami in which she kept asking questions on the structure of the building. Really is an engineer huh. We made our way out and hailed a cab, it drove us to the suburbs where my parents live... well technically where I live also since I didn't move out before I joined the army. There weren't much traffic on the way since it was just two in the afternoon, far too early for rush hour.
"Does your parents know you're coming?" Korra asked. Walter was sitting in the front while the three of us at the back since he won't be able to converse with the girls anyways.
"Yeah, I told them I was on early leave and also brought some friends."
"You told them about us?" She muttered.
"No, of course not. This was supposed to be clandestine remember?"
"Yeah, but why did Iroh and Haoyung go with your general while we came with you?" Asami was looking out the window and was taking in the sight of tall buildings giving way to shorter ones.
"Well, my guess is that since Iroh's the commanding general of your armed forces and Haoyean is the foreign minister, they have more to discuss than the both of you... no offence though. That's just how politics work. I doubt that my government would see the both of you less but being a 'spiritual leader' in THIS world doesn't really come with a lot of credentials to begin with."
"Hmm, so there really is no spirits here?" Korra asked.
"Well, that's quite a touchy subject." I started rubbing my neck. "We don't have any evidence of their existence but people still believe in them."
"Do you?"
I hesitated. Whatever my answer is going to backfire, I guarantee it. "No, no I don't. But seeing that there's that dragon thing that confronted us in your world I'm inclined to believe in it but not here, as far as I know there arn't any in our world."
"I see. Maybe that's why I don't feel any connection here, even my bending feels weak, very weak."
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Asami looked away from the window and she seemed quite worried.
"Of course I would, I'm the avatar!" Korra rolled the sleeves of her jacket up and flexed her muscles. "You don't get these from just bending." She really is jacked, god I think she's even buffer than me!
"Hey corporal sorry to interrupt you bonding with the girls but" Walter sneered. "The cab driver said we're here, time to pay up."
"We here? Wow that was fast... Here." I handed him a twenty euro bill. "Just give the change later." I then turned to the girls. "Come on ladies we're here." I got out of the cab and absorbed the view. That small green patch, yup still there, ohh I think our neighbors' changed. What about the parking space? Hmm, still there though it looks a bit smaller that I remembered.
"So... Which one of these if the apartment?" Asami got out of the car with Korra following closely behind.
"Its that one." I pointed at a white building ten floors tall. "They're at the seventh floor. Come on."
The group walked into the building with Walter running to catch up, I still had the keys to the building so I didn't need to call the intercom to get in. We got to the seventh floor a minute later and turned left towards the second unit of the floor.
"Unit seven oh two... home sweet home" I murmured. "Now just to be clear." I turned around. "I didn't tell my parents that I'll bring girls so they might think, you know."
"Right, so..." Korra replied.
"Just follow my lead." I winked back before proceeding to ring the door bell. Phew calm down, It had only been a year since I last saw them. Calm down.
Nothing. Hmm, they might be asleep. I rang the dorr bell once more and again, nothing. Huh, maybe I should call the phone and...
The door opened and viola my mom was in front of me. "Geraldt! Oh my its so good to see you again!" She hugged me tightly before I could react. "Its been a year."
My mom was just a bit shorter than me ( 5'5") and had short gray hair, my dad on the other was a bit taller than my mom (5'7") but still shorter than me, he had black hair and was fairly skinny for his height.
"Yeah ma, it had." I replied. Thankfully we speak Mandarin in the house so the girls won't have a hard time conversing with my parents.
She got some distance between us and her eyes immediately fell upon the 'guests'. "Oh my Geraldt you didn't tell me you were bringing girls!" Ugh, she's far too excited for this.
"Yeah ma, sorry I didn't... anyways this is Korra, she's from... Shanghai."
"Hi! Nice to meet you." She shook my mother's hands with a smile.
"Uh ma, this is Asami Sato... she's also from Shanghai but was born in, uhh... Kyoto."
"Hello Mrs. Tchaikovsky." She came forward and shook my mom's hand.
"And lastly this is Private Walter Ruderford, a friend of mine in the army. He's also our squad't combat medic."
"Good to see you madame." He also shook her hands.
"My my Geraldt you brought so many people here! I thought maybe there were just two of you! Well then come in, come in!" The waved for us to follow her in.
The apartment was fairly big by modern standards with a small kitchen to the left of the entrance, the living room/dining area to the right and a small hallway directly forward with a room on either side.
"Hey ma, where's dad?" I said as I closed the door behind me.
"Oh your father's out to buy some food, we didn't know you'll arrive this early." She then directed us to the living room where there are two couches perpendicular to each other an a television on one of the walls. "Come, sit. You want anything to drink?"
"We're fine miss." Asami replied.
"Okay then, by the way what's you surname Korra?" My mom asked.
"Surname, I, uhh..."
"Chun." I said. "Korra Chun, ma."
"Yes yes, Chun." Korra repeated awkwardly as we sat down on the couches with Korra and Asami on one couch, and me, Walter and my mom on the other.
"Chun! That's nice, my surname was Chun too before it needed to be changed to Tchaikovsky." She sighed. "It was some dark times back then."
"Well, what happened Mrs. Tchaikovsky?" Asami asked. Oh god no, my mom's just going to ramble on for ages.
And so she did, for forty five minutes to be exact. She told the story of how my dad's parents escaped from the communists in China to the nearest country which was the Philippines, then after a few months getting their papers processed they emigrated to Germany. The story was almost the same for my mom's parents except they got directly to long after the civil war, my mom was already born then and her whole family somehow miraculously got out of China in the seventies during the height of the cultural revolution.
Thankfully through the timely arrive of my dad my mom finally stopped. He brought home pizza and sausages. Talk about reinforcing stereotypes. The group then went onto the dining table and started eating together, it was Korra and Asami's first time eating pizza so I had to teach them the 'proper' way of consuming those yummy pieces of flour.
"So Geraldt." My dad spoke. "How's army life?"
"Well you know, training and stuff. I haven't been deployed anywhere since last year in Afghanistan."
"Yeah I can see that, so which one is your girlfriend." He teased.
"Pa no, they're just... friends."
"That's how relationships start son, maybe I should ask the girls themselves huh?" He had that evil smile on his face.
"Pa, no."
"Too late boy." He laughed. "So Korra, what was your first impression of him?"
"Hmm?" Korra bit down on her slice. "Oh, uhh... he was nice. Well he was on duty then so he didn't really say much."
"On duty?" My dad started looking suspicious. Uh oh. "Where did you guys meet anyways?"
"Its was... in Hannover when I was a tourist a few months back."
"Ah, so with your friend Asami?"
"Yes sir." She replied as he finished off her slice. "Hmm, that was quite good."
I should get the group moving before my dad though of anything else embarrassing. "Okay dad we're done, I'll show them the room first before I come back and help you clean up." I then stood up and motioned for them to follow me.
"Don't do anything naughty now Geraldt." My mom chuckled.
"Ugh ma! I'm twenty five for god's sake."
"Yes but you still live here, technically."
"Ugh, I'll be back ma." I continued onto my room with the group following.
"Your parents seems lovely." Asami scanned my bookshelf while Korra sat down on my bed.
The room was a twenty squared meter rectangular room. With a single-person bed opposite of the door, a small desk with my computer on the right and a bookshelf containing all my stuff including DVDs and old textbooks on the left, a window above the bed with an air conditioner beside it.
"Yeah they really like to tease me when they can." I chuckled, then saw Walter on the corner of my eyes who was quite bored. "Aw doc come on cheer up, we've got wifi you know."
"Oh, uh thanks corporal."
"Don't mention it." I went on to turn the air conditioner on.
Walter then sat down on the bed opposite of Korra and took his phone out. "What's the password sir."
"If my parents didn't change... darth geraldt, all caps."
He looked at me amused.
"Yeah yeah, hey I was still a kid when we had the wifi connected you know."
He typed it in and after several seconds, connected. "Its connected, thanks Darth Geraldt."
"Oh god you're going to tell everyone back at base arn't you?"
"Yep." He snickered before divulging on his phone. Ugh, hopeless. I won't hear the end of it won't I?
"Geraldt." Asami was holding one of my books. "What's this about?" She then showed it to me.
"Ah that one, its about uhh... the motion of bodies under the action of forces, or Dyamics. Its one of my classes in college."
"Huh, wait so you're an engineer?"
"Yeah, civil." I sat down on the chair in front of the desk and turned the computer on. "Graduated a few years ago."
"Wait so..." She turned to look at the bookshelf. "Most of these are textbooks?"
"Not most, but a lot of them."
She stared at the shelf for a minute without saying anything.
"Asami, hey" Korra tugged Asami's shirt from behind pulling her out of whatever she was thinking.
"Korra, do you know what this means." Asami sat down beside Korra showing her the book. "All these knowledge, it could help the reconstruction of Republic City immensely!" she bellowed
"Really? Wow, then that's great!."
"Arn't you interested?" Asami sensed the disinterest in Korra's voice.
"No, its not like that Asami, you're the brains you know? And I don't really like crunching numbers. Of course I want Republic City to get back to normal, I'm just not that into math ok?" Korra smiled and held both of Asami's hands. "I trust that you and Future Industries can make it work.
"Korra... thank you." Asami blushed.
"Uh sorry to interrupt girls but... ehh, I don't think I can give it to you just yet though." I said.
"What do you mean?" Asami seemed confused. Hmm, how do I say it in a nice way that our government might not want to give away our technological advantage just yet.
"Well... uhh..." Shit, think of something Geraldt. "Hmm, they're pretty expensive though."
"Its alright I can buy it, name your price." She replied. You dumb ass she's a fucking CEO, of course she's got money!
"No its not like that, its... ugh." I bit my lips. "Okay I'll lend you a book for now, you go choose one."
"Really? Spirits, thank you!" She jumped out of the bed and hugged me. Ehhh, a bit too close for comfort.
"Yeah, still needs to get translated though."
"I know, but its a start!" The then turned towards Korra. "Korra, this will help Republic City get back on its feet!"
Korra gave a wide smile. "I know Asami, I know."
"So wait, I understand the concept of the atom but... using it as a weapon? How? The outcome isn't really well explained here." I was afraid it'll come to this. Asami was sitting on my chair using my computer and once again on Wikipedia reading while Korra was still on my bed and was trying to bend water from a cup.
"Here I'll show you." I gently pushed the chair aside and went to youtube, then typed in 'nuclear bomb' clicking the first link. "Here, that's what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes."
Asami looked closely to the screen, so did Korra who suddenly became quite interested. It was black and white and as the narrator started, it was then I realized that the video was about the Little Boy bomb dropped into Hiroshima.
"Hey, can you please translate it for us?" Asami said as here eyes were fixed on the screen.
"Oh yeah sure."
The narrator started with a background of the war in the Pacific, and the cost of continuing it with the an invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall. He then started explaining nuclear fission in layman's terms, gave a quick glimpse at the Manhattan Project, the crew behind the Enola Gay, the B-29s and the firebombing campaign being raged, and finally the dropping of the bomb itself on the city.
Asami's eyes widened as she saw the actual colorized clip captured more than seventy years ago of the mushroom cloud rising up from the city. The narrator then continued on telling of the destruction of the city with a line making both Asami and Korra visibly cringe: 'Total destruction occurred one mile in radius from the hypocenter (point of impact) and another four square miles engulfed in flames with some thirty to forty thousand people being killed instantly by the blast and tens of thousands more by the resulting fires.'
The documentary ended by showing the effects of the blast, with pictures of charred bodies and bunt people in hospitals being studies by doctors, and the utter devastation of the city.
"The destruction, where does it end?" Asami murmured as I closed the browser with Korra looking down on the floor in deep thought.
"Well for one... nuclear weapons actually prevented a third world war." I said.
"What do you mean?"
"You see, with countries having nuclear bombs and missiles they are less likely to go to war with each other, like America and Russia during the cold war. Its called the cold war because they just stared at each other but continued building up their arsenal. The only reason they didn't go to full scale war is because of the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction in which if one dropped a nuclear bomb on the other, the other will repay in kind and dropped theirs until it escalates to a point where both countries bomb the hell out of each other, destroying themselves in the process with no winner."
The room fell into silence, then Asami spoke up. "So, it was the fear of annihilation that sopped such a war from happening?"
"Yep, fear is very very powerful you know."
"Yes I know..." She stared into the black screen of my computer before repeating. "I know..."