Three days into the mission finds Kyungsoo watching the recording of her meeting the mermaid for perhaps the hundredth time. Now that the ship is running smoothly, and the plants growing well, it’s fine for Kyungsoo to be taking a break like this.

Later today, or the time that they’ve decided to call day, considering that this planet runs on a different time schedule than that of their home, they are planning to make a trip down to the bottom of the ocean, to collect samples for further study. All they’ve been able to gather up to this point is information from various scans, which show the depth of the water and the topography, revealing that they’ve managed to land on one of the shallower areas of the planet, with the seafloor at only six thousand meters.

They have also done scans of heat signatures of any animals that roam nearby. All of the readings are of smaller animals, not big enough to be the same as the creatures they encountered when they first woke up, which Jongdae in particular has found disappointing, but smaller marine life is interesting too. She’s going to bring with her a camera, to take photos of anything that she finds, using a special type of setting that traces the slightest hints of light. Like Kyungsoo, Baekhyun is bringing a selection of test tubes, but hers are to gather earth and rock samples in, rather than plantlife.

In maybe an hour or so, Joonmyeon will call all the crew members through to the water lock, and they’ll suit up in their pressure suits so they can travel to the darkest depths of the ocean. Joonmyeon will wield a stun gun, just in case anything tries to attack them, so they can make a quick getaway. In the meantime, Kyungsoo will keep replaying the same video of the mermaid creature over and over, zooming in on different sections each time.

The quality of the camera isn’t the best to begin with, and the interference of the water leads for some blurry images, but Kyungsoo has still managed to memorise the mermaid’s face. She can now say with reasonable certainty that the creature is indeed female- Jongdae thinks so at least, and she’s the specialist- so she’s started to refer to her as such in her head.

Her form is elegant, long curves and flowing lines; made for speed, maybe, more than strength. It would explain why she was able to escape so fast. Her long black hair reminds Kyungsoo of her own, the way it flows out behind her, moving as she does. It’s pretty.

One of the things that had surprised her the most, though, was her face- to begin with, she hadn’t expected any kind of alien life on this planet to look even remotely humanoid, let alone have such strong, regal facial features. It’s almost scary how similar she looks to a human, and it makes Kyungsoo think of all those ancient conspiracy theories from centuries ago, which suggested that aliens came to earth and left some of their kind there. It’s all just silly superstition but this creature is eerily similar.

She doesn’t realise just how much time has passed until the sound of the PA goes, and Joonmyeon’s soft voice is echoing through her room and inviting everyone to come to the waterlock now, please. Startled, Kyungsoo shuts down her iHolo and sets it down on her bed, grabbing her earpiece and making her way there quickly, stopping off to pick up some sample tubes on the way.

Jongdae and Baekhyun are already waiting when she arrives, wearing their nanoskin suits. Kyungsoo hurries to get ready while the other three patiently look away.

“You guys all know the brief, but I want to run through it again anyway.” Joonmyeon says, scrolling through her iHolo before they enter the water lock. “We're going down for a maximum of three hours, after that time has passed, we will resurface regardless of the success of the mission.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Kyungsoo nods in unison with the other three women on board. Kyungsoo tugs the last part of the nanoskin in place, adjusting it till it fits nicely on her body. Over the top of the nanoskin, she pulls on some heavier duty armour that will prevent her from being crushed at deeper levels. Finally, she picks out a belt, and inserts all the test tubes into the slots on it.

“Good.” Joonmyeon clears , waiting until Kyungsoo is ready. “Good. Right, let’s get on with it then.”

As a unit, they step into the waterlock, and Baekhyun activates the system, closing the door behind them. Joonymeon slips her helmet over her head, indicating for everyone else to do the same- from now on, they will all be communicating through radio.

This space is less scary with the others in it, and she’s far more ready to face what’s out there when she’s not alone, but a spiral of anxiety twists in her stomach anyway. She had only been out there for a few minutes last time; none of them truly have any idea what’s out there. It could be very dangerous.

And then there’s the risk of leaving their ship unattended; if something attacks it while they’re gone, or somehow moves it, then they could very well perish. They will need the food and supplies they have on board, not least the shelter from the elements.

Water begins to fill the room, but this time her hair is tied up in a tight bun at the back of her head, so it fits underneath the helmet. Jongdae looks a little nervous about all the clunking and whirring noises around them, and Baekhyun nudges her as an act of reassurance. Kyungsoo catches her eye, reminding her that they’re all in this together.

A final clunk means that the pressure is equal, and the outer door begins to open, a juddering sound that goes straight to Kyungsoo’s stomach. The outside world is just as vast as Kyungsoo recalls, and just as seemingly empty. Nobody moves for a few beats.

Kyungsoo is the first to leave the waterlock, pushing off from the floor and gliding forwards, arms stretched out in front of her. She is followed swiftly by the rest of her team, and she allows Joonmyeon to take the lead from there onwards. Their leader counts down from five on her fingers, her other hand held over her chest. On one, everyone activates the weight system that will pull them down to the ocean floor.

The only way of measuring how far they’re sinking, besides the device in Joonmyeon’s hands, is the ship floating on the surface. They descent continues until the ship disappears from view, and the light vanishes from their surroundings. Faintly luminescent stripes all over their armour lets Kyungsoo’s know the positions of her teammates. The gloves and the insides of their helmets glow as well, so they can communicate more efficiently.

The only noises Kyungsoo can hear is the whirring of her breather, as the base of her helmet, and the eerie noises of the ocean.

Jongdae breaks the silence, her voice sounding fuzzy through the transmission. “I have an idea; how about a game?”

“A game?” Joonmyeon does not sound impressed.

“Yeah! Here, I’ll start: I spy, with my littl-”

“Jongdae.” Joonmyeon cuts her off, her tone exasperated.

“What?” Jongdae shrugs. “I’m just trying to lighten the mood. It feels like we’re going to a funeral.”

“We’re just trying to concentrate on the mission.”

“Right. Do you think we’ll find anything interesting?” Jongdae asks, sounding nervous all of a sudden. Kyungsoo purses her lips. She really doesn’t know- there could be anything down there! Rich civilisations, thriving with the people that they saw before. Ancient, seafloor coral reefs, burgeoning with plantlife.

Or they could find nothing at all.

“I think whatever we find down here, it will be worth it.” Joonmyeon says diplomatically. Kyungsoo smirks to herself- if they find so much as deep sea algae, she will be satisfied. And she knows Baekhyun will be happy with just a few samples of soil deposits. It’s really just Jongdae that could end up disappointed.

They’re quiet for a long time, watching the unchanging scenery filter by, the waters becoming closer and closer to opaque the longer they fall. It gets warmer as they get closer to the magma core of the planet.

Kyungsoo can’t be certain that the sounds she’s hearing aren’t just rebounding from their ship, but sometimes she’ll hear a low creaking moan, or a ghostly wail so faint she’s not certain that she isn’t imagining it. A shiver spreads through her body, tingling in her fingertips. Could something big be out there? Bigger than the mermaids?

Kyungsoo takes a long, shuddering breath, stomach tied in knots.

“What’s the distance?” Baekhyun asks. It feels like they’ve been travelling forever, and the initial thrill is starting to fade just a little.

“We’re almost there actually, just another couple of hundred metres to go.”

“Really? That’s odd; I can’t see anything down there?”

“Of course you can’t, it’s pitch black.” Kyungsoo can hear her rolling her eyes.

“The scanners are picking up some movement. A few small heat signatures, too.”

“Ooh!” Jongdae perks up, leaning in a bit closer to see the screen. “We could have fish on our hands, people!” She raises an arm, and whoops.

“Bottom feeders, how exciting.” Baekhyun deadpans. Kyungsoo snorts at the face she makes, emphasised by the unusual lighting inside the helmet.

“Shut up.” Jongdae jabs back, pouting. “My bottom feeders will eat ur soggy dirt for breakfast.”

“At least I can study mine in a lab.”

“You say that like its a drawback to have to do fieldwork.” Jongdae wrinkles her nose. “I thought you’d be excited to get your hands dirty.”

“I am!” Baekhyun exclaims. “I-”

“That’s enough guys, we need to brace for landing.” Joonymeon cuts off their usual bickering, instructing them all to reduce their weight and slow down their descent.

Kyungsoo really feels like a space explorer when they hit the ground; like Neil Armstrong, she makes her steps a little exaggerated, although it’s not hard, because of the water resistance. She resists the urge to say ‘this is one small step for woman, and one giant step for womankind!’. The ground is soft, layers of silt and sediment that Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate to scoop up.

There isn’t much to see, even with the lights on their chest pieces illuminating their surroundings. Kyungsoo pouts, not seeing any plants. She’ll take samples of the water down here anyway, in hopes of finding bacteria she and Jongdae can study.

Joonmyeon stashes her scanner away for now, and pulls out the gun from the holster. “The scanner showed red in that direction, so we’ll find something if we go that way, probably.” She says pointing behind Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo turns around, pointing her torch that way, but there’s still nothing to see. She shakes her head- whatever is down here will probably be colourless and camouflaged, to avoid getting caught by prey, so she’ll need to concentrate.

“Alright, let’s get going then.” Jongdae poses dramatically, following Joonmyeon’s lead when she starts walking ahead.

The trek is tedious, but it’s better than the journey down here- at least this time they’re actually moving. Kyungsoo makes sure to look carefully before each step she takes, not wanting to accidentally crush anything that might be of interest to them. Their low-level lighting shows that there’s not much on the floor, in this area at least, which is odd. Kyungsoo would have assumed that if there was any flora, it would be in the shallowest areas, but maybe she shouldn’t be thinking with earth rules.

“Where are these fish, huh?” Jongdae complains, swinging the beam from her flashlight from side to side. It casts a dim glow, but doesn’t allow them to see anything other than open water. “Fishies? Where are youuuu?” She sings into the eery silence.

“I don’t think that’s going to make them want to come to us.” Kyungsoo says, her lip quirking up.

“If these gloves weren’t so bulky, rest assured, I would be making a very rude gesture right now.” Jongdae says, pointing at Kyungsoo as much as the gloves will allow her to.

“I guess I’ll just have to picture it in my imagination.” Kyungsoo laughs.

“If you don’t want me to write you up for inappropriate conduct, I’d advise you to stop talking.” Joonmyeon warns, playfully.

“Yes, boss.” Jongdae salutes, sniggering quietly.

They carry on walking, making slow progress and arguing occasionally. There’s very little progress to be made; it seems like nothing is alive down here. Maybe the loud noises of their suit’s breathers scared away any lifeforms that were down here? Either way, if they don’t find something soon, they’ll have to turn back empty handed. They have water samples, and Baekhyun has dirt samples, so that’s better than nothing.

“Did you guys hear that?” Jongdae asks, nervous all of a sudden. Kyungsoo shrugs; she didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.

“Hear what?” Joonmyeon asks, turning around to see. There’s nothing there.

“I thought I heard… something.”

“Do you want me to get the scanner out again?” Joonmyeon asks, already doing just that, “better safe than sorry, huh? We can always head up early.”

“Yeah.” Jongdae nods, sending a flurry of tiny bubbles to the surface with the movement. Joonmyeon holsters the gun, and pulls out the scanner instead, booting it up. It blinks as it powers on.

“Oh.” Joonmyeon gasps, her eyes wide and unnatural-looking in the odd lighting of her helmet. The others crowd around her, peering over her shoulders to see. Four large dots are in the centre of the radar- that’s them. But then, outside of that, are another ten, or maybe more, dots.

They aren’t alone.

“Wow.” Baekhyun breathes, angling her head up so she can look around. Kyungsoo does the same, but she can’t see anything in the inky blackness, even when she shines her flashlight around. They’re smart enough to stay out of reach of their lights, which is unnerving. But, she reasons, if they wanted to hurt them, they probably would have done it by now. Just like that one mermaid that she met by the ship, Kyungsoo gets the impression that they’re more curious than anything.

“What do we do?” Baekhyun asks, voice faltering.

“Nothing.” Jongdae shrugs. “Not really anything we can do. They aren’t bothering us, and I don’t think it would be wise to try and get closer to them. They might take it as a threat.”

“So you’re saying we should just carry on with what we were doing?” Joonmyeon clarifies. Jongdae hums in agreement. “Ok, then. Let’s just… keep walking, I guess.”

“Ok.” Kyungsoo agrees, hoping that the mermaids don’t have super-hearing, and can’t hear how fast her heart is racing. "On we go then.”

They carry on walking, just as slowly as they had been before. This time, if she concentrates, Kyungsoo can hear the noises Jongdae mentioned earlier. She feels like an idiot for not noticing them before, since it’s similar noises to what she heard the first time she entered the water. Dolphin-like chatter, and lower, almost sounds. She shivers, wondering if either party will gather the courage to make a move, and initiate contact. The back of her neck prickles. At her feet, there is still nothing of note, so she can’t even occupy herself with examining anything. She hears someone’s sharp intake of breath through the radio, and makes a concerted effort not to react. What’s happening? Did one of them make themself visible?

“Don’t look now, but there’s one right behind you, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun says softly. Oh god, it’s like the first time all over again. Kyungsoo counts to five before she turns her head, slowly and cautiously, coming face to face with another mermaid. This one is not the same one as last time, Kyungsoo can tell because of how long she spent staring at her face, but they look similar; the same pale eyes, and long hair. Those might just be characteristics of all these creatures, Kyungsoo reasons, it doesn’t mean that they’re related.

Kyungsoo stops walking, caught like a deer in the headlights, pinned down by the intensity of the mermaid’s gaze. Does she have pupils? Kyungsoo doesn’t know much about biology; she’ll have to ask Jongdae later.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kyungsoo sees Jongdae raising her camera, then hears the subtle click of her taking a photograph. The mermaid turns suddenly, honing in on Jongdae lightning fast. Jongdae squeaks, managing to get one more photo in before the mermaid is reaching for her camera. Her long hand hovers above it, as if asking for permission, but Jongdae’s hands only tighten around the device.

“Let her.” Joonmyeon instructs, when it looks like Jongdae isn’t going to give it up. Reluctantly, Jongdae hands it over, letting the mermaid scrutinise it. She, Kyungsoo is pretty sure that this one is female as well, lets out a series of sounds that Kyungsoo wouldn’t be able to reproduce in her wildest dreams. She turns the camera around in her hands, viewing it from every angle. Her preoccupation lets Kyungsoo get her first good look at her; she’s darker than Kyungsoo’s mermaid,and her tail appears to be longer, from what Kyungsoo can remember. Her hair, on the other hand, is much, much shorter, only reaching her shoulders. It’s a uniform length, so Kyungsoo can only assume it’s a style choice. Jongdae is going to be excited about that, and also the sting of woven plant life around her neck. More evidence that they are level five life forms.

The mermaid finds the button, and presses it. It captures a picture of Jongdae’s feet. Jongdae seems to bristle at this, but it’s not like she’s using up much digital space, the storage on that thing is massive. After a few more experiments, and checking the digital viewfinder, the mermaid catches on, and soon she is taking photos of everyone, chattering loudly. Kyungsoo can’t tell for sure, but she seems pleased with this development.

“What is going on right now.” Baekhyun mumbles, awed. Kyungsoo nods along with her, unable to fathom their luck.

Another mermaid emerges from the darkness, seeming to pose for the first as she takes a photo, then turns the device around to show them. Soon, more and more mermaids are showing their faces, posing for photos and chattering amongst themselves. Jongdae looks like she wants to cry, although out of happiness, or anxiety over her camera, Kyungsoo isn’t sure. Maybe it’s both. At least they’re going to have a lot of photographic evidence, when they go back up. Hopefully at least some of them are in focus.

“How many of them are there?” Joonmyeon asks suddenly. Kyungsoo tries to count them, but Baekhyun beats her to it.

“There’s fourteen.”

“Wow. I wonder if this is all of them, or if there’s more.”

“There has to be more.” Jongdae says with conviction, “this can’t be all of them. I mean, look! They clearly have some kind of thriving society, somewhere. There wouldn’t be only fourteen members.”

“And there were more by the ship, that time, anyway.” Baekhyun chimes in. Joonmyeon hums softly. “And they all seem to be female, do you think there are males?”

“Probably? I’m not sure yet, there are some species of animals on earth that reproduce by cloning themselves, so there may well not be. They might just be rare.” Jongdae says. “It’s anyone’s guess, really.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to find out more soon.” Joonmyeon acknowledges, “we don’t have a great deal of time left down here, so we’ll have to come down here again.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun nods. They talk like they weren’t going to come back anyway.

“I wonder where that one mermaid is?” Kyungsoo says, more to herself than anyone. She doesn’t see her anywhere.

“Why, were you hoping to see her again?” Baekhyun teases, acting like this mermaid was someone she had a crush on. Kyungsoo rolls her eyes.

“Yes, actually. I wanted to know if she would recognise me.”

“That would be cool, actually.” Baekhyun concedes, “do you think we’ll be able to communicate with them? They seem intelligent enough to me.”

“I’m trying to see if I can pick out any recurring sounds” Joonmyeon says, her eyebrows casting shadows over her face, “but I’m no linguist, and I don’t think I’d be able to differentiate between these sounds no matter how long I studied them, our ears probably aren’t equipped to deal with them.” She continues to mumble about the details but Kyungsoo tunes her out, turning instead towards the crowd of mermaids.

Is that…?

It is! Kyungsoo would recognise her anywhere. Her mermaid has arrived late, and bypassing her kind, she swims straight to the humans, peering into their helmets. She starts with Baekhyun, her spindly hands placed against the reinforced glass delicately. Next, she looks into Jongdae’s, leaning in close enough that Jongdae lets out a wobbly gasp. She doesn’t find what she’s looking for- is she looking for Kyungsoo? Her knees are weak as she approaches. This time, when she looks inside Kyungsoo's helmet, she releases a high pitched chatter that has all the other mermaids turning her way. Kyungsoo startles, stumbling back a step. Her mermaid stops her, hands on the bubble of her helmet, not letting her go anywhere. Suddenly Kyungsoo is afraid again.

“Hold.” Joonmyeon’s voice comes through the radio- is it directed at her? What else can she do but hold on? She whimpers as the mermaid leans in even closer. Her fingers creep over her helmet, and she looks so focused, so intent on whatever it is she’s doing, Kyungsoo can barely breathe. Suddenly, her fingers hook underneath the edge of her helmet, trying to pry it from her shoulders. Kyungsoo cries out, her gloved hands clamping down over the mermaid’s to stop her from killing her.

“Kyungsoo!” Jongdae shouts, stepping closer to help somehow. Another mermaid grabs hold of her mermaid, tugging her away from Kyungsoo, vocalising loudly. She gestures to Kyungsoo, then runs a finger along the necklace she’s wearing, and the human gets the distinct impression that she’s scolding her. How surreal.

An arm falls across her shoulders,

“Are you ok?” Joonmyeon asks, looking at the join of her suit. “Your suit looks fine at least.”

“I’m alright.” Kyungsoo reassures her, gulping loudly. She tries to keep her breathing steady until she believes it herself. That’s two close encounters with the same creature.

Kyungsoo doesn’t quite catch everything that happens next; but somehow Jongdae ends up with her camera back, and the mermaids all vanish, faster than Kyungsoo can blink.

“What the .” Jongdae says, reeling. Kyungsoo can’t even speak.

“Well, that was exciting, but I think it’s time we went back to the ship, don’t you?” Joonmyeon says, breathless. Everyone nods. Joonmyeon begins to count down, holding the switch on her chest that will activate the buoyancy aids.

It takes shockingly little time for Jongdae to recover from all the excitement, and she begins flicking through all the photos of the mermaids, of which there are over a hundred. They’d really had a lot of fun- they’d even taken selfies! Jongdae gushes over them, and complains that she can’t zoom in yet because of her gloves. Joonmyeon hums and asks questions at appropriate times, but Baekhyun is surprisingly silent during the whole thing, which is concerning.

Jongdae’s still happily chattering away when they finally reach surface, entering the ship through the submerged entrance. The only time Jongdae stops talking is to take off her helmet, and only for a moment.

Baekhyun quickly excuses herself to shower, and Kyungsoo frowns, making a mental note to ask her what’s wrong later.

“Oh, Kyungsoo look!” Jongdae shoves the camera in her face, showing a highly zoomed in image of her expression when her mermaid tried to remove her helmet. She looks comically terrified.

“Jongdae, this is serious.” She tries to take the camera away, but Jongdae isn’t having any of it.

“Oh, don’t be a killjoy; it’s funny.”

“I almost died.” Kyungsoo reminds her sternly, shaking out her hair from it’s bun. She’s sweaty and gross as well; Baekhyun had the right idea heading to the showers.

"Yeah." Jongdae grimaces, as if that was just an unfortunate side effect, "but I don't think she was trying to kill you. From my perspective at least, it looked like she was trying to help."

"You're saying she thought I was trapped in my suit?" Kyungsoo raises her eyebrow. She looks to the captain for backup. Joonmyeon shrugs as she peels the nanosuit off her feet. She doesn't bother to pick it up and turn it the right way around, instead kicking it off to the side. Both of them have no shame in stripping off in front of whoever but Kyungsoo would rather have a bit more privacy.

"Well. Yeah? She didn't look murderous, is what I'm trying to say." Jongdae insists, pulling on her uniform shirt.

"And you would know what murderous looks like on them, would you?" Kyungsoo teases, already having given way to her point. She doesn't want to think of her mermaid as murderous, anyway.

"Kyungsoo." Jongdae shakes her head, smiling ruefully. "It's interesting, though, that she only tried it with you."

"I guess. She must have recognised me." Kyungsoo says, pleased. Her expression had been one of concentration- or at least, that's how she read it. Just remembering sends a strange shiver through her.

"Even with the weird lighting and your hair tied up." Joonmyeon nods. "I look forward to learning more about them." Kyungsoo pulls a funny face at her, and grabs her samples.

"I don't know about you, but I need to have a shower."

"I'll take those." Jongdae offers. "I'll shower afterwards." Kyungsoo wrinkles her nose, taking in Jongdae's dishevelled hair and rosy cheeks, but relents.

"Thanks. I think I'll try and corner Baekhyun as well, she seemed a bit out of it." She says, picking up her uniform and heading out of the hangar. The walk to the shower room isn't a long one; it's situated nicely between the sleeping quarters and the water lock. When designing the ship specifically for this mission, they must have thought carefully about where to put everything.

She hums to herself, putting her uniform to the side just before entering, and picking up her towel instead- hers is the green one. She can hear a shower running, which must mean Baekhyun is already in there. She pushes the door open, and leans inside, wondering if she should wait until Baekhyun leaves. Just as that thought passes through her mind, Baekhyun's shower shuts off and she emerges, wrapping her white towel around her.

"Baekhyun, can I talk to you?"

She suddenly spots Kyungsoo and yelps, pulling the shower curtain back across herself as a reflex.

"Kyungsoo?! What do you want?” One hand sticks out between the gap, like she’s about to karate chop her from across the room. “I am and afraid, can’t it wait?"

"I just wanted to ask if everything is ok?" Kyungsoo steps fully inside the shower room, blocking off Baekhyun's exit. It's mean of her, sure, but Baekhyun is the type to bottle things up if she doesn't force it out of her.

"Everything was fine until you decided to attack me!" She says, letting go of the shower curtain and stepping out grumpily. "It's nothing anyway."

"What's nothing?" Kyungsoo pushes, closing the door behind her and leaning against the bit of the wall which has the button to open it again. Baekhyun rolls her eyes dramatically and tucks her wet hair behind her ear. She's blushing?

"Baekhyun, if something is bothering you, I want to know. So I can help."

"It's stupid." She warns, as if that will make a difference. Kyungsoo makes a gesture, telling her to 'go on'.

"Ugh. I was just thinking that there's less point to me being here than the rest of you guys. I don't know anything about extra-terrestrial biology, and we have a huge discovery there." Baekhyun confesses. Kyungsoo frowns.

"Is this because of Jongdae? I'll have a word with her later. Baekhyun, even if all you find is that the earth here is similar to that of earth, that's still important information! People want to know this stuff."

"I know, I know." Baekhyun sighs, "I know it's not rational, and I'll get over it. Who knows, maybe I'll make an amazing discovery- the chemical make-up of the molten core is an element or compound that's incredibly rare or something."

"Maybe!" Kyungsoo smiles, "but really, ignore Jongdae. I don't think she realises how mean she comes across sometimes, I'll tell her to reign it in a bit."

"Thanks." Baekhyun sends her a wobbly smile. "Can I please be allowed to leave, now?"

"Oh!" Kyungsoo laughs, stepping aside, "sure!"

"I'll see you in the lab." Baekhyun calls out over her shoulder, pulling out her hairbrush from a drawer beneath the mirror.

"I'll join you later, then!" Kyungsoo calls back, heading into one of the shower cubicles and finally peeling off her nanoskin.

Everyone else is already in the lab when Kyungsoo arrives. Jongdae and Joonmyeon still haven't showered, but they don't look like being sweaty bothers them in the slightest: they're so focused on whatever they're looking at, everything else is unimportant. On closer inspection, she realises that they're examining some of the less fuzzy photos from earlier. Baekhyun is also focused intently on a sample in a petri-dish, switching between a few under the viewfinder of her microscope. The image shows up on a holo-screen to the side, and Kyungsoo steps closer to have a look. It doesn't mean an awful lot to her, but Baekhyun is thoroughly invested, so it must be impressive.

"Found anything yet?" Kyungsoo asks, leaning over her shoulder to look at her notes. She has two bullet points.

"I've literally just started." Baekhyun deadpans, halting her work to give Kyungsoo a scathing but amused look. "I left your samples over there, by the way." She points towards the counter, where a bunch of test tubes full of cloudy water are waiting for her.

Right then, she thinks, cracking her knuckles, time to get down to business. She snatches up one of the test tubes and, using a syringe, extracts some of the water and decants it into a petri-dish like the ones Baekhyun is using.

While she examines the contents, full of bits of dirt and other unknown particles, she half listens to what Jongdae and Joonmyeon are discussing.

"There, zoom in there." Jongdae prompts, "are you really telling me that you don't think those are gills?"

"What I said, was to not to jump to conclusions. Just mark it down as 'unclear'."

"What else could it be though?" She asks, frustrated. Kyungsoo bites her lip, navigating around the magnified image of the petri- dish on her holo-screen.

"I don't know. I just want to be more sure before we send back data that we're calling decisive. I know you're excited, but we need to analyse this a bit more. And get better pictures, or something."

"Ok, fine." Jongdae sighs, "you're right, of course. Hmm, maybe Kyungsoo could get her mermaid to pose for us?" She says turning around to poke fun at Kyungsoo, who tries her best not to react to her being referred to as hers.

"And how do you propose I do that?" Kyungsoo

"I don't know. Next time she pops up, just see if you can hold her in one place? She seems like she would probably do that for you at least."

"I guess I could try?" Kyungsoo shrugs. "I have no idea how to communicate with any of them."

"That would be awesome." Jongdae sends some cheesy finger guns her way, before turning back to her photos, and leaving Kyungsoo to get on with her own work.