Everyone kept their helmets on for a few seconds longer, as if removing them might somehow trigger the thing outside.

Jonah was the first to break the tense silence.

“…did you see the size of that uplift?”

Vincent cracked his helmet seals with trembling fingers. “See it? I felt it through my spine. That thing nearly skewered me like a cocktail snack.”

Aria and Elias remained quiet, listening. Waiting. Trying to steady their breathing.

Mira removed her helmet last. Her expression was calm, but her eyes reflected the cold dread everyone felt.

“Status report,” she ordered.

Jonah slumped against a console. “Seismic activity stabilizing. Whatever moved under the ice is… dormant… again.”

“Temporarily,” Elias muttered.

Vincent paced restlessly. “It started wrapping around us from the pod all the way here. It tracked us.”

Aria shook her head slowly. “So strange... like something reckless.”

Jonah scoffed. “That nearly impaled us.”

“Think about it,” Aria pressed. “The cracks formed in perfect circles. The heartbeat changed when I moved. It mimics patterns, rhythms. It’s responding"

Vincent stopped pacing. "So… what? You think the planet have hosts?"

“That’s ridiculous,” Elias said, though his voice wasn’t confident. “Planets aren’t sentient. Mass frost organisms? Maybe. Subsurface mega-fauna? Possible. But a full biosphere intelligence—”

Aria cut him off. “Something down there has structure. Control.”

Mira rubbed the bridge of her nose. “We can’t rely on guesses. We’ll analyze readings at first light.”

But as soon as she said it, the lights in the camp flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Then stabilized.

Vincent’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me that was the thing again—”

Elias checked the diagnostics. “No… internal power. Temperature fluctuation just below freezing levels. Something passed near the thermal conduit.”

Jonah looked toward the window.

No movement.

No shifting ice.

Just a vast black night swallowing the plains.

But the silence felt loaded… like breath being held below the surface.

Base Camp Theta was functional, not comfortable. Lines of humming consoles, three bunk beds, a mounted scanning array, storage lockers, and a reinforced outer shell designed to withstand storms.

Not designed for something that no one can imagine

They gathered around the main console. Jonah uploaded the seismic recordings from the trek.

Mira leaned over his shoulder. “Let’s see it.”

Jonah pressed play.

Lines of data unfolded: tremors, spikes, resonance patterns. The moment the creature followed them appeared as massive symmetrical pulses nearly off the chart.

Aria leaned in. “Play the audio translation.”

Jonah hesitated. “It’s filtered seismic resonance. Not technically sound.”

“Do it.”

He switched the output.

The speakers hummed… then produced a slow, deep thrum—like a distant drum in a hollow cavern. The rhythm was inconsistent, fluctuating, but eerily deliberate.

Elias whispered, “It’s patterned. More like… communication than locomotion.”

Then a second layer emerged. A faint rising tone beneath the main thump—almost like a cry or a groan stretched through miles of dense ice.

Vincent stepped back. “Turn it off. I’m serious. Turn that thing off.”

Jonah stopped playback immediately.

Everyone stood still.

Mira exhaled slowly. “Aria. You felt that rhythm earlier. Any sense… ?”

Aria closed her eyes for a moment. The vibration still clung to her bones like a memory that refused to fade.

“It felt like… something,” she whispered. “Like it noticed we were here. And it didn’t know whether we were threat or prey.”

Elias pulled up the thermal scans he took just before nightfall.

“Captain… this is what concerns me the most.”

He zoomed into the subsurface map. Beneath the ice sheet were streaks of warm zones—long, curved tunnels almost like veins. They twisted deep into the crust, branching, merging, falling.

“These tunnels,” Elias said, pointing at the glowing threads, “are geothermal in nature. But the patterns—these curves—are too organic.”

Mira frowned. “You’re implying something built them.”

“Something maintains them.”

Aria added quietly, “Something that breathes warmth into the cold.”

A soft vibration shivered through the floor.

Everyone froze.

Jonah watched his seismic screen spike once more. “It’s beneath us again.”

Vincent groaned. “No. No, no, no. Not the base. Not here.”

The vibration grew—not violent, but slow. Almost contemplative.

Aria pressed her palm against the metal floor.

Elias pulled her back. “What are you doing?!”

“I’m listening.”

The floor thrummed again—three slow pulses.

Mira stepped forward. “Aria, enough!”

“It’s repeating the same rhythm from earlier,” Aria said. “I think it’s trying to match our movement patterns. Like… like sonar.”

Jonah swallowed. “Or echolocation.”

Vincent whispered, “Or it’s mapping our soft spots before it cracks open this whole place like a nut.”

The vibration stopped.

Silence.

The absence of sound was somehow worse.

Mira finally spoke.

“We can’t stay passive. At sunrise, we’ll relocate to Ridge Point for clearer seismic mapping. Aria, Elias—you’ll recalibrate the thermal array. Jonah, prepare the rover. Vincent—”

Vincent raised a brow. “I’m guessing I get the ‘don’t go insane’ assignment?”

“You’re on comms. Keep scanning the subsurface frequencies.”

Vincent pointed at the ground. “Captain, in case you haven’t noticed—THE THING IS DIRECTLY UNDER US!”

“Yes,” Mira said calmly. “Which is exactly why we are staying alert, not panicking.”

Vincent opened his mouth to argue—
—but the base lights flickered again.

Only once.

Then everything vibrated.

Not the deep thrum.

Not the pattern.

Something sharper.

A dragging sound.

Like claws scraping under a table.

Aria stepped back. “That’s new.”

Jonah checked his pad. “There—there are multiple points. Something is moving around us. Circling.”

He zoomed the display out.

Three smaller signals.

One massive one.

All in motion.

Vincent’s voice cracked. “It’s not alone…?”

The base creaked as something pressed against its underside.

Elias activated the external camera feed.

Most cameras showed nothing but darkness and frost.

But Camera 3 caught movement—
the ice just outside shifting, buckling inward…
as if something underneath was pushing upward, testing the shell.

Mira whispered, “…this is not exploratory behavior.”

A dull thud hit the underside of the floor.

Then another.

Three in rapid succession.

Jonah backed away from the console. “That’s it. We need to leave. We need to—”

A violent jolt shook the entire base.

Not upward.

Sideways.

As if something enormous shoved the entire station from below.

Lights flickered. Tools fell. Vincent nearly toppled over.

Aria grabbed the table. “It’s trying to flip us!”

“Brace!” Mira shouted.

Another shove.

The metal groaned. The floor bent slightly—just slightly—but enough that everyone felt it.

Elias yelled, “If it tilts us more than twenty degrees, the support legs will break!”

“That’s exactly why we’re not letting it!” Mira snapped. “On my mark—everyone grab the anchor rails and HOLD!”

Before she could count—

The ground erupted.

A massive pillar of ice shot upward outside, slamming into the side of the base camp.

The room shuddered violently.

Vincent screamed, “It’s lifting the whole damn building!”

Mira steadied herself. “Jonah, status!”

Jonah checked his pad—hands shaking.

“Captain… the main creature is right beneath us. The three smaller ones are… climbing the tunnel walls. They’re coordinating."

Aria stared at the ceiling as dust fell from above.

“This isn’t an attack…”

No one heard her.

The base tilted five degrees.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Elias shouted, “We’re gonna topple—!”

Mira yelled, “RELEASE THE PYLONS! NOW!”

Jonah hit the emergency command.

Explosive bolts triggered with loud metallic pops.
The base detached from its anchored legs.

And the whole structure slammed flat back onto the ice.

A deep groan echoed under their feet.

Silence.

Stillness.

Then—
the massive signal began to retreat.

Slowly.

Crawling downward.
Deeper.
Deeper…

Until the seismic readings faded to near zero.

The smaller signals dispersed as well.

Everyone stood there, panting, shaking, staring at one another.

Vincent broke the quiet first.

“…Did we just survive a first contact?”

Aria finally whispered, more certain than ever:

“No…”

She looked at the ice beneath her feet, voice hollow:

“We just survived something worse.”