The knocks echoed through the pod walls so softly that half the team thought they imagined it.
But they hadn’t.

Aria rose immediately, gripping her rifle. “Mira, that’s not wind. That’s not settling ice. That’s it.”

Jonah quietly slid behind Soren as if the medic would protect him. “I’m voting we pretend we didn’t hear that.”

The knocks came again.

Three.
Even.
Measured.

Elias exhaled shakily. “It’s asking for a response.”

Aria snapped, “And what exactly does it want us to do? Knock back?”

Elias stared at her.
Then he stared at the wall.
Then he walked toward it.

“No,” Aria growled. “No no no— Elias, don’t you dare—”

But Elias lifted his gloved hand and pressed it against the wall, just as the next knock trembled faintly through the metal.

Elias closed his fist.
And knocked.

Once.
Twice.
Three times.

Silence.

Aria’s eyes widened. “Are you insane!?”

Soren whispered, “Elias… what did you just agree to…?”

Jonah made a strangled noise. “I’m hiding in the cargo compartment. Goodbye.”

Mira’s voice was sharp but not angry — controlled, calculating. “Elias. Step back.”

He did.

Silence thickened around them, heavy enough that the team could hear the faint hum of the power core behind the walls.

Then—

BOOM.

A deep, echoing thud slammed beneath the ice outside the pod.
The floor vibrated.
A second thud followed, closer.

Aria flinched, raising her rifle. “See?! I told you it would respond!”

But the trembling didn’t feel hostile.

It felt… urgent.

Elias’s eyebrows knitted. “That wasn’t threatening. That was… emphasis.”

“It sounded like a giant slamming a door,” Jonah muttered.

A third thud came — but this time, weaker. Almost gentle.

Three beats again.

Aria lowered her rifle slightly. “Is it… repeating you?”

Elias whispered, “No. It’s waiting.”

Mira’s jaw clenched. “For what?”

Elias swallowed.

“For us to come outside.”

The team gathered around the center table. Blue scanner lights flickered across their faces, throwing jagged shadows across the cramped interior.

Mira looked around the room.
She knew what they all expected — direction, certainty, a plan.

She had none.

“What does everyone think?” she asked finally.

Jonah shot up a hand. “Leave.”

Aria raised hers immediately. “Leave harder.”

Soren frowned. “We can’t leave. Not in this storm. We’d die in the first ten minutes.”

Jonah snapped, “Better than dying in the first two minutes when the ice monster eats us!”

Vincent, who’d been unnervingly quiet, finally spoke.

He leaned forward, fingers clasped, eyes unblinking.

“It’s calling us,” he whispered. “But not to attack. To warn.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Of what, Vincent? The cold? Because I got that memo.”

Vincent didn’t blink. “Of something beneath it.”

The room fell still.

Mira stared. “You mean… something deeper?”

Vincent slowly nodded. “While I was watching it earlier… before the limb showed… I thought I saw a second shadow. Below the first.”

Elias tensed. “A larger one?”

Vincent nodded again.

No one breathed for several seconds.

Jonah shook his head vigorously. “Fantastic. Multiple monsters. Great. Excellent. Just what I wanted.”

Soren pressed a hand to his forehead. “If that’s true, the first creature might not be the threat.”

Aria frowned. “Then what is?”

Mira exhaled slowly. “We go outside. Carefully. With scanners only. Weapons holstered unless absolutely necessary.”

Aria whipped her head toward her. “Mira!”

“Holstered,” Mira repeated. “That’s an order.”

Aria slammed her rifle against the table in frustration, but she obeyed.

The team approached the pod door.
Each breath fogged inside their helmets.
Each heartbeat pulsed louder than the wind outside.

The door slid open with a hiss.

The ice plains spread out before them — still, shining faintly blue, with no wind, no sound.

It felt like stepping into the lungs of something enormous.

Elias walked ahead, scanning.

Jonah stayed in the back, muttering, “If something jumps out I swear I’m quitting science and becoming a farmer.”

Aria stayed at Mira’s right, hand twitching near her rifle grip.

They reached the crater rim slowly.

The hole was deeper now. Much deeper.

Not dug.
Not melted.
Grown.

Elias held up a reading. “Temperature rising… 5°C higher than last cycle.”

Soren frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning whatever’s down there is closer to the surface.”

Aria’s breath quickened. “Movement beneath— left side!”

They froze.

A shape slid beneath the ice, casting a faint shadow — long, flowing, like a limb dragging through translucent water.

Jonah’s voice crackled. “It’s circling us.”

Elias whispered, “No. It’s positioning.”

“For what?” Aria hissed.

A soft tremor rippled beneath their boots.

Then a louder one.

Then—

The ice directly before them began to bow upward.

Not break.

Not shatter.

Rise.

Jonah screamed, “It’s surfacing! It’s surfacing—!”

Aria raised her rifle—

“ARIA!” Mira roared.

She stopped.

The ice bulged like something was gently pressing upward with an open palm.

Slow.
Patient.
Controlled.

Then—

A limb broke through.

The ice cracked in a perfect circular outline — the creature helping it fracture cleanly.

A translucent surface emerged first, like stretched membrane. Beneath it, glowing blue veins pulsed slowly.

Then a massive, webbed limb surfaced completely.

It wasn’t clawed.
It wasn’t armored.
It wasn’t violent.

It simply rested on the ice.

Like a hand placed gently on glass.

Elias stepped closer in awe. “It’s beautiful…”

Aria grabbed his arm. “It’s huge!”

“It’s… communicating,” Elias whispered.

The limb shifted slightly — not toward them, but downward.

Knock.
Knock.
Knock.

The sound wasn’t from the ice this time.

It came from the limb itself.

Elias whispered, “It’s… mimicking what I did.”

Aria’s eyes narrowed. “Or luring us.”

Jonah whimpered, “Can I go back to the pod? Please?”

Mira stepped forward.

Everyone froze.

“Mira—!” Aria hissed.

Mira slowly knelt, placing her gloved hand on the ice near the limb — close, but not touching.

The creature’s limb shifted slightly.

Then—

It pulled back.

Retreating into the ice like it had been afraid to get too close.

Aria blinked. “Wait… did it just—”

“Back away,” Mira said softly. “Give it space.”

They stepped back.

The limb rose again — farther this time, more confident.

The glowing veins inside brightened subtly.

Jonah stared. “Why’s it lighting up like that?”

Elias’s voice trembled. “Bioluminescent communication. It’s speaking.”

Soren stared at Mira. “What should we do?”

Before Mira could respond, the creature tapped again:

Knock.
Knock.
Knock.

Then the tremor beneath them answered in a different rhythm:

Boom.
Boom.
Boom.

Aria frowned. “That’s new.”

Elias froze.

“That’s not it,” he whispered.

“What?” Mira asked.

Elias’s voice shook. “That second rhythm… that’s the other shadow Vincent saw.”

Jonah went pale. “There ARE two of them?”

Vincent spoke softly. “No. There are more.”

Aria’s voice cracked. “How many?”

Vincent didn’t answer.

Because suddenly —

Across the ice field —

A second circle began forming.

Perfect.
Symmetrical.
Glowing faint blue.

Soren whispered, “Mira…”

Then a third circle appeared.

And a fourth.

All connected by thin glowing cracks, spreading like veins across the ice.

Everything beneath them pulsed together, synchronized.

Knock-knock-knock.
Boom-boom-boom.
Knock-knock-knock.

Mira stared at the glowing patterns spreading under their boots, her breath catching in her throat.

“It’s not one creature,” she whispered.

“It’s a network.”

Aria swallowed. “A colony?”

Elias exhaled shakily. “A hive.”

Vincent stared at the growing web of circles, voice barely audible.

“No,” he whispered.

“A civilization.”

The ice pulsed again — not threatening, but summoning.

Waiting.

Calling.

The First Contact had begun.
But the message was far larger than they imagined.