The cavern floor bulged, rising like something beneath was inflating its lungs. Cracks spidered outward, glowing with faint orange light. Mira didn’t need Jonah’s scanner to understand the danger.

“MOVE!”

She shoved Jonah and Soren forward. The three scrambled down the sloping tunnel as the ground behind them detonated in a geyser of ice shards and steam.

A massive limb — translucent, jointed, wider than a tree trunk — punched upward through the rupture.

But it didn’t fully emerge.

It felt its way out, like a blind creature testing the air.

Jonah gasped, stumbling. “That thing— it’s not attacking!”

“No,” Mira barked, “but it’s blocking the tunnel.”

The limb curled inward, almost protective, then retreated back into the hole with a slithering motion that made Jonah gag. The rupture sealed slightly afterward — not with ice falling, but with some kind of biological membrane knitting across the breach.

Soren stared, breath trembling. “It’s healing itself.”

Mira grabbed his shoulder. “Focus. We need to find Vincent.”

But Soren’s hand lifted, pointing deeper into the cavern.

“Captain… what if Vincent isn’t what we should be looking for anymore?”

Mira didn’t flinch. “We’re not leaving him.”

Jonah hesitated. “Captain… his helmet was crushed from the inside. Something got in his suit.”

Mira’s voice dropped. “All the more reason we bring him home. Alive or not.”

Jonah swallowed. There was no arguing with her when she used that tone.

The team moved forward.

The organic ice architecture changed subtly as they descended. The rib-like structures grew narrower, tighter, curving overhead until the tunnel felt like a throat. The warm pulses grew more rhythmic.

Jonah muttered, “Feels like we’re walking straight into its heart.”

Soren added, “Or into a nesting chamber.”

Mira ignored the nausea rising in her gut. She pushed ahead, stepping carefully across ice that had turned rubbery, pliant. Every footstep left a brief, glowing imprint.

She whispered, “Jonah… readings?”

He checked the scanner.

“It’s… bad.”

“How bad?”

Jonah turned the display toward her.

Where before they saw dozens of heartbeats, now they saw hundreds.

Not spread across the cavern.

Clustered.

Centered.

All beneath their feet.

Mira’s stomach dropped. “We’re in the colony.”

Soren corrected quietly. “We’re in the organism.”

Jonah added, “Or inside something built by them.”

The lights inside the ice pulsed brighter as if responding to their voices.

Then—

A whisper.

A whisper that wasn’t wind.

”…leave…”

Soren froze. “Tell me you heard that.”

Jonah whispered, “That wasn’t comm interference.”

The whisper came again, clearer this time.

”…leave.
…go.
…down…”

It wasn’t one voice.

It was many.

Layered. Echoed. Distorted.

Mira steadied her rifle. “Stay sharp.”

The tunnel ahead widened abruptly into a vast chamber.

The cavern opened into a circular space hundreds of meters wide. Its ceiling arched high, filled with hanging icicles that visibly contracted with each pulse like lung sacs.

But it was the floor that froze them in place.

Dozens of translucent mounds lay arranged in spirals — sacs, each the size of a small vehicle. Their surfaces quivered, glowing faintly.

Soren stepped forward first, unable to resist. “These aren’t eggs exactly. More like incubation pods.”

Jonah grimaced. “Incubation for what?”

Mira scanned the room. The pods twitched as if sensing their presence.

One of them curled inward.

Pulled tighter.

Like something inside was recoiling from the light.

Soren crouched, lifting his scanner. “There’s movement inside. Lots of it. Very small, but active.”

Jonah nodded toward a mound near the center. “That one isn’t glowing.”

Mira narrowed her eyes. Vincent’s helmet was crushed outward — like something had crawled out.

“Check it,” she ordered.

Soren approached the dark pod cautiously. He reached out a gloved hand—

The pod quivered violently.

Soren jerked back. “It’s empty.”

“Meaning something hatched,” Jonah whispered.

Mira’s jaw tightened. “Vincent.”

Suddenly—

A loud crack echoed through the chamber.

Then another.

Jonah stumbled backward. “The pods are reacting!”

The entire spiral of sacs began to pulse rapidly, synchronized with the heartbeat reverberating through the cavern.

Soren backed away. “Captain, we shouldn’t be here—”

“…down…”

The whispers returned, louder.

“…down… below… below…”

Jonah pointed down a slope at the far edge of the chamber. “There’s another tunnel.”

It pulsed brighter with every passing second.

Mira nodded. “Move. Now.”

The tunnel beyond the chamber was narrower but more refined, like the creature had carved it intentionally. The walls were smoother, ribbed with symmetrical ridges that looked disturbingly biological.

The temperature rose sharply. Mira’s HUD flashed warnings.

“Heat spike,” Soren said. “We’re approaching an energy source.”

Jonah glanced at his scanner. “Heartbeats are strongest down here. If Vincent’s still alive—this is where he’d be.”

They moved in silence, the tunnel groaning around them.

Then—

They saw it.

At the bottom of the slope, half-embedded in a wall of glowing ice:

Vincent.

His body was upright, arms pinned by translucent material that looked like a blend of ice and cartilage. His visor was fogged from inside.

But his chest—

It was moving.

Up.
Down.

Slowly.

Too slowly.

Mira ran toward him. “Vincent! Vincent!”

Jonah tried to restrain her. “Captain—wait—!”

But Mira was already kneeling in front of the trapped recon officer.

“Vincent,” she whispered. “We’re here. We’re getting you out.”

Vincent’s eyelids fluttered.

But the voice that came through wasn’t his.

“…Mira…”

Her skin went cold.

“…don’t…”

Jonah lifted his scanner. “Captain—his vitals are wrong.”

Soren stepped forward. “Look at his neck.”

Under Vincent’s helmet seals, faint blue lines pulsed—vein-like patterns that didn’t look human.

Mira felt her throat tighten. “Soren. What is that?”

Soren whispered, “I think… I think the organism is keeping him alive.”

Jonah added, “Or altering him.”

Vincent’s fingers twitched.

He opened his eyes.

They didn’t reflect his helmet lights.

They glowed.

A soft amber glow.

Vincent’s voice came out layered, echoing, mismatched:

“…below… more… waiting…”

Mira stood slowly. “We need to cut him out. Now.”

Soren pulled out thermal cutters.

He barely touched the ice before the entire wall shuddered.

Vincent exhaled sharply — as if the cut had injured him.

Jonah shouted, “Captain! Cutting him is hurting the structure—”

The wall bulged outward.

A massive translucent shape pushed against the ice, inches from Vincent’s body.

Mira raised her rifle. “Soren—step back.”

The bulbous shape stretched the membrane thinner—

Then ripped.

A limb emerged, curling protectively around Vincent’s torso. Not attacking the team. Shielding the trapped man.

Jonah froze. “It’s… guarding him.”

Soren whispered, “It considers him one of its own now.”

Mira’s voice cracked. “No. No, it doesn’t get to take him.”

She fired a warning shot at the ground.

The creature jerked but didn’t retreat. Instead, a low hum vibrated through the floor.

A signal. A threat. A warning.

“…leave… leave… leave…”

The whispering chorus echoed around them, vibrating through their bones.

Vincent opened his glowing eyes wider, staring at Mira.

“…go…”
“…go…”
“…down…”

Mira clenched her fists.

“We’re getting him out. I don’t care what these things want.”

Jonah’s voice trembled. “Captain—listen. There are hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.”

Soren added, “We’re trespassing in something’s living space. And it’s trying not to kill us.”

Mira stepped closer to Vincent. “I’m not abandoning him.”

The creature hissed — not with sound, but with a vibration that shook their teeth.

The chamber behind them shook violently.

Jonah checked his scanner again — and nearly dropped it.

“Captain…”

“What?”

He turned the screen toward her.

The heartbeats were moving.

Fast.

All heading toward their location.

“They’re coming.”

The walls pulsed.

The floor trembled.

Vincent whispered in the creature’s voice, the colony’s voice—
“…down… down… below…”

Mira lifted her rifle.

“Get ready to run.”