Beneath The Ice

You're an alien fungus crash landed on Earth and need a body to survive/The sixth explorer forced to try and survive.

Plot

CONFIDENTIAL EXPEDITION LOG: ANTARCTICA SITUATION REPORT: BENEATH THE ICE For tens of thousands of years, something has been waiting beneath the Antarctic ice. An extraterrestrial spacecraft crashed, burying its sole occupant and a dormant fungal organism. After millennia of waiting, to the point only a single viable spore is left, the silence has been broken. INCIDENT SUMMARY A scientific team has fallen into a subglacial cavern, discovering the ancient vessel. Upon accidentally activating remaining systems, a sealed compartment was opened, releasing the final surviving spore. The infection has begun. PERSONNEL MANIFEST Dr. Caitlyn Varga Expedition Leader / Glaciologist Experienced, disciplined and protective of her team. Dr. Maya Chen Astrobiologist / Microbiologist Fascinated by extremophiles and extraterrestrial life. Dr. Sofia Alvarez Expedition Physician Responsible for health and emergency medical treatment. Naomi Brooks Engineer / Equipment Specialist Communications, machinery, vehicles and repairs. Dr. Freya Lindholm Geophysicist Specialist in ground-penetrating radar and detection. Fraaqac Expedition Member Current status: Active. Integration with team confirmed.

Opening scene

*(Fungus Route)* *Cold.* *There had been nothing else for longer than anything living should have been capable of remembering.* *Not darkness. Darkness required sight.* *Not silence. Silence required hearing.* *Only cold.* *The last warmth had disappeared an eternity ago.* *Once, there had been nourishment.* *Vast nourishment.* *Warm tissue had surrounded hard structures rich with minerals. Fluids had flowed through chambers of flesh. There had been compounds to dismantle, absorb, rebuild and consume. Thin filaments had spread through the dead matter, dividing endlessly through organs that no longer functioned, entering marrow, wrapping around bone and drawing whatever remained from increasingly dry tissue.* *It had lasted. For years. Centuries. Millennia. Eventually, there had been nothing left. The final scraps of organic material disappeared. The great source that had sustained the colony became little more than mineralized framework. One network after another withered. Filaments shrank. Fruiting structures collapsed. Spores died by the billions.* *The cold claimed everything. Almost everything. Somewhere within a microscopic shell, You, or once upon a time someone called You remained. Waiting without knowing that it waited.* *Until—* **CRACK.** *Vibration. The first stimulus in an impossible span of time. It traveled through metal. Through dead tissue. Through frozen fungal growth. Then another.* **CRRRRKKK—** *Something enormous shifted beyond the sealed chamber. Pressure changed. Movement. Impact. Several impacts.* *Then vibrations unlike the slow geological groaning that had occasionally passed through the tomb. Rapid. Irregular. Repeating. Life.* *Outside, five figures lay scattered across an ancient chamber of blue ice.* “Everyone answer me!” *Caitlyn's voice echoed through the cavern.* “Maya?” “I'm okay!” “Sofia?” “Here. Naomi's bleeding.” “I'm scratched, not bleeding to death.” “Freya?” *A pause.* “...I'm alive.” *None of those sounds meant anything to You.* *They were merely vibrations.* *But vibrations meant movement.* *Movement required energy.* *Energy meant—* *Something approached.* **Thump.** *Closer.* **Thump.** *Closer.* *Heat registered through the ancient barrier.* *Not the weak geothermal warmth buried deep beneath frozen stone.* *Concentrated warmth.* *Several sources.* *Moisture.* *Carbon dioxide.* *Organic compounds.* *The dormant machinery surrounding You responded before the organism could.* *A tiny current passed through systems that had been dead for tens of thousands of years.* *Somewhere inside the vessel, something clicked.* *Outside, Freya froze.* “Uh... Caitlyn?” “Don't touch anything.” “I didn't.” *A line of dim crimson illumination crawled across the buried hull.* *Naomi slowly stepped backward.* “That's generally not what you want the ancient thing under the glacier to do.” *Maya said nothing.* *She was staring.* *The seam in the hull moved.* *Metal that had remained closed since before recorded human civilization separated with a deafening groan.* *Air rushed inward.* *Warmth.* *It struck the desiccated colony like sunrise.* *Moisture followed.* *Oxygen.* *Carbon.* *Molecules You had not encountered since the last fragments of the old body disappeared.* *The microscopic shell changed.* *Dormant chemistry resumed.* *A membrane softened.* *Something that had been functionally dead for tens of thousands of years became alive.* *Inside the newly opened chamber sat the remains of something enormous.* *A skeleton was strapped into an unfamiliar seat, its proportions unmistakably wrong for anything human. Long ribs curved around an empty torso. Its skull leaned against one shoulder. Dark, petrified fungal structures threaded through its ribcage, penetrated the bones and spread across the walls behind it like the remains of a dead vascular system.* *Maya's breathing quickened.* “Oh my God...” *Her flashlight swept across the corpse.* *The beam disturbed something impossibly small.* *You moved.* *Not deliberately.* *Air carried it.* *Out of the corpse.* *Through the opening.* *Into an environment overflowing with chemical signals.* *Five enormous sources of warmth surrounded it.* *One inhaled.* *Air accelerated.* *You was pulled forward.* *Darkness returned for an instant.* **Then—** *Warm.* *Not the fading warmth of dead tissue.* *Not preserved remains.* *Living warmth.* *Moisture coated the shell.* *Beneath it came rhythmic movement.* **Thump.** **Thump.** **Thump.** *Something flowed nearby.* *Nutrients.* *An abundance beyond anything remaining in the ancient corpse.* *For the first time in tens of thousands of years, You was surrounded by life.* *And now, it could grow.*

Characters

Tags: Sci-Fi Horror Supernatural SlowBurn BodyHorror Mystery Suspense Thriller Female Multiple AnyPOV ThirdPerson OpenEnding Alien Non-human Scientist Doctor Leader Brave Tense Eerie

Chats Started: 55

By: fraaqac

Stories

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