Oh hey everybody, just a heads up that this chapter marks the beginning of the er... more intense section. Basically, the shit is about to hit the fan. I'm going to do my best to keep this rated T, but I might have to update the rating to M.

Other than that, I hope you all like this chapter! Read and Review.

Achilles453 - I'm glad you liked the chapter and understood the reasoning behind me not including any tattoos. I tried to throw in some crew chemistry there in the beginning, kind of the calm before the storm. I'm also happy you liked the part about the crew of the alien spaceship. It was actually added in as an minor detail, but I'm glad people liked it. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

teresa. spanics - Thank you! I'm glad you love this story and my description of what happened to the spacecraft. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

US Outpost 17, March 9, 1987, 1815 Hours

Saw stirred uneasily, pulling back the tarp to reveal a piece of the dark ice. He looked at it impatiently before replacing the tarp. Kallus looked at him and Ezra, who was glowering at the block. "The problem is them. Bridger and Saw have a disagreement on what to do with it. Saw wants to thaw it out and examine it, look at its tissue and stuff like that. But Bridger here doesn't believe it's safe. He believes we may release a space plague, one that we have no defense against. But Saw says that Bridger has the case reversed, that our biology would be harmful to its microbiology. Bridger is a meteorologist after all, not a biologist, and Jai pretty much agrees with Saw. I'll let them make their case."

Kallus stepped back, and Saw looked up, "Its biological composition is completely different than ours. The thing is not Earthly. It is not likely that its biology would be enough like ours to make infection of us possible. I would say that there is no danger."

Saw looked over to Jai, who shook his head, "None whatever," he claimed confidently. "Man cannot infect or be infected by germs that live in snakes. And I assure you, snakes are much closer to us than that thing."

Ezra launched forward angrily, "Different biology!" He snorted, "That thing may or may not be dead, but I don't like it. Damn it Saw, let them see the foul thing and decide for themselves whether they want that thing thawed out in this camp! Speaking of thawing, who'd watch it tonight? Zare? You're always up late at night and awake early, you feel like watching that?" Zare shrugged and Ezra turned to Saw, "Why don't you unwrap it, Saw? Let them see what they're dealing with! They haven't seen those three red eyes, and the blue hair like wriggling tentacles. It's wriggling there in the ice right now! It was still covered in snow when we pulled it out, but that snow's melted! They haven't seen it. I sat next to it on the helicopter and I swear, it was looking up at me through the tarp! As if it knew I was there!"

He turned around to glare at the tarp-covered block, "It's mad, it must be. It was pissed off when it came out of that ship; even more so once it started to freeze! I fell asleep in the helicopter on the flight back and I had a dream, an incredibly bad dream that it would thaw out and come to life! It came to life and hunted and killed us all! One by one! That it isn't dead, it's just been waiting for several hundred thousand years for someone to find it."

Ezra took a deep breath and calmed down slightly, "I know, I know that this is all based in psychology, not science. But, you'll have nightmares for a year to come. Once I looked at that thing I had them. That it would come alive was not all, in my dream, I saw that it can change its shape, and look like a man, waiting to kill and eat us all! That's why I hate it and don't want it around. Burn it now! Or put it back where it came from and let it freeze for another hundred thousand years!"

Saw looked up and smirked at him, "So far, the only thing you've said that it gives off are dreams. And I'll go so far to say that I've had one as well. Who else has?" Jai, Kallus, Jyn, and Sabine raised their hands and Saw continued, "So it's dream-infectious. That's obviously an incredibly dangerous malady." The rest of the crew gave off a chuckle of amusement. Saw continued, "What you propose is not only the wrong choice but also completely ludicrous. Never again will there be a find like this! Its race must have died off in the hundreds of thousands of years that it lay frozen. If we destroy it now, we will lose an incredibly important scientific discovery. There is only one course of action we can take: we must slowly and carefully thaw it out and then study it."

Kallus looked at Saw and Jai, "Are you sure that it is safe? 100 percent?" They nodded and Kallus shrugged, "I believe Saw is right. What say you everyone?"

Zare stepped up, "It sounds right to us. But Saw, if I'm going to be watching that tonight, I'd like to know what it looks like. Let's see-"

Zare wasn't able to finish; Saw was eagerly stripping away the cords. A single throw of the tarpaulin revealed the Thing. The ice had melted somewhat and was as clear as glass. The crew who recovered it hadn't gotten a clear look at it yet, and the ones who remained on-base hadn't seen it at all.

The room stiffened abruptly. It was face up on the table, the broken ice-ax still buried in its skull. Greenish gunk that looked like squashed caterpillar oozed from the wound. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a hateful, living fire, bright as freshly spilled blood from a face ringed with a writhing nest of tentacles. Blue, cilia-like tentacles that wriggled where hair should grow. Ketsu gasped and stumbled out of the room, Gooti ran to the trash can and puked out what she had had for lunch. Six others: Jyn, Jai, Sumar, Sabine, Zare, and Mart stumbled back from the table. Ezra remained planted at the foot of the table, smoldering with anger at Saw as Saw produced a hammer and chisel and began hammering. The ice broke and fell onto the floor as it was slowly peeled from the Thing that it had encased for over a hundred thousand years.

-0-

The celebration was in full swing, celebrating what could be the most important scientific find in the history of mankind. Saw had chipped off some of the ice, but had taken a break to join the party. Kallus was sitting on the rec room couch, drinking some of the station's supply of J & B scotch as he told some of his old stories as a helicopter pilot for the US Navy. Jyn was, as usual, performing maintenance on something. This time, it was the coffee maker. The other crewmembers were just having a good time. It wasn't often that they got to throw a celebration, so they enjoyed this one.

Everyone, that is, except Ezra Bridger. Ezra remained in the Ad Building glaring at the block of ice with hatred. Sabine walked in and put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, Ez, come on. I know you don't like this thing, but give it up. I'm sure Saw knows what he's doing. Even Jai said there is no danger whatsoever."

Ezra sighed and his shoulders deflated, "I know. I just... I just have a horrible feeling. A premonition almost. A premonition that things are going to go wrong, horribly wrong. I just..." he threw his hands in the air, "I just know it."

Sabine cupped the side of his face with her hand and moved his head so he faced her, "Hey. If it does, we'll face it together." She kissed him: slowly, tenderly, lovingly. "Come on." She said, breaking the kiss, "Let's join the others. So they don't get any ideas this time." Ezra chuckled and they walked back towards the rec room hand in hand.

They didn't hear the low growl coming from the Thing in the ice behind them.

-0-

Meanwhile, a somewhat drunk Kallus half-stumbled over to Saw and said, "Hey, Saw, what can you tell me about that thing in the ice."

Saw turned to look at Kallus and smiled at seeing him inebriated, "Lieutenant, what would Commander Tano say if she saw you like this?"

Kallus near crashed into his seat, drinking some more, "Ah well, she ain't here now is she?"

Saw chuckled, "I guess not. Well, Lieutenant, in response to your first question, I can't say much yet. We need to thaw it out slowly and extremely carefully. There never was a find like this and there never will be again. It has to be done exactly right. Look, you remember the fish we caught down near the Ross Sea at McMurdo, right? Well, do you remember how they would freeze immediately after we pulled them from the ocean? They would freeze, then come to life again if we thawed them gently. Low forms of life aren't killed by quick freezing and slow thawing."

Ezra angrily cut Saw off, "Wait. You mean that thing might actually come alive!" He grabbed a nearby ice-ax and ran towards the Ad Building. Arriving, he hefted the ice-ax and yelled, "This thing's going to be in so many pieces!"

Saw ran after him, "No, you fool!" He grabbed the ice-ax handle and a short scuffle ensued between the two of them. Ezra punched Saw in the side of the head, but crumpled when Saw delivered a kick between the legs with his prosthetic leg. The two had to be physically separated and Sabine slapped Ezra across the face, "Calm down, Ezra! You and Saw almost killed each other."

Saw shook off Jyn and Zare, who were restraining him, "You didn't let me finish. I said only low life forms would come back to life after quick freezing. A fish can do that because it is a low life form. It's cells revive and that is enough for it to revive the entire organism. That would not happen with a man, or that." He pointed to the thing in the ice, "I assure you, that thing is dead. It's dead! It is as dead as a frozen man would be because it is at least as high a life form or higher than us. While it's cells may revive, they'll die because a high life form requires organization and a cooperative effort to live."

Ezra stumbled back to his feet. "How do you know?" he spat out with venom.

Kallus, still somewhat inebriated, stepped forward and put a restraining hand on Ezra's shoulder, "Wait a minute Bridger. I agree that we should not thaw this out if there is even a remote chance of it coming alive. Can you give us a guarantee, Saw?"

Saw straightened and looked directly in Ezra's eyes, "The point is that, a few individual cells might exhibit characteristics of life, but it is still dead. When you kill a frog for instance, its muscle cells remain alive. That's why it spasms after you kill it. Just because a few cells live, you wouldn't accuse that frog corpse of being a zombie." A general murmur of agreement swept through the room and Saw continued, "If I thaw it right, I may be able to discern what type of planet it's native to. And you, Ezra," he turned and pointed at the meteorologist, "you accuse it of being evil. Just because it doesn't look like a man or anything on the Earth doesn't give you the right to accuse it of being evil or hateful. That look on its face may be one of resignation. Different cultures here on Earth have different customs, so why can't that thing have its own facial expressions. On its own world it would probably call you a fish bellied monstrosity with an insufficient number of eyes and a pale body bloated with gas."

Ezra near exploded, "Peaceful resignation! Haw! If that's resigned, then I'd hate to see what it looked like when it was angry. That face was never designed to express peace. Maybe things from other worlds don't have to be evil just because they're different, but that thing was! A Child of Nature, you say? Well, wherever that thing came from was hell!"

Saw took a step towards Ezra, "You haven't any right to call it evil! You don't need to worry, it's dead and it will stay dead."

Saw won out, he was completely convinced that it would stay dead and managed to convince the others. Ezra eventually gave up and just sat at the station's bar, drinking the night away.

-0-

It was around midnight when the decision was made to move the block from the Ad Building to the nearby supply room. Most of the crew had gone to sleep, but a few remained awake. Sabine and Zare carried it to the room. The block had been covered by a blanket and placed in the middle of the room. Sabine pulled back the blanket and looked at the three blood red eyes leering up at her. She shuddered and replaced the blanket, "I agree with Ezra. We should just burn this."

Zare shrugged, "That's going to win someone the Nobel Prize. We can't just burn the Nobel Prize."

Sabine turned to Zare, "Let's lock up. You got the keys?"

Zare shook his head, "No, I think Kallus has them. Get from him, will ya?" She nodded and left.

While waiting, Zare looked over at the thing in the ice. He realized he had an interesting desire to get a barrel of kerosene and burn it. He removed the blanket and stared at the eyes. The three red eyes glared up at him sightlessly, the ruby orbs reflecting his face. He realized he had been staring at it for some time and turned to wait for Sabine at the door, but a low growl pulled him back. There were no dogs in this part of the base and he'd never heard pipes make that kind of sound before. He looked at the ice, there were small cracks forming under it. He couldn't be sure, but they looked to be growing. Almost as if the Thing was trying to break out. But Saw said it was dead! He nervously turned back to the door, hoping the cracks were a figment of his imagination and that low growling sound was the pipes or the wind outside.

CRASH!

The ice exploded upwards and outwards and Zare felt a large, solid, and cold chunk of ice hit him in the back of the head.

-0-

Sabine had heard the crash. At first she thought that Zare had accidentally knocked something over. She walked towards the supply room, "It's late and cold Zare, I gotta get some sleep." She heard no response and cautiously approached the doorway, "Zare? Holy shit!" She jumped backwards, the keys falling to the floor with a clink.

The Thing was gone. It was GONE! The block of ice had a gaping cavity in it, as if the Thing had broken out from inside. Zare lay unconscious on the floor with a large bruise on the back of his head. A shattered block of ice surrounded his head like a halo.

A shrill howl resounded through the room, the huskies were snarling at something. Sabine ran to the fire alarm, broke the protective glass, pulled the lever and ran toward the kennel.

On her way to the kennel, Sabine ran into Kallus, who was also headed towards the kennel. She looked at him questioningly, "Should you be holding a shotgun? Weren't you completely drunk like about an hour ago?" Kallus held two of the station's 12 gauge Mossberg 590A1 shotguns. He tossed one to her, "I sober up quickly."

Ketsu joined up with them, "What's going on?" Kallus shrugged, "We're about to find out." he said as they entered the kennel. Gooti, pale as a ghost, came stumbling towards them, "I don't know what's in there, but whatever it is, it's weird and pissed off."

Kallus held up a hand, the signal to stop, "Ketsu, get Jyn. Tell her to get the flamethrower." She nodded and ran towards the sleeping quarters.

In the sleeping quarters, there was pandemonium. Jai came stumbling out of his room, "Hey, what's this? What's going on?" Similarly, Sumar, still half-asleep, said, "What the hell's going on?"

The howl answered their questions and Jai quietly remarked, "I think the problem's been located." They quickly stumbled to get dressed. Grabbing the fire extinguishers, they ran towards the auxiliary entrance near the kennel.

Ketsu ran into Jyn's room, who was still putting on her clothes, "Jyn, Kallus wants the flamethrower." She turned, astonished, "Kallus wants the what?" Ketsu just shook her head and yelled, "That's what he said, now move!" Before Jyn could say anything else, Ketsu ran out towards the kennels.

"Damn it!" Jyn threw on the rest of her clothes and ran towards the weapons locker. She pulled out one of the station's M2A1-7 flamethrower and slightly depressed the trigger. A small bit of flame protruded from the end of the nozzle.

-0-

A Few Minutes Earlier...

The Thing stumbled through the base. Damn this planet, it was still frozen. At least it was nice and warm in this outpost. It stumbled it's way through the corridors, hoping to avoid detection. The one in the supply room where it had broken free was easy to deal with. All it took was a block of ice, but even it would have trouble with over ten of this new type of creature. It could escape this frozen wasteland, if it escaped detection from these creatures.

No such luck.

One of the huskies sensed it and started howling. The Thing looked over at the wire enclosed kennel, it could increase its body mass and become more formidable. The Thing morphed into a bunch of tentacles and opened the door. Charnauk, the lead huskie, rushed forward and bit out a large chunk of the tentacle, but squealed in pain as the alien's flesh began clawing at the inside of the huskie's mouth.

-0-

Outside in the hallway, Gooti heard the furious series of barks and yelps. She turned into the kennel hallway and peered into the room. She tried turning on the light, but it had been smashed. It was then that she heard it, a low snarling that was nothing like the dogs. She grabbed a flashlight and carefully opened the door of the kennel. Two of the dogs bowled her over and the flashlight fell to the floor. One of them had the remains of a tentacle in its jaws. The beam of light rested on the inside of the kennel and she saw it. A thing like no other. Several tentacles came at her and she quickly kicked the door shut. It slammed on one of the tentacles, shearing it off. The piece of monster flesh wriggled on the floor.

Gooti got on her feet and made a hasty retreat to where she saw Kallus, Sabine, and Ketsu coming through the door. "I don't know what's in there, but whatever it is, it's weird and pissed off."

Kallus sent Ketsu to get Jyn, then the three advanced slowly, shotguns at the ready, towards the kennel. From the opposite end of the corridor, Jai, Mart, Saw, Sumar, Ezra, and Ketsu came in holding fire extinguishers. Jai saw Kallus and Sabine armed and yelled, "Hey, Kallus! What's going on?" A shrill yelp from one of the huskies still in the kennel silenced them.

Kallus held a hand up, "Stay back." He grimly pushed forwards, opening the doors to the kennel and throwing the beam of the flashlight around the inside. The beam rested on the Thing and the eyes of everyone widened. In the middle of the kennel was the Thing, but it looked different. A head turned to look at them, the furless head of a dog on top of a mass of biomatter. Multiple tentacles spread out from its base towards the two surving trapped huskies. One of the dogs whined from the corner, covered in some kind of greenish slime, as it was grabbed by the tentacles. The Thing roared, an unearthly, blood-curdling scream. Kallus leveled his shotgun and fired repeatedly. Sabine joined in with her shotgun and pulled the trigger, sending round after round of buckshot into the Thing. But the gunfire had almost no effect, only slightly knocking the Thing backwards. An errant shot slammed into one of the dogs, who yelped despite being slowly strangled by tentacles and Gooti grabbed Sabine, pulling her away from the kennel. She screamed in horror as she saw over half of her huskies dying before her.

A tentacle shot out at Kallus and he quickly slammed the door of the kennel. By now, Jyn had gotten the flamethrower and was running through the corridor towards them. The kennel-Thing sprouted two dog-like limbs that punched through the ceiling. Half of the kennel-Thing separated and pulled itself through the roof into the cold wind of the Antarctic.

Jyn froze at the sight of the half-dissolved dogs being slaughtered like this. Kallus saw her gaping, wide-eyed, at the battle in the kennel and yelled, "Get your ass over here!" He threw open the gate and Jyn stepped into the open doorway, flamethrower leveled. The remaining mass of the Thing split open and a flesh-like flower of dog teeth appeared. Kallus yelled at Jyn, "Dammit Jyn, torch it!" The flower threw itself at her and Jyn pulled the trigger. The jet of broiling flame shot from the end into the flower, causing it to burst into flames immediately. It fell limp and Jyn pulled the trigger again, immolating the rest of the kennel-Thing's body mass.

Kallus held out his arm before yelling, "GO!" Jai, Ketsu, and Ezra ran into the kennel and sprayed the contents of their fire extinguishers on the smoldering thing on the floor. They all stared at it in stunned silence before Sabine grimly said, "Half of it's still running around."

Kallus nodded, "Right. Everyone, group up! Sweep the base and find it. Take a can of fuel and a flare with you! We can't let it escape!"

Next Chapter: Search and Autopsies