Chapter 2
Seventy-two hours passed much faster than anyone at Helix Institute wanted them to.
By the time the Retvalin entered Earth's orbit, almost every satellite capable of recording space had been pointed toward it. Governments had established emergency exclusion zones, military forces were stationed across several continents, and billions of people watched delayed footage through news broadcasts despite repeated warnings not to panic. The precautions seemed almost ridiculous once the first clear image arrived, because nothing humanity had prepared could have stopped the creature descending toward them if it had chosen to attack.
Celine stood inside the observation center beneath Greenland as the image sharpened across the enormous screen.
For several seconds, even she forgot to breathe.
The Retvalin wasn't inside a spacecraft. It was the spacecraft.
Its enormous body moved through the darkness with an ease that made every law of human space travel seem primitive. Its shape was difficult to compare with anything on Earth, with a broad central body surrounded by several long appendages that folded close whenever it accelerated.
A faint bluish glow pulsed beneath its almost translucent outer tissue, appearing and disappearing in slow rhythms like light traveling beneath deep water.
Someone behind Celine whispered, “That's alive?”
Celine didn't answer immediately.
She had studied organisms her entire adult life. She understood cells, organs, evolutionary adaptations and biological systems better than most people alive, yet looking at the Retvalin made her feel like a first-year medical student again.
And strangely, she liked that feeling.
There was so much they didn't know.
“Doctor Voss?” an analyst called.
Celine finally looked away from the screen. “What is it?”
“We've received a transmission.”
The translated message appeared seconds later.
I have arrived. I am very tired.
Whatever scientific fascination had occupied Celine's mind disappeared immediately.
It was easy to stare at something that enormous and forget why it had crossed an unimaginable distance to reach Earth.
It was sick.
“Tell it we're ready,” Celine said. “And ask it to follow the landing signal.”
Humanity had prepared an isolated stretch of Greenland's northern coast for the encounter, although calling it a landing site was generous.
There was no structure on Earth large enough to contain the Retvalin. Instead, thousands of automated beacons had been spread across several kilometers of frozen land, creating a signal visible to the alien while medical stations and temporary laboratories remained safely underground.
The ground trembled when the Retvalin finally descended.
Even several kilometers away, Celine felt the vibration through her boots.
Her medical team stood beside her in sealed environmental suits as they watched through reinforced glass. The enormous creature lowered itself onto the frozen landscape with surprising care, its appendages settling against the ice one after another.
Nobody spoke for several moments.
Then Dr. Elias Renn, Celine's surgical specialist, exhaled slowly. “I volunteered before knowing it was that big.”
A few nervous laughs followed.
Celine glanced at him. “Regretting it?”
“Ask me after we come back out.”
If we come back out.
The thought came naturally, but Celine refused to give it room.
They had spent the last three days preparing for every biological threat they could imagine.
Their suits carried independent oxygen systems, radiation shielding, antimicrobial layers and enough medical sensors to turn each person into a walking laboratory. They had also modified surgical lasers and portable tissue scanners after studying the limited biological information supplied by the Retvalin.
It still wasn't enough.
Nothing could be enough when they were preparing to enter the body of an alien species nobody had known existed three days earlier.
The Retvalin opened an entrance for them near one of its appendages.
Calling it an entrance was the only description Celine could think of. The outer tissue separated slowly, revealing a passage large enough for several vehicles to travel through side by side. Warm vapor escaped into the freezing air.
Elias stared at it. “That's inviting.”
“We've seen worse operating rooms,” Celine replied.
“Where?”
She started walking. “I'll tell you when I remember one.”
Their transport carried six members of Celine's team through the opening.
The world changed the instant they entered.
The passage wasn't wet or bloody as Celine had subconsciously expected.
Its walls were smooth and strangely luminous, filled with branching structures that pulsed with pale light. Warm air circulated through the enormous cavity while distant vibrations traveled through the floor beneath them.
Celine watched the readings streaming across her visor.
Temperature stable. Radiation elevated, but manageable. Atmospheric composition unusual.
Then something moved ahead.
“Stop.”
The vehicle froze.
Everyone saw it.
For several seconds, Celine's brain refused to classify the creature crawling across the distant tissue.
It had too many limbs.
That was the first coherent thought she managed.
The parasite was nearly three meters long, covered in overlapping black plates that shifted against one another whenever it moved.
Thin hooked appendages extended from beneath its body and buried themselves into the Retvalin's tissue. Its head or whatever it was, Celine assumed was its head split vertically into several fleshy sections surrounding a circular opening lined with moving structures that looked disturbingly like teeth.
Elias swallowed. “That's the parasite?”
Celine stared at it.
Indescribable suddenly felt like the most scientifically accurate description available.
“Scan it first,” she ordered.
The parasite reacted before they finished.
Its body twisted toward them.
“Movement!”
It rushed forward.
Celine barely had time to shout before Elias fired the modified surgical laser. The beam struck the creature's outer shell and scattered harmlessly across it.
“Armor's too dense!”
The parasite slammed into the front of their vehicle.
Everyone lurched forward.
Celine gripped the console as warning lights exploded across the dashboard, but her attention remained fixed on the creature.
Think.
Its armor protected the upper body. The underside was softer. More importantly, every time it attacked, the plates surrounding its mouth separated.
“Don't aim for the shell,” she said. “Wait until it opens its mouth.”
Elias looked at her as though she'd suggested putting his hand inside it.
“Trust me.”
The parasite struck again. Its head opened.
“Now!”
Three lasers fired simultaneously.
The creature jerked backward.
A terrible vibration traveled through the Retvalin's body as the parasite collapsed, its limbs spasming against the floor before finally becoming still.
For a moment, nobody celebrated.
Celine stared at the dead creature while her heartbeat slowly settled.
One parasite.
They had killed one.
Then their scanners updated.
Her expression changed.
Dozens of moving signals appeared across the holographic map.
Elias leaned closer. “Celine…”
“I see them.” She interrupted.
The infestation was far worse than they'd imagined.
What followed became the longest fourteen hours of Celine's life.
Her team moved deeper into the Retvalin, mapping infected tissue while identifying the parasites' vulnerable anatomy.
Once they understood where to strike, the impossible creatures became manageable. They burned parasites away from damaged organs, sterilized infected wounds and administered compounds developed from the Retvalin's own biological samples to prevent further tissue deterioration.
By the time Celine's team finally emerged, nobody waiting outside cared about protocol.
The underground command center erupted.
Scientists hugged one another. Engineers shouted. Someone actually climbed onto a table before being pulled down.
Celine only removed her helmet and sank into the nearest chair.
She was exhausted. Yet she couldn't stop smiling.
The communications system chimed several minutes later.
A message from the Retvalin appeared.
The pain is gone.
Celine stared at those four words longer than she had stared at humanity's first alien transmission.
Not because they were scientifically important. It was.
But because somewhere during those fourteen hours, the enormous creature outside had stopped being an alien discovery.
It had become her patient.
Another message appeared.
You removed what we could not. Others of my kind are suffering as I was. Will you help them too?
Celine looked around the room at her exhausted team.
Elias gave her a tired smile. “Don't even ask.”
Celine turned toward the communications console.
“Yes,” she said. “Tell them to come.”
The message was transmitted.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the Retvalin answered.
I will tell them.
Celine expected that to be the end of the exchange, but the orbital detection system suddenly began chiming.
One signal appeared beyond Neptune.
Then another. And another.
Celine slowly stood as new markers continued appearing across the display, each one moving toward Earth.
Humanity had successfully treated its first alien patient.
And now, it seemed… the rest were arriving.