Mara was losing control of the situation.

The figure that had been on the ceiling was impossibly fast. It moved like a roach running form the light, scattering away from the gunfire. The trembling of hands of her soldiers threw their aim off so horribly that she didn’t think that they managed to land a single bullet, and the screaming of the civilians added to the cacophony.

Larry grabbed her by the shoulder and roughly turned her to face him, mid fire. Her burst went wild, and she could only hope she hadn’t hit anyone. “Tell them to stop shooting! This isn’t the point! It’s not being hostile!”

Mara glanced up to the where the figure had gone. It had taken shelter behind one of the columns that supported the ceiling, and she could see those overly-lanky fingers peering out from behind the edge of the stone as more bullets flew up and sent sparks flying from bullet on stone. “Cease fire!” Mara shouted.

Slowly, gunfire died down. 

“Please, we mean you no harm!” Larry shouted, walking towards the pillar. His eyes and hair were wide, and each of his steps were tenuous. “Please. Forgive them - they know not what they do!”

Mara pursed her lips at that last sentence. She knew exactly what she was doing. Someone was missing, and there was a monster crawling on the ceiling. Trying to reason with it seemed like a good way to get everyone here killed. She’d only obeyed Larry’s ‘order’ because right now, they weren’t hitting anything. Her men were professionals. They’d been rattled by the sudden appearance, but they were going to rally quickly, and once they’d calmed down…

Well, Mara could only hope that Larry wouldn’t die in the time needed for her men to gather their wits. 

“Please,” Larry repeated, his hands spread widely. “You have so much to teach us. You-”

You knew we’d find this, Mara thought with sudden clarity. You didn’t tell us the full mission parameters. You were expecting something or someone, and you didn’t tell me. 

A tiny part of Mara couldn’t help contemplating the consequences of a friendly fire incident. It wasn’t a real thought, it wasn’t an actual urge to shoot her client...but the small, petty part of her that she couldn’t quite control thought it would be an excellent idea.

“You have no idea,” rasped the voice from behind the pillar. “You have no idea how much you do not know.”

Behind Larry’s back, Mara motioned for Carlos, Jordan, Milton, and Ben to take up flanking positions. The quicker they were in place, the quicker they’d be able to act if things went south with this thing. She held up a hand sign to indicate that they shouldn’t fire until she gave the command. Don’t do anything yet. Don’t jump the gun. 

“You’re right,” Larry said simply. “Teach me. Teach us. Please.”

“I am not a teacher,” it said, peering out from behind the pillar. “I am a watcher. An observer. I am here to bear witness.”

“Witness to what?” Larry asked. His hands were shaking with excitement. Or dread. Maybe both. Mara couldn’t tell and didn’t dare speculate. 

“The rebirth,” it said, the voice still flowing like honey over gravel. “The completion. Father’s grand experiment ends soon.”

Mara walked over to the side, just give herself a slightly better look at the creature. She’d thought from the front it was cowering behind the pillar, but now that she could see it better its body language didn’t give the impression of cowering or fear. It gave the impression of a cat that had spotted a mouse, and hadn’t yet decided if it was going to go for the kill, or if it was going to bat its prey to death, or perhaps was feeling lazy enough to just let the helpless creature run away.

Larry reached up to wipe his forehead. She could see in the light he was sweating. “What experiment?” Larry asked.

“Us. Mankind.” The figure on the feeling began to climb down the side of the pillar with the grace of a spider skittering down a tree. “I was incomplete, as are you. I am being completed.”

It seemed a vein of common sense still existed in Larry. As the creature drew closer to the ground, his tenuous steps forwards becoming steps back. “What do you mean, completed?”

“I will show you. You all are incomplete as well.” Its mouth was too large, and Mara could see its eyes now. They were wide and the pupils had changed, going from large central circles to crosses that dilated oddly. “We will be made whole and-”

The room exploded with the sound of gunfire. It wasn’t the long, sustained bursts of panic fire that had filled the chamber earlier, but the short chattering sound followed by a pause only to repeat, each burst only three or four rounds. Quick and effective for maximum killing potential without sacrificing too much ammo - chances of a lucky shot missing a vital organ and leaving the target alive dropped dramatically with each bullet. 

The figured twitched and screamed as the bullets punched into its chest and tore through it, red spray filling the air behind it. “No!” Larry shouted, and took a step forward towards the creature.

Mara tackled him before he could go two steps. It looked like Ben had been the one to break discipline and open fire, and if Larry stepped too much closer, he’d come between the bullets and Ben’s target.

“Cease fire!” she screamed into the communicator.

Larry was screaming beneath her as the large creature shuddered a final time and fell back, landing on the stone with a bonelessly wet thump. Ben ran forwards and stood over the thing, emptying his clip fully into the creature’s head.

“What the fuck?” Mara shouted, breaking the silence that followed. “What the ever-loving fuck, Ben?”

“I panicked,” he said in a carefully flat voice. The kind of voice that said he’d been rehearsing this the entire time. “It was talking about completing us, it was talking about doing something to humanity, and I panicked.”

“Bullshit,” Mara said. “You don’t shoot like that in a panic. You don’t charge to the foe and finish it in a panic.” Those words came out in a quiet hiss. Larry was still struggling to get off the floor, they had a moment where he couldn’t hear them. “Please tell me it was something more than this scenario seemed too much like a horror movie for you, Ben.”

Ben gave her a glare. “Ma’am. It doesn’t matter if that’s what it is. I’m not a damn idiot, and I sure as hell am not letting everyone here die to satisfy some rich pricks curiosity. Ma’am.”

Mara met his glare with one of her own. “You panicked,” she said, in the same flat tones he’d used earlier.

“Yes ma’am.”

Larry was struggling to his feet and storming over. “You panicked? You panicked? We were seconds away from unlocking the mysteries of human existence. We had it in our grasp, and you panicked?” Larry looked at Mara and pointed at Ben. “Shoot this asshole,” he said, his voice a furious demand.

Mara’s gun snapped up as ordered - pointed directly at Larry’s head. “You want to take a deep breath there?” she asked conversationally.

Larry looked down the barrel of the gun, then back to Mara, then back to Ben. “I don’t know what came over me,” he muttered.

Mara lowed her rifle. “Now then, sir,” she said, her voice harsh. “We are taking everyone out of this chamber. We are getting the goddamn spotlights. We have a person missing. We have potentially hostile forced in the area, and if they weren’t hostile, Ben here just made sure they were.” She did shoot Ben a glare with those words. As much as the situation had unsettled her, as much as she’d been ready to open fire at the first hint of hostilities, he might have just forced them into a conflict. “There’s no reason to be stealthy anymore. We’re coming back in here with everyone we can get.”

Larry opened his mouth, then glanced down at the gun at her side. The memory of staring down its barrel seemed to linger long enough for him to take her advice. “All right,” he said.

Mara signaled for everyone to fall out. She kept pace with Larry for every step of the way, walking backwards to watch for other potential hostiles. This time, she didn’t forget to scan the ceiling. The men and women trapped up there were following them all with accusatory eyes. “Sir. You knew we’d find this, didn’t you?” She didn’t bother trying to keep the trace of accusation out of her voice.

“Find something,” he admitted. “I was certain we would find something. Are you familiar with the ancient astronaut theory?”

Mara shook her head. She wasn’t in the mood for a damn academic theory right now, but there was a very real chance that they were about to face some kind of hostile force. There might not be another chance for Larry to explain himself. 

“So much of our mythology can be explained by the idea that aliens were here on Earth at one point. The myths about sun chariots and sky boats and other realms could have all been inspired by actual extraterrestrial visitors. I’ve always believed that theory, but there was a flaw in it in my estimation - the reasoning behind it. If aliens had indeed come here, had guided our evolution, why would they have abandoned us?”

Larry’s eyes shone with sorrow. For a moment Mara felt something approaching close to pity for the man. He had come all this way, and now his dreams were falling apart in front of him. Then she reminded herself he’d tried to order her to kill one of her own soldiers, and that pity evaporated before it could even begin to take hold. 

“The only explanation I could see is that they hadn’t. That they were still here. For most of my life I thought they walked among us still, hidden, but now...as soon as I heard the translation, I knew this was it. They hadn’t abandoned us. They had hidden from us, but they were still here. Locked away in the ice at the asshole of the world.”

Mara grunted. It was better than she’d feared. He hadn’t withheld any actual tactical information from her. Just crazy theories. “Out of curiosity, what do you think the likelihood is that these alien visitors took trips to Old Navy?”

Larry gave her a slow, careful look. “Almost nonexistent. Why?”

“Because the thing we just killed? It was wearing jeans. Actual brand name denim. I don’t know what he was, but I can guarantee you that he wasn’t an alien.”

Larry chewed on his lip. They were exiting the chamber and headed into the reflected light of the external spotlights, bouncing off the ice they’d dug earlier. “Then...there’s still hope.”

Ahead, Mara could hear the voices of her men arguing with the excavation crew. They wanted to go in and investigate the sounds of gunfire. The excavation crew didn’t want to be left alone, and certainly didn’t want to go in themselves. 

“No, sir,” Mara said, her voice grim. “I don’t think there is.”

​

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