The Thing II

A Story by Abishai100

A second 'chance' encounter with the beastly alien 'Thing' in another US ice-station in the Arctic may illuminate principles of deep distance!

Signing off with a final homage to The Thing (John Carpenter). Enjoy,

----

====

Long after the first encounter with the alien 'Thing' at the ice-station, a second ice-station was erected by the US government to continue research on mining for resources (oil) in that area of Earth, the freezing icy Arctic zone, and once again, Amlan Satan was asked to be one of the captains of the mission/station.

This time, he'd be joined by more 'professional' soldiers and station-agents positioned in the Arctic by the US government, in case any organic living undetected vestiges of the alien Thing were still around procreating and gestating to offer humanity a new shock in the cold Arctic. Amlan Satan's new co-captain is Dirk who's a very skilled soldier and trains with Amlan prior to the construction of the Arctic US ice-station with the new liquid-nitrogen gun ('ice-gun') and is told that they've got to think of this new station mission/machinery as government sanitized.

Another member is the government scientist Ezzy who's also something of a trained soldier but more of a scientist. She believes the alien Thing may've survived the last encounter with humans in the Arctic by leaving some hidden organic gestating spore that would fertilized into a new ravenous shape-shifting human-flesh gorging/absorbing super-beast with a scheme for species domination. Ezzy is smart and fierce and won't let Amlan/Dirk get in her way if she smells danger in that cold ice.

Another skilled soldier member of this new US ice-station mission is Jan who's a Norwegian with specific 'ice-gun' training and likes the liquid-nitrogen gun 'concept' for its 'arresting' conceptualization of the physics knowledge of 0-Kelvin as the 'absolute zero' known of all particle motion/vibration, a 'mental stabilizing' notion when contemplating a potential 'unknown alien creature' which may be able to adapt to heat-sensitive weaponry. Jan thinks if the alien Thing is still out there, the ice-gun is the best bet to freeze it to hell.

The US President believes this 2nd Arctic ice-station mission is a call-sign for the American pride and power and passion in establishing 'domes' of species confidence in the face of unknown or uncategorized dangers. He tells the American public in a televised speech, "If we can endure the masked Coronavirus quarantine tribulation on Earth, we can forge paths to enduring species troubles with alien 'beings' with intentions to corrupt/insult the human race."

This new US ice-station in the Arctic is called PAL (Private American Laser), which is another acronym signifying the new intellectual ardor mission to research the use of laser-drilling for the search of minerals/oil deep in the layers of the Arctic ice, and the members are told not to sway from the agenda unless there's some absolute unpredicted crisis.

That crisis soon rears its ugly head indeed. Ezzy was right. The alien Thing had left behind a spore to gestate in the waters below the ice near the US ice-station PAL and the spore had grown arms which it used to pull down a few of the human station-agents of PAL and symbiotically merged with their dead bodies to become larger and humanoid in appearance after its first organic appearance resembled something more like an amoeba. The mutated 'hybrid' Thing is a dragon-like giant iguana in the waters beneath the Arctic ice and seems to exhibit a facial expression signifying a focused intelligence regarding species domination, as if it were some kind of 'talking' dragon. The crew find this new 'beast' while diving under-water in suits and lights seeking to rescue their comrades who'd been dragged under by the arms of the spore-variant of the surviving alien Thing.

AMLAN: There's no way we can engage this monster other than to think about Kelvin-0 (temp) and making it static.

DIRK: I agree; the ice-gun is our best bet; we simply know that any organic 'being' will become static at Kelvin-0.

JAN: I'm really worried, friends; I mean, we've got only a few chances to shoot and freeze this 'Thing' in the ice.

AMLAN: We aim at its eyes and neck to constrict its head-movements and visual field of flexibility, so it can't head-turn.

DIRK: Right; also think about shooting at its mouth-and-jaw area too to simultaneously disorient or 'shock' it.

The final encounter is a success and Amlan/Dirk/Jan manage to blast-away with their handy ice-guns and freeze the beast of the Arctic into a state of intolerable static motionless capture. Its frustration is only compounded by further 'ice-blasts' to its eyes and neck and skull areas. The 'Thing' eventually crashes its debilitated head onto an iceberg edge, giving the human heroes just enough time to smash its frozen frail-state head into pieces before freezing all the remnants again and putting it into an ice-chamber for permanent demobilization.

When the heroes return to the United States, Ezzy wants full access to diplomacy disclosures regarding 'marketing' of this 2nd terror encounter with this alien 'Thing' before the marketing companies take-over and start to distribute various 'Thing' shaped Christmas toys for the consumer-public in Western civilization. Meanwhile, Amlan/Dirk are busy sailing in retirement and planning to compete in the America's Cup, while the marketing companies are indeed planning a 'Thing' toy franchise campaign for toy-stores across the USA.