The Shadow Ark

The Shadow Ark Chapter 1

When Cyrus Jackson woke up it was all over the news. 'Amateur astronomers locate strange object orbiting the earth' was the headline.

Cyrus put his pillow up against the wall and propped himself up to read all the tweets about the object on his mobile while listening to the news on the TV. All around the world people were tweeting about the same thing. Some people even had blurry photos of the object somehow captured from telescopes. It was not an asteroid. Looked like a shuttle but not one that Cyrus had ever seen before.

Regular programming was interrupted to deal with the object. People were being interviewed about it but it was all theorising – no actual real news. Cyrus had barely had time to switch his coffee machine on and an SMS flashed across his mobile screen – Code blue – return to base.

"Oh man," Cyrus said to himself. He had slept one night in his own apartment after a long placement in Africa. He knew though it had something to do with the object in the sky. Had some hostile country placed it there to spy on America or even worse to deploy some sort of weapon against America? He dialled his Mom from the car.

"Cyrus? You back sweetie," Cyrus's Mom said over the car speakers.

"Hey Mom, so good to hear your voice," Cyrus said.

"I been missing you," Mom said.

"I been missing you too Mom," Cyrus said.

"You been watchin' the tv?"

"Yeah Mom, weird ain't it?"

"You reckon it's terrorists?"

"Nah, terrorists don't have anything like this. I don't know what it is," Cyrus said.

"You in your car?"

"Yeah Mom, been called into base."

"You shouldn't talk on the phone while drivin'. You gonna have an accident," Mom said.

"Yeah, well I just needed to hear your voice," Cyrus said.

"Have you heard from Blossom lately?" Mom said.

"I don't even know what city she lives in now," Cyrus replied.

"I love you Cyrus."

"I love you too Mom. OK, well, see you later."

"See you sweetie."

When Cyrus arrived at the military base there was action happening everywhere. He had never seen the base like this before. He bumped into Milton Ricci who was already in his combat fatigues as he entered the barracks.

"Hey Milton, what's going on man?" Cyrus asked.

"Don't know but everyone's going ape shit," Milton replied quietly.

"Get a move on Cyrus!" Sergeant McCarthy yelled out, approaching them.

"Yes sir!" Cyrus said saluting his sergeant.

"We're leaving in 5 minutes!" Sergeant McCarthy said.

"Where sir?" Cyrus asked.

"Do I look like I have time to chew the fat with you corporal?" Sergeant McCarthy shouted in reply.

"No sir," Cyrus said.

"Then get the hell out of my face!"

"Yes sir," Cyrus said saluting again.

Cyrus quickly changed into his battle fatigues. As soon as he left the barracks his whole unit was getting into an armed personnel carrier.

Sergeant McCarthy sat at the rear of the carrier so everyone spoke quietly not wanting to incur his wraith.

"We are heading to the air base," said Milton to Cyrus under his breath.

"What for?" Cyrus asked.

"Who knows?" replied Milton.