The day began like any other. In Lagos, the air was thick with heat and the hum of traffic, radios blaring from roadside stalls. Children chased each other through the dust, their laughter rising above the chaos. Then, without warning, the sky dimmed.
At first, people thought it was a storm. Clouds gathering, perhaps, or the onset of one of those sudden tropical downpours. But the darkness was too sharp, too deliberate. It was as if a curtain had been drawn across the heavens.
Aisha stood in the street, clutching her younger brother's hand. She tilted her head back, eyes wide. Above them, the sun was gone—blotted out by a vast, shimmering structure that stretched across the horizon. It wasn't a single ship, but thousands, layered like scales of silver, each one pulsing faintly with light.
Across the world, the same sight unfolded. In Geneva, Dr. Emil Weber abandoned his laboratory instruments, staring through the glass dome of the research center. His colleagues whispered in disbelief, their voices trembling. In Montana, Sergeant Daniel Hayes dropped his rifle on the training field, his instincts screaming that no weapon on Earth could match what hovered above.
The ships did not move. They hung in silence, casting shadows that swallowed cities whole. For hours, humanity waited—some praying, some panicking, some frozen in awe. Governments scrambled, issuing statements that sounded hollow even as they were spoken. Fighter jets rose into the air, circling like gnats around a leviathan. None dared fire.
Then, the voices came.
They were not heard through ears but felt inside the mind, resonant and undeniable. A chorus of tones, layered and melodic, speaking in a language no one had ever learned yet everyone understood.
"You are ours now. Beloved creatures of Earth, you will be cared for. You will be safe. You will be observed. You are pets."
The words rippled through every consciousness, leaving silence in their wake. Aisha clutched her brother tighter, her heart pounding. Emil scribbled furiously in his notebook, desperate to capture the moment. Daniel clenched his fists, rage boiling beneath his skin.
Around the world, humanity realized the truth: they had not been conquered. They had been claimed.