← Chapters Sector Zero · Part 1
FICTIONAL STORY

SECTOR ZERO

PART 1

Night view of an apartment block, one upper window glowing blue

What if the most unbelievable thing you've ever seen on Instagram… was the one thing you were never supposed to find?

It was late. Leo was on his bed, scrolling through Instagram, the way he did every night.

Leo sits on his bed scrolling his phone at night

Reel after reel. Nothing stuck.

Over Leo's shoulder, an Instagram reel of a huge ice cliff: What lies beyond the ice wall?

An ice wall. Antarctica. He'd seen it before.

He skipped it.

Leo's thumb swipes to another account showing the same coastline
Again?

Another account. The same wall.

Different accounts. Same place.
Close-up of Leo's face lit by his phone, frowning

He should have kept scrolling.

Leo rests his chin on his hand, staring past his phone

Later that night.

Leo at his desk with a map of Antarctica on his laptop
A paused reel beside a coastline photo that doesn't match, a sketch in his notebook

None of it lined up.

Leo rubs his eye at 2:17 in the morning, laptop open
A notebook page of crossed-out coastline sketches with the word WHERE?
Leo phones Uncle Frank from his bedroom

So he called the one person who'd spent his life at sea. His uncle, Frank.

Leo and Frank at the kitchen table, Frank laughing
Leo shows Frank another clip on his phone
A fingertip points at a dark seam between two ice faces on the phone
Frank leans toward the screen, no longer smiling
Close-up of Frank watching the phone, blue light in his eyes, a mug in front
Leo across the table asks Frank what he thinks
Frank sets the phone down and answers
The two sit at the table with the phone between them
Frank gets up, phone in hand
Leo alone at the table, uneasy

Frank made his calls. A captain owed him a favour.

Leo and Frank on the quay looking at the ship Vanguard at sunrise
Several weeks later.
That’s our ship?
That’s Hale’s ship.
Captain Hale greets Leo at the top of the gangway
Hale explains the rules on deck, with Leo and Frank
Cole at the sonar station greets Leo
Elena secures a sample case while Leo helps
Ines checks her medical bag and questions Leo
Hale briefs the crew on deck while Frank stands apart
We have a stretch of coast to survey.
We look. We record. We come home.
And the ice-wall stories?
We’re going to see for ourselves.
A mooring rope slips off the bollard as the ship leaves
The Vanguard sails out of the harbour at sunset
You really think we’ll find it?
I think you should get some sleep.

Further south.

The ship climbs a dark swell under a grey sky
Leo braces on deck in the spray as Frank pulls him inside
Ines hands Leo a towel on the bridge
Leo and Elena at a bridge window in fog

Then the fog began to thin.

A huge ice face emerges from the mist above the tiny ship
Captain.
I see it.
Close-up of Leo in cold light, lost for words
Hale and Leo study a chart and Leo's sketch
The ship moves slowly past endless ice cliffs in mist
Hours later.
Nothing on this section.
Through binoculars, a dark gap between ice walls
Leo lowers the binoculars and calls Frank
A narrow channel opens between two colossal ice walls
Slow her down.
Reducing speed.
Cole studies the sonar display
Leo asks Hale if they can get through
Leo holds up his phone against the real cliffs
The ship moves into the channel, mist closing behind
Leo and Frank in the bridge as warm light appears ahead
The ship emerges to a hidden world of forest and mountains
Is this real?

END OF PART 1

TO BE CONTINUED