Chapter 2: Null And Void
Piper stood together with Leo, arms wrapped around each other in the dimly lit cathedral, with the sunshine partly coming through the tainted windows.
"We could still orb away, there's no point," Paige reminded them. The places of worship all over the world have been set on fire as if by remote control, there was no alien to fight. Being considered the less significant race, with humankind, they didn't even bother taking all churches. Their potent energy weapons have drawn energy from the altars themselves, as if violating the power of faith itself, turning one of humankinds' finest weapon against itself. They have crossed paths with the Idegens a number of times, managing to escape them with a hair's breath on every occasion. They witnessed the city being destroyed before their eyes, along with several other towns and localities.
Piper freed one hand, only to wrap it around her approaching sisters, pulling the other three people closer, idealess about what they could do.
"Cole. Maybe Cole knows something," Phoebe said unconvincingly, hoping he was alive for the reason that he had researched the Idegens for longer.
Suddenly a globe of electrical energy appeared in front of them. They stepped back while the sphere stretched out, knowing what was to come. A limb transpired from it, preceding by the whole revoltingly shiny body of the alien, still protected by its globe. One tentacle sneaked out again, distended abruptly, touching Phoebe with it. The next moment both the Idegen and their sister was gone.
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For a second Phoebe considered the possibility of the Elders somehow interfering and taking her up with them, because there was whiteness all around her. Some initiative from them would have been well overdue. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was, shielding her eyes from the brightness. When she peaked out from between her fingers, she distinguished the far away walls of a large room that looked like it belonged on a spacecraft. Her eyes were drawn towards the small dark window, through which she could see the stars, the moon and Earth. She could make out some signs on the walls which might have been letters in some unknown language. Scaring her from behind, one of the Idegens approached, she couldn't tell if she met this one before or not, they all looked the same to her. It stopped a few steps away from her, apparently studying her. Its eyes wee still unmoving, but Phoebe could bet on the fact that she was scoped from inside out.
"We're inviting you to watch the death of your race," Phoebe heard some unarticulated voice in her head that wasn't speaking English, but communicated through hooking into the right synapses in her brain, activating the equivalent of the word it meant to say, "the final countdown for the eradication of all life on your planet commences in a few minutes, you'll see the effect though the porthole."
"Why?" Phoebe faced the alien, angry and indomitable for a last chance, although with her tears at ready.
"There are too many of you. There's only a certain amount of energy available to the whole universe, and with your current rate of development, soon you will take too much of the energy away from us, detrimental to our expansion."
"I can't believe there isn't a way to co-exist..."
"Don't talk about co-existence to me. The two main races of humans and demons can't co-exist on Earth either. We sent our scouts to report back about Earth years ago and you proved that you are not peaceful and were considered a potential threat. There's no turning back now. We've seen the evidence."
"What do you want from me?" Phoebe stood powerless in front of the being's argument, forlorn and shocked.
"Nothing," she felt the other smiling, although it had no mouth it could do it with, "we always keep an exemplar from each race we exterminate, for our museum. You were not our first choice from the humans, it was your president. We like to keep the leaders, they are more interesting for the museum visitors. We choose the leader of the demons as well, and it was him who persuaded us we should take you instead. He convinced us you too were complimentary life forms and represent all Earth together. Is that true?"
"I don't know...me and Cole...once...I suppose," she still only half cried in desperation, she couldn't believe it was all happening.
"Good. It doesn't matter now anyway. There are no other humans to choose from anymore."
Phoebe lifted her head, staring at the view from the window. The planet's blue atmosphere has somehow turned pink and going closer to the window she could see the starship emanating some capsules at it.
"We don't use precious energy, we use a universal poison," the alien explained.
"I don't believe you. What was it with the churches? Why didn't you poison us right away?"
"We didn't know if you could fight back. And we needed to switch you off from the cosmic energy that comes from belief in the spiritual. And if you don't trust me, see for yourself. That what I sense you think of as a window, is a telescope. Use it, it magnifies enough for you to see any street or corner. Find out if anybody is still alive..." The creature rolled up into an energy ball and disappeared. With it, the lights went out too.
tbc