Chapter 1
It was a beautiful Monday morning. Cars flooded the major roads, their horns occasionally joining the hum of engines. Cyclist weaved through traffic as pedestrians hurried along the path created for them.
For most people, it was the most hectic day of the week. Meetings. Work. School. Appointments. Places to be and people to see. For others, it was simply another ordinary day. Nobody expected anything different. Nobody looked at the sky and wondered if it would be the last time they ever saw it.
Until-
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The sound came without warning. Windows shattered. Buildings trembled. Cars were thrown against one another as the ground violently shook beneath the feet of thousands.
For a moment, nobody understood what had happened.
Then came the screaming.
People ran in every direction.
Smoke swallowed the streets. Cars burned where they had been abandoned. People desperately searched for loved ones while others simply stood frozen, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
There was no distinction anymore.
Adults screamed.
Children cried.
The lucky ones ran.
The unlucky ones-
Well...
They were already dead.
Another explosion rocked the city.
BOOOOOM!
A cloud of dust rose to the sky
People looked upward.
And then they stopped running.
Because something had appeared above them.
Something so enormous that the human mind struggled to comprehend its size.
It wasn’t a plane.
It wasn’t anything humanity had ever built.
A gigantic spacecraft hovered above the planet.
It was so massive that, from the ground, its surface seemed to stretch endlessly across the horizon.
A spacecraft almost the size of Earth itself.
The sky had effectively dissappered behind it.
For several seconds, the entire world was silent.
Then a voice came.
It didn’t come from the speakers
It didn’t coome from the spacecraft.
It simply...
appeared.
Every television.
Every radio.
Every phone.
Every communication device on the planet carried the same voice.
And somehow, everyone could understand it.
Even though the language was completely unknown.
“Citizens of Blue 106.”
The voice was calm.
Almost unnervingly calm.
“We do not wish to cause you any further harm.”
People stared at the sky.
Some cried inwardly.
Some prayed in their minds.
Nobody dared speak.
“You have thought yourself as unfortunate.”
A brief pause.
“You have blamed one another for what happened.”
Another pause.
“But the truth is simpler”
The atmosphere seemed to grow heavier.
“Your leaders have started a war.”
Silence continued reigning
“They have decided to play smart by dragging things out over the extended period”
A slight pause.
“Our response was not intended to punish your entire population”
The voice became slightly colder
“But you should understand something”
The enormous spacecraft shifted above the planet.
The movement alone caused the clouds beneath to spiral outwards.
“We could have destroyed Blue 106”
A collective gasps spread through the streets.
“We could have erased every city”
“Every army”
A pause
“Every government”
Another pause
“Every living thing”
Nobody moved.
“But we chose not to”
For the first time, something resembling fear entered the heart of everyone.
The voice continued.
“You are not the ones we blame.”
A woman held her child tightly against her chest.
A soldier lowered his weapon.
Everyone listened.
“Your leaders made a decision on behalf of your world.”
“Now...”
The voice paused.
“...you will make one.”
“HUNDRED YEARS”
“We will give you hundred years”
“Hundred years to consider our proposal.”
“Hundred years to decide whether Blue 106 wishes to continue along the path chosen by your leaders...”
“...or whether you will accept ours”
Nobody understood what that meant.
And that was precisely the point.
“If you accept, we will return”
The voice became quieter.
“If you refuse...”
The spacecraft began to move.
Slowly.
Almost peacefully.
“...then you will see us again.”
The sky began to clear as the colossal vessel rose higher.
“And next time...”
A final pause.
“...there will be no mercy.”
The communication ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The spacecraft continued rising.
Higher.
Higher.
Until the impossible object that had covered the heavens began shrinking into the distance.
Then-
It vanished.
Just like that.
The world was left behind.
Burning.
Broken.
Confused.
Millions stood on the streets, staring at the empty sky.
Nobody celebrated.
Noody knew what to say.
Humanity had just been given hundred years to decide its future.
But there was one question that remained unanswered.
What exactly had humanity been offered?
And more importantly...
What would happen when those hundred years was over?
