SAIF

Saif straightened his back, his body was still stiff after the hibernation sleep.

“Admiral Harris, is that Earth?” Saif asked, followed with a long yawn.

Admiral Harris turned in his seat. “Yes. Yes, it is.”

Earth. The crown jewel of mankind, hung in the star chart that was projected on the main view screen. They were still outside its solar system, but only just. The solar system that had acted as human’s cradle and the planet that had been their birthplace. It looked so exposed and vulnerable. If any decently sized rock slammed into its surface, billions would die and the atmosphere shrouded in ash. A good thing their fleet of Navy ships was large, the constellations of weapons platforms were scattered across the system. Stations on or in orbit of every planet. Trading and traveling routes went all across.

Tom brushed by his shoulder.

“Good that you had time to join us, boy,” Saif said, sending a mental command to Tom. “Speak freely.”

“Training is exhausting,” Tom said.

“You need it. Now, shut up,” Said said. “Admiral Harris, take us closer and seek communication with Earth. I want to give them the opportunity to avoid battle.”

Admiral turned back to his bridge crew. “Yes, sir. Move the Synapse into range of Earth.”

Saif felt a new yawn starting by his mouth, but he suppressed it. He had to stay sharp.

The ship shook, Saif stumbling, but he caught his balance against the bulkhead wall. “Admiral, what is happening?”

The ship shook again.

New ships appeared in the main view screen and they were tagged with their ship class specification. American juggernauts and Russian hammers and sickles. Their class definition for dreadnoughts, a lot of them. A sick feeling rose in Saif’s stomach.

“What is this? Admiral Harris, answer me!” Saif yelled.

“They were stealthed,” Admiral Harris said.

Another tremble shook the ship.

The main view screen changed. Two men appeared. Putin the 21th and Commander Jackson.

“How can this be?” Saif asked. “We killed you. I killed you.”

Putin the 22th laughed. “You are the one getting killed. Yebat’ tebya! Fuck you!”

“I concur, my Russian friend,” Commander Jackson of the American fleet said.

A new window expanded on the side of the main view screen. One of Saif’s dreadnoughts had exploded. Nuclear. Was the Americans’ nuclear manifestee also still alive? Vault the hurdle.

Sweetness rushed into Saif’s mouth. He had to do something. He dove out from his body and looked. But the American and Russian ships were too far away. How could they have known the distance his manifestation was limited to? He returned to his own body.

“Admiral, open fire! Nukes, railguns and lasers. Give them all!” Said yelled. He turned to Tom. “Boy, get to work. Win this battle.”

The ship shook again.

The Americans and Russians had been enemies for generations. How could this be?

“Tom, deflect those railguns!” Saif said.

How was Putin the 22nd alive?

Tom’s face tensed up, as if he fought something. Like Saif’s control.

That was why.

Sweetness rushed into Saif’s mouth and he dove away from his body and into Tom’s mind. The boy’s stream became distinct, there was massive degradation on the vines that should have kept him in check. It also looked as if the vines had been moved, especially moved away from his central cluster. Saif formed a new set of seeds and chose where to pla… Saif was flung out from Tom’s mind and back into his own body.

A headache bloomed behind his temples. “What have you done? How, Tom? How?” Saif asked, stepping back from the boy.

“You think you are so damn clever,” Tom said, his face was contorted with strain.

Saif backed into the bulkhead wall, he needed to stall and to figure out how to turn the situation. “You have learned a new attribute and you have kept it from me. You can shove my control aside. You shoved Putin away and kept him alive. And I expect the Americans’ nuclear manifestee is also out there, blowing up my ships. Very clever.”

Tom raised a palm towards him. “You are ended.”

Tom flipped his hand, as if to snap Saif’s neck.

Saif felt nothing. His head was still attached to his body and his neck whole. Some of the vines were still limiting Tom. “You cannot interact with me directly and I cannot control you. I don’t think you can interact with my soldiers either.” Saif turned to Admiral Harris. “Kill the boy. Shoot him.”

Admiral Harris pulled his sidearm, but his head exploded.

Shani Achebe and a warband of the Zulu tribe stormed into the bridge, their laser rifles spewing beams of red death.

Saif ducked behind the Admiral’s seat. Laser beams impacting inches from him. He sucked down more sweetness and dove into the African warlord’s mind. Her thought stream appeared, and its vines were as degraded as Tom’s.

Saif was flung away from Shani’s mind and right back into his own body. He leaned against the Admiral’s seat. The officers around the bridge were all dead.

The seat was pulled off the floor, having some of the floor plating still stuck to it. Saif dodged to the side, but something protruding from the seat caught him, cutting a gash across his face. Blood trickled down his face, the pain made it hard for him to think. Tom had been able to circumvent the control.

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“Your campaign, your reign, ends now,” Tom said, turning to Shani. “Shoot him.”

Saif ducked into the hole where the Admiral’s seat had been bolted. His knees buckled as he landed. But he ignored the pain and got up to his feet. He ran as fast as his legs carried him. Rachel would be in her quarters, he needed her now, more than ever. Or everything would be lost.

“Not again!” Tom’s voice echoed through the corridor.

How could Saif have missed Tom’s work in the background. The boy had been able to move all the pieces into place without Saif barely suspecting anything. The boy had also been able to learn how to shove mental control aside. This hurdle might just be the end of them. His breathing turned into panting, he was not used to physical challenges this draining.

-

Saif sent a command ahead of his arrival, preparing Rachel. The bulkhead door to her quarters was open. He rushed inside.

Saif stepped up to her. “Rachel, my face is bleeding. It is making my head hurt. My control is dangling by a thread.”

He hesitated. Sweetness flooded his mouth, his mind darted out to hers. He yanked down more of their recent thoughts and studied them. Their linings looked alright, owning the traits they usually owned. The vines clasping onto her thought stream looked healthy. Tom had not shoved and damaged them. He pulled out and returned to his own body.

“Go ahead, Rachel,” Saif said. “Heal me and help me solve this. We need a plan.”

Rachel raised a palm towards him, but didn’t put it on him. Which was needed for her manifestation to work on him. “I don’t know, dear. Maybe this is not a good idea. You did seed me, remember?”

“Saif, it is over.” Tom stepped into the room.

An invisible force shoved Saif away from Rachel and pushed him up against the bulkhead wall. Tom had been able to remove the last of Saif’s control, the last of vines had finally broken.

Saif blinked in confusion, returned and the sweetness retreated. “How are you doing that?”

Tom waved a hand towards Rachel. “I have grown beyond you. I am unseating you.”

Rachel’s face contorted with anger. “Saif, you fucking lunatic. Why did you have to seed my mind?”

This was it. He had no out, no trick left in his sleeve.

“I have brought your reign to its knees. Your campaign has failed,” Tom said.

Tom started to move his finger and Saif’s head started to turn.

“You will be forgotten in mankind’s history. No one will remember you,” Tom said.

Saif’s head turned, his neck straining.

The trap thought.

Sweetness rushed into his mouth and he dove towards Tom’s mind. The invisible force came at him, pushing away. Saif poured more water into his manifestation and sought forward. He sent the trigger into Tom’s mind just as the invisible force shoved him out of Tom’s mind and returned him to his own body. His neck was not straining anymore.

The trap thought triggered, vines sprouted from hidden seeds and clasped onto Tom’s thought stream. Tom stumbled backwards and Saif landed back on the floor.

“Sleep,” Saif said.

Tom’s eyes grew drowsy, but the boy was not falling asleep fully. He raised his palms.

Saif was pushed back again, he halted when his back met the wall, but he was not pulled off the floor.

Wave after wave of the kid’s invisible force pushed at him. Breathing grew shallow and quick. When his mind moved forward one step, Tom shoved it back one step and one to the side. No progress was made. But the kid could not throw him out completely. A stalemate.

“Sleep,” Saif said, pushing more into his mental commands. Tom wavered, but only for a moment.

Vault.

The.

Hurdle.

“SLEEP!” Saif yelled.

Tom roared and the push against Saif increased tenfold. A drop of blood trickled between the boy’s lips. Tom blood fueled.

The force pushed downwards, from the top of his head. Tom wanted to crush him. He needed to go deeper, to force Tom to divert his attention to his own mind. He sucked down the water with more desperation and pushed the offensive. He reached for Tom’s thoughts, clawing at them. Trying to confuse the boy.

Tom stumbled a step back.

Saif won ground.

“Stop!” Tom said.

But Saif didn’t let his attention break by such childish tactics.

“I will crush her,” Tom said. “I will crush Rachel. I cannot let you live forever.”

Saif looked with his physical eyes. Rachel was on her knees, grunting from the effort. Something pushed her down and hard. He could not let her die. He loved her. But why wasn’t his hook letting him fuel with blood? The love of his life was dying in front of him and just needed to lean into his hook, control, to control, to reach out and win. But it wasn’t working.

Saif’s offense struggled, Tom re-gained control.

Why was it not working?

Saif saw into Rachel’s mind. That particular cluster of thoughts, which controlled her manifestation and soul.

Saif went down on his knees, losing the battle. It was not her he needed to control, it was her manifestation. From theory to conclusion, it clicked.

The world slowed down, transforming before his eyes. All the thoughts lit up like christmas lights, all their properties, meaning and contexts were there. Every mind in the solar system. Simpleton or not, he felt he could control them all. The world sped up again.

The blood deposit snapped into existence, in one moment it became more distinct than the water deposit. He tore into it.

The iron taste of blood rushed into his mouth.

Saif grabbed that cluster inside Rachel’s mind and yanked. She screamed, then Tom’s force crushed her against the floor.

“Down on your knees,” Saif whispered. Tom’s invisible force stopped pushing at him.

Tom’s knees buckled and he landed on the floor.

“Down,” Saif said.

Tom pressed his face against the floor.

“Lower,” Saif mumbled.

Tom pressed his face down harder and his nose broke from the pressure, blood ran across the floor.

“You,” Said started. “You thought, you were so damn clever? You thought that you were the first one to have challenged my control. I am always in control, boy!”

Saif shoved Rachel’s thought cluster into his own thought stream. The cluster’s tendrils reached into his thoughts and memories, integrating itself. The tendrils latched onto his own core cluster. His body trembled, his mind brimming with power. Something took a seat beside his mind control. Something new. He placed a hand on himself and swallowed another gulp of blood. The gash across his face tingled. The bleeding veins sealed themselves, the tissue grew back and the skin knit itself together.

Tom’s eyes widened. Saif felt the anxiety leaking from the boy’s mind. All thoughts were so more vibrant than before.

“You pushed me into becoming something new,” Saif said. “Sleep. I will keep you alive, your own deposits will power your manifestation. For now.”

Tom fell into unconsciousness.

The battle. Saif dove out from his body. The blood surged inside him and all the thoughts in the solar system were at his disposal. He reached out with his hands, touching and rearranging all the thought streams to his liking. Everyone laid down their weapons, stopped in their tracks and straightened their backs. The day was won and Tom’s mutiny had failed.

“My fleet. My army,” Saif said.

Saif returned to his body and let the blood retreat.

His courage slowly faded. He fell to his knees in front of Rachel’s messy corpse. Squashed under Tom’s anger and determination.

“I thought I loved you, I thought I needed to control you,” Saif whispered. “You saved me when my spine broke. You loved me. I controlled you.”

Tears trickled down his face. “But it was your manifestation I needed to control, not you.”

His face sank into his hands. “I will never forget about you. You helped me determine my hook. You helped me learn this. Rachel, in your name I will become the strongest. I will save mankind.”