SAIF
Save the world. Save humanity. Could it be done? The memory Saif had found in General Jacob's mind was etched in deep. Aliens. Real extraterrestrial beings in space. Jacob had been in the command center when the probes had made the discovery. That weird starship didn't look anything close to human designs. Connected clusters of orbs, they looked metallic and made up the entire starship’s oblong shape. A distinct, cold fear crept into his stomach, just like Jacob had felt at that very moment. The probes came to a halt, stopped by an external force perhaps? What else could it be? One probe went dark, the one closest to the alien ship. The orbs grew more distinct, they looked smooth as glass, Saif couldn’t discern any marks or dents in the starship's surface. Or surfaces. Goosebumps rose on his arms and sweat trickled down his neck and back, just as Jacob had felt. Jacob shivered, Saif shivered. Another probe turned offline. The third and last probe was still functioning. That it floated the furthest from the alien ship had to be significant. A symmetrical gap darker than space opened up on the bow of the bubbly starship. Or at least what Jacob thought the bow of the alien vessel could be. Saif already had little knowledge about human starships, but he at least knew that the bow was the front of a ship. The third probe went dark. It was not even his memory, but as Saif closed his eyes to sleep the events unfolded once more, vivid and vibrant.
Morning could not arrive fast enough. There was little point in trying to sleep more. Saif righted himself in the bed and sat up, massaging his back. Pain. He grinded his teeth. Goddamn that woman. With two vertebrae crushed his legs had been robbed from him. World leading doctors within the field stood no chance of repairing him. “Beyond repair” had plagued their thoughts. Useless.
Saif channeled his body’s sweet liquid into his power and dove into the facility’s main chef. A simple sequence of thoughts was injected into the chef’s mind, the man came awake and sought to perform the commands. The non-manifested man provided no resistance against Saif’s will.
Onto today’s agenda. Saif pulled away from the chef and jumped into General Jacob’s mind. Commands were injected and Jacob stirred awake. Saif observed the planted seeds and confirmed that the vines still gripped Jacob’s mind firmly. He studied the clusters of thoughts. No signs of brain damage or behavior deterioration. The seeds had successfully rooted even deeper. All good so far. His subject had survived the transition into Saif’s control. Not everybody did and especially not unpowered people, they were weak minded by nature. It would be interesting to see how Jacob would cope in the long run.
Saif didn’t allow Jacob to eat breakfast in the mess hall today, instead he commanded the man to eat a nutrition bar. Time efficient. Even slaves needed fuel.
General Jacob left the guards’ dormitory, where Saif had commanded him to spend his nights, and walked with laser focus towards Saif’s intended destination. The few staff members Saif kept awake this early in the morning didn’t even look at Jacob. Saif checked their minds briefly as he rode Jacob’s. Mind control could provoke strange, unwanted behavior. But everyone looked alright. No maintenance needed.
Was it wrong of him to rob all these people of their free will, life and family? Absolutely. Saif never hesitated towards that answer. But was it worse than letting humanity be destroyed? No.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Saif whispered.
Proper preparations needed to be made to ensure humanity’s future. Certain experiments necessary. An army to be developed. Someone had to do it.
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General Jacob arrived at the shuttle bay. A few staff members in Navy uniforms were already preparing a shuttle for transport. It would do no harm to ship out the weapons early. The true test of Saif’s dedication and hard work. A handful of human sized hibernation pods were hovered out from the facility, being led up onto the shuttle’s ramp and into its storage. Jacob grabbed the hand railings of one pod and pulled it up the ramp, easy work as the pods floated above the floor. Saif felt the cold chill through Jacob’s hands and glanced through the transparent lid. Elizabeth Shepherd’s face was distinct even with the lid’s icing. Frozen in calm, Saif had never seen her as relaxed before.
“Good luck,” Saif said with Jacob’s voice.
The surprise she would wake up to would be exactly what she deserved for destroying his spine. Had it been cruel to force Elizabeth to beat her own mother to death? Yes. In hindsight a lot of things felt wrong. But in that moment, the rage he had experienced took charge. She had robbed him of his legs and at every possible moment tried to undermine his control. To save the world was a heavy burden, the pressure was mounting on his shoulders and he could not accept such behavior. Failure was not an option.
The scent of breakfast.
Saif pulled away from Jacob’s mind and returned to his crippled body. He sat up in bed in the suite that had once belonged to General Jacob. Door opened and the chef wheeled inside a serving table. A round plate with a domed lid on it. The chef positioned and slid the table across the bed, within reaching distance for Saif.
Breakfast had been consumed and the chef cleared away the serving table, Saif laid down and focused. He jumped back into Jacob’s mind.
The alien starship had been able to slow down the three probes until they came to a full stop. But for a moment they had been able to record and transmit data back to the command center. Then, in sequence, they had turned dark. The closest probe had turned off first and the furthest away the last. It was easy to see that distance to the starship had consequences of this strange weapon. From the third probe he had seen that the probes had not been shot. The weapon was invisible and able to turn off their most hardened electronics. A strong EMP blast? How would it affect our starships and weapons? Saif sighed. If the aliens could turn off all humanity’s machines and weapons there would be no war, only slaughter. But he had one last throw of the dice; maybe the human body went unaffected by the weapon.
Throughout history humanity had never stood united. In times of war some countries would unite against a common enemy. But uniting the entire Earth, The Solar System, planetary colonies and all the space cities? No chance. Mind control could only do so much. To spread his mental seeds among larger populations was possible, but they all needed proper guidance and maintenance from him or they would wither away. To interact with them he needed proximity, which made the task unfeasible. But with some clever tricks and spreading to certain high seated people he had made some progress. If he could not make nations work together at least he could advance humanity’s technology. Every nation had spots of riches, by influencing these people vast amounts of resources were pooled in the different nations and companies to advance certain technologies. Starship propulsion, inertia meshing, flawless hibernation, hardened electronics, many more space cities and planetary colonies established, laser weaponry and the list went on. The progress made in the last few years was unprecedented, but would it be enough?
Saif jumped into Jacob’s mind, the channeled sweetness unmistaken. With time and practise his manifestation felt like an extension of his own body. Thus, the transition from his mind to another’s was made smoothly.
Jacob stood outside a cell. The General placed a palm gently on the scanner. Handprint and DNA confirmed. But not enough. By the click on his hand terminal Jacob sent his personal access token to the scanner. Authorization granted. The cell door slid aside and Jacob stepped inside. Door closed.
Another failure.
A distinct smell of burnt human flesh. The charred corpse sat still in a corner of the cell, black and crispy. Saif sighed and closed his eyes. Not everyone survived having their manifestation brought forward. They had to continue. Hurdles like these had to be vaulted across. Failure was not an option.