Khan could take the call from inside the reinforced room, but the pile of garbage all over the floor told him that he had gone overboard with his training session. He closed his eyes, calling upon his cells' energy to hover down, and his legs eventually stretched to land on the cold tal surface.
Khan activated the cleaning robots before heading to the bridge, sitting on the pilot's seat to review the latest updates. Everything was proceeding smoothly, but a significant developnt had finally arrived.
"Can you see ?" Khan asked after accepting the communication and opening a channel.
"Yes, Prince Khan," The man on the other side of the ship's speakers announced. "We should reach your position within an hour."
"How many ships did you bring?" Khan questioned.
"Four of the Nognes family's fastest ships, My Prince," The man replied.
"Leave one with the White Mouse crew," Khan ordered. "The others can continue hurrying to Coravis. I'll do the sa in the opposite direction."
"Yes, My Prince!" The man declared, and Khan closed the channel to contact the ship following behind.
"Clifford?" Khan called once the channel opened.
"My Prince, what is it?" Clifford responded, the robotic voice coming from the speaker conveying his surprise about the sudden call.
"My family's initial forces are about to et us," Khan explained. "One of them will switch with and play the escort while I fly at full speed to Nott Station."
"Is our destination still Nott Station, My Prince?" Clifford asked.
"Yes," Khan confird. "I'll et you there once you arrive."
Khan closed the communication, and the announced encounter happened in the following hour. His scanners spotted four small but fast ships directly in front of him, flying in his opposite direction, and he waited for one to replace his role before stepping on the pedal.
It would have taken Khan little more than two weeks to reach Nott Station at that speed, but he had no ti to waste. Pushing his vehicle to its limits would cut that period in half, and Khan didn't hesitate to do it.
After the scanners lost track of the Nognes and White Mouse's ships, Khan returned to his training mindset, planning to make full use of the remaining trip to Nott Station.
Khan checked his palms. Blood still lingered on them, but wiping it with his thumbs uncovered perfectly intact skin. The previous injuries had closed, leaving no trace of their existence. His evolved body had already been able to achieve sothing similar, but he felt the process had been faster now.
'Up,' Khan thought, and his body slowly rose without breaking his sitting stance.
More ntal orders followed, and Khan's body complied, moving on its own while floating through the ship's air. Khan adjusted his stance, standing straight, but only relied on his cells' energy to navigate himself through the vehicle.
Flying had been no different than walking or slithering for the Great Old One, and Khan wanted that ability to beco a natural habit, too. It would be easier to apply it to his techniques if he did, and he couldn't find a better thod than relying on it during his daily life.
Even after floating toward the reinforced room, Khan planned to remain true to his initial intentions. He unlocked the entrance and sealed himself inside, slowly descending toward the now-clean floor. Khan wouldn't train with his newfound abilities anymore, but staying still had never been his style, and he had sothing else to explore.
Truthfully, Khan was hesitant about that idea, and the ship wasn't the right place to approach it. Yet, it would take him so ti to return to a planet since much required his attention, and he couldn't spend that period standing idle.
Besides, if Khan lost his sense of self again, he preferred to do it in the middle of space, far away from anything he could hurt. The dark expanse wasn't as deadly as before for Khan, but it would eventually kill him, and he wanted to use it as his insurance.
'Now,' Khan thought, sitting cross-legged on the tal floor while running ntal simulations. 'How do I approach this?'
Khan was obviously planning to start studying the torrent of foreign mories in his brain but didn't dare to take the matter lightly. He would also prefer to avoid exploding into a mass of thundering sparks to recover his sense of self, but his options were limited.
Years ago, in a past that seed to belong to a different life, Khan had explored ntal training techniques. That had mostly been to wield his elent, so he had abandoned them after Ecoruta, but his shallow knowledge had remained.
Moreover, Khan wasn't as limited as before. He only had to ask, and his family would provide the best ntal techniques on and off the market. There was a chance one of them would work, but that would an approaching the issue through human thods.
Over the years, Khan had widened the gap with humankind, losing trust, a sense of belonging, and a connection with his species. Nothing human had ever worked with him anyway, and his mindset had only grown more monstrous. The Great Old One's mories belonged to that realm, so Khan needed sothing equally profound.
'I have to do this as a shaman,' Khan realized, shaking his head to mock himself.
Khan's achievents in alien fields and arts were by no ans small, but he still felt unworthy of the title of Shaman. He knew a lot and wielded all kinds of abilities ordinary soldiers could only describe as magical. Yet, Khan lacked a proper foundation.
Khan's thoughts went over his version of the Thilku runes. They were his most flexible shaman ability, but the mind was ethereal. His symbols couldn't touch it, and he couldn't imagine creating so that might.
So unwillingness spread in Khan's brain. He truly didn't want to rely on that to keep his sense of self grounded in reality. It didn't feel fair, especially after Monica, but that thod had already worked, and Khan didn't know what else could.
The unwillingness remained, and so guilt also joined it, but Khan eventually pressed on the floor, activating specific functions. The training room had scanners, and Khan pointed them at his right shoulder, making them record a particular symbol.
A few commands later, the reinforced wall before Khan lit up, showing what the scanners had recorded. A bigger version of his tattoo shone before him, and he fixed his eyes on it while diving into the foreign mories.
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