Take Off

Khan skipped over the useless memories, instead he focused on their travels through the unknown region. He watched as they navigated past one anomaly after another until an unknown ship appeared in their sights.

Just waiting for them after they exited hyperspace.

A long cylindrical-shaped battleship decked out with turbo lasers. While this ship didn't open fire, it frightened them beyond belief. They were forced to go off their planned route and ended up here.

While the Rodians didn't know about the ship, he recognized it as a Chiss vessel. This indicated they ran quite far before crashing.

Finding no other useful information, he placed his hand on the Rodian's head and sent lightning directly into his body. Steam rose as he was cooked from the inside.

His hands never left as he felt the life slipping from Rodian's body. Controlling someone's mind was just the first step, he wanted to control the midi-chlorians in their body as well. Something that would give him complete control over their life or death.

He's done extensive research on animals and his own body over the years. Midi-chlorians are more than just a link to the force, they're also linked to a person's spirit.

When something dies, the midi-chlorians will leave their body. Through them, Jedi can become one with the force or even send them into someone else's body to take over. If one can force the midi-chlorians back into a body, he can bring them back to life.

He knows it's possible because a Sith will do it in the future.

Even with all his biological knowledge and years of training, he could barely sense the midi-chlorians at the moment of someone's death. He knew it was due to his lack of knowledge on the dark side and even the force itself, another reason to leave this planet.

Doing the same thing with the other two Rodians, he took the holsters from their waist and grabbed their pistols from the ground.

After he equipped two for himself, he walked inside the ship.

Inside, Belia had striped paneling from the walls, floors, consoles, and ceiling. Every useful part had been removed and set aside.

"Find all the functioning parts SB-21, you never know when we'll need them." Half of Belia's body was inside a wall, leaning on a box to gain better access to the hyperdrive.

He noticed Belia's leather wrappings had hiked up. Exposing her bottom for the world to see. The Shi'ido don't wear undergarments, they barely wore clothes in the first place; Anything restrictive interfered with their shifting abilities. 

Their privates are normally covered by their own ability, If they wanted to, they could make their skin take on the appearance and texture of clothing. Because they only took on the appearance of humans recently, Belia had not fully adapted.

As much as he wanted to sneak up behind her and slip into her warm pocket, now is not the time. Even if he hadn't slept with a woman in over a hundred years.

"How's the flux capacitor? If it's not too damaged I can try and repair it." Khan walked behind her, his eyes lingered on her plump bottom for a moment before looking inside the wall panel.

Belia turned her head and revealed her dusty face. A brilliant smile bloomed as she held out her hand, a small dial with a rotating needle sat on her palm. 

"Successfully acquired, no damage whatsoever. SB-21 also found a lot of useful stuff, we should be able to finish the holographic display and upgrade the power converter. The one we have now is old, the rate of transmission is bad."

"I also think we can disassemble this whole hyperdrive and upgrade ours. It might take some more time, but the ship will be more stable." She reported everything she found with a look of joy on her face.

"I'm not surprised, the parts we used are from ships hundreds maybe even thousands of years old. We can upgrade a lot of things with these newer parts. At least we won't have to scrape off the rust and moss." Khan grabbed the flux capacitor and studied it carefully.

"It should fit after a little modification."

"Don't look down on me." Belia held up another part. "This connector has the same socket as the hyperdrive we assembled. That's if we don't rebuild the whole thing." She placed the connector in his hand and continued disassembling.

Khan sighed, he can already see an inkling of the Sith Lord who created the dreadful Technobeast. Her affinity with machines may be above his own. He's already taught her most of his technical knowledge and she absorbed it like a sponge.

While her talent in biology is weaker, the mind of a woman who created a virus that turned flesh into machine cannot be underestimated.

His eyes turned to SB-21 who was also stripping parts with its mechanical legs. He noticed everything was under control and carefully placed the parts with other useful components. Instead, he decided to look through the crew's personal effects.

"Well, you continue taking apart the ship, I'm going to look for any useful supplies not hidden behind a panel."

"You could help too!" Belia's muffled voice came from inside the wall.

He pretended like he didn't hear, the tech in this ship no longer interested him. He's already designed better equipment in the Habitat, only limited by parts to finish his work.

Looking around he realized the ship seemed bigger outside than inside, mostly due to the heavy armor plating.

Only a small cabinet acted as the captain's private space, the others had to sleep on the floor.

Their personal things were kept in a storage chest, one of which Belia is using for support. He ignored their clothing and instead pulled out any data pads or electronic equipment.

The boards, circuits, and memory cores can be used to make other things.

After pulling out all the useful stuff, he climbed down a small ladder to the cargo hold below. While dark, he can see that a majority of the ship was built just to store more stuff.

Boxes were scattered everywhere. Most of them were empty, but a few contained power cells for the ship and pistols. As well as some Orveth gas cartridges for their weapons and a little hypermatter for the hyperdrive.

Seeing nothing else of note, Khan floated the boxes back up top and climbed back up. He started moving everything out of the ship while SB-21 and Belia continued their dismemberment.

They knew they had time before the village came to investigate. It took them two hours to reach this area every day with their force-enhanced bodies.

Everything went smoothly, while not as good as Jawas, they got the job done. They worked in tandem to lift all the parts with the force and move toward the Habitat.

The journey was slow so as not to break anything, but they eventually arrived. A circular black ship with four landing gear to keep it upright appeared before their eyes. When they approached, a hatch lowered, revealing the entrance to the ship.

It eased all the way to the ground and turned into a small ramp. Inside was a living area just big enough for two people. All the floor paneling had been removed, exposing all the technical parts of the ship.

In the center was a holographic control chair that controlled the entire ship. SB-21 flew inside and docked atop the projection dome, becoming the core of the ship's computer.

"Habitat online." A synthetic voice came from the walls.

"Get ready Habitat, we should be able to take off soon." Belia grabbed the parts the ship was missing and ran inside.

"Careful, the chance of tripling and damaging the parts is 2.467%."

"Don't be such a downer Habitat, those odds are practically zero." Belia shook her head and began installing the parts.

Khan started loading the spare equipment in the storage locker and cabinets opposite the small kitchen area.

Next to the kitchen is a compartment for the bathroom. It also housed the air and water purifier. Above is a sleeping hang with two beds, the mattress and quilts both being handmade.

While it may be small, this ship was powerful. It had no weapons but was equipped with redundant ray and particle shields connected to different power sources.

A series of small thrusters were located at the back of the ship, arranged in a circle.

By the time he loaded everything on the ship, Belia had installed the new parts.

"Hyperdrive is now online and showing stable." Belia sat in the control chair, the canopy covered her head and projected holographic displays from every angle. "We're good to take off at any time."

She turned to Khan standing next to her, his arms were folded across his chest and his eyes watched the displays.

"Do you want to say goodbye to your parents?" He looked at her face, the joy from earlier had completely vanished with such simple words.

Like everyone leaving home for the first time, a sense of melancholy had set in.

While he's grateful to his parents, he never built a strong connection with them. He could see the struggle on Belia's face as her lips squirmed. Her body moved multiple times before she sat firmly in the chair. 

Belia took a deep breath, the hesitation having completely vanished. She taped on the HUD and the door to the ship closed. "I'm ready, I've prepared for this moment my entire life."

The corners of Khan's lips rose, at this moment he felt unbridled joy. His years of hard work were not wasted.

If she had left to say goodby, he would have struck her down without hesitation. This was his final test for her on this planet, to see if she could truly give up everything for him.

Shi'ido is a species that values family above all else. For him to break his own nature took a lot of effort, let alone Belia. The first day he was born again he already identified the aliens as his parents, even going so far as to think of them as his mom and dad.

He didn't even realize it at that time.

"Set off, our first destination is Rakata Prime." Khan's eyes glowed as he spoke out the name. For years he's waited to speak those words. The force seemed to feel his ambition, his lust for power and knowledge.

At this moment he could sense his control grow and the force seemed to fester around him. He had to restrain himself, an outburst could damage the ship. His body felt like hot oil ready to pop.

"Destination locked, plotting best course based on compiled star maps, optimal route has been selected, hyperdrive coordinates set." Habitat completed a series of tasks in just a moment.

"Take off!" Belia stabbed her hands into two holograms to take control of the ship and twisted. The repulsorlifts activated, lifting the ship off the ground and the landing gears retracted.

Khan watched as all the parts began operating under the floor panels. With a wave of his hand, the stacked panels flew across the ship and moved into place; Truly making the ship complete.

Never before has the force been so easy to use, with a single thought it moved to his will. It dawned on him, the excitement he felt now fueled his control over the force.

Showing that negative emotions weren't the only tool for the dark side, just easier to achieve. After taking note of this discovery, he continued watching the HUD.

The ship lifted higher and higher. While there are no windows, all information is displayed on the HUD surrounding Belia. A series of cameras were installed outside of the ship, removing the weakness of glass.

The ship easily broke through the atmosphere and reached space. The artificial gravity device kicked in and kept everything in place.

After they stopped rising, Belia pushed her hands forward and ignited the thrusters. The ship started moving forward and broke free of the gravity of the planet.

"Jumping to hyperspace in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Belia spread her fingers and the ship shot forward, disappearing into hyperspace.