22 Talent

The ship started moving without anyone having to do anything. Habitat walked to the kolto tank and placed her hand on the glass.

"I can't feel her."

"I didn't connect her to the network. I didn't know if it would interfere with her trying to sense the force." Khan glanced at Habitat.

"How long will it take to reach the ambush point?"

"Not long, it will take us two days to fly through real space. Then we can finally use the established hyperplanes and our speed will greatly increase."

Khan continued his work after getting the answer. Because Habitat didn't have to be anywhere, she watched him work.

Sheva was getting totally abused by the training droids and Belia was asleep. With everyone doing their own thing, the Prometheus flew through space.

When the next day arrived, he finished with the limbs. Taking them to Vala, he installed them on her connectors and they drilled into her bones. "She's going to need supplements while her bones are being drained of nutrients. Otherwise, they'll become brittle and crack."

"Leave it to me." Habitat acted as his assistant. Getting a kolto bag and setting up an IV drip. After running some calculations, she also increased the dose of her sedatives so she wouldn't wake up.

After seeing the limbs were working properly, he checked his other experiments. He pulled up the display and saw that both eggs had been fertilized.

Based on the cells used, the midi-chlorian count of both should be 15000. The highest it can be with the genes available. Seeing no results yet, he checked to see how his Apprentice's body was healing.

"She should heal fully in a week." He pulled up Vala's brain activity to see if there was anything.

"Nothing?" He looked at his apprentice and frowned slightly. "Failed?"

All the indicators showed the midi-chlorians in her body were fine. Yet he couldn't feel her using the force.

He raised his hand and the force invaded the tank and penetrated her body. He felt two distinct forces in her body. They slammed against each other like crashing waves but never mixing.

He knew these were her two force signatures. An idea suddenly popped into his head. He stretched his other hand towards Vala.

The force invaded her body and began pulling her energy. Instead of taking it himself, he passed it to his apprentice. Her body absorbed the energy like a dry sponge.

One source started overwhelming the other. Instead of mixing, it started surrounding and containing the other.

Khan kept pulling energy from Vala and supplying his apprentice. Just when Vala was bottoming out, and her midi-chlorians were going to start being destroyed, his Apprentice settled down.

One source completely surrounded the other like a cacoon. They could draw upon each other and exchange energy freely.

"What's the difference? Is it because some people have different talents in the force?" His head turned to Vala.

"What is she good at? I didn't see anything from her memory." He shook his head, it didn't matter for now. He didn't even know his own talent and could feel that his Apprentice's body was more at peace.

"Hopefully this helps." Doing all he can, he went to the male Rattataki and started draining the force from his body.

When his midi-chlorians started dying, he felt their changes through the force before continuing. 

The best way to learn to create was to destroy. When he felt like they were about to be destroyed, he'd put some of the drained energy back to see how they recovered.

He kept repeating the process, one hand drained and the other put the energy back. He felt like he was getting closer to his goal of direct control.

Belia walked into the lab and looked around. She hadn't been back here since returning to the ship. When she saw the nude Rattataki clansmen strapped to tables, limbs and a brain floating in a tank, and another strange nude girl she was confused.

She smacked her lips and walked over to Khan. "It looks like you've been busy."

Khan glanced at her and continued his operation. "Yes, I didn't throw myself into a practice room for days. You slept for almost an entire day as well."

"Who's fault is that?" She rolled her eyes, her crotch still feeling sore. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to influence his midi-chlorians. If I recycle his energy, I can bring them close to death and revitalize them a little. There seems to be a limit because they still eventually die."

Belia watched him for a moment and felt what he was doing. She closed her eyes and held out her hand. Nothing happened at first, but eventually, a milky white energy poured from her hand and into his body.

The force flowed through her and began healing the man's injuries. His total midi-chlorian count did not recover, but the ones close to death were revitalized.

Khan's eyes widened in shock. When she finally finished he looked into her eyes.

"Haaaaa." She breathed out a sigh of relief. 

"It worked." A bright smile formed on her face when she saw Khan looking at her.

"How did you do it?" Khan couldn't help but ask.

"I remembered how you passed that lifeforce to me. I remembered how it felt through the force and copied it." Belia shrugged.

"But how did you heal his midi-chlorians."

"Did I do that?" Now it was Belia's turn to be confused. "I just felt he was injured, I saw you practicing force abilities and I figured I could too."

Khan lowered his head and fell into thought. It might be possible Belia had a high force talent for things like healing or maybe things involving life.

While her technovirus wasn't healing anyone, it's not much different. He looked at Belia with fiery eyes. He moved around the table and grabbed her shoulders.

Pulling her in, he kissed her on the mouth. "Belia you're my lucky star."

Before she could answer he kissed her again.

"What's going on Khan, why are you so excited?" She looked at Khan's excited face with rosy cheeks. After yesterday she was feeling quite shy.

As a species that can perfectly control its body, she never felt so out of control. Her body seemed to move on its own and didn't respond to her will.

"Belia I think you have a talent with life. I should have figured it out sooner, we could have trained it more. Especially when you had such a strong connection to the living force."

Khan shook his head. He should have seen the clues, based on her future accomplishments and the fact she wasn't very talented in biology.

Only her talent in the force could match her talent for machines. The two combined to create a terrible Dark Lord of the Sith.

"It's okay." Belia rubbed the side of his head with her soft hand. "It's not too late, we can start now."

Khan saw her brilliant smile and hugged her waist. He kissed her again, this time for longer.

He looked into her violet eyes and determined something. This whole time he's been rushing to get Sith Holocrons but neglected other things that could help them.

"Habitat, change of plans. Our first stop will be the planet Cerea. We'll head there before intercepting a ship." He turned his head and looked at Habitat.

"We were going to pass by there anyway." Habitat simply nodded in agreement.

Khan pulled Belia to the kolto tank. "This is the Apprentice I created. Can you use the force to heal her?"

"Apprentice?" She looked at the girl a little suspiciously. "How did you make her? She doesn't look like a droid?"

Khan just smiled. "Haven't you noticed we're missing a captive?"

"Forget I asked." She shook her head and held out her arm. She remembered what she did before. It took some time, but a milky white energy eventually flowed from her hand and into the tank.

All the indicators showed that his Apprentice's healing had increased.

Belia's face became a little pale and she had to stop. Khan placed his hand on her back and felt her situation. "It seems like it's not without cost, it uses a lot of your energy to heal others."

Everyone can only use the force so much before their bodies get fatigued. Training can increase this limit like a muscle, and those with a high midi-chlorian count can increase it faster and easier.

But once the body starts to decline all your hard work will be for nothing. This gives each person a time limit to improve.

Khan helped her to a chair and sat her down.

"Why do you want to go to Cerea?" She felt a little better and asked what she wanted to know.

"They have something called a kasha crystal. It can help clear your mind and help you meditate. If you install it in a lightsaber it will keep your mind clear in battle. It should be of use to us. I can also install one inside my Apprentice's body."

"Is she really a droid?" She looked at the blonde-haired girl floating in the tank again.

"She's a Cyborg. I want to see if the force requires a living mind to use."

"Her body is alive but her mind is machine?" Belia showed real interest in the girl for the first time.

While Belia rested, Khan tried healing through the dark side. He knew it was possible, but he found it next to impossible. By its very nature, the dark side takes. To want it to give is like swimming against the current.

On the second day, they finally arrived near the planet Endor and its forest moon. He had no interest in landing on the moon, the Ewoks were nothing more than big rats to him.

After launching a quantum satellite, they jumped to hyperspace. On an established hyperplane, it took them less than an hour to reach the Cerean system.