Chaos' Heir

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 metal 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 development had finally arrived.

"Can you see me?" 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 same 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 meet us," Khan explained. "One of them will switch with me 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 confirmed. "I'll meet 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 time 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 something similar, but he felt the process had been faster now.

'Up,' Khan thought, and his body slowly rose without breaking his sitting stance.

More mental 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 become a natural habit, too. It would be easier to apply it to his techniques if he did, and he couldn't find a better method 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 something 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 some time 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 metal floor while running mental simulations. 'How do I approach this?'

Khan was obviously planning to start studying the torrent of foreign memories 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 seemed to belong to a different life, Khan had explored mental training techniques. That had mostly been to wield his element, 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 mental techniques on and off the market. There was a chance one of them would work, but that would mean approaching the issue through human methods.

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 memories belonged to that realm, so Khan needed something equally profound.

'I have to do this as a shaman,' Khan realized, shaking his head to mock himself.

Khan's achievements in alien fields and arts were by no means 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 some that might.

Some 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 method had already worked, and Khan didn't know what else could.

The unwillingness remained, and some 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 memories.