Chapter 19: It's Alive!
Khan went straight to his laboratory on the third deck. He needed to do something about his wound. He could feel the seared flesh filled with metallic slag stored in his body. It constantly pulsated and sent waves of pain throughout his body.
He thought about it more as the elevator rose. Determination flashed through his eyes and he decided not to fix it, a constant reminder of his own failure. The continual throbs a signal not to lose himself in battle.
He cleared his mind, he knew Habitat still needed a few days to survey the gas giants. Now was a perfect time to start his own experiments.
Exiting the elevator he appeared in a small corridor. The door in front of him led to the lab, the door to the right was his room, and the door to the left belonged to Belia. He didn't go to his room and went straight for the lab.
His lab had almost everything he could dream of. The space was a few hundred meters long and wide, it even had plenty of space to add more equipment in the future. One of his goals was to add a cloning facility.
Inside, he saw his four prisoners strapped to a table. Needles were inserted into their bodies to keep them sedated. Sheva was floating in a Kolto tank with a respirator and Vala's severed arms were in a small tank near her.
They've all had their clothes removed and discarded. Khan first removed his armor, handing it to one of the many lab droids to take to his room.
Wearing a tight bodysuit, he clipped his lightsaber to his waist and put on a lab coat. He walked over to Vala, his finger ran from her toe, up her thigh, across her chest, and stopped when he rubbed her lips.
His brows furrowed, he rubbed his finger against his thumb and scanned her body. "Strange, I thought it was some sort of illusion but this is really her skin."
He clicked on the table and a hologram of her status appeared. His eyes scanned the data and stopped when he saw the age of her cells. "She really is over two thousand years old, but her cells have the vitality of a woman in her thirties?"
His eyes were practically glowing when he saw that data. His hand stroked her face like he was touching the most precious treasure. "How did you do it?"
He wanted to rip the secrets from her head, but she was just as strong in the force as he was. He saw her arms out of the corner of his eye and a new idea popped into his head.
"Prepare my tools for surgery, I'm going to remove her limbs." Khan ordered a droid near him who immediately went to get the tools.
They also brought a few small kolto tanks to store her parts in.
Khan put on a face mask and started with her left leg. He rotated her hips a bit and made an incision on her inner thigh. As he moved, he weaved her arteries and veins together so her blood could continue to flow. He didn't want to kill her, at least not yet.
He carefully preserved the nerves, tendons, and muscles as he removed her leg from the thigh. Once he was done with her left leg, he placed it in a kolto tank and removed the rest of her left arm from the shoulder.
While he worked on her arm, a droid moved in behind him to work on her wound. It attached a mechanical port to her hip and wired her nerves into it. This way, he can directly attach a prosthesis to the connector later.
When Khan was operating on Vala, Belia was in the training room fighting a droid. After the drone recorded Khan and Vala's battle, it could replicate her moves. While not as fast or strong as Vala, the droid still posed a problem for her.
Unlike Khan who can draw power from the dark side to grow stronger in battle, she had to rely on her skill alone.
It took Khan a few hours to remove all her limbs, but the operation was a success. Next, he opened her skull and began attaching probes to her nerves.
When all the probes were connected, he extended his hand. Red tendrils bore into her exposed brain and began dominating her will. Her force potential was greatly diminished with the loss of her limbs, giving him the edge.
The computer recorded all her brain activity as he invaded her memories. Giving an occasional shock to reduce her resistance as well.
Finally, he gained access and found what he was looking for. Vala found an ancient Sith ritual that allowed one to gain the lifeforce of their descendants. She had to build the altar and have her descendants of pure blood kill each other.
The closer they're related to you, the better the effect. That's why she had her children inbreed. The ritual allowed her to rejuvenate from a woman close to death back to her prime.
The only problem was she didn't wake up and years continued to pass.
"Is it possible the ritual went wrong? Or maybe you need someone else to wake you?" While the ritual is of little use to him, it's still of great reference value.
He continued scouring her memories. His knowledge of the force grew by the second, but he didn't find the sith alchemy or magic he truly wanted. Just a few useless rituals and obscure history.
"It seems like I really have to make a trip to Korriban." Khan withdrew his hand and sighed.
He quickly recovered when he thought of his next experiment. He left his prisoners and went to the robotic section of his lab. He began creating a droid chassis unlike any he's created before.
The first thing he made was the droid's head. The memory core and personality matrix were contained in a sphere. It had mechanical nerves and artificial blood vessels running throughout.
Besides the mechanical brain, the head looked like an empty skull with white teeth. The only other thing he made was an open torso with artificial ribs, a pelvis area, and a neck with a few artificial blood vessels.
He moved the new parts back to his prisoners and began operating. He cut open the mother and began transplanting all of her organs into the chassis. From her lungs, heart, and even her uterus. All her muscles, nerves, vocal cords, arteries, blood vessels, tongue, eyeballs, and ears were transplanted as well.
The chassis acted as nothing more than a container. He attached the mechanical head to the neck of the droid while connecting every nerve and blood vessel.
He took the entire front part of the mother's chest, abdomen, and groin and peeled off her skin, exposing the muscle below. He attached it to the chassis to give the droid its female genitalia.
The only parts of the mother he didn't harvest were her arms, legs, and brain. He removed those and stored them in a Kolto tank.
Next, he took Vala's arms and legs, peeled off the skin and attached them to the chassis. He had to scrape off the cauterized parts of her arms and reattach the muscle, bones, and nerves.
The only part that still looked like a droid when he was done was its steel skull and back.
The next step was one of the hardest. He attached a special cybernetic weave directly to its muscles and tendons to augment her strength. It looked like its entire body was covered in a fishing net.
It used electricity to augment the droids capabilities, powered by a diatium power cell located in its back. When not in use, its natural biorhythm could charge the battery.
It took him three days of nonstop work to complete his operation. The tedious part was making sure the body did not undergo cell death during surgery.
Next, he hooked the droid up to Velancia's body and started transferring her blood. He had to make the droid's heart beat artificially to start circulating the new blood.
When she ran low, he hooked the droid up to the brother and started draining him.
When the droid had the bare minimum amount of blood, he tried starting its heart with a shock. It took a few tries, but the heart started beating on its own.
"Almost completed." Khan took a deep breath. If this can succeed, this was already the realm of creating life.
He started connecting a special synthetic skin he created to the droid. It was made to cover the exposed muscles and prevent scar tissue from growing. The skin had tiny mechanical nerves and capillaries weaved into it. When placed on the muscle tissue it will connect to it and bond.
Eventually, it'll become no different from real skin.
When he was finished, what lay on the table was a beautiful woman with cream-colored skin. Her face was feminine, yet its sharp edges gave her an athletic feel. Her straight nose and long wavy blonde hair made her appear high class, yet her full cherry lips were alluring and sexy.
She was perfect from the top of her head down to her toes. Every part was created according to his design.
He placed his hand on her chest and felt her heartbeat, proving that she was alive. Every beat provided the needed electricity to power the core in her brain, yet he was reluctant to start it.
He didn't want to ruin his perfect creation if he failed.
He took a deep breath and stretched out his hand.
The force seeped into her body, he could feel her life energy and force sensitivity hadn't diminished. He used Mechu-deru and began programming her personality matrix and implanting memories.
He programmed her to be his most loyal apprentice, someone who could never betray him and who he could trust unconditionally.
When he finished, he dropped his hand and waited.
A few seconds passed with only the hum of the machines to fill the silence. Just when he thought he failed, her eyes quivered.
She slowly opened her green eyes and looked around. When she tried to move she paused. "Pain receptors are through the roof, if I move I'll aggravate my injuries." Her voice came out a little hoarse.
"I just put you together, your muscles are being held together by pieces of string. Spending time in Kolto tank will speed up your recovery." Khan pressed down on her chest to prevent her from moving.
"Master!" A look of reverence appeared in her eyes.
"Don't speak, you'll tear your vocal cords." He picked up his new Apprentice and carried her to a Kolto tank. He walked up the ramp and put an oxygen mask on her face before he dropped her in the tank.
He clenched his hand, remembering the feel of her flesh that felt no different than a human. She is even capable of having children.
She can no longer be considered a droid, but a cyborg. A mixture of flesh, blood, and machine.
"Meditate my Apprentice, feel your connection to the force." Khan placed his hand on the tank with fiery eyes.
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