Soon, the two guards escorted Amir to a room. It was furnished like a standard officer's cabin: a single bunk in the corner, a simple desk layout, and a narrow fresher. Everything reminded Amir of his time at the Military Academy.
John Morley left, leaving the agent and the security droid to stand guard outside the door.
Amir knew he couldn't walk out of here easily.
Without acting rashly, Amir first pretended to casually observe his surroundings. After checking twice, he spotted two very well-hidden cameras.
Someone would be watching him constantly.
So, Amir reached his hand into a spot blocked by his clothes, allowing the spider droid to return to his wrist gauntlet from a camera blind spot. Now was not the time to check the data.
To avoid arousing suspicion, Amir acted like a normal prisoner. He walked around, picked up a data-book lying on the table, and began to flip through it casually.
The book contained the project's basic information, its mission statement, and a list of some of its achievements.
The mission statement was filled with grand rhetoric, and Amir read it carefully for a while. As for the achievements, Amir could only laugh inwardly. Although much was written, there were basically no tangible results listed.
But it was enough to fool ordinary people.
After a quick skim, Amir lay down on the bed, pretending to want rest but appearing restless and uneasy.
. . .
Surveillance Room
Gideon looked at the monitor in front of him, a cold smile on his lips.
"Sir, the indoctrination specialist is ready. When should we send him in?"
"No hurry. Let the child rest a bit first. He must still be feeling a little nervous," Gideon said, his words benevolent but his tone mocking.
"Yes, sir."
"Have the analysis results come out?" Gideon continued to ask.
"The preliminary results are in. The M-count in Subject Zero's blood far exceeds the other test subjects. The final result may exceed our theoretical upper limit."
"Heh." Gideon laughed softly. "Take him for a physical function check tomorrow. All test subjects implanted with the same DNA fragments as him have shown uncontrollable physical aberrations. We need to find out what makes him different."
"Yes, sir."
"How much longer to completely decode his DNA?"
"About a week."
"A week... that's acceptable. We've waited this long; this bit of time is nothing. The Inquisitors will be here soon. You arrange their contact with Boris."
"Yes!"
. . .
Amir's Quarters
A knock came from the door. Amir stood up from the bed.
"Your meal." A medical droid Amir had seen in the lab delivered his dinner.
"Thank you."
Taking advantage of the moment the door was open, Amir glanced outside. As expected, the security droid and the agent were still standing guard.
Taking the tray, Amir calmly walked back into the room and began to eat silently.
He devoured the plate of flavorless nutrient paste, took a sip of water, and walked toward the room's attached fresher.
Closing the door, Amir first scanned the small space.
Based on his experience, there were no cameras in here.
He quickly pulled up the data stolen by the spider droid on his wrist display.
He browsed through it roughly. There was nothing too deep.
Important research data would have heavy encryption locks. Unless one had high-level access keys, it could only be cracked with time and technical skill. Even if Amir was confident he had the ability, it would take too long.
All that was stolen was the ship's basic defense layout, the locations of various sections, and the lab's daily logs.
After memorizing the defense map and understanding which areas of the warship were more heavily guarded, Amir looked at the section locations and names.
One name instantly caught his attention.
"Rest Area . . ."
And next to the Rest Area was the Training Area.
Researchers and Imperial soldiers wouldn't live there. Amir had been on warships before; crew lived in dormitories closer to the upper levels. This cruiser also had a standard crew deck. That made this specific "Rest Area" very noteworthy.
After confirming its location, Amir walked out of the fresher. The whole process didn't take long, so it wouldn't arouse suspicion.
In a camera blind spot, a spider droid quietly detached and slipped into a ventilation duct.
Some time passed. Just as Amir was sitting on the bed thinking, the door opened again.
This time, an Ithorian in a long white robe entered.
His hunched back and hammer-shaped head made him look physically odd to humans, but his overall demeanor was very imposing, radiating a calmness that made one feel an urge to trust him.
Amir immediately fortified his mental shields.
The Force...
Amir felt the energy the Ithorian was emitting approaching his consciousness.
"Ooomm~Soo~Tuu-aww~~"
The mouths on both sides of the Ithorian's long neck, located on the sides of his head, produced sound simultaneously. The stereo-effect created a strange resonance. Although the voice was deep and rumbling, Amir recognized it as Basic.
"Hello. I am Tulio."
"Next, I will be the one to introduce you to the content of our experiment, and your future work."
After getting used to the dual-throat resonance, Amir heard his meaning clearly.
"Of course."
"This experiment was established even before the Empire was founded. We don't just have this ship; we also have a complete planetary base. But in the early days, it was just us, working in obscurity. It wasn't until after the Empire was founded that we received massive support—money, instruments, and test subjects. After that, our project developed rapidly. Because the experiment has the support of the highest levels of the Empire, it has extremely high priority."
After he finished that last sentence, Amir felt a sudden sense of agreement with the experiment welling up inside him.
This experiment has high-level support; it will definitely develop well. I should be part of it.
But this feeling was extinguished by Amir the moment it appeared.
"And you, Amir, are our most important piece. Your body gathers all the results of our early research. You are the first. We succeeded. You have an extremely high adaptability to the Force, far exceeding any other data we have recorded in the years since."
That feeling again. It was familiar...
Amir suddenly realized the source of this familiarity: a Jedi Mind Trick!
Although it was similar, there was a clear difference. A Jedi Mind Trick makes others produce strong, short-term hallucinations or compulsions, causing mental confusion to make them execute the idea the practitioner "gave" them.
But this Ithorian was using it differently.
He was continuously using the Force to "wash away" Amir's inherent understanding of certain concepts, making Amir's consciousness unstable. Then, he subtly used his soothing voice and projected consciousness to "reshape" that impression.
There was no brute-force mental invasion, so it was difficult to trigger subconscious resistance. At the same time, his unique, muffled pronunciation forced people to focus intently on listening to him.
By the time Amir had followed his rhythm and listened carefully, the seeds of brainwashing would already be planted.
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