How terrifying, Amir thought to himself.
The Jedi mind trick usually only worked on those with weak wills, but this method could, without any active defense, subtly influence anyone.
It was like boiling a frog in lukewarm water. Even for a person with a strong will, a certain thought in their mind could be continuously eroded by this psychic stream until it was reshaped into the form the manipulator desired.
If Amir hadn't been wary of him from the very beginning, he might just have assumed this Ithorian was giving a normal explanation. Influenced by the unique vocal cords, he would have focused on deciphering the words, and thus would have been unknowingly brainwashed.
After understanding this, Amir maintained an outward appearance of listening intently, but in his consciousness, he began to focus on resisting the influence.
Fortunately, once the principle behind this technique was understood, it was no longer a threat.
Even so, Amir still listened carefully to the Ithorian's words, extracting anything that might be useful to him.
To brainwash someone, pure empty talk wouldn't work. Only by mixing in some real, practical information within the long-winded promises could one be convincing.
"You must have seen the other children who also live here. You don't need to worry about them. Most of the researchers here and I have watched them grow up. They, like you, are all our children. Outside of the experiments, we lead them in their studies, give them a comfortable living environment, ample food, and rich entertainment."
I'll believe you, my ass. Imprisoned on this cramped ship, conducting human experiments. Is this how you treat your 'children'?
Amir forcibly suppressed his disgust and continued to listen.
"Let's talk about our achievements. As early as ten-plus years ago, we had collected tens of thousands of gene sequences from Force-sensitives. Deciphering them cost countless amounts of energy, but we finally completed it. By comparing and analyzing these tens of thousands of gene sequences, we finally found the fragments that all Force-sensitives have in common, but which ordinary people rarely possess."
Before I was born... At that time, the Clone Wars hadn't even started, and the Jedi Order still held strong influence in the galaxy. They had already begun searching for the genes of Force-sensitives... I wonder if the source was Force-sensitive children or captured Jedi.
"From the initial screening, we found hundreds of thousands of fragments. Undoubtedly, most of them were invalid junk DNA. We had to find the truly useful fragments among them."
"After another long year of comparison and screening, we discovered a large number of common gene fragments that had not been found before. These were not recorded in any gene banks of the past. In addition, we eliminated almost all meaningless sequences. These achievements alone were enough for us to shake the entire academic world, but none of us cared about these empty honors."
"In the end, we obtained a total of 5,342 gene sequences."
"To verify these sequences, we cultivated a large number of clones. We continuously added and adjusted different fragment combinations for each of their individual genes, and tested the Force perception of the clones produced by various combinations."
"After a massive number of experiments, we finally derived the top one hundred combination methods that could significantly enhance an individual's perception of the Force. But in clones, editing genes always led to physical deformities and an unknown phenomenon that caused a significant shortening of their lifespan. To exclude the influence of clones' accelerated growth on the experimental results, we conducted the final experiment."
Amir's face was expressionless, but his heart was already in turmoil.
In this Ithorian's calm narration, every sentence represented thousands upon thousands of innocent lives. Clones were lives, too. Other than being cloned, they were no different from normal people. But in the eyes of these researchers, clones were just cheap consumables. Perhaps in these people's eyes, life was no longer life, just experimental subjects, no different from chemical reagents.
At the very least, the Ithorian in front of him believed this from the bottom of his heart. Amir could even sense that, in his indifferent consciousness, Tulio would sacrifice his own body for the experiment at any time.
"We selected the genes of one hundred different Force-sensitives and completed a two-year cultivation and development process in an environment that perfectly simulated a womb. But no miracle occurred. Their situations were mostly the same as the clone test subjects, with huge defects. Only two test subjects barely survived, but neither of them managed to last very long."
"We all thought there were only one hundred test subjects. Facing failure, we were almost in despair. But in reality, there were one hundred and one. Boris secretly cultivated you. After nine months, you were successfully 'born.' You were extremely weak, almost dead."
"But Boris hid you. He didn't ask for our help. When the war reached our base, he found an opportunity and secretly ran away with you."
"He gave up the hope of us saving you, yet you still survived! You can't imagine what kind of miracle this is!" Tulio suddenly became agitated, and even his muddy, vibrating voice became higher-pitched.
"We found Boris's research data and tried to replicate his experiment. He was our leader. He had the deepest understanding of the experiment! We wanted to find clues from his work, to try and imitate it, but without exception, every attempt failed!"
"You are a miracle, Amir! You are the chosen one! You are the only hope for our experiment!!"
Tulio became increasingly agitated and wanted to continue, but he suddenly shuddered. His eyes twitched, as if he had received some stimulus that interrupted his emotional outburst.
Only then did Amir notice a black comms device attached to the Ithorian's auditory organs. It was an earpiece.
The calmed Tulio said, "Apologies, I've said too much. I will come and tell you more detailed information tomorrow."
Amir pretended to be digesting the information, but in reality, he was thinking about what kind of reaction he should give. Tulio's emotions should be able to influence an ordinary person, and everything he had said before would also give an ordinary person a strong sense of identification and mission.
So, Amir raised his head, took a deep breath, and began his performance.
First, he showed the same fanaticism and agitation that Tulio had just displayed, and said goodbye to the Ithorian:
"I understand, Tulio. Thank you for your explanation. I will... seriously comprehend what you have said today."
After speaking, Tulio left the room.
Not stopping, Amir pretended to still be immersed in his emotions. He held out his hands and stared at his own body for a long time, as if pondering his origins, or what was so unusual about his body. After a while, Amir sat back down on the bed and put on the final expression: nervousness mixed with a trace of excitement, excitement suppressing an aspiration for the future, and even a hint of eagerness.
Amir wanted to award himself a little golden statue.
Far away in the command center, Gideon saw this scene on the monitor and nodded in satisfaction.
"Very smooth. After waiting a little longer, he will be ready to cooperate with our experiment."
"Sir, shouldn't we return to the base?" the aide asked opportunely, seeing that Gideon was in a good mood.
"No, no. We wait right here. We'll enjoy the scenery of the asteroid belt. Let that group of Inquisitors enjoy their trip."
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