Tulio had completely "opened his heart" and was now very talkative. Based on his past experience, the brainwashing had completely met the standard by now. He could even feel the trust radiating from Amir's projected emotions.
Amir once again planted the suggestions "I love the organization" and "I trust you completely" into Tulio's mind, while inwardly calculating how to continue gathering intelligence.
"What about the other test subjects? Can I meet them and watch their training?" Amir asked, pretending to be casual.
"Most of them are resting now. This was also done to clear out the training ground for you."
As they spoke, the group walked to a wide blast door. A stormtrooper consciously pressed the switch to open it. Two troopers walked in and stood on either side to guard, while the remaining one stood watch outside.
Tulio gestured to Amir and walked in first.
This was a relatively empty room.
The deck was composed of a grid of plates, each about 1.5 meters square. Some of the floor panels were raised, revealing a thickness of twenty centimeters. This indicated they weren't fixed and were likely a type of modular training terrain.
In the corner of the room, many alloy weapons were scattered about. Some were damaged, but even more damaged were the several combat droids piled next to them. A repair droid was busy welding parts back together.
Deeper inside, there were several machines of unknown purpose, but there was one Amir could guess: it looked like a restraint chair equipped with neural stimulation nodes.
Amir closed his eyes and reached out with the Force, extending his perception outwards from himself as the center. He was searching for nearby life forms.
Finally, after expanding his range to about two hundred meters, he sensed them. Besides the people in this training room and 032, there were a total of twenty-one other life forms nearby.
But as he expanded the range of his perception, that strange feeling of unease that hadn't disappeared since the beginning grew even stronger.
Filled with doubt, Amir didn't stop. He reduced the precision of his senses, seeking only range. He continuously expanded the sphere of perception until the Force, acting as his eyes, enveloped half the cruiser.
By this point, he was already straining mentally, but he didn't stop, because the source of that feeling still hadn't been found, and it was growing ever stronger.
He continued to extend, until his perception completely enveloped the ship from bow to stern. Now, the long, cylindrical light cruiser, including a large part of the vacuum around it, was within Amir's perception, albeit only the faintest sense.
Amir's breathing grew short, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
But suddenly, his expression changed.
He saw it! He knew!
This feeling, this uncomfortable aura—it was hunger, anger, and rage! Amir was all too familiar with it. He had just escaped its rampage two days ago.
It was that giant Exogorth!
Why? Why is the cruiser still lingering at the edge of the asteroid belt?
Why is this creature's presence so close?
Amir continued to sense, and suddenly he discovered an anomaly.
Right near him, a dark energy was constantly radiating outwards, transmitting emotions of pain.
It was 032.
This emotion was resonating with the Exogorth, as if they were communicating through the Force!
It was 032 who had attracted the creature!
The Exogorth was definitely extremely sensitive to the Force. Back then, just a slight probe from Amir had awakened it from its slumber.
And the emotions carried by the dark side energy that 032 was unconsciously emitting in his hibernation must have been transmitted and sensed by the beast.
Even a peaceful, Light Side probe could make it rampage; let alone the dark side energy emitted by 032, which carried raw emotions of agony.
It was unknown whether the awakened Exogorth had superior probing abilities or if the signal emitted by 032 had just traveled too far.
It had found him. It had come looking.
At the farthest edge of Amir's perception, a massive tentacle of the giant creature probed the void. In an instant, all those emotions began to assault Amir even more fiercely.
Amir, having reached his limit, immediately retracted his Force perception, emptying his mind to quickly recover his spent mental energy.
But the Exogorth's emotions were hard to dispel. The feeling still lingered in his mind.
In the training ground, Tulio calmly described the equipment. Amir listened quietly, as if neither knew of the chaos about to erupt.
Amir began to adjust the plan he had already made. This operation would have a massive variable due to the monster's arrival.
"It's here!"
In that instant, Amir clearly felt a warning from the Force.
BOOM!
The warship shook violently without any warning. The combat droid fell directly to the deck. Tulio managed to stay on his feet, but it was a struggle, and he looked disheveled.
Amir kept his footing through the sudden lurch. He had already prepared himself.
He stepped forward and steadied Tulio, helping the Ithorian stand firm.
After the first violent shake, the ship stabilized significantly, but it was still shuddering intermittently. The first one must have been the Exogorth's initial impact with the hull. By now, the ship was likely latched onto by the beast.
Red klaxons blared in the ship's corridors. A sense of urgency spread to everyone's heart.
"What happened?!" Tulio cried out.
The stormtrooper at the door rushed in, answering anxiously, "We're under attack by a space creature! It's massive!"
"A space creature! Oh! This damn asteroid belt, we never should have stayed here!"
Amir abruptly turned to the panicking Tulio, waved his hand, and used a Jedi mind trick. "Where is John Morley?"
Through the continuous "boiling the frog" period, Amir had already lowered the Ithorian's mental defenses significantly.
Tulio's eyes went blank. His nervous expression disappeared, and he said calmly, "In the auxiliary lab, debugging the gene-editing sequence."
Amir continued, "You should go find John Morley."
Tulio repeated, "I should go find John Morley."
Amir turned, glanced at the stormtroopers and the combat droid, and walked out. They all heard Tulio's words and offered no resistance, instead continuing to deal with the shaking ship in a panic.
Amir walked out the door and ran down the corridor, the planned route clear in his mind.
He didn't run far before rushing to a door, forcing it open, and shouting inside, "Everyone, to the hangar, now!"
Inside the room were four children of various species, huddled together, unsure how to deal with the tremors. Without time for a closer look, Amir rushed to the next door and repeated the same words.
Five rooms in total. Using Force persuasion to make the children trust him instantly, he gave the order. As expected, the children walked out of their rooms as if by reflex.
One more!
Amir rushed to the room Tulio had pointed out to him earlier. He remembered there were two girls inside, neither of them Force-sensitive, named Mona and Milisen.
But why is there only one life-sign inside?
Amir quickly opened the door and looked in. After scanning the room, he only found one Twi'lek girl, sitting on the bunk hugging her knees, huddled tightly in the corner amidst the shaking.
Just as Amir was about to speak, he froze.
He had overlooked it in his previous wide-range scan, but up close, he could feel a dense aura of the dark side radiating from this girl.
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