"Don't tell me you're thinking of continuing this obscene experiment." The door slid closed behind the Councilor of Dromund Kaas, her march into the laboratory taking up what had been a rather comfortable silence amidst the white noise of the medical machines. The Councilor of Korriban, for his part, simply cast her a sidelong glance before returning to his work. Wielding a Sarassian Iron tipped needle, he slid it into the wrapped arm of his patient where he knew a vein to be despite not being able to see the skin below the wrappings. A difficult process but one that he had done plenty of times before without much issue.
"Does one complication so easily dissuade you, Kaas?" Darth Strosius looked away from the needle that was now firmly sat in His wrist as Korriban attached a tube to the end of it, drawing forth deep maroon blood into a larger container that was sat next to the chair that He was occupying. "Complication?!" Rather unusually for Kaas, she seemed incensed. Incensed enough that Korriban stepped back and moved to check on one of the various centrifuges around the room. "One of the subjects had a direct connection into your mind and you call that a mere complication!?!"
Darth Strosius clicked His tongue, resting His chin on the fist that wasn't being drawn from as He glanced past Kaas and to three sterilized containment vats that occupied the other side of the room. Three of the implants from Project Vicar floated within each one. Eyan's was by far the most simple, a mere lump of flesh and nerves. Malsur's was similar, albeit bearing some extra nerve endings in order to deliver physical sensations to urge on compliance. Verona's however had grown, far from the finger sized implants like the other two it was more akin to a serpent. It had extended itself directly into her brain stem by the time it was extracted, unlike the other two which had remained in the cervical spinal cord as they were meant to.
"It was clear from the beginning that any amount of Force Sensitivity, even a very latent kind such as Miss Brasti's, could cause exponential growth." Korriban finally spoke up before the Prophet did, earning the masked but potent ire of Kaas in the process. "We will simply have to be more...particular about the selection of our subjects. More thorough with their sampling and testing to ensure that such an incident can't occur again." His clinical tone did little to soothe the frustration in Kaas however.
"I warned you both about these damnable implants! But inhibitor chips weren't good enough were they? No, you just had to push the envelope! You didn't even bother reading the data I scrounged up from Project Hidden Eye did you?!" Her hidden gaze returned to Darth Strosius, her words practically spat from her mask as she seethed. "Cybernetics can be detected far easier than organic implants and I don't recall you ever finding us the full data on the inhibitor chips." He didn't fail to notice the clenching of her hands into fists.
"Unless you can bring us the Kaminoan archives then the inhibitor chips have to be remade from scratch as we have done already. Even if our implants do come with a far greater risk." Kaas scoffed and marched over to the containment vats, obviously glaring at Verona's given how she was gesturing towards it. "You're lucky that little backwater streetrat is comatose from your probing, otherwise everything would be at risk! Just imagine if she had fallen into anyone else's hands. A backdoor into your head at their fingertips, we'd all be dead because of your insistence on these fething implants!"
Verona's fingers twitched as her eyes fluttered, struggling to stay open as she all but collapsed onto the cold floor. Her breaths came in stuttering gasps and pants as Darth Strosius withdrew His tendrils from her head. Both physical and mental. "Very intriguing indeed, forgive me for the thorough search Verona but I needed to be certain of how stable this bridge between us is." A displeased grunt was all that He received in response but He wasn't too bothered. She was strong, a life of hardship had given her more than enough willpower to keep herself conscious even with the mental assault that she had to endure.
One that was now thankfully over now that He had the answers that He needed. Her implant had grown far beyond what He had thought it could, a latent connection to the Force giving it the fuel necessary to burrow a bridge between their two minds rather than remaining a simple gateway into hers. It was fascinating really, and somewhat disturbing. Korriban's theory had proven correct it seemed.
Using His blood to establish a bond with the implants, as well as allowing them to form quicker due to His Sangnir nature, had been a necessity but something that was admittedly rather risky. The risk hadn't seemed as real until now though. None of the other subjects had been able to peer into His head in turn as He could do with theirs. None except for Verona, although such peering was of course unintentional on her part. The implications of that fact alone gave Him much insight on how He could better the enhancement treatments that His weaker Sith underwent.
"Together we can uncover the inner workings of the Force as I had scarcely thought possible until now." He could picture it already, someone that could see as He did. That would finally understand His work without the need of coercion or convincing. Someone that would prove far more useful than Korriban's skilled alchemy or even Kaas's great knowledge. A much better research partner that would be able to know His goals as intimately as He did. Nothing would be out of reach for them. Not even the face of their god which had pulled Him from death.
"You're wrong...you know that, right?"
He glanced back at Verona, finding her pushing herself up from the floor with her arms although it appeared as though her legs were too unsteady for her to sit up properly. Nevertheless, she gazed up into His burning golden eyes as she spoke. "You hope hatred can replace pain. Not just yours, but everyone's. But-but you know that isn't true! I see it. I see it in your mind. You just keep making yourself more of a monster in the hopes that you can disprove it. But you can't...you know you can't..."
Darth Strosius leered down at the struggling woman, His gloved fingers gripping His mask tightly as He turned away from her. He could sense the implant buried in her neck as clearly as He could feel His own limbs. An extension of Himself nestled within Verona's spinal cord. All He had to do was tug on the right nerve. "W-Wait!" A cry of pain echoed in the quiet room as she fell down, gripping the sides of her head as the throbbing in her skull reached a crescendo the likes of which not even His probing had accomplished.
Anguish and dread drew out more groans and cries from Verona as Darth Strosius slowly donned His mask once more, staring at His reflection in the viewport all the while. "Agh! Please! Stop! Alist-" A final tug on their connection and she slumped forward, something more than simple unconsciousness washing over her body and halting the shivering that had been gripping her limbs just moments before.
Once He was certain that Verona wasn't moving anymore, Darth Strosius took in a deep breath and let out an even more hollow exhale before He reached up to tap on His mask's commlink. :"Send a medical team to collect the test subject and prepare her for implant extraction. Unfortunately my delving was too much for her to handle.":
"Yes...how lucky indeed." Darth Strosius forced the tension in His body to lessen before it could be noticed by the two Councilors, running His tongue over His fangs before He continued. "Your concerns are not unfounded however, Kaas. I agree that we must be far more careful with these implants. I will work on an alternative method of producing sleeper agents and nodes of influence." This drew a shocked glance from Korriban but as always he raised no voice of complaint or argument. Instead he simply ceased his fiddling with the centrifuges and excused himself with a bow.
No doubt the Councilor would go off and find something to pummel away from prying eyes. Kaas by contrast perked up and offered a curtsy to the Prophet. "I am relieved to see you listening to reason for once my lord, do inform me of what you decide." Despite the masks they both wore, the smug look that Kaas shot Korriban and the withering glare that she received in response wasn't lost on Darth Strosius. The two left the room and would undoubtedly soon erupt into an argument afterwards, but He wasn't concerned.
Darth Strosius pulled the needle from His wrist and set it aside, standing from the chair and moving over to the containment vats. The implants all pulsed as He approached, nerves seeming to stretch out towards Him as He stared at them. His fingers twitched and briefly reached out to touch the glass that separated them but He pulled His hand back and swiftly moved towards the communication console in the corner of the room, ignoring how His tendrils still drifted towards the vats.
He pressed on the console and crossed His arms behind His back as a crimson hologram flickered to life, showing the kneeling form of the Councilor of Ziost. "What is thy bidding, my lord?" Darth Stosius made a small gesture with His hand for the Councilor to rise before He spoke. "Project Vicar has reached a stalling point. I do not believe we can make anymore progress on it at this moment, alert all Clerics and Darkseekers that searching for subjects will no longer be necessary. I have another project that needs to be undertaken in its stead."
Ziost simply bowed his head in acknowledgement. "As you wish. What do you ask of your agents now?" Here came the difficult part. Finding test subjects on the criteria needed was difficult but not impossible, all they had to do was find criminal networks and identify those with guilt within them. A long term process but one that was done easily enough. This new project wouldn't be quite as simple however, especially with Kamino now far out of reach.
"I want any and all technology and experts in the fields of cloning and bioengineering brought to me as intact as possible. Everything from simple flesh sculpting to genetic modification and especially cloning vats, as well as those that know how to make use of them. I require it all." Ziost must have been making a perplexed expression beneath his mask given his hesitation but he nonetheless bowed his head again. "It shall be done my lord. What am I to call this new project for our seekers to commit themselves to?"
"Project Inductii."
