On their way to their next destination, the Mandalorian who asked to be called Partner told Jaina everything that he and Tahiri discovered during their brief investigation, as promised, before letting her know where they were heading now.

"It's a space station a few parsecs from Mandalore," Partner explained. As he did so, he showed Jaina a holographic starchart above his ship's controls. "This is where my friends and I tend to hang out in between bounties."

"And considering the fact that your friends were the ones who took the Hagamoor 3 beskar from Velias," Jaina said, "you intend on questioning them?"

"Not all of 'em," Partner replied. "Only one of 'em; and I know which one. He's the leader of the pack; Get him all rowdy and drunk and he'll be easy pickings from his boys. From there, we'll make him talk aboard this ship."

"But you don't know if they'll be there at this time," Jaina pointed out. "For all you know, they could be out there in anti-Imperial raids. They could even have died from one of them. How can you be so sure without contacting them? And why not contact 'em if you're so chummy with 'em?"

"If I contact them to see if they'll be on the station," Partner began, "they could get suspicious. By showing up casually, I could just be there having come back to celebrate for a successful bounty."

"All right, fair enough, you don't wanna have anything seem outta the ordinary. But we could be waiting a long time, if they show up again at all."

"Oh, I'm quite certain they'll be there by the time we arrive."

"How so?"

"It's the leader of the pack's birthday."

Jaina raised an eyebrow. "What a coincidence."

"I thought you Jedi don't believe in coincidences," Partner remarked. "I thought everything went according to the will of the Force."

"Oh, we believe that, all right," Jaina said. "I just didn't think it can be so convenient."

"You make it sound like a problem."

"When things become too easy, problems usually tend to arise," Jaina said with a foreboding tone.

. . .

When Daala walked into the lab, she said, "I hope everything is ready, Dr. Ruik."

The Nautolan nodded obediently. "As per the specifications from yesterday's experiment, Chief Daala."

She looked out to the gathered crowd in the room; nearly everyone who had ever been involved with the midi-chlorian project was gathered and regarded their Chief of State with expressions of hopefulness, pride, and anticipation.

Nearly everyone, Daala couldn't help but note.

"Where's your Twi'lek cleaning girl, Doctor?" Daala asked.

"Oh, Sheela? I'm afraid she's sick today, Chief Daala. I hope that won't ruin the experiment in any way for you."

"Not at all," she replied evenly. "I was just thinking what a shame it'll be for her to miss such a momentous occasion."

"Yes, it is regretful," Ruik remarked.

Daala noticed something else that was odd in the lab.

"Did you get that window repaired, Dr. Ruik?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," he said. "After that last subject was killed, I had-"

"It was unnecessary," she interrupted. "I hope this won't affect the experiment."

"I assure you, Chief Daala, my attention last night was completely focused on dealing with the experiment; I left Sheela to take care of the window replacement as well as the body."

"Well, I suppose she deserves a break then," Daala said. "Her loss, though. Anyway, let's begin."

No one said anymore as Daala walked over to the chair where so many subjects had placed themselves and Ruik and Plesar wasted no time setting the Chief of State up. Once Daala was properly attached to the machine, both scientists began bringing it online, gradually readying it for the moment of truth.

When they were finally done with all the preparations, Ruik looked over to the latest subject and asked, "Ready, Chief Daala?"

"As I'll ever be."

The Nautolan nodded and pulled the lever.

At first, the modified midi-chlorians coursed through the tubes that ran into Daala's body without any problems. The Chief of State responded with deep, long breaths as the brown fluid infused itself into her vital systems, giving her the microscopic symbionts that would give her the coveted connection to the Force that, relatively speaking, very few in the galaxy received.

Then, partway into the injection process, something went wrong.

This was evidenced by the sudden, violent convulsions that Daala began to exhibit; her screams became rapid yet pained, making her sound like a wounded dog as her eyes began to roll back into her head.

Everyone in the lab, including Ruik, looked on in horror. The Nautolan then hurried back to the lever and pushed it up to shut down the procedure.

But by then, it was too late; the last of the midi-chlorians entered Daala's body, and the Chief of State went limp. In response, her vital readouts flat-lined, much to the chagrin of Ruik and everyone else present.

Immediately, everyone began screaming, yelling, and panicking incessantly at each another, with no one, not even Ruik himself, being able to make themselves heard as they cried to cope with the fact that they had just killed their Chief of State.

Or so they thought.

Soon, the vital readouts ceased their flat-line monotone and began to beep again; this was what cut through the din of all the scientists' panic as they turned back to Daala.

Her eyes opened wide before them.

And before any of the scientists knew it, they were all blown off their feet by a sudden wave of Daala's hand to the point that nearly all of them crashed through the window behind them and fell to their deaths in the Vongformed underworld below.

Only Ruik was spared long enough as he was lifted bodily into the air and pulled toward a sneering Daala; she then held the Nautolan's throat in her hand.

"That hurt," she growled.

She then yelled as she tossed him back so far that he ended up falling to his death in the underworld, as well.

Daala ignored the falling scientist's screams, however, as she looked ahead with her new Force-senses.

And immediately, she felt the presence of a startled Force-sensitive in a building a block away. At the same time, she also felt that he had something to do with the agony that she just endured; this person, whoever he was, had intended to use Dr. Ruik to kill her with this experiment.

Without hesitation, Daala used the same power she just gained to grab at the Force-sensitive's neck and snap it like a twig; she sensed his life-essence dissipate instantly.

She then unstrapped herself from the machine that gave her this power, stood up without minding the minor bleeding that she had from ripping the tubules out of her body, and turned to walk out of the lab feeling more alive and powerful than ever.

As she walked down the halls leading out of the LiMerge building, Daala sneered at the thought of Grand Lord Vol believing that this experiment was a waste of time that was doomed to failure.

She couldn't wait to prove just how wrong he was.