Born in 60 BBY, Shilaea Motacc became a scientist and a recognized expert and researcher in her specialized field, large-scale propulsion for both planets and planetary platforms, before she was three decades old. As she had always been fascinated by the unrelated field of archaeology, Motacc also found time to work in archaeological probing projects, getting some field experience. She had already worked as an independent researcher in propulsion for a number of years before 31 BBY.
Motacc was then approached by Fesvk Wefos, a manager of Usable Resource Location, Recovery, and Development Corporation, with a job offer. Wefos told Motacc that U.R.L.R.D. wanted to expand their operations to the gas giant Genarius, in the Cularin system, and wanted to hire her for the development of a new propulsion system for flying cities. However, Wefos was really a dark Jedi, Karae Nalvas, who aimed to build a flying fortress with which he could attack and destroy the cities of Genarius. Nalvas used the Force and his personal charm to convince Motacc without revealing his identity or scheme.
Motacc joined U.R.L.R.D., and was given a vacation in Rorkee, a resort city of Genarius, as a bonus. Rorkee featured simulated archaeological digs with supposed proofs of pre-Republic aliens inhabiting Dorumaa, and Motacc was eager to visit them. U.R.L.R.D. wanted to send some college students later, to join Dr. Motacc and research with her.
During her vacation, Motacc visited the Sanads of Rorkee hotel, befriended sabacc ringer Kli-Klu Niib and repeatedly visited the Cabana Bar to enjoy barman Hurrwarr's Double-Dip Outer Rim Rumdrops.
Some of Nalvas's business partners were looking for a less-than-licit way to profit from Motacc's abilities, and were ready to obtain her help forcefully. They organized a kidnapping to take place during a caused cave-in, with local archaeologist and guide Blibbie helping them ensure that nobody would be harmed in the disaster. The conspirators, who found jobs in the dig site, would take Motacc to a work area under the Sanads building and retain her there in a prepared cage. The only access to their lair was through a tunnel ending in the hotel's kitchen.
The capture was a success, even if Motacc had a chance to kick several of the sentients grabbing her. Motacc was secretly confined, and Rorkee's authorities notified her accidental decease.
Motacc's wardens did not want to reveal their identities or any information leading to them. She was kept in a cage with weight-sensitive alarms, and watched by two guards. She was visited by an unidentified hooded male sentient, who said that his master would be satisfied to use Motacc's knowledge to finish his job. Beyond that, she only heard partial conversations with no useful information.
Motacc's kidnappers took her personal effects from the hotel to the dig site, apparently to avoid the kitchen entrance. They also bought all the available Double-Dip Outer Rim Rumdrops from the Cantina Bar, paying in cash but forgetting there the glasses of one of them. Some of them visited local masseur Ulo Enan because of their injuries during the capture. Several of the involved dig workers, including Bibble, began behaving strangely. Although Rorkee's authorities refused to answer any question about the happening, or to return Mottac's corpse to her relatives, many locals such as the bellsentients Ta'Sen and Trago Smusch, believed that Dr. Motacc was still alive.
Karae Nalvas, wanting to recover his minion, pretended to be worried boss Wefos and hired some independent adventurers. Nalvas sent them to Rorkee, where they pretended to be college students sent by U.R.L.R.D. The adventurers eventually found and rescue Motacc, although the guilty people's identities were still unknown.
Motacc and her rescuers traveled to the planet Cularin, where they met the false Wefos again. Wefos paid the adventurers a bonus and partied with them and Motacc in a local bistro, Bath Rabbud's.
Soon afterward, Nalvas's old enemy Alec, a Jedi Knight, discovered Wefos's secret identity and began hoarding contacts and resources to fight him. Alec stole the blueprints of the flying city Nalvas had been building, Conkesta and copied them in case Nalvas could recover his originals. Nalvas unsuccessfully took measures to kill Alec.
At the same time, Motacc discovered that some of her new workmates were involved in her previous kidnapping in Rorkee. Scared, Motacc looked for a way to escape. She found or was found by Alec and some contacts of his, who were eager to help Motacc. After discovering Nalvas's true plans, Motacc agreed to assist Alec and his friends in their own plan to stop Nalvas.
Motacc told Alec that the Conkesta had an important, still-unsolved deffect in its propulsion software: The correct string of commands could disable the controls and sent the city to space, where it would surely explode as it was not spaceworthy. Motacc and several of Alec's slicer friends worked together to develop a computer virus to cause that effect once uploaded in the propulsion system main control. However, unbeknownst to them, their obviously-untested program would really cause the opposite effect: Instead of catapulting the city away from the planet core, it would make it fall to the core.
Alec and Motacc met with the heroes of Cularin in the Bath Rabbud's. Alec wanted the so-called heroes to perform an individual raid in the Conkesta with the specific purpose of accessing the main computer and loading the virus. Motacc explained the workings of her code, the data she knew about the Conkesta and her personal motivations in the same briefing. Motacc, who was not a fighter, would not participate in the raid; and Alec vainly tried to stop Nalvas elsewhere while the heroes of Cularin were busy with their mission. The Conkesta was destroyed when it fell to the planet core.
At 29 years old, when she was dealing with Karae Nalvas, Motacc was five feet tall, had an athletic build, and was fairly attractive. She was known to have living relatives at this point.
She was a brilliant and passionate researcher. Due to her expertise in planetary propulsion and its uses for large-scale artificial propulsion systems, in 31 BBY she was considered one of the greatest young minds in her field in the whole galaxy. She was also a talented archaeologist and at that point she had worked in several research projects and academic digs.
Motacc was a strong-willed, courageous young woman: She attacked the people trying to overpower her even if she was alone, unarmed and against a clearly-prepared, numerically-superior force in Rorkee. Later, when she was thrown into a cage, she withstood her seizure and, apparently, suffered no permanent sequels after her liberation. She was not fearless, however: When she discovered that some of her new fellow workers had been after her ordeal, she felt worried and looked for a way out. Once the Jedi Alec helped her, Motacc bravely offered to help him against a powerful and sly dark Jedi—although she herself ran little physical risk.