"Well, that's something you don't see every day," captain Gideon noted to lieutenant Matheson.

In front of them stood not one but two mysterious-looking, sharp-edged techno-mage ships. The hatch to Galen's ship had closed after they had brought him out, and that of the other had not opened yet. To the unknowing eye, they were completely identical, indistinguishable.

Four hours had passed since the Doc had called Gideon to tell that they had picked up something from Galen, a hint of brain activity that had appeared suddenly and disappeared just as quickly, but they had recorded it, and it had been there. After that, Gideon, together with Dureena, had waited and watched over him for quite a while to see if something came up again, but it hadn't.

A sudden gust of wind struck their faces, and Alwyn emerged right next to them. They had not seen him leave his ship, had not heard a sound, yet here he was. Another techno-mage fond of illusions and spectacular entrances. Gideon rolled his eyes.

"I should have guessed you are used to such tricks by now. You could at least try to look amazed. Give an old man some joy of his pranks," Alwyn said. Although the tone of his voice was light, Gideon noticed the lines in his face were deeper. He had gotten rid of his youthful disguise, and now he looked even older than before.

"Sorry," Gideon started, trying to form a fitting quip to return, but Alwyn didn't give him the time.

"Well, what are you waiting for? We have not a minute to waste. Take me to Galen, at once," he declared in a completely different voice, commanding and serious.

"This way, sir," lieutenant Matheson replied, leading the way.

Alwyn was going to march straight into the isolation room, but at the door to the airlock, a woman stopped him, stepping in front of him.

"I have no time for this - and Galen has no time. I can wipe you out of my way easily enough, but I'd rather not. Step aside," he warned.

"Pleased to meet you too. I'm Sarah Chambers, the chief medical officer around here, and this is my MedLab. So, I'd rather not have you run in there and leave us with two near-dead techno-mages to take care of instead of one. My best guess is that he got infected by a nano-virus or something similar, and even though it hasn't spread so far, it still might, if it attacks only your kind. So, do go ahead, I'm really looking forward to having your help, but take care. If you need a protective suit, we can give you one."

"I thank you for the warning, doctor Chambers. And now, if you don't mind, please step aside and let me see if there's anything I can do to help."

As entered the room, Alwyn conjured a protective shield. Just to be sure. Based on Galen's self-image in the electron incantation, he had expected something different, but perhaps it could indeed be a contagion of some sort.

When he finally stood at Galen's bedside, Alwyn sighed out of relief. Galen had not been flayed. As far as his human eyes could see, there was no blood, no visible wounds, not even scars. Still, something had to be very badly wrong. Galen was surrounded by and connected to an impressive array of rather crude machinery, which, despite its clumsiness, seemed to be working well, keeping up his breathing, heartbeat, all the important functions that his body should have managed on its own.

Alwyn concentrated and scanned him.

What he found could not be true.

In the incantation, Galen had said his tech was dead. He had spoken the truth. It was still present, still attached to him, seemingly intact, yet it was doing nothing. Just as if someone had turned it off. Just like that. Shut him down. And there was no Shadow technology around that might be causing it, no transmitters sending a blocking signal, which, as far as Alwyn knew, was the only thing that could do this to a techno-mage's tech.

So, this was the explanation for Galen's condition. Alwyn knew of what had happened to Blaylock when his tech had been disabled. This was very much the same, and yet it was different - it was worse. If Galen's words about how he had merged with his tech had indeed been true, as Alwyn wanted to believe, then it was a miracle Galen was still alive. Though perhaps it was premature to say that. The thickest concentration of tech was in the brain, and when that tech had shut down, it had effectively shut down the rest of Galen's mind as well. Alwyn did not know if it had been gone for too long already, and if restoring the tech would do any good now.

Alwyn scanned him again, looking for the cause, and it was not difficult to find. It was, indeed, an artificial virus of some sort. Right now, it seemed to be doing nothing, but he could not get any detailed data. He would need to isolate a sample and look more closely.

While scanning, Alwyn had noticed that like all the rest of Galen's tech, his organelles were inert, as dead as everything else. Alwyn reached out a shield-covered hand and placed it on Galen's chest. The shield retreated, allowing his hand to contact the skin - it was smooth, unharmed, and Alwyn could feel the faint, artificially steadied beat of the heart. Perhaps it had been torn out in the metaphorical sense with the loss of the tech, but still, that was only a horrible image, nothing more. There was still hope. Through his hand, Alwyn sent organelles into Galen's body.

The response was instantaneous, and Alwyn pulled his hand back, shocked. Through his sensors, he saw how the virus woke up and surrounded the living organelles. Even though they were no longer in his body, he felt the tiny flares of pain that fired when each single one died.

Startled, Alwyn looked at his hand, both from the outside and within. It was again covered by the blue shimmering shield. Miraculously nothing had passed through into him. He was not infected. He was still safe. Perhaps the virus, despite of its seemingly aggressive nature, was not able to penetrate the skin. Alwyn had not noticed any signs of it in the air, so it might not be airborne, either. Maybe it was only transmissible by blood contact.

"Hey, wait! What did you do? What are you doing?" a woman - doctor Chambers - exclaimed.

The doctor was standing opposite him, on the other side of the bed. He hated to admit it, but he had not even noticed when she had entered. Careless of him, but with all this worry filling his mind, perhaps it was understandable.

"It was a useless attempt to heal him. It seems before I can do anything at all, we must find a way of getting that... that horrible thing, that killer, out of him," Alwyn explained. "Perhaps you can help me in this. We should work together."

"I completely agree with you, mister - Alwyn, was it?"

"Just Alwyn, dear."

"All right, Alwyn. Now, I have plenty of samples of both of those microscopic things in his system, but before this, I didn't even know which one is which. I take it that those you injected into him were of a good sort, and the ones that attacked and stopped them were what we are fighting here?"

"You didn't even know which of them was the killer? It truly is a wonder you have managed to keep him alive this long. Yes, the ones that I sent are a natural part of every techno-mage's system. They speed up the healing process, and can be used to help others to heal. The thing that killed them, the cause of his condition, is an atrocity I have never even heard of before. I cannot imagine who could create such a monstrous thing. As you, even with all your crude equipment, must have noticed, it has shut down his tech. To a techno-mage, that's the worst thing that can happen, aside from flaying and death. We have to find a way to turn the tech on again. If we don't, then..." Alwyn sighed and shook his head.

"So, if we do get the virus out and this tech working again, he'll be as good as new? No harm done?"

"How I wish I could say that. How I hope I could be sure," Alwyn said, and shook his head again, looking down. "Now, if you will excuse me for a second..."

He cast the electron incantation again. Although Galen was there, right next to him, it was no easier this time. It was more difficult. He had to try several times before he succeeded.

Then Alwyn was there again, standing in front of Galen's hopeless image of himself. It was almost unchanged - if anything, there was more blood, more than his actual body would have contained. And somehow, he was slightly transparent, hazy, blurred. Whatever the distance in the physical world, whatever the expanse of rug-covered floor between them, he was not closer, but farther away than before.

"Galen. I am here. I am standing by your side, and I am going to fix this. You'll be all right again," Alwyn uttered, trying to sound as convincing as he could.

The answer he got was but a whispering thought, not coherent enough to form words. A thought of despair and disbelief, but mixed with them was a touch of gratitude.

Alwyn left the incantation to find an agitated doctor Chambers gazing at a display and yelling at him, "How did you do that? Can you wake him up?"

"Do what, my dear doctor?"

"It was there again, a little, passing wink of brain waves. Was it you, that previous time as well? Is it some techno-mage trick?"

"If that previous time was some four hours ago, well, then it was me. But it does not mean much. It's a powerful spell, but it cannot wake him up. And with every moment that flows by, he will be farther from us. Soon, I may not reach him anymore, and then it'll truly be too late. Now, let's get to work."