Dear Reader, I regret to announce that this is the end. The final chapter of this story. Its end, as it is, may feel a bit open and vague, but that's how the Artist in me says it must be. That's why this Author's Note stuff is here, in the beginning. I didn't want to disturb the end. Also, there's some rather unusual behavior from a certain character... well, all right, from Galen, in this chapter. I really hope it doesn't feel Off Character, though. I think the reasons for it are strong and clear.

So, when you're done reading, please do write a review and tell me what you thought of the whole thing. If it wasn't completely stupid, who knows, I might even write another Galen-story one of these days. :-)

And now, the conclusion...

Although most things had found a meaning again, Galen still hadn't quite figured out time. The tech, however, had a clear notion of it, so when he first opened his eyes, he knew that almost exactly twenty-four hours had passed since their return to life.

The lights were brighter than he had expected, and he had some trouble focusing on anything at all. His sensors did not seem accurate either, because some data was missing and some looked like random gibberish. Still, the tech said that there was nothing to worry about, so he did not worry. Instead, he felt giddy. Confused, but happy.

After a while, he could make out all the faces around him. Many of them had been with him even when he had almost lost himself. Alwyn, Matthew and Dureena stood there, and Sarah Chambers, John Matheson and Max Eilerson as well. They were smiling, and he smiled back at them.

Alwyn held a hand over him, a crystal hanging from it. Galen checked what he was doing, and noticed that most of the organelles in his body were not his own, but Alwyn's. There was quite a lot of them. He was surprised Alwyn had been able to give so many. He wondered what had happened to his own organelles. He also wondered what had happened, just in general. How it was possible that he had survived.

He wanted to ask Alwyn, but although the thought was clear, the words of the question could not find their way to his lips. So, he just stared at Alwyn, hoping that the questions showed in his eyes.

"You can't imagine how happy I am to see you conscious and awake," Alwyn said. "I'm afraid our cure caused substantial damage to your organelles, but new ones are born at a normal rate, and soon you'll be on your own again. Until then, you're stuck with mine, and my help in guiding them."

That wasn't a very good answer. Galen kept his eyes on Alwyn, waiting for more.

"I guess you must be feeling a bit odd right now. It's to be expected, and you shouldn't worry. Your body went through some pretty difficult times, while you were, well, elsewhere. And some of the connections between you and your tech suffered from the long time the tech was off, but they're getting better too."

"You'll be good as new in no time," Chambers added her second opinion.

That was good to hear. Still, not a word on what had actually happened. All he remembered was that he had reached his ship, set course for the Excalibur, and then, nothing, except for the void, which was a horrible, dark memory that was quickly fading, becoming unreal. Well, he would ask again later.

All the others were speaking to him now, one at a time, telling how happy they were and how worried they had been. He couldn't concentrate all that well, and missed some of it. Dureena touched his cheek, which was slightly annoying, but he didn't feel like doing anything about it, and Matthew squeezed his shoulder, which was only slightly less annoying.

The tech was suggesting they should go back to sleep. Sleeping was a good thing. The more he slept, the sooner he would be back to normal. He closed his eyes again.

Galen was floating in the pleasant half-consciousness of being almost, but not quite awake. He did not want to open his eyes just yet. He just lay there, enjoying the moment. He was whole again, and his thoughts were clear. He could feel the tech's familiar presence, just like he felt the presence of his arms, or his head, or his heart.

Doctor Chambers had said he would be good as new in no time. Now that he thought of it, she had exaggerated a bit. It had taken several days, a full week, before he had begun to feel close to normal again. During those days, he had had plenty of time to consider everything that had happened. He had also heard several descriptions of the events, from different points of view.

After he had escaped Djadjamonkh's place of power, he had reached the Excalibur just in time. He was amazed at the fact that some life had remained in his body all the way back from there, when both he and the tech had given up. It was a strange idea, as if he were not the sum of two, but three different parts - his mind, his body, and the tech. It was probably true, he just hadn't thought of it before.

He was amazed at the entire rescue operation. The determination with which everyone, all those friends he had not been completely sure he had, had fought to keep him alive. The way how they had accidentally found a primitive drug, an antibiotic, that was strong enough to destroy both the killer and, unfortunately, his organelles. Alwyn's skill in healing him - he had never been aware that Alwyn was so talented a healer. The miraculous independent behavior of the organelles that had restarted his tech. And most of all, he was amazed how they had, in the end, managed to call him back from the unfathomable depths where he had been.

He could see now, looking back at what had passed, that the most dangerous thing of all, the one that had almost killed him, had not been the shutting down of the tech, nor his physical reaction to it. It had been his thoughts, his mind, that had been at fault. He had believed so strongly that he could not survive that it had very nearly become true. He had lost all willingness to fight when faced with such inevitability, such impossible odds. He would have thought himself, his mind, much stronger than that, after all he had been through. But the tech was one of the few certainties in his life, one of the true constants, so the attack had caught him where he was most vulnerable.

The memory of those terrifying hours he had spent in Djadjamonkh's lair was still vivid, each second and every passing thought stored in his mind. He remembered thinking that shutting down the tech would kill him as surely as stopping his heart. Now that he considered the thought, it was the perfect analogy, although he had not understood it at the time. He knew from what the others had told that his heart had indeed lost its rhythm more than once, even truly stopped, but every time someone or something had intervened, and he had survived. It was the same with tech, which had been turned off, bringing him very close to death, but it, too, had been revived, and they lived on.

"Galen? Are you awake?" Alwyn's voice cut his introspection.

"Yes, I must be, because I cannot imagine having a dream with you in it," he replied, and opened his eyes.

As usual, Alwyn was hovering about his bed and hanging his crystal above him. Galen pushed himself up into a seated position. The Excalibur's infirmary around them was unchanged, clean and clinical, as always. It was much better than the MedLab isolation room, where the excessive amount of scanners and surveillance equipment had made him feel exposed, like a test subject, a guinea pig. Chambers now knew much more about techno-mages than any other human doctor, and Galen still hadn't decided what he should do about it. Perhaps nothing, just in case something like this happened again in the future, to him, or to some other techno-mage.

"If you don't mind, Alwyn, I think I am capable of taking care of myself now. I have more than enough organelles already."

"All right, all right," Alwyn answered, placing the crystal in his pocket. "But Galen, you have to understand me. After coming so close to losing you, it's hard to be convinced that you're really here, alive and well. You didn't see yourself - that self-image was frightful enough to age me a few decades. But you must know what it was like. After all, it was just a reflection of how you felt at the time."

"Yes, I can imagine I wasn't a pretty sight," Galen muttered.

Then, after only a passing second of consideration, he flung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, for the first time in over a week. A wave of dizziness hit him, his vision clouded and his legs felt shaky. For a moment, he was afraid he'd collapse.

He grabbed Alwyn in a tight hug. He told himself that this was only because he was not willing to show his weakness, but deep down, both he and the tech knew that his feelings were sincere, even if he tried to cover them, even from himself. He remembered a time when Alwyn had been happy to see him and had embraced him, and how uncomfortable he had felt then. Returning the gesture, without the awkwardness, was long overdue.

When he let go, he felt steady enough on his feet. He looked Alwyn in the eye and said, "Thank you. Thank you, Alwyn."

"Well, well," Alwyn uttered, looking stunned. "You must have suffered some brain damage after all. Are you sure you're quite all right?" he joked.

"Just a passing moment of weakness. I hope you won't hold it against me."

"I certainly won't. And Galen, the pleasure was all mine. No need to thank me."

"You know, Alwyn, one of the many things I learned from Elric was, only give praise when it's truly deserved. Besides, I'll be leaving soon, and I don't know when we'll meet again."

"You're leaving? You can't possibly leave yet, you're not well enough -"

"Of course I am. There is something very important I must do. Before that, there are a few other persons who deserve my gratitude."

Galen knew that what he would do and say during the next few hours would leave several people just as astonished as Alwyn. He wondered if he would come to regret it later. Now, it felt like the right thing to do.

Sarah Chambers looked up from her desk to see Galen approaching her on steady feet, looking perfectly normal. But appearances could be deceiving. "Galen, I don't think you should be up yet," she told him.

"I would rather not argue with you, but I'm afraid I must tell you that you're quite wrong. I am fully healed."

"Still, you should at least let me check you up, just in case -"

"No, that is not why I came to see you. I must ask you to promise one thing. I know you have gathered an extensive amount of knowledge on me, knowledge that reveals much of the very nature of techno-mages. You must promise that you will never, under any circumstances, pass on that information, unless the life of a techno-mage depends on it," he said. Even though he did not threaten her, did not say that something bad would happen if she broke the promise, the very tone of his voice conveyed the idea clearly enough.

Chambers had expected something like this. Actually, she was surprised Galen had not asked her to destroy all the data, or that he had not just taken it out himself. Perhaps he had seen that it was, really, for his own good. "All right, I promise, Galen," she said.

"But truth be told, that is not why I came, either. I came to thank you. Thank you, Sarah."

"I was just doing my job," she replied, but he had already left.

Captain Gideon was sitting in his room, going through the latest data from the Rangers. There were several places they should visit, some leads that looked promising, just like they always did. His mind really wasn't on the job. Like all too often when he was alone in the room, he could somehow sense the Apocalypse Box, an ominous presence, calling him, wanting to be taken out of its hiding place. Gideon tried to fight it.

The Box had told him not to trust Galen. If it really was sentient, if it had feelings, he was sure it would have felt happier if he had just let Galen die. He had not touched the Box, because he had been afraid it would tell him to do so, and he had not been sure he could resist. But how did he know it wasn't right? There was always some truth in what it said, so there had to be something true in this as well, some reason behind it. One day, he would find out. Today, he was glad he had done what he had done.

As usual, Galen chose exactly this moment to enter. Only this time, he came in like any normal crew member. The door opened, he stepped in, the door closed. Nothing unusual, nothing magical anywhere to be seen. "Matthew," he said.

"Galen. Good to see you on your feet again."

"Thank you, Matthew. And thank you for what you did for me."

It was strange to hear such words from Galen, such simple, sincere words, without any hint of anything mysterious, or any trace of sarcasm. Gideon didn't know how to answer.

"I'm leaving again, but I'll be back soon. Until then, take care," Galen continued.

"You too. You'd better return in better shape than the last time. You gave me a good scare," Gideon said.

"I promise, I'll try very hard not to do it again. I did not enjoy it all that much either. Goodbye, Matthew." Galen left as he had come, walking through the door.

Gideon stared at the door for a good while, dumbstruck.

"Thank you, Dureena."

Dureena gazed at Galen, frowning, wondering what the catch was. "Thank you? I don't think you've ever really said that to me before."

"Yes, and perhaps, without your help, I might never have said it. So, I thank you."

As she looked into his eyes, she knew he meant what he said. For a while, Dureena toyed with the idea of asking him to reveal a few techno-mage secrets now, since he seemed to be in such an unusual mood. But no, she was not that crooked. She was really, truly happy to have him back. "Well, you're welcome. Though, if the only way to earn a 'thanks' from you is to save you from certain death, I hope I won't hear it again."

"You'll find out, sooner or later," he said, and she couldn't decide whether he was answering her words, or the question she had not asked. "Goodbye, now, until we meet again," he added, and walked away.

"Galen, wait! When will you be back? Where are you going?" she called after him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Covered with Shadow skin, Galen stepped through the jagged hole in the huge iron door.

The large hall was exactly as he remembered, the eight stone pillars with the seven runes of the Code and the cartouche with the name. He and the tech had loaded a translator program and studied hieroglyphic on their way to this planet, and now he knew that the hieroglyphs in the eighth pillar indeed read Dja-dja-m-ankh, or Djadjamonkh, which translated roughly as "living head". It had been the name of a magician in an ancient Egyptian story, one of the first mages known to humans.

The Dja-dja-m-ankh of the ancient story had been a celebrated character who had lived happily ever after. All that remained of Djadjamonkh, aside from this place and his name on the pillar, was a set of bones, lying scattered about the floor. Some indigenous lifeform had found what little had been left of him, and clawed away all the flesh.

Galen took each step with care and caution, all his senses and sensors alert. He made his way towards the far end of the hall, where the small pair of iron doors was still open, just like when he had left. He reached the doors and saw the glistening Shadow skin beyond, lining a long corridor. There were no snakes, no tech-killers to be seen anywhere.

He entered the corridor. It was silent, but he could feel the energy of the complex all around him.

The corridor was not very wide. When he stretched out both his hands, he could easily touch the walls on both sides.

Underneath the powerful song of chaos and destruction, he felt confusion and fear. When Djadjamonkh had died, the Shadow tech had lost its master. It had been created to slavery, and without guidance, it did not know what to do.

As one, Galen and the tech conjured - nothing.

And slowly but certainly, a pale yellow glow began to spread through the dark walls.