Last Call

What Doesn't Kill

He was on autopilot, relying on instinct to decipher the insane rush of information his brain tried to contain and was quickly failing to keep it straight. The Drakh AI system was beginning to question his input further and just by strength of sheer will, Galen prevented it from discovering all of what was really happening. But soon it would take more than will power to force the system into believing the illusion that something wasn’t out in space before it. The Technomage had felt a back surge at one point as the AI tried to legitimize the source, and quickly he rerouted it back into its own relays to confuse it. The detour wouldn’t last long and eventually the system would try again with more power and focus.

Galen sat soaked in sweat. The additional expenditure of energy his implants gave off raised his body temperature and somewhere amidst the barrage on his brain, Galen found a brief moment to have his ship adjust the cabin temperature to something that would cool his body without the side effect of shivering. He couldn’t afford to have his muscles wound any tighter than they already were.

Fragmenting his concentration, the Technomage found Gideon’s transponder in the chaos. Dismayed in the fact it was still pulsing from inside the Toledo, Galen forced himself to breathe and pushed back the pain and searing heat, not knowing how much more he could stand. Deceiving one Drakh ship would have been relatively simple, but a fleet of eleven was a greater task than he had ever imagined. Galen feared there wouldn’t be enough left of himself to burn at a funeral if Gideon didn’t hurry.