Chapter 29: Cryptic Warnings
The bridge of the Titans was quiet except for the steady hum of hyperspace engines when the doors whispered open to admit a familiar figure in a long dark coat. Galen moved onto the bridge with his characteristic fluid grace, but there was something different about him—a tension in his shoulders, a darkness in his eyes that hadn't been there during their mission briefing.
"Captain," he said, approaching Ivanova's command chair. "We need to talk."
Ivanova looked up from the tactical display she'd been studying. "About what?"
"About what we're likely to encounter when we reach the Drakh stronghold. There are... complications I haven't mentioned."
"What kind of complications?" Commander Berensen asked from his station.
Galen's gaze swept the bridge, taking in the various crew members at their posts. "The kind that require discretion. The Drakh have resources beyond what you might expect, allies in places you wouldn't imagine. What we're walking into is more than just a military installation."
Ivanova’s jaw tightened.. "Galen, I'm getting really tired of your cryptic warnings and mysterious hints. If there's something we need to know, just say it."
"Some knowledge carries a price, Captain. Some truths are dangerous to speak aloud, even among friends."
"Oh, for crying out loud," Ivanova snapped, standing from her chair. "We're flying into what could be a suicide mission based on your intelligence, and you're still playing word games? People's lives are at stake here, Galen. My crew's lives. Earth's survival. This isn't the time for technomage mystique."
Galen's expression remained calm, but something flickered behind his eyes—pain, perhaps, or regret. "You think I enjoy speaking in riddles, Susan? You think I take pleasure in withholding information that could save lives?"
"I think you've spent so many years being mysterious that you've forgotten how to be direct," she shot back. "We're supposed to trust you with everything, but you won't trust us with the truth."
Garibaldi, who had been watching the exchange from his position near the tactical station, stepped forward. "All right, you two, that's enough. Galen, what exactly are you trying to tell us?"
The technomage was quiet for a moment, his gaze distant as if he were seeing something beyond the bridge, beyond the ship, beyond the swirling chaos of hyperspace itself.
"The Drakh stronghold isn't just a research facility," he said finally. "It's a nexus, a gathering point for forces that have been moving in the shadows since the end of the Shadow War. What we'll find there will challenge everything you think you know about the plague, about the Drakh, about the true scope of what we're facing."
"That's still not an answer," Ivanova said, her frustration evident.
"Because the full answer would sound like madness," Galen replied. "Because there are some things that must be seen to be believed, some truths that can only be understood in context."
He looked around the bridge again, then back to Ivanova and Garibaldi. "But there is something I can show you. Something that might help you understand the stakes we're dealing with. However, it's not for everyone's ears."
"What do you mean?" Garibaldi asked.
"I mean that what I'm about to reveal should be limited to the core team. You, Captain Ivanova, and perhaps Commander Berensen. The fewer people who know, the better."
Ivanova studied his face, reading the genuine concern beneath his usual enigmatic facade. Whatever Galen was hiding, it was clearly weighing on him heavily.
"All right," she said finally. "Commander Berensen, you have the bridge. Mr. Garibaldi, Galen—conference room. Now."
As they made their way off the bridge, Ivanova couldn't shake the feeling that whatever Galen was about to reveal would change everything. The technomage's warnings had always proven accurate in the past, but they'd also always come with a price.
She just hoped that this time, the price wouldn't be more than they could afford to pay.
The conference room doors closed behind them with a soft hiss, sealing them away from the rest of the crew. Galen stood at the head of the table, his hands resting on something concealed beneath his coat—something small and dark that seemed to pulse with its own inner light.
"What I'm about to show you," he said quietly, "will explain everything. But it will also burden you with knowledge that you may wish you didn't possess."
Ivanova and Garibaldi exchanged glances, then looked back at the technomage.
"Show us," Ivanova said.
Galen nodded and slowly withdrew his hands from beneath his coat, revealing a small black cube covered in symbols that seemed to shift and writhe when observed directly. The Apocalypse Box sat on the conference table like a sleeping predator, its surface reflecting the room's lights in patterns that hurt to look at.
"This," Galen said, "contains more than just prophecies of the future. It contains someone you both thought was lost forever."