The glow from the glyph lingered long after the phantom faded. It pulsed faintly on the ruined station's hull, the light weaving through the wreckage like veins of molten silver. Elyra leaned closer to the projection, tracing its shifting shape as the fragment synchronized with it.
"This one's different," she murmured. "It's… breathing."
The Marauder's shadow flickered beside her. "You feel it too. This glyph doesn't mark a place—it marks a being."
Elyra frowned. "A being?"
"Yes. Not a planet, not a fleet. Something alive. Something vast."
The holographic map expanded, stars forming a lattice of glowing threads. At the center of that web pulsed a single star unlike the rest—its light erratic, almost aware. The fragment's pulse matched it, beating in time with an invisible rhythm.
"The glyph calls it The Lattice Mind," Elyra read from the fragment's translation field. "A consciousness spread across multiple systems—ancient, dormant… but connected to everything. Communication networks, relay beacons, Foldspace anchors—everything runs through it."
The realization hit her. "If the Void corrupts it, it wouldn't just destroy a world—it could control the galaxy's entire information web."
The Marauder's tone darkened. "The Void doesn't seek to conquer through strength alone. It spreads through memory, thought, connection. If the Lattice Mind falls, it won't need armies. Every signal, every message, every dream could carry its corruption."
Elyra's eyes hardened. "Then we stop it before it wakes."
The fragment pulsed, displaying coordinates deep in uncharted space—beyond any known jump route. The data was incomplete, as if part of it had been erased intentionally.
"Marauder… these routes don't exist. It's like something removed them from the star maps."
"Kael did," the Marauder replied. "He must have known this consciousness existed. He erased all paths to it to keep the Void from finding it again. But now that the glyph has reactivated…"
"...the Void knows too," Elyra finished grimly.
The ship's sensors flickered. Static bled across the displays. For a moment, Elyra thought she saw movement outside—the stars blinking in rhythmic patterns, almost like… signals.
"Marauder, are you seeing this?"
"Yes. Those are not stars. They're beacons—nodes of the Lattice Mind. It's already stirring."
A deep hum filled the cockpit, and the fragment's containment field trembled. Elyra's console glitched, the screen rippling with distorted text. A voice, faint but undeniable, echoed through the systems:
"Who… wakes me?"
Elyra froze. "It's speaking?"
The Marauder's tendrils coiled defensively. "It's reaching out—but not to us. The Void has already touched it."
The hum deepened, turning into a chorus of overlapping whispers. Every light aboard the Seraphine's Echo dimmed, then flared again, as if the ship itself were resisting something unseen.
Elyra clenched her fists. "If it's alive, we can reach it. Maybe even help it fight back."
The Marauder regarded her silently, then nodded once. "Then prepare yourself. We enter Foldspace again—but this time, we're stepping into the mind of the galaxy itself."
Elyra's gaze hardened. "Then let's make sure the galaxy remembers who we are."
The engines ignited, and the Seraphine's Echo vanished into the swirling blue currents—toward a consciousness older than stars, and a danger unlike any they had faced before.