be time for rest later.
Hopefully.
“How are you making it respond?”
“I just… focused on a spot, and that spot grew.”
Sounded simple enough. Denver moved his attention from Laramie and trained his gaze on another speck of light a few inches above Laramie’s head. He narrowed his eyes at it, doing his best to throw all of his mental strength into the task.
Nothing happened.
“What else are you doing to make it move?”
“Nothing! It honed in on its own!”
“I’m not glaring at you. I’m trying to focus on a damn little pinprick of light, and it’s not responding to me! Maybe I should just let you—”
“OPAL, tell Denver he’s not going anywhere until he helps me figure this out.”
“Denver, Laramie says that you are—”
“Got it.” Besides, where would he go? At least if he stayed here he knew where they were.
He concentrated on the Legacy, focusing on the things a person who spent their life on a ship got used to—the faint hum of machinery working, always pricking his ears and the soles of his feet and even the air in his lungs. The Legacy felt different from the Jiminy—not just bigger, but more sterile. It tasted different, even. Denver took a deep breath and settled into his own presence on the ship, trying to get rid of all the other concerns that battered at his mind. Forget the armada, and Zahn, and everything else in the universe. He needed to focus on the ship, and the ship was—
“Whoa!”
“What?” Denver opened his eyes—shit, when had he closed them? —and found that the star map had changed. Instead of staring at an unfamiliar asteroid, he was now staring at the Legacy herself. Faint light glimmered along her hull, marking her out in the darkness.
“What did you do?” Laramie demanded.
“Nothing! I was just thinking about the ship, and then—”
“And then there she was. Wait a minute.” Laramie’s brow furrowed, and a moment later the image pulled back. Where Denver had felt no connection to the map before, now there was… something. Some sort of feedback where he almost felt the ground rush out from under his feet, as though he were running thousands of kilometers a second rather than standing perfectly still, but it passed once the map stopped moving. “Look.” Laramie pointed. “There’s the asteroid, and here’s the ship.” They were too large to be proportionately sized, but it was enough to give the impression of distance. “So now we know where we are in relation to that, at least.”
“How does that help us?”
“If I may suggest,” OPAL interjected. “The Li’Vin are an exceedingly complex species with a history dating back millions of years. The legends and realities of their psychic abilities are impossible to verify, but it is a fact that they have accomplished faster-than-light travel and penetrated far deeper into the universe than any other aliens known to humanity. It is quite likely that their mental capacities dwarf anything one human being is capable of.”
“Nice pep talk, OPAL,” Laramie grumbled.
“Wait a minute, though,” Denver said, gripping Laramie’s forearm. “This seems like progress. This is obviously some kind of map. Tucker said the route was already laid in. Do you see anything that could be the route?”
“Hang on,” Laramie said, nodding, letting his focus drift back to the simulation around them. “I think I can feel my way through this thing. But how the hell do we make the ship move? I mean, we haven’t even figured out how to start the engines.”
He was right, of course. Denver thought about it, once again focusing on the floor beneath his feet—somehow sensing the stillness that meant they had no power.
“OPAL, do you know how to power up the engine?”
“I am initializing it as we speak. You should be able to detect the rising power in the control system.”
“I don’t—” But no, she was right. It was like a little throb in the corner of his eye, and once he turned to look at it properly, it jumped into full view. The engine monitor was shaped like a button, gradually growing brighter and brighter, but when he reached for it there was nothing to touch. Of course. “I have to kick this thing into gear with my fucking mind? Great.” He kept his mental focus on the button. “Laramie? How’s it going on your side?”
“I found something. It’s like… I don’t know. A bright trail