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“We are not going to die,” Lexa snaps from the cockpit. “I can land this thing without power. It just won’t be pleasant.”
Unpleasant seems like it might be an understatement. A glance out the window shows me that we’re still awfully high up, the tops of trees pointy green spears down below. Lexa has us gliding in lazy circles, trying to slow our descent as much as possible. Without power, the ship rocks back and forth with every gust of wind, and I can feel Lexa jerk the controls every time that happens, to keep the ship’s nose from going down. So far, she’s been able to keep us relatively steady. Once we hit those trees, though, we’re going to be bounced about like crazy.
Sam stands in the middle of the aisle. He looks panicked. I can’t blame him, since this abrupt descent is pretty much his fault.
“This ship is fucking cursed,” I mutter to myself.
“Turn on!” Sam yells for like the twentieth time. “Ship! I command you to turn back on!”
“It’s not working. Systems are still off, and I’m totally locked out,” Lexa calls back from the cockpit. “Maybe try asking nicer.”
Sam clears his throat, and his voice goes up an octave, like he’s talking to a baby. “Ship? Please turn back on?”
Nothing happens.
“Goddamn it, turn on!”
I grab Sam by the shoulders and make him look at me.
“You’re just yelling right now; you get that, right? You need to focus. Stop freaking out and use your Legacy.”
“I don’t know how, Six. Yelling is seriously all that’s worked for me so far.”
“You did it before with the game player. Just—I don’t know. Visualize?”
“I’m going to get us all killed,” Sam groans.
“I have seen very few futures where that occurs, Sam,” Ella interjects. She’s still calmly seated in her chair. Sam stares at her.
“See? Very few,” I say to Sam.
Sam swallows hard. “Not helpful.”
The ship suddenly lurches to the right. Lexa curses and bangs against the steering column, trying to correct course. We definitely just picked up some downward velocity.
“Six, maybe you could help me out with the wind situation?” Lexa calls over her shoulder.
“Good idea,” I reply. I start to step away from Sam. His eyes widen immediately, like I’m abandoning him. I grab his shoulders and squeeze. “Relax. You can fix this. I’m just gonna slow us down a bit so you have more time.”
I go to the nearest window and concentrate on the weather outside. It’s a clear-blue sky out there. I focus on the wind—it’s blowing hard at this altitude, but not so strong that I can’t control it. Instead of buffeting against the side of our ship, I command the wind to change directions, pushing it across the ship’s underbelly, cushioning us. Combined with Lexa’s careful navigation, soon we’re circling gently, like a leaf caught up on a breeze.
I’ve slowed us down. This ship still probably weighs half a ton. I won’t be able to keep us gliding around forever, not without some help from the engines. It’s only a matter of time.
I’m sure Sam knows this. He keeps at it, trying different tones of voice, commanding the engines to start back up. The ship’s not listening, though.
In my peripheral vision, I notice Ella gets out of her seat. Little flecks of blue energy spit from the corners of her eyes. She holds Bandit under one arm; the raccoon was losing his mind as we started to crash. As soon as Ella picked him up, he calmed right down. I don’t know what he’s so worried about anyway—unlike the rest of us, he can sprout wings.
Ella studies Sam for a moment. She nods once, like she’s come to a conclusion.
“Before, you said you pictured the inner workings of the video game player and that helped, right?” she asks.
“I said they popped into my head eventually,” Sam replies. He runs both of his hands across his scalp. “I don’t know how it happened.”
“Okay,” Ella replies. “Give me a second.”
Sam blinks at her, trying to work some moisture into his mouth. He watches as Ella strolls casually towards the cockpit. I half turn to watch, too, still giving most of my attention to padding the wind.
“This thing’s gotta have parachutes, right?” Daniela asks me.
“Don’t worry,” I reply, watching Ella. “I think we’ve got this.”
Daniela looks at me like I’m crazy. She’s not used to this whole close-calls thing.
“You know how this ship works, right?” Ella asks Lexa, standing right at the pilot’s elbow. “You could, say, picture the engine?”
“What? Yeah, I guess,” Lexa answers, although she’s more focused on navigating us towards a patch of flatland newly visible on the horizon. It won’t be enough space to land us clean, but at least we won’t be getting thrown between trees.
“Could you do it right now?” Ella asks patiently. “Just—visualize the engine or the power system or . . . I dunno. Whatever you think Sam screwed up.”
“I’m kind of busy with . . . ,” Lexa responds sharply, then thinks better of it. She makes sure the controls are pointed in the right direction before leaning back for a second and closing her eyes. “Okay, I’m pictu—”
Lexa breaks off suddenly with a shudder, like a chill just went up her spine.
“Thanks, got it,” Ella says.
Lexa reopens her eyes. She squeezes the bridge of her nose for a moment before wordlessly refocusing on her controls. “That was weird,” she mutters.
“Sam, I’m going to send this image over to you,” Ella says, peering back at Sam from the cockpit.
“Send it to me how?” he replies, though the answer should be obvious. Telepathically. Sam’s head jerks back, and his eyebrows shoot up. “Oh. There it is.”
“Try your Legacy now,” Ella suggests. She leans against the cockpit entrance and gently strokes Bandit’s fur. She’s so confident, I let my grip on the supporting winds slip a little. Our ship dips suddenly to the left. Daniela’s the only one who notices—she lets out a quiet moan of despair; everyone else is focused on Sam.
His eyes are glazed over, and he stare
s into the distance, like there’s something floating out there that only he can see. His lips move wordlessly, rapidly, as if he’s whispering a quick count to one thousand.
“Ship, turn on and stabilize, return control to pilot,” he says confidently.
Immediately, there’s a whir of activity under our feet. The ship’s engines turn back on, and there’s a satisfying chorus of buzzes and beeps from the cockpit. We level off and begin to gain altitude.
“All good!” Lexa yells. “Crisis averted.”
I lunge away from the window and squeeze Sam. “You did it!”
Sam smiles dazedly at me, like he’s not sure what he even did. “I did it,” he repeats.
“You didn’t kill us, hooray,” Daniela adds sarcastically.
“I felt like I was supercharged or something,” Sam says, his gaze drifting towards Ella. “Like I was connected to the machine. I could make out all its workings. . . .”
Ella shrugs. “I only plucked out what was in Lexa’s mind and gave it to you. That’s all.”
“So it seems like you have to understand the machine before you can control it,” I say, thinking out loud.
“But with the Game Boy, I just sat with it, thought about it, and eventually the wiring came to me,” Sam counters. “And shutting down the ship, that was a total accident. Like an overreach.”
“You also talked funny this last time,” Daniela says. “Like a robot.”
“Did I?” Sam asks, and raises an eyebrow at me.
“You did,” I reply. “Seems like we’ve still got some work to do figuring out this Legacy.”
“Man, I need a Cêpan,” Sam says, rubbing the back of his neck.
Lexa clears her throat. “Look alive, everybody. We’re closing in on Niagara Falls, and I’ve already got visual on two—no, make it three—Skimmers.”
Everyone in the back immediately falls silent and gets serious. The thundering majesty of Niagara Falls becomes visible down below as Lexa makes a quick pass overhead. Unsurprisingly, the falls are completely devoid of tourists. With the world at war, no one has time for sightseeing.
