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the well itself?"
"I could have, but I couldn't have done it as easily as you. Why do you think
I have all of those Pilgrim maps back in my quarters?"
"I don't know, but you're a Pilgrim."
"We're not all the same, Blair. Some say we evolved from savants. There were
'zappers' who were experts at electrical sys-tems; 'chipheads' able to
engineer flawless hardware designs; 'toolkits' who could fix things with
whatever happened to be lying around; 'crunchers' who could perform complex
mathematical calculations without computers; and 'rabbitfoots' who supposedly
brought good luck to missions. From there, other types of abilities emerged,
and one in particular is the most interesting to us: the compass. These are
the Pilgrims I told you about, those with a flawless sense of direction. They
were subcatego-rized into the visionary, the explorer, and the navigator."
"Which one am I?"
"From what I've seen, you're a navigator. Me, on the other hand, I'm a
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visionary. I can determine which systems would prove most valuable for human
expansion. Visionaries can throw their minds across the galaxy, seek out new
systems, and analyze their composition. You don't even need to send a ship out
if you have a visionary on your team. I have to admit that my skills are
pretty limited, and I've been wrong on more than one occasion. I wish I were a
navigator like you."
"What about the explorers?"
"They're able to navigate through uncharted regions. Most of the Pilgrim
holocartography we have today was created by explorers. Some argue that of all
three subcategories, explorers are the most powerful."
"What do you think?"
"I think there's one Pilgrim who's more powerful than any individual. He's a
visionary, an explorer, and a navigator, and his name's Johan McDaniel, the
last living descendant of Ivar Chu McDaniel. He's kind of a legend. I met him
once. Nice old man until you cross him. We're out here now because I want you
to tap into his script. It's out here somewhere."
"His script? Why would it be " Blair answered his own question before even
asking it. "He's on board the supercruiser."
"Amity knows him as well as I. She's using him as a supplement to her hopper
drive. The calculations involved in creating and jumping a gravity well are
sometimes too complex for the NAVCOM. McDaniel is handling that for her."
"What is she? A navigator like me?"
"No, she's an explorer." Paladin's hand went reflexively to his chest. The
Pilgrim cross that hung hidden beneath his shirt had been given to him by
Amity. Blair had once borrowed the cross and had read the inscription on its
back. She wanted him to remember love across the cosmos, to remember her.
Blair smiled bitterly as he realized that Paladin wasn't the only one who
would remember her now.
Blair's nav computer chirped a warning. "We're right in the residuum now," he
said, reading his screen.
"Okay, Mr. Blair. Get to work."
He gave his mentor an awkward look.
"Reach out and find that script. Learn where they're headed."
"Okay," Blair said sarcastically. "But I don't even know how to reach. When I
jump a well, the feeling is there. I don't have to look for it."
"You learn something new every day. And here's today's lesson. On your feet,
mister. Go the viewport. Just look out there. I mean really look out there."
Paladin's voice came in a breathy lilt.
Blair stood, worked out the kinks in his legs, then went anxiously to the
viewport. He tossed Paladin a worried look, earning himself an insistent,
wide-eyed stare.
Stars, nothing but. Pinpoints against a void so familiar yet so alien that
nothing Blair could do would ever change that. What am I supposed to see ?
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"Me, probably," came a voice from behind.
Whirling, Blair came face-to-face with an old man dressed in a strange white
robe and dark sandals. He looked past the man to Paladin, who sat motionless
and unaware at the helm.
"So, Brotur Christopher. I take it you'd like to know where we're going." The
old man's hazel eyes flashed like light through a prism, and his skin held a
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