Ning let the light bend back around him, so that anyone looking would see him clearly, standing alone on the carrier's hull. Then he placed one hand flat against the metal beneath him and sent his words down into the ship, a gentle pulse of energy carrying them through the hull and into the soul that lived within it.
"I know what you are."
The reaction was immediate.
The faint rhythm of the carrier's breathing stopped dead. The vast presence beneath Ning's feet seemed to contract all at once, drawing inward from every part of the ship like a creature curling tight around itself.
Then Ning felt the engines.
Deep in the rear of the vessel, the carrier's drives flared to life, not to full power, but to a low, ready hum that Ning could feel trembling through the hull beneath his feet.
