I’d expected the primary thing I sensed to be empty space or perhaps distant hints to chase, but that wasn’t what I found.

  This place pulsed with energy. The Core device kept these worlds alive. I didn’t know what was in them, but I could sense energy traveling to each one and a smaller amount of energy leaving each sphere.

  The energy output might be worth investigating, provided they generated enough that I could sense it from a distance. Another idea might be cutting off energy if I could do that. Making the assumption that the pocket universe would disappear and the original League would pop out, it might even be the best option.

  Of course, if each of these pocket universes contain living, thinking beings and I ended their lives, the option seemed ethically questionable. Worse, if the original League had to survive the end of a universe, possibly dying the in the process, the consequences might be disastrous.

  A more subtle option might be the better choice.

  So, I started sifting through the ambient energy in the space, hoping that I’d see a hint of Lee’s presence. When this is all over, I told my implant, remind me that I need to figure out a technological way to detect and manipulate whatever energies I was accessing. Artificers might be able to outclass machines in terms of power, but I doubted they matched the precision.

  There had to be a way to measure and automate all of this. Bearing in mind how many Artificer abilities and skillsets surrounded alternate universes and time travel, taking apart my grandfather’s cross-dimensional positioning technology might be a good start.

  I shook my head. I didn’t need to go down a technological rabbit hole right now.

  I needed to concentrate on the energies going through this place. What stood out even a little bit?

  I don’t know how long I watched. I even flew around a little. I might not be able to go everywhere in this place, but I’d reasoned that a change in position might alter the composition of whatever I sensed enough for something different to stand out.

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  It didn’t work at first.

  I couldn’t deny that things were different from one spot to another and different things did stand out, but I didn’t sense Lee at all, not even a hint of him.

  I could feel my anxiety rising. Nothing was working. I reminded myself how common this was when I was working on something. If I backed off, relaxed, and left myself open to other ideas, something might suggest itself.

  I took long breaths, centered myself on that breathing. Fear was the mind-killer, or so I’d read.

  While I let the energies of the place flow past and through me, I did notice something new. I felt a hint of energy that reminded me of Rachel and remembered Kee describing the difference in sensing the Ghosts as opposed to Artificers. She hadn’t had a Ghost available to provide an example, but this feeling fit.

  She’d described it as “more intense, but fainter” and I should have tried analyzing Rachel the first chance I got. To be fair to myself, Rachel left for the stars before Kee told me that. Still, I felt stupid. I’d had opportunities after she got back.

  Saving me from going down a path of self-recrimination, another thought struck me. Grandma and Rachel had the same powers. If Grandma had encountered the Ghosts early enough, she might have developed the same skills as Rachel. Assuming someone hadn’t trapped a Ghost here, I was probably sensing Grandma.

  The last time I’d seen her, she’d been dying of cancer and I had no idea what her powers represented.

  Dismissing that thought, I tried to narrow down the direction the energy had come from. Sure, it came from the “northeast” if I attempted to map an infinity of darkness and glowing spheres like I would have Earth, but I wasn’t getting much definition.

  How would I get definition? I needed more power or maybe skill. Maybe both? I wasn’t going to get either one here. I didn’t have enough time to risk making a breakthrough in understanding Artificer stuff.

  What did I have?

  I had my suit. Directing my implant to look at the log files for the cross-dimensional positioning technology, I arranged the data in a matrix and thought about the equations used by the system. I’d had to recreate them in my suit’s software.

  I might be able to cross reference the data against what I sensed and find a pattern there.

  Looking over the data, I realized something else. Grandpa’s equations (and mine) used constants that were different here. Now that I was seeing the data, I could figure them out—not a perfect version, but a close enough version.

  I didn’t want to change the suit’s programming, but I recreated the software of the system within the implant. The implant did most of the work, but in combination with the suit’s raw data, I now had the time and location relative to The Core device or at least this space within it.

  Not only did I have that, but comparing where I felt Grandma’s presence (?) with the data, I saw a pattern in what the system sensed.

  Searching for that pattern elsewhere, I had a trail.