Lana chuckled softly as he misinterpreted her look to the rafters. She had merely wanted to see where he had come from. People rarely looked above the height of their own heads and until now she hadn’t had any conception of what the ceiling had looked like or how he had been traveling along it. The answer was clear, though she thought she rather liked using the floor to travel along. Maybe she’d keep an observant eye out for those above her head next time. “Lovely as that might be, it would be a shame to find carbon copies of you all over the place. It’s always nice to know there’s only one of each person so time spent with them isn’t to be taken for granted so much.”


The femme already figured she would like this new woman, no matter how nervous she might seem. She was sure once Gwen broke out of her shell she would be more relaxed and if Lana had a hand in helping it couldn’t hurt. “You were a teacher? What did you teach?” She wasn’t sure she would have the patience for teaching anyone other than herself for long periods of time. It also struck her as interesting than someone so seemingly meek would voluntarily become a teacher. All the more reason to think that the woman’s shell was thin enough to crack. “It sounds more interesting at any rate than my life. I’ve had my share of odd jobs. The last one was as head cleaning lady for a decent hotel. Not exactly anything overly interesting.”

Lana kept her face in an expression of interest in Gwen even as she heard the less than pleasant undertones of Drake’s pointing out the younger woman’s power. How could he know? Maybe people had something around them that pinpointed their powers and he was simply very familiar with it? But that wasn’t her only power. She heard Gwen admitting to… what? Exceptionally good eye sight? Noting someone’s clothing from a mile away was the sort of thing binoculars were for. That sounded like a very nifty power to have indeed. Then she remembered something. “It hurts you to use your telepathy?”

Feeling Drake’s hand on her shoulder made her wonder if he really didn’t feel what Niki felt, or if he didn’t mind. Maybe he was just too polite? Then again, he didn’t seem the type to go through discomfort just for show. But she didn’t really know him all that well. This was only their second meeting. She could be completely wrong for all she knew. Lana would simply have to wait. In the meantime, no one would learn anything about the ship just standing around in the hall.

“After our tour around the inside of the ship we’ll go up onto the deck? Sound like a good plan? Ready to lead the way, Drake?”