Just as Campion said, you fail to accept the fact that these faithful "dead" are actually alive in Christ.
When we pray to God for something, are we "trying to influence the course of events"? In a sense, we are doing that with certain prayers. None of these saints have any power of their own other than their prayer. God does the heavy lifting.
Being ‘alive in Christ’ does not mean they have the powers of Christ. Or can do everything that Christ can do.
I am alive in Christ right now. I cannot do everything that Christ can do. Paul was alive in Christ. He could do miracles for awhile, until those powers were taken away from him. But Paul could not do everything Christ could do. It is not theologically sound or supportable that from the phrase ‘alive in Christ’ that you come up with the idea that the dead can intercede for us.