“That is the goal,” Crayt confirmed. “And I believe we are quite close. As you can see, here we have a core of EL-four eight six.” He pointed to the cylinder that emitted its eerie blue halo, like a glacier melting into the sea. “This is not the element in its purest form, of course—not extracted ‘fresh from the hole,’ as you humans say.”

“Pretty sure nobody says that,” Kat remarked.

Crayt ignored her. “Nevertheless, it will do for the purposes of this test.” He carried the core over to a large black machine stationed along the back wall. He held it gingerly, Leo noticed. Even an Aykari scientist who had been studying ventasium all of his life handled the stuff with caution and respect. “I trust you have seen a machine like this before?”

Leo had, in fact, seen something like it not that long ago. In the office of a black-market V dealer and general sleazebag named Gerrod Grimsley. Grims had used a similar machine to test one of the cores Baz brought him. Luckily for Baz, Grimsley grabbed from the middle like he always did, buying the captain and his crew some time to get away. Of course, soon after that he tried to have them killed. Leo was starting to notice a pattern here. Baz and his crew do something foolhardy and dangerous to stay alive—then they almost die as a result. Repeat as necessary.

Crayt placed the core into the testing device and flipped a switch. A series of red numbers began to flash on the screen, steadily increasing, finally stopping at 99.73. “As you can see, this core is still nearly at full strength. Enough power to send you across the galaxy. Even this small amount of the element could be enough to catalyze the kind of chain reaction the Djarik are working toward. Now we come to the tricky part.”

Leo didn’t like that sound of that. He was a budding magician—at least he had been once—so he knew there was always one move, one moment, upon which the success of an entire trick depended. He’d messed up that move more often than not. But then the fate of the galaxy had never been riding on whether or not Leo could make a quarter disappear.

Leo felt a hand on his shoulder: Baz pulling him a couple of steps back as well.

The Aykari removed the core from the tester and set it on his workbench. Then he produced another small device, a metal cylinder no bigger than Leo’s thumb. Crayt attached one end of it to the still half-full core. His finger hovered over a tiny button protruding from the top, but he didn’t press it. Leo didn’t think an Aykari could actually look worried, but Zirkus Crayt’s hands seemed to be shaking a little.

“I must warn you: we are in new territory here. No one has ever discovered a way to nullify the element’s potential energy. I believe the science is sound; Dr. Fender’s research tracks. I have triple-checked the math. Theoretically speaking, this should work, and even if it fails, there is a strong likelihood that absolutely nothing of note will occur. However, there is a small chance that it will have the opposite of the intended effect, essentially vaporizing everything in the area.”