But he couldn’t tell his father that, because he knew what his dad would say. That what they were doing was important. That the ship provided the necessities. That they were safe. That they had each other, which, really, should be enough.

And that if everyone decided to break the rules there would be no order to the universe. Only chaos and conflict. Rules were what made peace and cooperation possible. Leo had gotten that lecture before. Just never a satisfactory explanation for why some people could still get away with breaking them.

“Listen, Dad . . . can I just say—” Leo began, but he was interrupted by the door sliding open to reveal his brother.

“Hey. What’s going on in here? Is the ship being sucked into a black hole or some . . . thing . . . ?”

Gareth’s voice petered out as he took in the scene: Dad on the bed. Leo squirming in the interrogation chair. The pile of chocolate. The frown of disappointment. It wasn’t hard to put it all together.

Gareth’s eyes found Leo’s—held there for a moment, transmissions sent and received—then Gareth let his head drop. “I see you found them,” he said.

“The chocolate bars your brother stole from the ship’s commissary? Yes. I found them. Did you know about this, Gareth? Because if you knew, you should have told me.”

“Of course I knew,” Gareth said quickly, even a little smartly. “I’m the one who took them.”

What? Leo thought.

“What?” Dr. Fender said.

“Those chocolate bars?” Gareth said, pointing to the pile of foil-wrapped treasures piled by Leo’s pillow. “Yeah, I took them yesterday. Snatched ’em while Darby wasn’t looking. That guy is oblivious. I knew when the chocolate ran out it was back to freeze-dried ice cream and watery instant pudding, so I decided to stock up.”

Leo’s eyes hopped from Gareth to Dad and back again. He knew what was happening. He just didn’t know why.

“That’s interesting,” Dr. Fender mused, “because your brother has already said it was him.”

Actually, Leo hadn’t. Though his hangdog expression might have admitted it a thousand times over, he’d never said out loud, it was me.

“Leo?” Gareth scoffed, even going so far as to give his brother a condescending look. “You seriously think Leo would steal something? Come on, Dad. This is the same kid who wouldn’t pick up a quarter off the street because he figured somebody might come back for it.”

“But they were under your brother’s bunk,” their father said.

“I know. That’s where I put them. Besides,” Gareth added, finally blunting the sarcasm in his voice, “they weren’t just for me, you know. I was going to share. I got them for all of us.”

Leo saw his father’s face soften a bit, though the frown remained, accompanied now by narrowed eyes. Dr. Fender was an incredibly astute man, or so Leo was constantly told by those who admired him. His father knew when he was being played. Which meant he had to know that Gareth was lying.