He wasn’t the only one having trouble getting used to it.

“Don’t know why he insisted on me flying this ship,” Kat muttered under her breath.

She had been complaining from the moment they got on board and all through the jump: about the readouts; the control panel; the fact that she had to lean forward to get a good view through the cockpit; even the smell, which she described as “antiseptic” but still had to be better than what Zennia was dealing with.

But mostly she complained about Baz.

“He lied to me,” she seethed. “This thing is nothing like the Icarus. I don’t even know what half of these buttons do. The throttle is wonky. The layout is counterintuitive. Not to mention it’s basically just a cargo ship, so the whole thing’s got the firepower of a nerfalid’s fart. Might as well just point my finger at an attacking ship and say ‘pew-pew’ for all the good it will do.”

Leo didn’t find that very reassuring. Especially given what they were possibly flying into.

“Seriously, what was he thinking?” Kat continued. “This isn’t how we do things. Stick together, that’s what he always says. That’s how it’s always been. Ever since he picked me out of that trash heap. The four of us. A crew. A family. You know what I mean?”

Leo knew exactly what she meant.

“And now look at us. He and Skits are on the Icarus, Boo is already thousands of light-years away, and we’re stuck on this piece of Aykari garbage.”

“All ships are terrible,” Gareth muttered.

Leo’s brother sat next to him for the whole journey. While Kat grumbled about Baz and struggled to learn the Aykarian transport’s controls, the two Fenders spent the jump filling each other in on the details of what had happened, though Leo had more stories to share (“Wait, his brain was where, exactly?”). But the closer they got to their destination, the less they talked, until finally an uneasy quiet filled the cockpit, interrupted only by Kat’s most recent rant and Gareth’s response.

“Not all ships are terrible,” Kat disagreed.

“No. They really are,” Gareth insisted. “In the last week I’ve been on a Coalition research vessel, a Djarik freighter, a bounty hunter’s starfighter, and now an Aykarian transport, and I can tell you they all suck. They’re cramped and cold and dismal, and I don’t care if I ever board another one for as long as I live.”

It wasn’t something Leo ever expected to hear his brother say.

“So I guess you’re not going to join the Coalition Navy, then?”

“Are you kidding?” Gareth asked. “After everything you told me? After everything I’ve seen? The whole galaxy’s turned inside out. The Aykari are a bunch of liars and here I am teamed up with a band of freaking pirates.” He glanced at Kat sitting in the pilot’s seat. “No offense.”

She shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better, it looks like we’re shifting from the pirating business and dabbling in the planet-saving business. . . . Speaking of which, you two might want to try and keep down whatever you ate last: we’re about to come out of our jump.”