He waited for a shot from one of the turrets to tear through their transport’s hull, sending them plummeting into the canyon as well.

He waited for those Djarik missiles to break through the clouds.

He held that breath, and he waited for the world to end.

“Bastian Black, answer me right now!”

Kat’s titanium hand—the one that the captain had paid for—remained steady on the ship’s controls, but the other one trembled. Dead ahead, the pinnacle of the Aykari drill jutting up out of the canyon cast its shadow over a barren landscape that once had been covered in trees. Beyond that, a world still full of promise.

In an instant, that whole world changed.

In the jump drives of every ship docked on planet 641-57-3, the element known galaxy-wide as EL-486 flared a bright blue, pretty as a summer sky. For only a moment, though, and then just as quickly it turned gray and useless.

In the depths of every mining platform scattered all over that world, that same precious element was sapped of whatever latent power it possessed, its value plummeting to nothing. And a planet that was once a jewel in the crown of an empire became little more than a dried-up well.

Moments before that, the worst pirate in the universe cursed under his breath as the hull of his ship began to break apart around him. He felt himself thrown forward, coming up out of his seat, momentarily weightless.

And in that instant he inexplicably smelled freshly mown grass and the smoke from a campfire. The taste of chili dogs, of all things, lingered on his tongue. He heard the crack of a bat. The cheering crowd.

He recalled the feel of the wind in his hair the first time his father took him up in a plane and handed him the controls. How free he felt.

He thought of a girl named Marjorie and a kiss he stole when he was only nine. And he smiled.

War is when the government tells you who the enemy is. Revolution is when you decide it for yourself.

—Benjamin Franklin

A Promise Kept

KAT STARED THROUGH THE COCKPIT AT THE CHASM unfolding beneath them, into the black hole that had swallowed the Icarus, taking its captain, her captain, with it.

“Bastian. You fool,” she whispered.

Leo sat stunned, listening to the soft static coming through the coms. Everything felt frozen solid, inside and out.

That is, until the guns that had been focused on bringing the Icarus down turned their attention to the next ship in line. Kat snapped back to attention. She shook her head, regaining her focus, and pulled hard on the controls, the Aykari transport going parabolic, splitting the clouds, leaving the cannonade and the canyon—and Baz—behind them until they were out of the turrets’ reach.

But they were only trading one danger for another. Leo could already make out the chaotic bursts of the battle raging above him, the cruisers of the EDF unleashing their wrath upon the giant Djarik command ship as swarms of starfighters wove between them, spitting death before exploding in brief flashes of light like so many fireflies blinking in the night.