It’s got to be worth more to you than it is to me. That’s what Baz said when he tried to pass the medal off on him. Leo traced the engraving with his finger. Lt. Sebastian D. Blackwell—for exceptional courage in the line of duty.

“I can’t,” he said, pushing it away. “It’s not mine.”

“It doesn’t have your name on it,” Kat admitted. “But the ‘exceptional courage’ part fits. After all, it’s not every kid who faces off against pirates, bounty hunters, and alien armies in an attempt to reunite their family and save their planet.”

“The pirates weren’t so bad,” Leo said. “You know. Relative to their kind.”

“No. I guess not.”

Kat placed the medal—Baz’s medal—in Leo’s hands and closed his fingers around it. This time he didn’t try to return it. It might help, he thought, having a little something to remember him by. Something to keep close. “It still hurts sometimes,” Leo admitted. “Thinking about it. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you.”

“I think he knew,” Kat said. “Before we even left. Backing up Skits’s programming. Taking the device himself. Making us fly that other ship. Not that I think he wanted it to happen, exactly, but I think he saw it coming and somehow made his peace with it. I like to think that in those last moments he found whatever it was he’d been looking for.”

A soft rumble echoed in the distance. A ship taking off. It could be human. Or it could be another Aykari transport full of used mining equipment and empty cores, leaving the planet for good. The sound startled the ducks who ruffled their wings but decided to stay put. Leo scanned the sky, spotting a silver speck in the distance. “Do you think they’ll leave us alone now?” he asked.

“I hope so. They got what they could,” Kat replied. “And we’ve got enough problems down here without having to worry about what’s happening out there.” The former pirate turned tavern owner followed the ship with her eyes for a moment and then brought them back down to Earth. “For example, what am I going to do with my server? Because I’m pretty sure her attitude is starting to scare off my customers.”

“Just tell her she’s not allowed to talk,” Leo suggested. “Worked on me.”

“Did it though?”

“No. I guess not.”

Kat laughed and Leo joined in. Afterward they sat and enjoyed the quiet, not a single drill to be heard. It really was a prime location.

After a while Leo glanced at his watch and saw it was time to start back so his father and brother wouldn’t worry. But before he could say goodbye, he had one more question. An important one.

He asked her if she’d been to a game yet. Baseball. The one with the plate not for eating. Kat shook her head.

He promised he would take her.

As he left the bar, Leo fished a ten-dollar bill out of his pocket and put it in the tip jar on the counter. He also had a five-pentar chip, but Aykarian currency wasn’t worth what it used to be.