Kat held up her prosthetic, the metal catching the Icarus’s yellow lighting. “Turns out, the stack of pentars Baz was counting was to pay for this. He knew a guy working out of the waystation who specialized in cybernetics. It was the whole reason we were there, in fact. We didn’t really need supplies. He just wanted to buy me an arm.” She flexed her fingers, one after the other, making a fist. “Afterward I asked him why he went through all that trouble, spent all that money for a girl he’d just met.”

“What did he say?”

“He said with a bionic arm I’d be able to carry all the heavy stuff.”

Leo snorted. That sounded like him too. He also knew there was much more to it than that.

“It’s hard putting your life in someone else’s hands, Leo. Counting on them to do the right thing, to make the right call. Believe me, I know. So does Baz. Do you trust your dad?”

Trust him? The man who had taken care of him for almost his entire life? Also the same one who had left him in the hands of these pirates? He didn’t fully understand why his father did what he did, and was angry at him for doing it—just like he was angry at Gareth for putting him on the Icarus to begin with—but Leo still trusted him.

And he obviously trusted Leo. Was counting on him, in fact.

I need you to do something for me.

Leo nodded.

“And I trust Baz. If he says he’s going to help you find this Crayt guy, and then find your brother, then he will. We will. . . . Just don’t ask me how.” Kat took a sip from her cup and grimaced. “I’m no expert, but I don’t think milk should have this many lumps.”

“One is probably too many,” Leo agreed.

Kat sighed and dumped the contents down the disposal, leaving the dirty cup in the sink for someone else to wash.

The jump out of hyperspace was just as bad as the jump in, and this time Leo felt some of the precious peanut butter come slurching up, though he somehow managed to choke it back down. Always tastes better the first time. That’s what Gareth used to say right after he burped. Leo never could summon a belch to match his brother’s magnitude, like a belly monster unleashing its primal roar. Just one of the things about Gareth that Leo was always jealous of.

Everyone was back in the cockpit again, Baz manning the controls, Kat running scans, Boo eating something that looked suspiciously like the kind of crusted rolls Leo used to get at restaurants back on Earth, though this one was dark brown, the color of cocoa. The Queleti had an almost empty jar of peanut butter in his lap as well. Boo held the roll out to Leo.

“Butt crack?”

Leo flinched. “Sorry, what?”

“You should try it. It’s delicious.”