Leo tapped on the side of his head, in the space right behind his ear where his translator had been implanted. Maybe his chip was on the fritz, though it translated everything else Boo said just fine. “Did you say—”

“He did,” Kat interrupted. “And it’s not what it sounds like. The plant they use to make the grain is tough and the only part you can actually grind is the bottom end, which you have to snap off. Bottom snap. Butt crack. It has its own name in Queleti but something gets lost in translation.”

Leo stared at the plump, round roll. It didn’t help that it was sort of split straight down the middle. “I think I’ll pass.”

“Your loss,” Boo told him. “It’s especially good with these buttery nuts.” He tore off part of the roll and dipped it in the jar of peanut butter, scraping it clean and smacking his lips with satisfaction. Leo decided to just let the whole thing go.

He turned from Boo and pointed at the yellow-brown globe they were moving toward. “Is that it?”

“These are the coordinates your father gave us,” Baz answered. He sounded hesitant, as if he suspected Leo’s dad of leading them into a trap. “Six twenty-two dash forty-nine dash one. The only true planet orbiting this star. I’m sure somebody’s given it a better name. Skits, what have you got?”

“My database—which you haven’t bothered to update in forever, by the way—says fifty Earth years ago the planet came under the jurisdiction of the Aykarian empire, but it has since been granted independent status.”

“Meaning what?” Leo asked.

“Meaning the Aykari cut it loose,” Baz said. “Let me guess: at one time it was also full of ventasium.”

“At one time. Yes,” Skits confirmed. “Moderate to high concentrations.”

“But not anymore?” Leo asked. He took in the drab-looking rock they were steadily approaching. As far as planets went, this one didn’t look very inviting.

“I guarantee you, if there were still anything on this rock worth having, there would be patrol ships here to make sure we didn’t get any of it,” Baz said.

“I am reading life-forms, though,” Kat added, checking her control panel. “There’s something down there.”

“Let’s hope one of those somethings goes by the name of Zirkus Crayt.”

Baz guided the ship down slowly, arcing through the atmosphere, which soon grew thick with clouds the color of soot, making it nearly impossible to see through the windscreen. “Like flying behind Pigpen.” He turned to Leo. “You remember Pigpen, right?”

Leo shook his head.

“Before your time, I guess. Before my time, really,” he added with a sigh.

Eventually the Icarus broke through the dense gray blanket to reveal a landscape of beige punctuated with patches of purple, pink, and green—trees and scrub of some alien origin, scrabbling for life in what seemed like an otherwise dry and barren environment. Long fissures tore into the planet’s crust, stretching sometimes for miles. It reminded Leo of the salt flats of Utah. Leo’s family drove through them once on their way to the coast. He remembered being surprised to see birds circling above the dry, cracked earth. His father explained that they find food in the shallow ponds of water dotting the landscape. “To quote famous fictional mathematician Ian Malcolm, ‘Life finds a way.’”