“Is it dangerous? It looks like it could be dangerous,” Skits spouted, head swiveling. “Should I deploy defense measures? Is this a code seventeen? Do you think the flamethrower or the electroprod would be more effective? I prefer the flamethrower, but if you think—”

Baz put a hand on the robot’s metal head. “Don’t overload your motherboard. They don’t look hostile. They’re probably more afraid of us than we are of them.”

“Who said I was afraid? I just wanted to know if you thought they were flammable.”

“They saw us coming. No doubt they’ve seen ships like ours before,” Kat guessed.

“And I’m guessing that didn’t turn out so well for them,” Baz added. “Let’s move slow. I don’t want to startle them.”

He took another step toward the creature peeking at them from around the building. It had a long, V-shaped nose that hung over a small oval mouth before marching in a series of ridges up to those bulbous black eyes. Another tousle of cottony-white hair grew in a triangular patch atop its head. It didn’t look all that dangerous, but Leo could only see one of its hands, the one that held on to the wall with four clawlike fingers as it peeked around. The other hand could be holding a gun or a bomb or some kind of weapon that Leo had never even heard of before, though judging by the primitive structures crumbling around him, guns and bombs were unlikely. More like spears and clubs.

A spear could still stab you, he reminded himself. A club could still bash in your skull.

Leo tugged on Baz’s jacket, his nerves prompting him to talk quickly. “So I saw this really old movie once, about King Arthur and his knights . . . and there was this rabbit in it, right? And the rabbit, it didn’t look hostile either, but then it started jumping around tearing all these guys’ throats out, like burrowing straight into their chests and eating out their hearts and stuff . . .” He couldn’t remember what the movie was called, only that his brother had thought the murderous rabbit was hilarious and Leo had thought it was terrifying.

“We aren’t looking for the Holy Grail, kid,” Baz said. “Just calm down and let me handle it.”

Leo nodded—despite a history of mixed results when it came to Black handling anything. The captain took three more steps, both of his hands raised in a gesture that Leo hoped was universally acknowledged to be one of peace. He doubted that the creature staring at them from around the corner was equipped with an embedded Aykarian translator chip, but that didn’t stop Baz from speaking to it.

“Hey there. Hail. Greetings. My name is Bastian Black. I am the captain of a simple trading vessel and this is my crew.”

Boo snorted. Kat rolled her eyes. Skits swiveled her head, no doubt scanning the area for more of the creatures.

“We are looking for someone. Perhaps you could help us.”