“He says he’s especially fond of the baby ducks,” Skits added.

“Baby ducks?” The captain didn’t strike Leo as having a soft spot for such things, but Leo couldn’t argue. Back where he lived, there was a retention pond in the neighborhood, complete with picnic benches and a little dock you could perch yourself on if you wanted to fish. He and Gareth used to take a bag of frozen corn down to the edge in spring and feed the ducklings, careful to aim their offerings away from the greedy mother. Invariably Gareth would make some joke about how Leo used to be cute too when he was born, and Leo would try to push his older brother into the water, causing the ducks to scatter.

He wondered if that pond was still there. If it had dried up or if some chemical imbalance in the water had caused the fish to die. He thought about the ducklings trailing after their mother as she led them from the two squabbling boys wrestling in the grass, probably just wishing for a safe place to raise her young. “It’s pretty amazing,” Leo said.

“Why didn’t you just stay there, then?”

“Wasn’t my call. My dad told us we had to leave,” Leo said. “He said it was for the best.” Dr. Fender was sure that humanity’s future lay out among the stars. Space travel was the door that led to humankind’s salvation, ventasium was the key that unlocked that door, and the Aykari were the guides that would show them the way through.

Turns out his father didn’t know everything.

Up ahead, Lark had stopped at the top of a small rise. “There,” he said, pointing.

Leo took a deep breath. He found himself staring into a fathomless fissure in the planet’s crust, like an open sore. This was no naturally occurring canyon or gully; its contours were much too regular, its edges too precise. Whatever or whoever had dug this hole in the ground had done so purposefully, and Leo knew why.

His thoughts were confirmed the moment they descended the hill and Leo saw the gleaming silver structure built into canyon’s side. The huge observation deck with its giant window and the even larger hangar beside it, big enough for several ships. He recognized the platforms, embedded with lights. The solar arrays angled up toward the sky to provide power. The titanium walkways circling the pit. He’d seen it all before.

There, just beyond the control center, sat the remains of the extractor itself, a metal monstrosity plunging deep below the planet’s skin. Very little could be seen of it from here, but Leo knew it ran a long way down. If you accidentally stepped over the edge, you would have plenty of time to ponder all of your life choices before you hit bottom.

“An abandoned mining facility,” Kat said.

“Mostly abandoned,” the Aykari replied. He beckoned them onto the metal elevator that would take them down to the entrance of the control compound. The whole apparatus looked a little worse for wear.