No doubt Crayt felt the same, or he wouldn’t have built a security robot to protect him from his own past catching up to him.

“And how do you know Dr. Fender?” Kat asked.

Crayt turned to Leo, hands folded in front of him. “In truth, your father and I have never met, but I am well aware of his reputation. For some time I was in charge of the Aykari research team exploring potential uses of EL-four eight six for the empire. Dr. Fender held a similar position among his own people, I believe, though as I understand it, his research was more far-reaching, considering applications in medicine, manufacturing, environmental engineering. . . .”

Don’t forget hair loss, Leo thought, recalling one conversation over dinner. It seemed like every week his father would come home with some new theory as to ventasium’s potential to change the world. To hear his dad tell it, with the proper catalyst and the right technology, there was probably nothing V couldn’t do.

“And your interests?” Kat pressed.

“Naturally my research was more militaristic in nature,” Crayt replied.

“Naturally,” Baz said, making no attempt to hide his lack of surprise.

Crayt didn’t seem to notice. “My superiors were interested in finding ways to harness the element’s energy for purely destructive purposes. To use in the war effort against the Djarik.”

Except it looks like they beat you to it, Leo thought. Forget curing diseases or purifying a planet’s water supply—instead let’s find more effective ways to kill each other. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised either. Hadn’t his father once told him that war—and the ability to wage it—was the driving force behind half of all technological progress?

“My father never made weapons,” Leo said.

At least not that he knew of.

“As I said, our goals were different, but we worked within the same theoretical framework,” Crayt continued. “That is how we crossed paths. Highly intelligent, your father. A genius . . . relative to his kind.”

Leo was pretty sure his dad once had a plaque hanging in their study back on Earth that said as much. Of course if he was such a genius, how come he wasn’t the one here talking to this Aykari? How come he had to send Leo instead? A true genius would have found a way to stop the Djarik and stay close to his son.

A true genius would have known better than to leave home to begin with.

“I have answered your question, now you answer mine,” Crayt insisted. “Where is Dr. Fender currently?”

All eyes were suddenly on Leo. He still wasn’t sure he could trust this Aykari standing before him—who only moments ago had threatened to blast him to oblivion—but this was the person his father had sent him to find.

“The Djarik have him,” he said.

Then he proceeded to tell Crayt everything—or at least the abridged version. How marauders crippled their ship and kidnapped his father. How he, Leo, had stowed away aboard the Icarus and how Baz and the crew had helped him find his dad and attempt a rescue. How his father told him the truth about the Aykari and the Djarik, the same truth that Crayt himself had confirmed. Leo left out the hairy details—the shootout in the hangar at Kaber’s Point, Mac and Dev and the Twinkies, the bounty placed on his and Gareth’s heads, and Zennia, the gun-toting and determined ex-girlfriend, looking to cash in—he could scarcely believe that all of that had happened. Or that he had survived it.