Of course Zirkus Crayt happened to be one of those as well.

“That is the key to unlocking the element’s full potential, I believe,” Crayt said, pointing. “You see, in its nascent form—that is, when it is buried deep within a planet’s crust—EL-four eight six is mostly harmless, just stored energy waiting to be unleashed. That is why it often lies undiscovered for eons. The Aykari were the first to realize its hidden capabilities, revolutionizing the process by which that energy is unlocked and repurposed.”

“Jump drives.”

“Among other things. As your father has no doubt explained to you, the reaction that makes hyperspace travel possible requires interaction with other, more common elements . . . catalysts, if you will. It is a complex, intricate process, one that allows the energy latent in four eight six to be properly channeled and controlled even as it is released.”

Leo nodded at first, then shook his head. Crayt was right: Leo’s father had tried to explain it once or twice. Or maybe ten or twenty times. Always with the same bewildering effect. “I didn’t always pay close attention when my dad started lecturing,” he admitted. He actually preferred his mother’s explanation for how ventasium worked: It’s magic, Leo. One minute you’re here. The next minute you’re there. “So how are they doing it? Turning it into a weapon?”

Crayt swiped through another series of screens, the notations growing even more dense and complicated; finally he pointed a long, thin finger at some intricate web of characters and diagrams. “The Djarik have found a way to hyperactivate the element in its pure form, unprocessed, instantly destabilizing it to the point of self-reaction while it is still in the planet’s crust, thereby producing a chain reaction with itself. Theoretically we always knew it was possible. . . . I always knew it was possible, but I never managed to crack the code.”

“But my father has?” Leo could hardly entertain the idea, his father helping to create a weapon like this, even against his will. His father, who insisted that ventasium would be the very thing that brought the galaxy together.

Crayt nodded. “Impossible to tell how much he assisted them, but yes, his research probably proved invaluable. See here? According to this, the Djarik are building a kind of warhead, which, when detonated in close proximity to a planet, will cause all of its EL-four eight six to become instantly unstable, resulting in—”

“‘A massive release of uncontrolled energy,’” Leo said, quoting from the video he’d seen five times now.

“Turning whole planets into ventasium bombs,” Kat concluded.

“It is quite remarkable. A tremendous feat of scientific ingenuity.” Crayt sounded impressed—or at least impressed for an Aykari. “Of course the reaction would be amplified depending on how much of the element the planet still contains. On a world like this it would have minimal impact, if any at all. But on a planet still rich with four eight six, the effect would be nothing short of total annihilation.”