“Well, knock it off. We’re leaving,” Baz told her. He pointed to a stack of crates along the back wall beside the deactivated mining bots. “Boo, check those containers, see if you can find any supplies, anything we can use to fix up the Icarus. I’m sure Crayt won’t mind if we permanently borrow a few items. It really is the absolute least he could do.”

Leo followed behind Kat, who was right on the captain’s heels, pressing him. “Listen, Baz. You know we’re with you; we’ll go wherever you say. But we can’t make a jump without coordinates. So what’s the plan?”

“Still not sure.”

Kat took a deep breath, matching him step for step. “And, see, normally I’d be okay with that. But you and I both know we are in way over our heads here. We have been since we left Kaber’s Point. We can’t just wing this one. Not this time. There’s too much at stake.”

“Noted,” Baz said. He kicked through a small pile of scrap, no doubt looking for something to patch a hole in the Icarus’s hull.

“I’m not sure you do,” Kat continued to needle. “This is serious. We can’t give what’s on that chip to just anyone. And we sure as stars can’t go on about our business pretending we don’t know what’s on it.”

“Understood.”

Leo watched as Kat took Baz by the arm, spinning him around.

“So then what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know!” he shouted back at her.

She didn’t wince. She didn’t even flinch. She held steady, face-to-face with her captain.

“I don’t know, Kat,” he repeated, softer this time. “You’re right. I’m out of my league. I have no idea what to do next. All I know is that I can’t let it happen again.”

“It’s all right, Baz,” Kat soothed. “It’s okay. I get it.”

“But it’s not. And you don’t. Not this. You weren’t there last time.” Baz shot a glance at Leo, then fixed his eyes back on Kat. “I saw it happen. Watched all those cities go up in flames. And the whole time I was thinking, This is it. This is the end of the world. And now . . . this time . . . this time it really could be the end. And it’s pissing me off, because I don’t think there’s a thing I can do about it.”

“Perhaps there is.”

Leo turned with everyone else to see Zirkus Crayt in the corridor, Number One standing dutifully behind him. Crayt held a core of ventasium by his side—probably the same one Leo had seen sitting out the night before.

“We should talk,” the Aykari said.

Black angrily waved him off. “Forget it, Crayt. You made it pretty clear where you stand. And, frankly, I wouldn’t trust you any further than Boo could throw you, so we’re just going to scrounge around for a few things to fix up the ship and then we’ll leave.” He reached for a coil of copper tubing caught in the scrap heap when Crayt spoke again.