The only way we’re able to escape is thanks to Raylan’s weapons cache—one of the few boxes we haven’t touched in the year and a half of our journey. My landing might have kept us from crumpling against the earth, but it also deeply embedded us in a sand dune. The loading door is blocked, and without any fuel to punch the thrusters or engine, it’s impossible for us to dig ourselves out of the sand. After a little bit of brainstorming, I find an old incendiary grenade in one of the boxes from Lorien and blow a hole in the side of the cargo bay while we huddle in Crayton’s living quarters along with the Chimærae. On one hand, it’s perfect that we’ve crash-landed in the middle of nowhere, with no humans to catch sight of us. On the other, seeing nothing but sand and dunes surrounding us isn’t the most welcoming sight imaginable. “How’s the radar on Earth?” I ask as I jump down into the hot sand, wearing the T-shirt and black pants I had on the night everything changed on Lorien.
