Dash felt a whole new level of urgency as he and Chris raced to join the rest of the crew gathered on the flight deck. Eighty-four days until his supply of injections ran out. That was less than three months. They had already been traveling for nine.

Would he ever make it back to Earth? The mission was supposed to last one year only. Commander Phillips had been clear about that from the beginning.

Dash knew all along that he was taking a risk with the age serum, sure, but the timing was one thing Dash had never fully stopped to consider. He knew they’d fallen a bit behind schedule. Now he understood the delay could have life-or-death consequences.

The Cloud Leopard main computer began a slow, high-pitched whine. Over the warning alarm, STEAM recited, “Exiting Gamma Speed in sixty seconds.”

“All right, let’s buckle up,” Dash said. The crew members climbed into their flight seats and strapped in for the quick deceleration.

“I hate this part,” Carly grumbled. The sudden jolt out of Gamma Speed was always a bit harsh.

“I love it,” Gabriel said. To him, the Gamma jump was like a really awesome roller coaster ride, where his stomach felt like it flew up into his mouth for a second. It was all slightly painful, but what a rush!

“Here we go,” said Piper, gripping the arms of her seat.

The entire Cloud Leopard shook and rumbled. The crew pitched forward against their secured seat belts as the speeding ship slammed on its brakes.

“Yeah!” Gabriel whooped once his stomach slowed its churning. “What a ride!” He was the crew’s pilot for a reason.

Dash watched on the large monitor screen above the control panel as the Cloud Leopard settled into orbit around Infinity.

The thin atmosphere supported no clouds. The air was completely clear. Dash had near perfect visibility of the harsh, rocky, grayish landscape below. He saw no water, no plants. Nothing that seemed to be moving at all.

“You mentioned life on this planet, right?” Dash asked. He turned away from the monitor and clicked out of his flight seat. The crew gathered around the table for the planet briefing. They had been training for certain aspects of the mission during the months-long Gamma jump, but now they would learn the specific details about the tasks they must complete on Infinity.

“There is life,” Chris said. “Underground.”

“Underground?” Piper said nervously.

“Yes,” Chris continued. “The planet is entirely comprised of dense rock. So dense that the gravitational force is increased. Nothing much would survive on the surface. But down below, there is a vast network of tunnels and caves.”

“How many things live in the caves?” Gabriel asked.

“Three creatures that I know of. And the element we need to retrieve comes from one of these life-forms.”

On the monitor, a batlike creature appeared. The only difference was, each “bat” had a two-foot-long snaking tail that ended in a sharp arrow point.

“These are Stingers,” Chris said. “They live in the lake caverns on Infinity.”

“Cool,” Gabriel said. He thought the creature looked like a cross between a bat and a stingray.

“See those barbs on their tails?” Chris explained. “When Stingers sting, they inject a spore—a small, toxic pellet—into their prey.” The screen displayed a single black sphere about the size of a BB. “The spore disintegrates into about a hundred micro-beads of the primary toxin, which then spread through the victim’s bloodstream.”

“How toxic?” Carly asked.

“Probably lethal to humans,” Chris said. “But Stinger spores are the element we need to gather. At least a thousand of them.”

“A thousand?” Piper said. That sounded like a lot of lethal stinging action. As the team’s medic, she realized they had better find out for sure if the toxin would kill them.

“Yes,” Chris said. “We need a hundred thousand units of the primary toxin, and there are one hundred per spore.”

“How do we catch them?” Dash asked.

“Nets,” Chris said. “You’ll need to gather enough Stingers and then carefully extract the spores.”

“So, scoop some Stingers and don’t get stung,” Gabriel said. “We got this.”

Chris nodded. “You could put it like that.”

“Why do I feel like it’s not going to be that simple?” Carly asked.

“Two other life-forms to worry about, remember?” Piper said. “What are they?”

“Sawtooth Land Eels, for one,” Chris said. The new image that appeared on the monitor caused the crew to gasp.

“Whoa,” Gabriel said. “That is one ugly snake.”

The creature had a slimy gray-green body. It wasn’t scaly, but smooth and greasy-looking, from its thick head all the way to its tapered tail. Its jaws jutted forward, sporting a row of protruding top teeth, all jagged and slightly curved like fangs. In the screen simulation, the creature slithered forward, chomped, and then its jaws ground together in a side-to-side sawing motion. It didn’t appear to have eyes. Just teeth.

“The screen doesn’t do it justice,” Chris commented. “They are large. Ten to twenty feet in diameter and up to a hundred feet in length.”

“Ten feet? That’s as tall as a school bus,” Dash said. “Yikes.”

“One to two school buses stacked, yes sir,” STEAM reported, whirring quickly though the calculations. “And as long as three to four buses in a row.”

Piper gulped audibly. “Whoa.”

But STEAM was on a roll. “Ten feet is also the height of one floor of a standard human dwelling,” he reported. “The average Saw will be the size of a one-story house, with a mouth the size of a two-car garage.”

“We get it,” Gabriel said. “They’re big.”

“If there’s not much other life on Infinity, what do the Saws eat?” Piper asked.

“Rock,” Chris said. “Hence all the caves and tunnels.” He pulled up a new image, of one of the Sawtooth-made caverns.

“Sounds like they won’t be much risk to us, then,” Carly commented.

“Oh, I assure you they would not draw a great distinction between stone and human bone,” Chris said, a bit too cheerfully.

“Great,” Gabriel said, clapping Chris on the shoulder. “Thanks, man. That’s comforting.”

“They’re almost impossible to kill,” Chris continued. “They must be stabbed through all six brain nodes”—he pointed to an area on top of the Saw’s head and upper back—“before they have time to heal. Even from the worst stab wounds, they regenerate—only angrier. You really don’t want to get cornered by one of these.” The camera screen panned through the Sawtooth cavern, drawing deeper and deeper into darkness. “Luckily, the tunnel system is quite vast. There is almost always an escape route.”

“Looks like it would be easy to get turned around down there,” Piper said, staring at the maze on the screen.

“Yes,” Chris said.

They waited for him to add, And here’s how we make sure we don’t get lost….But Chris didn’t say anything.

“Avoid Saws. Check,” Dash said. “Next?”

Chris brought up an image of a winged black horse. The midnight-colored steed reared back on its hind legs and pawed the air, unfurling its silken wings. The creature’s eyes glowed white, making it look slightly demonic. Yet, strangely, the whole crew smiled at the sight.

“Oh,” Carly exclaimed. “They’re awesome.”

“Yes, truly awful,” Chris said, sounding like he was agreeing with her.

“Are they enemies?” Carly felt suddenly very disappointed. “They look so beautiful.”

“Wild, they are neither enemy nor friend,” Chris said. “Unpredictable at best. When domesticated, Weavers become somewhat similar to Earth horses. They can be ridden. In fact, that is the best way to explore the Sawtooth caverns.”

“So…giant eels with scissor jaws, long-tailed stinging cave bats, and flying demon horses?” Gabriel summed up. “All in a day’s work.”

“At least there are no other people to avoid,” Piper said, trying to keep things positive. After all the wacky politics on Aqua Gen, they could use a break from the challenge of dealing with other-planet societies.

“Well…,” said Chris.

“Oh, great.” Gabriel slapped his forehead. “You always save the best for last.”

“The Jackals are a friendly race,” Chris added quickly. “If a bit…regimented.”

“That doesn’t sound too good,” Carly said.

“But it doesn’t sound terrible,” Dash added. “If they’re friendly, then at least maybe we’ll have some locals to show us around.”

“Infinity is not their home planet,” Chris said. “The Jackals on Infinity are explorers and scientists. Everything is documented and recorded for study.”

“Great. So we’re about to become an entry in some mad-scientist alien’s diary?” Gabriel quipped.

Chris looked puzzled as the others laughed. “Oh, no, I assure you the Jackals are not an angry race,” he said. The crew laughed a little harder.

“ ‘Mad scientist’ is kind of a saying,” Piper explained. Even though he looked like a human teenager, Chris was an alien through and through.

Chris shrugged and continued. “All that’s left is to figure out who’s going.”

“Gabriel,” Dash said. “That tunnel system sounds like it’s going to need serious navigation skills.”

Gabriel nodded agreement. “I’m on it.”

“And Carly,” said Piper. “She knows the most about riding horses.”

Carly nodded eagerly too. She loved to ride. Some of her favorite memories of home involved going to the countryside, where friends of her family owned stables and a dozen horses.

“Horselike creatures,” Chris reminded them. “Not actual horses.”

Dash and Piper looked at each other. Usually only a team of three went to the surface. The fourth crew member stayed on board the Cloud Leopard with Chris in case of an emergency. They’d broken their rule on Aqua Gen, with nearly devastating consequences.

“I can ride a horse, no problem,” Piper said. “It won’t be that different from being on my air chair. Or,” she added, “I can just air chair my way through the tunnels.”

Dash nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He hesitated to say it, but between the Saws and the Stingers, it also seemed like there might be a need for Piper’s medical skills down on the surface. Much as Dash wanted to go on the adventure—because he always wanted to go—he had been along on all the planet surface trips so far. It was only fair he take a turn staying on the ship.

Dash opened his mouth to confirm who would be going: “Great. So it’ll be Gabriel, Carly, and—”

“Actually,” Chris said. “I’d like to go along this time.”