Contains 20 full color illustrations!

They wanted an astronaut. He’s raising a bug scientist.

Seventeen-year-old Simon Lupowitz knows the drill.

Every Tuesday, he puts on a clean shirt, hides the piles of laundry, and smiles into a camera lens to assure his astronaut parents—currently orbiting Mars on the historic Ares IV mission—that everything on Earth is perfect.
But the truth is messy. Simon is a Hyena trying to raise his seven-year-old brother, Alan, on a dwindling stipend and burnt toast. And Alan? Alan doesn’t care about the red planet. He hates the telescope. He hates the stars. He just wants to dig in the dirt and study beetles.

Simon thought he was just protecting his brother’s childhood, until a courier arrives with a blue envelope that changes everything. It contains the "Legacy Clause"—a hidden contract revealing that Alan isn’t just a son; he is a repayment plan. The Administration paid for their parents' ticket to the stars with Alan’s future, and they have come to collect.

Now, Simon has a choice: force his brother into a mold that will crush his spirit, or declare war on the most powerful corporation in the solar system. With the help of a chaotic pack of "wild" outcasts—a tiger, a wolf, a fox, and a hare who can fix anything but a broken heart—Simon must prove that the most important mission in the universe isn't reaching the stars. It’s staying on the ground.