Newly promoted Captain Xiu-Li Chen must leave her starship SAS JAGUAR to discover what happened to the missing crew on board the empty, drifting science ship SAS ROSALIND FRANKLIN. When armed raiders arrive to salvage the hulk, First Officer Ecurba must take JAGUAR into harm’s way to protect his captain.

Following her promotion, Captain Xiu-Li Chen is assigned starship SAS JAGUAR and given a 34 light year transit to planet Deepstrike as her first mission. Not only is this a return to a planet she would rather avoid, en route she must respond to a Space Fleet science survey ship in distress due to an "alien condition" of some kind. JAGUAR arrives to find the ship devoid of life, and apparently being either raided or "salvaged" by an unknown ship. During the course of this "rescue recovery" operation, she and her crew on board the science ship face a menacing "alien hazmat" while JAGUAR's First Officer Ecurba must fight off additional raiders intent on pirating whatever they can. Can Captain Chen survive the dangers on board and find the missing crew before the raiders arrive?

B. B. Irvine was born in New York City in 1959. He graduated from the High School of Music and Art N.Y. (1976 music), New York State University at Stony Brook (1980 B.A. liberal arts), and in 1982 received a certificate as a Physician Assistant from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina. He has worked in settings including emergency medicine, AIDS research, and addiction treatment in New York City, where he lives. In 1994 he earned a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do from Grandmaster Richard Chun. His novels and screenplays evidence his knowledge of people and frequently weave medicine, science, history, romance, and martial arts into the action. He entered the Smashwords e-book universe in 2012 and stepped into print with BookBaby in 2014.