Book excerpt: In space, helping a stranger can get you killed, or worse… Armstrong Station is the busiest spaceport in the system where you can buy almost anything. Even a runaway slave. Doctor Melanie Destin left Earth, desperate to make a new life for herself. Now after finding a job as ship’s surgeon aboard the interplanetary freighter, Requiem, her life is starting to look up for the first time in years. But something unexpected happens on a routine stop at Luna’s Armstrong Station which threatens to upend Mel’s new life and put her and her crew mates in mortal peril. When she chooses to help a runaway slave, Mel discovers that the young woman has a secret; one that will endanger anyone who encounters her. Hunted by a corrupt government official intent on silencing them, Mel must find a way to get them off Luna and away from danger, all without drawing the unwanted attention of a powerful interplanetary crime czar. Roaming across the Solar System, a reluctant and unlikely heroine sets herself against overwhelming odds, and she’s not going to take crap from anyone who stands in her way. Can Mel get herself out of this mess without someone dying? Can her life ever be normal again? Will she live long enough to find out?