First Contact gone terribly wrong.

All Claudia wanted to do was escape the mistakes of the past and start over. But when she answers an ad for a medical officer on a merchant ship in the Fringes, the captain recognizes her and blackmails her into taking the job.

She finds out that not only can Captain Bennet not pass up a bargain, neither will he allow morals to hold him back from climbing the power ladder at the borders of the Dominion. Can Claudia stop the impending exploitation of a newly discovered sentient species all on her own?