Dag Fletcher's first trip back with European Space was not going well. His six year military stint with I.G.O. had taught him that there were no simple missions. This just confirmed it. It was supposed to have been a straight-forward freight run--to get him back into the swing of things. And he wasn't even in the command slot for this one. So here they were, stranded on Pelorus, without enough power to get them off. It soon became clear that getting off the planet was the least of their problems. Dag Fletcher's solution was more risky and far-fetched as any he had ever tried. This is the second book in the Dag Fletcher Galactic series.
John Rankine (born Douglas Rankine Mason) is a British science fiction author, who has written books both as John Rankine and as Douglas R. Mason.
Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (as mentioned in Little Wilson and Big God: The First Part of the Confession, AB's autobiography).