A space crew’s transport job collapses when its patient, employer and payment disappear, leaving the team accused of piracy and searching for the people who framed them.
Joe and his colleagues begin as hired troubleshooters with a deadline, not volunteers setting out to save a galaxy. Losing their client turns finishing the job into a question of professional survival. The search leads toward a criminal planet, where clearing their names requires following the conspiracy instead of simply outrunning the authorities.
The original commission involves stealing a cryogenically frozen, terminally ill woman from criminals and reaching treatment within thirty hours. That delivery window gives the crew a responsibility to its passenger before the job becomes a struggle to prove its own innocence.