COLONEL DANIEL DRAKE successfully led the greatest scientific effort since the Manhattan Project. Now they enter the final phase and Drake takes command -- Earth's first interstellar expedition. Politics, funding, rivalries and terrorism plague the project and threaten its completion. The colonel heartlessly drives his people to a successful launch only to have disaster strike before they exit the solar system. Their ship crashes into the Red Spot of Jupiter, those who survive find themselves in a universe abnormally quiet and subtly different. Limping back to port they discover an unrecognizable but beautiful and violent world occupied by strange animals Drake's scientists insist are dinosaurs. Drake must lead them through starvation, sabotage, murder, and mutiny while repairing their ship and enduring a vicious world on a mission where more than their lives depend on their survival for the mysterious aliens, those who gave them starship technology, delivered it with a deadline and an ominous threat, "Do not be late". ____________________ 'Crucible' is Military Sci-Fi but it is also Hard Sci-Fi with rock-solid science that is simply and briefly presented in rendition and concept. The reader will find that it greatly adds to the excitement of the tale. "...the author sees the human-dinosaur interaction through a new perspective - one that keeps the reader turning pages." --Steve Alten, NY Times best-selling author of MEG & VOSTOK.