Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, Boogie Knights, and Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

Take it apart, figure it out, put it back together. That's the ongoing mission of the U.S.S. da Vinci, commanded by Captain David Gold and his first officer, Commander Sonya Gomez, late of the Starship Enterprise(TM) and one of Starfleet's top engineers. They oversee a crack S.C.E. team composed of specialists in such diverse fields as tactical systems, alien cultures, computers, linguistics, and cryptography. Together they're ready to cope with just about every kind of high-tech challenge imaginable -- and a few that nobody could have imagined.

For centuries, the planet Eerlik has had a thriving civilization, completely run, maintained, and administered by a giant sentient computer. But now that computer is breaking down and the desperate inhabitants are helpless to repair the damage. Only the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci, accompanied by Geordi La Forge, can hope to fix the massive computer before the Eerlikkan society collapses entirely. Their mission grows more dangerous, however, when they discover evidence of sabotage -- and learn firsthand that hostile forces will do whatever it takes to stop Gold and his crew from saving the imperiled planet!