The U.S. Merrimack was the finest battleship in Earth's fleet, able to withstand the best the Palatine Empire could throw at them. Only her sister ship, the Monitor, was her equal. So when the Palatine forces secretly captured Monitor, Merrimack's security was compromised-and that was just the opening salvo of a whole new stage of war between Palatine and Earth.

R. M. Meluch is an American SF writer, and published the first of her Tour of the Merrimack series of military SF/space opera novels in 2005. She can be found at rmmeluch.com.