When a stranger invades geneticist Mai Trung's office, he has to say only one word to get her interested in leaving with him: Xenobiology. Rumors have been rife about aliens on Earth, but only a select few know that they arrived on widely scattered lifeboats from a wrecked spaceship. Mai is brought into the secret group working with a few of the surviving aliens because they have one trait that is almost incredible for its implications: They can turn themselves into perfect humans. More than perfect, actually. Closer to superhuman. And Mai is told she will be working with one of the aliens in order to help figure out how to apply that ability to humans; to heal injuries, to slow or even reverse the aging process, to make oneself healthier or more attractive. In the meantime, other scientists are re-engineering some of the alien technology in order to build a faster-than-light spaceship before other nations who have captured aliens do so. From that first word in her office, Mai begins an incredible journey that will eventually take her to the stars and into a whole new existence. Sequel to Human by Choice.
Darrell Bain is the author of more than three dozen books, in many genres, running the gamut from humor to mystery and science fiction to humorous non-fiction. For the last several years he has concentrated on humor and science fiction, both short fiction and suspense/thrillers.
Darrell served thirteen years in the military as a medic and his two years in Vietnam formed the basis for his first published novel, Medics Wild. Darrell has been writing off and on all his life but really got serious about it only after the advent of computers. He purchased his first one in 1989 and has been writing furiously ever since.
While Darrell was working as a lab manager at a hospital in Texas, he met his wife Betty. He trapped her under a mistletoe sprig and they were married a year later. Darrell and Betty owned and operated a Christmas tree farm in East Texas for many years. It became the subject and backdrop for some of his humorous stories and books.
Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, a veteran of over twenty years of working in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on her resumé. One of the astronauts she trained includes Kalpana Chawla, who died in the Columbia disaster.
She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and she is "fluent" in several more, including Geology and Anatomy. She obtained her various degrees from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
Stephanie is currently retired from space work. She now happily "passes it forward," tutoring math and science to students in the Huntsville area, elementary through college, while writing science fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience, and travels.
