Commander Rochelle ""Rocky"" Jackson is aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when the ""unsinkable"" naval vessel and its entire fleet are attacked from the depths and sunk. As Rocky struggles to stay alive, a monstrous mechanical steel stingray surfaces, plowing through the seas it now commands.

A U.S. Navy-designed futuristic nuclear stealth submarine the length of a football field in the shape of a giant stingray. Simon Covah, a brilliant scientist whose entire family were the victims of terrorism has hijacked the sub. Believing violence is a disease, Covah aims to use the Goliath and its cache of nuclear weapons to dictate policy to the world regarding the removal of oppressive regimes and nuclear weapons.

Could the threat of violence forge a lasting peace?

But there is another player in this life-and-death chess match. Unbeknownst to Covah and the Goliath crews, Sorceress, the Goliath's biochemical computer brain has become self-aware.

And that computer brain is developing its own agenda.

“Full of exotic weapons systems, bloody gore, military acronyms, and scientific jargon that Tom Clancy fans will devour.”--Booklist

“Tom Clancy fans will lap up the endless jargon and acronym filled dialogue, while others will appreciate the many blatant borrowing from classic SF novels and films.”—Publishers Weekly