Jaydium

<b>From the back cover of the DAW first edition:</b> "The jaydium connection - The death of her scientist father had left Kithri to make her own way in a rough and tumble mining community. And while she was probably the best jaydium miner on the planet, working alone she would never to able to earn enough to escape this dust bowl of a world for the opportunities to be found in space. So when Eril arrived in port, ostensibly looking for a way to make some quick cash, Kithri agreed to take him with her on a mining run. <p>Neither Kitri nor Eril could foresee that they would soon be adrift in time - courtesy of a bizarre chain reaction between an unstable jaydium deposit and Eril's force whip - and unexpectedly linked with Lennart, a spaceman from an earlier era in galactic history, and Brianna, an anthropologist from an alternate universe. Suspicious of one another, and each certain that his or her own space time is the right one to be in, the four have to join forces when they find themselves transported to an earlier time in the history of Kithri's planet. A time when an alien civilization ruled over what was then a lush water world. A time, too, when the very presence of the humans might push this civilization to the brink of destruction."

Deborah Ross / Wheeler would like it noted that, regardless of the cover, there is no rocket in the book, and that scene occurs nowhere in the book.