From publisher blurb:
While traveling through space the adventurers receive a very faint message over their communication systems. It is an SOS call. The call is coming from uninhabited space more than a parsec outside of the trade lanes. The call indicates that the ship that they are traveling in has sustained damage from a rogue comet. It is a female voice and she sounds quite frightened. After the initial message all future communication attempts are garbled. There are no known planets in that area nor is there much reason for anyone to be traveling there. Specific coordinates are given in the distress call.
Sonoran interstellar law requires that all SOS calls be answered and that assistance be provided if possible. But this is merely a technicality. Virtually nobody ever is prosecuted for not providing assistance. It is a law with few teeth. It is nearly impossible to prove that someone received a distress call and then did not answer it. It is clearly up to the travelers themselves to decide if they wish to investigate and give assistance. There could be a reward in it for them if the people on the other end of the call are wealthy or nobles or important political figures.