Young Jake Rodgers finds life on the stellar cartography vessel Ariel boring. What he does to relieve that boredom may have been the cause of the loss of Ariel.

The only one able to eject in time, Jake witnesses the ship's destruction just as his stasis pod activates.

Adrift and in stasis he crash lands on an alien world. Awakened from stasis after an unknown period of time he is confronted first by one, than another alien species who take great interest in him for undisclosed reasons.