'After three years of intensive research and constant round-the-clock shifts, I had just about reached the limits of my endurance. After all, this was to be my last mission aboard the COBE.'
When Dr. Ken Ferguson becomes separated from his comrades on a mission inside one of the deep space vessels COBE, he stumbles across an unidentified sacrificial altar deep inside the multiple subterranean tunnels that twist and turn endlessly - with a strange alien creature lurking inside with him. Ferguson shoots the alien down before any answers can be extracted.
"Ferguson, try to use a little more discretion the next time you decide to tangle with the locals. A little less firepower and we probably would have had a few more answers."
At once, Dr. Ken Ferguson and several other scientists form a team that are immediately deployed on a Search and Research operation by sharp-tongued Lieutenant Carla Roessler, overseen by Lieutenant Colonel Werner Hoth. They track a mysterious carrier whose origins were unknown to the Lalande system.
As the team explores this picturesque place, it's a refreshing alternative to the wastelands of previous missions. Ferguson and his team are consumed by these events, and as the tides turn darker with each passing day, he soon finds himself helplessly enamored by a certain sharp-tongued Lieutenant. Until a rebel alien species intent on using forced labor to drain the planet's resources rises. Galactic tensions flare between planets, aliens and human species - who all with one goal in mind. To destroy the other and claim what's theirs.