When Amanda Murphy accepted the command of a new spaceship that would test Earth's revolutionary new propulsion system, she didn't bother to ask why she was selected over the dozens of veterans with more rank and seniority. Until, that is, she learned that her new command would be totally under the control of a computer named Maxwell. The lab rats who built it insist that a human can't react fast enough to control the ship at the speeds the Dark Drive will produce and her boss explains that she is being sent along simply to maintain public interest in what would otherwise be a dull machine-controlled test run.

But that doesn't answer her question: What happens if something goes wrong?