Severely abused as a child, Dr. Grant Chapman is a multi-phobic computer genius who believes in NASA's mission to far space, but is too afraid to make the trip. His best friend—NASA rogue, con artist, and trouble-shooter, Billy Jepler—drugs Grant and launches him into space. When Grant emerges from stasis, he finds the other nauts dead, a section of the ship battered shut, and the ecological balance of the Galileo threatened. His only companions are two miniature poodles and SINDAS, the ship's self-initiating, yet common-sense-challenged, computer. In the blackness of space, Grant confronts his fears and finds a power that challenges the traumatic memories of his abuse.