A major catastrophe forces human colonists on post-nuclear holocaust Earth to evacuate and return to the second planet of the Tau Ceti system, where the Reptons had helped them establish a thriving colony. The Reptons are planning extensive colonization of other worlds and the humans are being included. A fleet of new generation starships is deployed, one of them fitted with a new hyper drive that will extend its range of travel to 1,000 light-years.

Paul Collins and his girlfriend Heather Dixon are officers of a mixed crew of Reptons and humans aboard the Te Laposo. The ship makes her maiden voyage, and their mission is to seek out planets suitable for habitation. However, they get more than they bargained for when a malfunction in the new hyper drive hurls them across the Milky Way. With their hyper drive down, they are stranded in unknown territory more than 50,000 light-years from where they started. Collins and Dixon and their crewmates find out that this part of the galaxy is teeming with life. They face many adventures and dangers while trying to make their way back home, encountering a wide variety of alien civilizations, including one that is hostile, as well as life-threatening natural phenomena. The chances of returning to Tau Ceti 2 are slim to none. of returning safely are slim to none.

Humanity’s return to Earth following the devastating nuclear war has met with catastrophe and forced the survivors to retreat to the thriving human colony on Tau Ceti 2. With the re-colonization of Earth a bust, the Reptons include their human friends in their own colonization plans. With the new generation of Repton starships, the two species can reach every habitable world within a thousand light-years of Tau Ceti.

Paul Collins and Heather Dixon are members of the mixed Repton/human crew aboard Te Laposo, the first of these new super ships. Their mission is to seek out planets suitable for habitation and to return to Tau Ceti to report.

However, the new hyperdrive still has bugs in it. When the drive malfunctions and hurls them far across the Milky Way, they find themselves more than 50,000 light-years from Tau Ceti with no way to get home. Nor is fixing the hyper-drive their only problem. The local stellar neighbor-hood is full of danger and is crowded with other spacefaring species, some of whom are not happy to see them…