Never was a ship more aptly named. While on a routine mission to the outer quadrant of the galaxy, the star cruiser Target is struck by an unknown force, immediately killing two-thirds of the crew. Those remaining include Commander Joshua Terry, who assumes command after the death of the captain. Discovering only four of the bridge crew alive and two of those critically wounded, he begins a search of the ship for the remainder of the survivors. Along those few he finds Brian Hardy, the ship’s resident minister and unofficial guru, and Helen Fitzgerald, a language specialist who also happens to be Joshua’s fiancé. Together with twenty-two others from of a crew of 200, they must find a way to repair the damaged ship and hold it together long enough to enable them to locate a habitual planet on which to settle. Complicating their struggle is a critical lack of nutritional support and medical supplies. More difficult than that, however, is how each crewman adjusts to the tragedy. Making critical mistakes, Captain Terry questions his own ability to lead; Brother Hardy is forced to confront his waning faith in God, while Helen struggles to find her own value on a ship where her pre-impact skills are of little use in day-to-day survival. Within a matter of days infighting breaks out among the crew as fear of the unknown, the dire lack of food and water and the depressing reality of their situation creates an atmosphere for mutiny. Battling his own sense of failure, Terry makes rash decisions that further jeopardize the safety of the ship. Finally reaching the nadir of their endurance, a desperate dependence on one another forces them to reevaluate not only themselves but the reasons why the select twenty-five survived when so many others perished. Only after addressing the idea that none of them are the same people they were before the Encounter can they come together as a cohesive unit and make decisions that will impact the desperate challenges ahead of them.