“No good deed goes unpunished,” and if Theopolis Knavidowsky had known what kind of punishment he was going to get, he would have run away screaming as far and as fast as he could go.

A small-town reporter and photographer, Theo lets a “friend” persuade him to shoot a rocket launch. Through a series of errors, Theo is blasted unprepared into space aboard a rocket module. One of four in this batch, the modules are designed to be connected and then sent to the surface of Mars. Each module has its own function, though one is filled with food and supplies.

Unknown to its passenger, the “unoccupied” rocket’s purpose is changed from being part of a Mars mission to fending off an approaching asteroid. NASA’s people on Earth do not know the former moon is not an empty hunk of rock but an occupied alien spacecraft.

The modules containing Theo are captured by the Pouncer and its K’Haat crew. The Pouncer is a diplomatic and exploration ship that came into the human solar system while fleeing the aggressive M’Oag.

When first exposed to the K’Haat, Theo sees a small furry object falling from the loading dock. He intercepts it and saves the small creature, being injured in the process.

Treated and surgically enhanced by the ship’s physician, Theo’s eyes are covered by a translucent material. Unable to see what he is doing while using a litterbox, he accidentally manages to send a load of condensed sand, rock and waste into the path of the pursuing M’Oag ship. The rapidly moving mass destroys the M’Oag craft just before the Pouncer uses its pinlight drive to leave human space.

This action starts a series of adventures for a man once known simply as The Knave.