
It's exam time, and everyone is feeling pressure. Pancha becomes strangely exhausted, as Sheng develops a crush on Leonella. Tycho & Cinnamon have a go at the simulation game, but it gets too real when the module is released from Star Runner with them on it. Everyone sits through the exams except Zandie, and everyone passes except Sheng, who was too caught up with his relationship with Leonella. Pancha faints.
The year is 2050 and the Star Runner is two years into its 90 year voyage; a voyage that will take them to the Silver Sun. Frozen in the hold is the precious cargo of 550 frozen New Settlers, waiting to colonise the new planet. After encountering a solar fog, the sensors on the Star Runner pick up a non human entity. Is it an alien? A search is organised before the life form is discovered; Squirt the Cat, smuggled aboard by TYCHO the youngest member of the crew. Alls well that ends well until a major computer glitch threatens the entire mission.
The glitch caused by the solar fog is to be solved with a down load from Earth. But leadership tension between TANE and DEGENHARDT can not be solved so easily. Via the holophone, LEONELLA learns a lesson in change from Earth. TYCHO and CINNAMON want more responsibility. PANCHA strange illness is discovered to be from her developing an empathetic link to the ships computer. Although unexplainable, it proves invaluable when she detects an imminent system failure and sounds the alarm.