It’s Cadet Kathyrn Janeway’s last chance to prove her fitness as a future Starfleet officer: a field study on a wilderness planet involving alien animals and their handlers. Captain Holbrook’s menageries of snarling, exotic beasts doesn’t bother her. Their unruly alien handlers do. With an arrogant Klingon, an aggressive Talarian and an insecure Betazoid on the team, the war has begun even before they’re beamed down to Diehr IV. How can I prove myself when I’m saddled with this bunch? Kathyrn wonders. It seems like an impossible mission as she desperately tries to get everyone to cooperate…. Time is running out as Kathyrn leads her mission through treacherous territory to the exit point — only to discover that they are marooned on the alien planet! Now they must pull together — or perish!