Lisa Chang hoped to build spaceships. She never wanted to command one. But when the offer came, she accepted. It was a good career move, and, after all, the test flight of the Brane Child with its new, experimental, and highly secret Skip Drive, was only supposed to last a few days.
Now, weeks later, after having skipped to fantasy-like universes populated by wizards and orcs, talking animals and a wicked witch, her lost ship enters yet another parallel universe. But this time, something seemingly normal is within sight A space station!
Brief hopes of having finally found home falter when the face of a man dressed like an 18th century pirate appears on the view screen. They vanish entirely when he demands she surrender her ship and her crew.