A spaceship traveling the galaxy in deep time is controlled by an A.I. force called The Chimp. The purpose of the ship is to travel the galaxy building gates to different worlds furthering the mission of human beings. A woman wakes up to meet her son Dix and to learn that her lover, Kai, died several missions back. The Chimp has allegedly been raising her son. On this ship, human beings are not in an active state or using life force, unless The Chimp wakes them up. The Chimp will only wake up humans if he needs a higher form of intelligence to give an opinion or judgment.

As they are traveling to the area where they will be building a new gate, the crew receives interference from a red dwarf star. The interference is an intellectual signal, not from a star, but from a life form. The crew calls the being ‘The Island.’ This is the first intelligent lifeform that they have ever encountered. The Island is made up of smaller pieces of intelligent life forms. The Island instructs them to build the gate in a different part of space. The Chimp is opposed as it is programmed to carry out the mission—not to deliberate with aliens. However, the woman, who was woken up by The Chimp, argues that they ought to save the life form as she is convinced that it is innocent and non-combative.  Eventually, she convinces them to change the location of the build as The Island desired.

Upon building the new gate, the crew is racing towards the gate. They receive another signal from another alien life form. The signal is an urge to stop as they are about to kill the lifeform by passing through the interstellar gate. The crew is unable to slow down and passes through the gate, destroying an alien life form. The directions from The Island were given to the crew so as to carry out a combative mission of The Island and kill an enemy of The Island.