Tuck Johnson and his crew had searched across the galaxy for the forgotten planet of Petalina, hoping to find clues of life. However, their first glimpse showed Petalina to be a dead planet orbiting a nearly dead and lightless sun. Just as they prepared their ship to leave the backwater galaxy, one of the crew found readings of plant life on a small island in the midst of a vast vocano. Where the water had flooded all around the island cutting it off. Through some atmospheric phenomena, the island was somehow able to maintain just enough oxygen within its mountain ranges to support some mutated plants and very small squirrel-like creatures. Tuck and his crew immediately set down and began construction of a vast transparant force field dome to both contain the oxygen and to magnify what light still escaped from Petalina's sun. Aiming the suns rays to the top of the dome, helping the plant life to flourish. A dam was built to provide hydroelectric power to the dome. Amidst the construction, one of the crewmembers uncovered an ancient temple that seemed to provide clues to the location of Old Earth. Foolishly, he sent a message across the hyperwaves to his university professor, trying to decipher the writings. When Tuck realized what had happened, he quickly mobilized the base for possible pirate attacks, knowing that even the possibility of finding Old Earth would be worth a fortune....