Captain Kirok Skyrunner and his crew, having just been assigned to a new ship, the Ross class starship, USS Phoenix, NCC-76553, have taken their new ship on its first training cruise, to break her in and do the crew can get familiar with her.

After encountering a brand new supernova that caused significant damage to the Phoenix, and having to battle with two alien carrier ships, the Phoenix held position nearby to cover and provide assistance to the runabout Grand River, which was commanded by Captain Kirok Skyrunner, and crewed by Chief Science Officer Amara, Chief Engineer Catersha, Junior Science Officer Aximo and Navigator Lisa Nguyen.

When the alien carriers were dispatched, resulting in one destroyed and one heavily damaged, the Phoenix went to recover the runabout Grand River, only to find it became missing. Full sensor scans could not pick up the runabout within range and no other Federation starship or Starbase detected them.