The "Big Blaze" theory--was about to be tested with Earth as the laboratory. a giant cloud of hydrogen gas was being propelled toward Earth by the Yela--terrifying opponent of all other beings of the starways. Should the hydrogen reach Earth's atmosphere, the entire planet would go up in explosive flames. The people of Earth had no choice by to combine forces and, with physicist Dick Warboys and his three alien friends Betelgeuse, Rigel, and Alcyone as their leaders, take to space to combat the Yela peril. But instead of solar-system-wide warfare, Dick and his shipmates found themselves irresistibly pulled away from their fleet, captured by a dangerously desperate Yela, and bound on an incredible journey where man was never meant to go.