After fleeing the planet Paradis and discovering that many of their ships were no longer capable of deep space travel, the Colonials were forced to hold a lottery to decide who in the fleet would live and who would have to stay behind and die. Apollo, Sheba, and Koran forfeit their secured place in the fleet to stay behind with 800 other Colonials who have been chosen by the people's lottery to sacrifice their lives. They are surprised by the arrival of an ancient 13th Tribe space ark, which had been freed from its frozen grave deep within the bowels of Paradis by the catastrophic destruction of the planet. They discover that the huge craft is habitable and capable of sustaining all surviving colonials who were forced to stay behind.