Young Stewart Lipinski is made captain of an exploratory space mission into space... his older sister Karen is made his second in command, and is none too happy about it. When their ship and crew stumble into a different universe with no way home, Stewart and Karen have to figure out their differences in order to survive.
In an attempt to raise the morale of his frightened and fudge-riddled crew, Stewart initiates a bonding session that devolves into ice-breaker games. When Karen discovers that one of the crew members is actually an alien who's implanted memories in their heads, they play a high-stakes game of Mafia to weed out the intruder.
A.R.T. accidentally damages the ship while showing off his magnetic capabilities... when an angry Karen sends him outside to fix the damage, A.R.T. gets stuck, forcing Karen and Michael to come rescue him. While squabbling with Michael, Karen accidentally kicks A.R.T. into space. Meanwhile, Stewart, Tina, and Kent work on a message to send out into the new universe.
Tina gets a message from her boyfriend on earth, who dumps her. Tina, the only person qualified to perform an essential fuel extraction on a nearby planet, goes into hysterics... Karen, Michael and Natasha host a Girls Night to boost her spirits. Kent foists a Boys Night upon Stewart. Zalian and A.R.T. discover a viewing room, allowing them to watch the others. They infuse Girls & Boys Night with drama for their viewing pleasure.
Michael and Tina are sent down to the planet for a six-hour fuel retrieval mission - upon arrival, they realize that thanks to a planetary quirk, they'll be stuck there for the equivalent of eight months. They progress from apathy to romance to insanity in a single afternoon. Onboard the ship, Kent, Natasha and A.R.T. stage a robot revolt against Stewart and Karen's leadership, with the help of a vengeful coffee maker.
When the ship is struck by lightning, the crew must conserve power to avoid being destroyed. Stewart and Zalian take the unheard-of step of flying the ship manually; Karen resorts to trickery to keep Michael, Tina and A.R.T. from using power; Kent loving nurses a lightning-addled Natasha back to health.
An alien appears in Stewart's dreams, but only seems to communicate if Stewart's dreams are erotic in nature. Stewart enlists both A.R.T. and Zalian's medicine cabinet in a dark, humiliating journey to make first contact. Karen slaps Michael in a rage over his tryst with Tina, and has to go undergo HR arbitration, overseen by an un-objective Tina.
The crew makes contact with an alien at long last, but this historic moment is cut short when they realize they have a chance to make it home through an interplanetary ripple. Stewart and Michael decide to stay behind to learn more about the alien's culture, only to be underwhelmed... when they return, Karen chews them out for their mistake. Meanwhile, Tina uses Zalian, A.R.T., holograms, sedatives, and magnets to give Kent and Natasha their first and only date. Both groups are ripped from their activities by a series of shocking revelations about the universe, the alien and their chances for survival.