In 1973 a nuclear-powered starship blast off from Red Planet for world, bring with it the exclusive subsister of the first missionary post, Col. Edward VIII Carruthers (E. G. Marshall Homer Thompson). He is suspect of have murder the other nine member of his crew for their nutrient and H2O ration, on the premiss that he had no way of know if or when an world deliverance missionary post would of all time get.