From the back cover: "It was a dull patrol, and the officers and crew of the frigate USS Fife were tired of the routine, tired of watching an empty frontier. Then, a call for help put the Fife face-to-face with the most implacable foe ever faced by Star Fleet -- one of the robot-brained 'Doomsday Machines,' like the one destroyed years before by the USS Enterprise. As if that weren't enough, the Fife had to contend with panicky civilians, selfish VIPs, interfering Romulans, and a colorful rogue whose surprising cargo might hold the only hope of stopping the planet-crushing juggernaut. It would be a day they would all remember... but it certainly wouldn't be A Doomsday Like Any Other."