(from the dustjacket of the novelisation of the film)

The Xindi. In the mid-22nd Century, this group of five alien races came very close to destroying the Earth.

In the late 24th-Century, after almost two hundred years of brutal civil war that came very close to destroying themselves, the Xindi are now keen to emerge from diplomatic isolation and establish friendly relations with the rest of the Alpha Quadrant.

A joint Starfleet-Xindi research mission on the remote planet Talu Six has been a great success. Starfleet Science officers like Lieutenants Betty Sanchez and T'Vel of Vulcan have found working and learning with the Xindi to be respectively "amazing" and "most fascinating, indeed".

And now, the famous Starfleet Akira-class heavy-cruiser USS Giap has also arrived at Talu Six, to participate in military training exercises with the Xindi People's Defence Force. On board the Giap are Betty Sanchez's good friends Lieutenants Samir Singh and Michael Kane, and they are both keen to enjoy some shore-leave with Betty and T'Vel before the mock-action begins with Xindi Admiral Jeliffa's forces.

But then the action becomes shockingly real when Talu Six is brutally attacked by a sinister threat from the Xindi past that was long thought banished but has now returned more powerful - and terrifying - than before.

In space, Singh and Kane and their colleagues on the Giap are cut off and surrounded by a hateful and relentless enemy.

On the harsh desert surface of Talu Six, Sanchez and T'Vel find themselves fleeing for their lives on a pair of powerful powercycles as they are pursued from the ground, from the air, and even from outer space.

Help from either Starfleet or other Xindi is days away. At maximum warp.

The officers of the Giap and their colleagues on Talu Six are on their own.

How many will survive to make the long way home?