Unfortunately for Anu, "Dahak"'s computer systems catch the sabotage before it utterly wrecks all the power plants, but the damage is so severe that it is forced to cease all communications and non-necessary expenditures of power. The damage takes decades to repair—by which point none of the loyal crew is still alive or able to contact the "Dahak". Overpowered by the mutineers, the loyalists have been systematically exterminated. This places "Dahak" in a dilemma in which it cannot return to the Imperium as it has been ordered to, but nor can it exterminate the mutineers as other, equally important, orders dictate. This lasts for approximately 50,000 years, until the Earthling's early space program sends up one Lieutenant Commander Colin MacIntyre to map the dark side of the heavenly body "Dahak" had camouflaged itself as—the Moon—as a "dress rehearsal" for a similar trip scheduled for Mars.