Ash and three other high school students find themselves in charge of ships so old they were buried on Earth with the dinosaurs. Not all of them work the way they're supposed to, but they make it to the moon. The girl who fell promises to help repair the ships if Ash can keep adults from taking them back.

Restoring the ships will be difficult. Protecting them will be even harder.

In the second episode of “The Lost Fleet,” Ash and her friends return from the lunar platform. They’re greeted by the state police and the National Guard, all of whom are alarmed by unidentified air traffic leaving an unknown launch site and heading for the moon. Astrea calls for alien backup even as a police lieutenant believes her story and tries to defuse the situation.

The new pilots make a pact to stick together, which means no one gets into a police car alone. They spend the ride to the station using social media to get the word out about aliens, spaceships, and the exceptionally helpful role of law enforcement. They swap contact information and create a new hashtag in the process.

Astrea’s alien family is waiting for them when they arrive, and public interest escalates quickly.

In the third episode of “The Lost Fleet,” the new and mostly human pilots of Earth's oldest spaceships are still trying to figure out how the technology works. The parts of it that do work, anyway, and only what they can use without alarming their parents.

Cassandra is spending the night at Ash's house.  They don't do much homework, but they do test their spacesuits.  They also text Clare, who keeps them updated on public reaction and Camber's experiments with teleportation.

When Cassandra finds out that Camber has successfully been to the moon and back just by thinking about it, she's determined to try it for herself.  Ash goes with her, and the best part is that it works.  The next best part is the alien they meet on Astrea's moonbase.

In the fourth episode of "The Lost Fleet," Ash's new alien friends try to reassure her that Earth isn't about to be invaded. They make it sound like the aliens who do come will behave themselves... or at least won't cause much trouble if Earth looks like it can take care of itself.

Clare wants more information, but Cassandra won't wait for aliens to come to them. She's ready to go looking for them, and she'll go alone if she has to. Ash agrees to a short trip, and Astrea's friend coaches them in spaceflight on their way to the neighboring planet of Alandia.

Ash is relieved to learn something practical about flying. Cassandra is relieved her ship holds together for the journey. Their escort convinces Alandia to let them land without proper intergalactic ID, and only then does Ash think to ask if they'll be able to breathe the planet's air.

Neither of them is prepared for the number and variety of aliens they encounter, but mostly the crowd is just that: a background flow of travelers and tourists, some in a hurry to move on and some who came just to stare.  The glowing walls and brightly lit water make a deeper impression, and Ash takes pictures for everyone back home.

They can't stay, but Z makes sure they squeeze a lot into those few hours.  He advises them on safe travel and citizenship, and how to do their research and make reasonable trades.  By the end of the night, Ash thinks they might be able to fit in out here after all.