THE SENTIENT - Dr. Karishma Dhalina, prot?g? of Dr. Jeanine Vanstrom and Dr. Benjamin Russell, develops an artificially intelligent robot system (Malcolm) with the aid of her new graduate assistant, Anand Sharma. Her advances in random noise and pattern processing leads to the eventual recovery of Dr. Benjamin Russell's final message, warning them of the approaching dangers of AO 392 as he and Lieutenant Rachel Hollander are returning to earth.