Garrett, a modern day cowboy, lives a life of isolation, the choice he made when he learned he would eventually become paralyzed from a military back injury. He would not live as a hopeless cripple, dependent on anyone else to take care of him. He would, when the time came, take his own life.
That decision did not change when he was attacked by something out of this world, saved by what he considered a hallucination, and wakes up on a Thornn research vessel, as he quips, in a galaxy far, far away. He believes it is all some crazy dream or he has slipped into a fantasy world to avoid facing the execution of his final decision.
Try as he might to stay detached he can't help being drawn into the lives of the people and creatures there to the point he becomes a target. That's when all hell breaks loose.