In this book, the crew of the Stardust III rescues a ship full of aliens who breathe water instead of air.
Then they find a planet with neither air nor water, though it once had both in abundance. The survivors now hide in deep bunkers on the planet after someone opened something far more dangerous than Pandora's box; it doesn't let anything out. It sucks everything in. Then they receive an emergency recall to Earth. Haley finally gets the avatar of her dreams, and she's almost human now. She won't let something annoying like a nuclear war interfere with her first date.