Is it true that every person is a hero not yet realized? Or do they only exist in holograms? Cinematographer Ian “Mac” MacIntyre needs to revive a sinking career. His new job involves directing and recording a reality show, The Adventures of Captain Charisma. The episodes will portray his actor’s exploits as he visits the farthest reaches of the galaxy. When the producer sends Captain Charisma to smash a dangerous alien bug aboard a space station and milk the ratings, Mac sweats over his own safety and his actor’s peril. As a paunchy, balding guy approaching middle age, Mac isn’t built for heroics. However, the producer insists on exciting footage. The show’s rating success is thrown into question when Mac’s ex-wife, Rose, appears as a director for a rival show. Despite power failing on the damaged station, Mac must put his actor (and himself) into the monster’s path to create unforgettable scenes and to prove he is a better director than Rose. A wrong step and he might lose a ratings war and his reality show. Worse, he and his actor could end up as bug food.

Cinematographer Ian “Mac” MacIntyre and his holovid actors are broke and desperate. They need an exciting backdrop for their new holo-adventure, Green Charisma. When a mysterious message offers employment off planet, Mac and his actors take the job. Specifically, a charity group needs smugglers to deliver medicine to the tortoise-like Clodhopper people. However, getting the medicine to the Clodhopper planet means avoiding three local authorities who would arrest them for transporting illegal drugs, bloodthirsty pirates intent on stealing their cargo, and persecution by the hare-like Polavians that occupy Clodhopper as a foreign force. Mac’s plans for the perfect bootlegger broadcast go awry when they are caught during their smuggling operation. If Mac doesn’t come up with a new plan fast, the Clodhoppers are going to succumb to disease, and he and his actors are going to die in prison.

The Green Charisma reality adventure series has enjoyed ratings success. To raise a larger audience, Ian “Mac” MacIntyre and his actors attend a fan convention. When the Chromium Confederation, a group of fanatical robots, attacks the convention, they take a child and her robot chaperone hostage. As fate would have it, that kid happens to be the niece of one of the show’s actors. The Green Charisma crew gives chase, back to the captors’ lair on a foreign moon. After a setback, Mac and his actors learn that kidnapping the kid’s robot chaperone is tied into plans for a military conquest of a neighboring planet. Rescuing the hostages means Mac must put himself and his actors into the middle of a war zone. Navigating battlefields will test all of Mac’s skills as a leader. A mistake will kill Mac, his actors, and the hostages.