The Torch of Honor Author:Roger MacBride Allen One man, one woman, and one ship were all that stood between New Finland and Conquest. — Joslyn, who usually wakes up faster than I do, got the computer to decode the alert before I was even in my flight chair. "It's a courier drone!" she said. — We approached the drone slowly. The only thing in it was a blac... more »k message cylinder. It was pointed right for the hatchway joining us to the drone; all it needed was a good push from below to send it through the lock into Stars.
A giant, booming voice suddenly shouted out from a speaker by the overhead hatch. "THIS IS A WAR EMERGENCY SITUATION," it roared. "TRANSFER THE CYLINDER TO YOUR SHIP WITH ALL POSSIBLE SPEED. DO NOT DELAY FOR ANY REASON...DELAY FOR NOTHING...HURRY. ..HURRY. THIS IS A WAR EMERGENCY SITUATION. THAT IS ALL."
What had we gotten ourselves into? War emergency situation?