Apollyon's Gambit

"Sometimes, everything that matters in our lives-everything that's worth giving a damn about-comes down to one hour in one day. This is that hour of that day." After eight months of peace, the war has flared up again, and Senior Lieutenant Loralynn Kennakris is thoroughly pissed off. On the walking-wounded list with a paralyzed arm and unable to fly, her superiors have decided to give her a meaningless promotion and send her off with a diplomatic mission to Iona. For years, tensions have been ramping up between the Nereidian League and its increasingly powerful former colony. It's the diplomat's job to defuse them before they explode. It's Kris's job to act as the Mission's "military advisor"-which really means looking decorative, fetching coffee, and keeping her mouth shut.That is, until someone screwed up. Caught on the wrong side of a military disaster that threatens the League's whole war effort and forced into a role she never desired, Kris knows she didn't start this fight. But she's sure as hell gonna finish it . . . one way or another.