"Thicker than Water" by Ian Sales is set on a now nearly isolated colony on Saturn's moon Tethys. They are at war with Titan, prompted mostly by the dire situations in the outer planets. Major Gina Priest is involved in the capture and interrogation of two soldiers from Titan, and then she learns something shocking about her own past. I was not really convinced in this case, either by the motivations of anyone involved, nor by the potentially interesting conclusion, which is not sufficiently a part of the rest of the story. "The Rule of Law" by Elaine Graham-Leigh might be the best story here. Earth in the future has been ruled by a sort of new Roman Empire, and has also been allied with the Gargarin, aliens who are at war with the Chi!me. All this is forced to a change when the Gargarin decide to surrender, much to the distaste of a particular Gargarin who comes to Marcella, this story's protagonist, with a proposition. Her reaction is all about realpolitik, and it's quite interesting, but I felt the story a bit unfinished.

"Notes from the Apocalypse," by Michael Pepper, is not surprisingly a post-apocalyptic tale, and again I really felt it too familiar. There just wasn't enough new in this story of a small band of survivors dealing with the lawless times after the world ends. And the conclusion simply failed to make me believe it. The final story is a short-short by John Rogers, "The Bridge of the Compass Rose", an effective portrayal of an old space captain's reaction to the imminent scrapping of his old ship -- at only 500 words not a lot happens, and again not much really new, but it's a nice 500 words.