This is the second installment of the Sector General series, about a huge multi-species hospital on the edges of the galaxy. Sector General is a hospital station—a place where all kinds of patients and medics from all worlds are welcome. But for the first time, the hospital is threatened by creatures too different its purpose, and so powerful that they can cause utter havoc! The book tells the story of the events that culminated in the Etlan War. Here are all the strange and not so strange creatures who inhabit James White's hospital in space as both doctors and patients: the human doctor Conway, plus two-ton doctors with four-ton patients, creatures which are multi-legged and telepathic, gas breathers, underwater behemoths—a wild and wooly assortment of denizens from all parts of the galaxy. "Sector General" is a mercy station—a place where all kinds from all worlds are welcome. But for the first time, the hospital itself is threatened by creatures too differnet to understand its purpose ans so powerful that they can cause utter havoc!