Warning From the Stars by Ron Cocking - Don't believe in flying saucers? Neither do we, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there can be no other way for Earth to get its last.... Warning From the Stars

It was a beautifully machined container, shaped like a two pound chocolate candy box, the color and texture of lead. The cover fitted so accurately that it was difficult to see where it met the lip on the base.

Yet when Forster lifted the container from the desk in the security guards' office, he almost hit himself in the face with it, so light was it.

He read the words clumsily etched by hand into the top surface with some sharp instrument:

TO BE OPENED ONLY BY:

Dr. Richard Forster,

Assistant Director,

Air Force Special Research Center,

Petersport, Md.

CAUTION: Open not later than

24 hours after receipt.

DO NOT OPEN in atmosphere less than equivalent of 65,000 feet above M.S.L.

He turned the container over and over. It bore no other markings—no express label or stamps, no file or reference number, no return address.

It was superbly machined, he saw.

Tentatively he pulled at the container cover, it was as firm as if it had been welded on. But then, if the cover had been closed in the thin atmosphere of 65,000 feet, it would be held on by the terrific pressure of a column of air twelve miles high.

Forster looked up at the burly guard.

"Who left this here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, sir." The man's voice was as close to insolence as the difference in status would allow, and Forster bristled.