A Just Determination (Paperback)

We spend the first half of the novel learning the ropes alongside Ensign Sinclair as the Michaelson heads out to patrol a region of space. Several months into its mission, the ship detects another craft illegally in its zone. After several weeks of pursuit, events take place very quickly once the paths of both vessels finally converge outside of the Michaelson's proscribed zone. The captain ends up giving the order to fire upon the vessel after it changes vectors to what is potentially a collision course with the Michaelson. It is soon discovered that the other vessel was an unarmed civilian ship posing no real threat at all to the mighty warship, at which point the Michaelson is ordered to return to base, where the captain is to face court-martial proceedings for his actions. Ensign Sinclair finds himself in the middle of all this drama; it was he who had delivered a summary of the ship's mission orders and rules of engagement; in his capacity as legal officer (for which he had only four weeks of training), he had told the captain, when asked, that the vague mission orders did seem to leave the decision as to how to proceed up to his own best judgment. Notwithstanding this fact, Sinclair did not approve of the captain's decision to fire on the vessel, and he faces a moral dilemma in terms of the court-martial proceedings. The captain is charged with broad violations that Sinclair legally does not believe are warranted, yet he wants the captain to be punished for his obvious mistakes in judgment and leadership failures. As he ponders these weighty issues in his own mind, the reader is treated to an instructive lesson in morality, ethics, duty, and patriotism. The end result is a praiseworthy course of action that definitely inspired this reader.

There is something of a love story theme advanced in the late stages of the plot. Ordinarily, I might question the inclusion of such a device, but in this case it does really reinforce the points about duty, honor, and service that Hemry seems to be making. The final chapters detailing the courtroom proceedings are far from mundane, having made me creep ever closer to the front of my seat in anticipation of the final judgment of the case. I would never have expected a legalistic work of military science fiction to prove as exciting as A Just Determination most definitely is. This is military science fiction at its best.

The hero of the tale - Paul Sinclair - is a very junior officer, who is allocated the additional duty of 'ship's legal officer'. Although Paul has no interest in becoming a lawyer (he makes this abundantly clear) he does have a very strong sense of justice so that when he percieves a clear injustice to have been done - he has to act to prevent the consequences - even though this may put his own career on the line, and even though he doesn't really like the person to whom the injustice has been done.

Flashing lasor beams, matter transporters etc, this story does not have, but clear characterisations, believable scenarios and a good plot - it does have. I've enjoyed reading this book - I'll read it again, and the subsequent stories in the set.