A Just Determination [Mass Market Paperback]

In this novel, Ensign Paul Sinclair's first shipboard assignment is to the USS Michaelson just prior to the ship sailing on an extended cruise through US claimed space. His orders state that he is assigned as the Assistant Combat Information Center Officer and the Executive Officer, Commander Herdez, confirms that, indeed, that will be his primary assignment, but she also assigns him collateral duties as Ship's Legal Officer, Postal Officer, and assistant security manager. In his primary assignment, he reports to Lieutenant Jan Tweed, the COIC and his division chief, and Commander Garcia, the Operations Department Head.

Sinclair bunks with the male ensigns, and Lieutenant JG Carl Meadows, in the starboard ensign locker (the female ensigns bunk in the port ensign locker). Lieutenant Meadows introduces him to most of the other ensigns as well as to the various department chiefs. Since he is the Legal Officer, Senior Chief Petty Officer Kowalski introduces him to First Class Master-at-arms Mate Ivan Sharpe, the "Sheriff".

One of Sinclair's first duties as Legal Officer is to prepare an opinion for the XO as to the legal interpretation of the ship's orders. Paul finds them broad and vague. However, the gist of the orders is to reinforce the nation's claims to the volume of space wherein the ship is to patrol and to prevent unauthorized encroachments into this volume.

When the SASAL ship seems to deliberately intrude into their patrol volume, the Captain and crew are suspicious of the actions of the other ship. The intelligence estimate mentions the possibilities of "unconventional threats", which the crew interprets as Q-ships, vessels with concealed armament. An interception is ordered by the Captain, which eventually results in the SASAL ship disabled and drifting, with all her crew dead.

This novel is as cross between The Caine Mutiny and the Stark incident, with a touch of Mr. Roberts. Ensign Sinclair is originally a witness for the prosecution, but, when the Navy throws the book at Captain Wakefield, Sinclair feels that justice is not being served and volunteers to testify for the defense.

The action scenes and the courtroom sequences are riveting. As with The Caine Mutiny, I had trouble putting the book down, especially after the SASAL vessel is detected. Overall, the book is a fascinating glimpse at what the future may look like for a junior naval officer a century from now.

This novel also includes a romantic interest. Unlike current warships, the USS Michaelson has a mixed crew. Paul begins to accept one of the other ensigns as a friend and maybe something more, but he is not sure how she feels. Both avoid any sign of impropriety to the point of confusing each other, but all is resolved after she receives orders transferring her to another ship.

Highly recommended for Hemry fans and anyone else who enjoyed The Caine Mutiny and other realistic fiction with a military justice theme.

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.