I’ve posted another short story for your enjoyment. It is called “The Hammer.” I wrote it in my college fiction writing class during my junior year. It was intended to be submitted to the monthly “Story Starter” contest in Writers’ Digest. The “starter” for that month was “The game was over…” The story also had to be under 1,500 words.
FYI: The title comes from the main character’s surname, which is Hebrew for “the hammer.” It was inspired by Jewish historical figure, Judah Maccaebus.
Like “Baptized in Fire,” this was an experiment using elements of a science fiction universe that was germinating in my mind at the time. This one, however, had more elements of that universe. The main character, a young officer in this, would be the captain of a military starship in the universe I was conceiving; the alien robots would still be the primary antagonists; and the war would still be going on. Essentially, this is flashback to one of the things that made this character who he is later.
Despite all that, I am not happy with the story. I feel it should be longer, perhaps written better (I was still a developing artist back then).
Enough talk! Go read the story!