Also available at Fictionwise
Clay's Pride was my first attempt to construct a military story and people it with the kind of folks I knew during my stint in the Air Force. The uncertainty of command, the responsibility, the chaos of engagement, and dealing with the repercussions of decisions reached in seconds all came to bear.
I also wanted to play with the idea of an incomprehensible (at first) alien ship, a ship that appeared in some earlier work in slightly different form. But incomprehensible doesn't mean I can't come up with an explanation - such is the art of writing SF.