Spin

This was the first story I had published in the US, in the late lamented Strange Plasma. It was inspired by a game I played once on a TRS-80, which used plausible physics for space battles - a long flight to get within range of your opponent, a brief exchange of fire as you sailed past each other, then using retros to slow you down so you could turn around for another joust. I designed more than a dozen ships for the game and never had a chance to use them, so I featured them in a short story instead.