Any war - even a war in space - has its winners and losers, its hidden strengths and concealed weaknesses, its heros and traitors. The difference with a war in space has to do with scale and dimensions: there are more unexpected directions to turn and places to hide than in a war constrained to the two-and-a-bit dimensions on the surface of a planet.
But not all of the dimensions of war have to do with time and space, and not all heros are the ones manning the spaceships...
This little tale has a feel of a much longer and more elaborate story line behind it, a coherent future history in the making.
Indeed, I have already made a start in a new story called The Voyage of the Ice Clipper.
I am now working on two more tales in the same sequence entitled Time Out of Place and Hero of the Rebellion (2nd Class).