Looking for a short story about human courage

Question

One year ago I read a short story (really short, like a few paragraphs) that I'm trying to find again. The story was about a crew consisting of different alien races, including the human race, and started with the other species bullying humans for being weaker. Suddenly there was an attack on the spaceship and things went south but the Human proved to be extremely brave and tough and saved them all, gaining recognition as a species to be feared because of their courage. It was a really short story that I found on the internet, I think probably just something that someone wrote in a blog or something, not even published.

Does it ring any bell? I'm dying to find it again but google isn't helping me much.

Answer 1

If this wasn't a complete story in its own right, this sounds like a short summary of Gordon R. Dickson's 1970 short novel Hour of the Horde.

After Miles Vander is recruited from Earth by the aliens of the Center, he is transported to the Battle Line, where he is placed in the smallest, weakest ship with a mixed crew of 22 other aliens also deemed of little use. Rank in the ship is determined by fighting among themselves, and Miles is immediately jumped by the current lowest rank crew member, and must successively defeat the rest of the crew to become the leader. The invading Horde arrives, and all the Center aliens flee, but Miles leads the Fighting Rowboat on a lone attack against the Horde, and ultimately succeeds in turning the attack.

Obviously as a short novel there's a lot more detail to this story, but in broad strokes it sounds very similar. You can read an early version of Hour of the Horde in the Internet Archive copy of Venture, May 1969.