Found: SciFi - Astronaunt Court Martialed for Killing 'Martian'

This is a sci fi short story I read from one of the sci-fi magazines (Analog?, Asimov?, or maybe Hitchcock). It starts with 2 ships meeting in space. One American and I think the other was Russian. I think some how they merge for some intergalactic alliance. The American captain is placed under house arrest because he shoots and kills a Russian cosmonaut. The captain says the Russian is a Martian. He had several reasons, but the one I remembered is he handed the Russian a cup of scolding hot coffee and the Russian's thumb was in the coffee with no reaction. No one believed the captain and he detained until his court martial. A military lawyer was in charge of investigating the case. He elicits the help of female hacker he busted a few years back.

I initially read this story in the early 2000s when I had a Fictionwise account and would download mobi formatted ebooks to my palm pilot.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

This sounds a lot like the Outer Limits episode "Bodies of Evidence". While not exactly the same, perhaps the episode may have been adapted from the short story?

The crew of the space station Meridian begins to see visions of loved ones or enemies that lure them to their deaths. After three crewmembers die, the remaining two (including Captain Clark) escape to Earth, where Clark is accused of murdering his crew. However, he claims that the crew were lured to their deaths by something much more sinister. Dysart, his ex-wife, defends him at trial.

There is a a similar scene as well in which the Captain gets suspicious not because of coffee but with acid.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667870/

>2 beichst: You are so awesome. It sounds very exciting and I will check it out, but it is not the one I was looking for. Thank you so much. I've got a new story now.

I found it. "Second Contact", by Mike Resnick. Synopsis: A starship captain has gone a little crazy and killed two of his crewmen in cold blood. Just plead insanity, make sure they give his client a nice, comfortable, padded cell, and go skiing at Aspen.

But the captain refuses to cop an insanity plea. He insists that the two crew members he killed were not humans but aliens.

Glad to hear you were able to find this. Very interesting to see the plot. As the Resnick novel was from 1990 it predates the Outer Limits episode by about seven years.

Adding touchstone: Second Contact