Chapter 20: Research

The tiny fleet hovered deep in space, far from any star system. Its flagship, the mighty Solaris Federation cruiser SFS Uganda, hovered in the middle of the three Flower-class corvettes SFS Chrysanthemum, SFS Rhododendron, and SFS Snapdragon, anchoring near the still-joined, still largely intact passenger and command sections of the Bucyrus. The civilian ship SS Oswald stood directly in the middle of a slowly-expanding blossom of detritus left over from the shredding of the engines and engineering section of the Bucyrus, flanked protectively by the Tribal class destroyers SFS Maori and SFS Bedouin.

The commander of the fleet was Vice-Admiral Richard Delacroix, Commander-in-Chief of Fleet Engineering Services. The fact that the task force had as a Flag Officer the second most senior officer in the entire Solaris navy indicated the diplomatic and cultural importance of this investigative phase of the Board of Inquiry's work.

At present, the Admiral was in the Oswald's forward hold, in conference with several forensic engineers and metallurgists as they stood heads down over a particularly fascinating scrap of metal with a very curious burn pattern. Similar shards were scattered across the hold, interspersed with trestle tables and pieces of analytical gear brought along by the Oswald. "Almost looks like it was cut," Captain Peter Allandale of the SS Oswald observed. The Admiral's aide, Sub-Lieutenant Corinne Masters, took close-up photos of the suspicious piece of debris.

One of the engineers consulted a schema of the ship. "The identifier number indicates this spar was part of the engineering compartment, where the left-hand side of the starboard engine control panel was mounted. Here's the control wiring conduit, sliced through like a hot knife through butter."

An electrical engineer took a probe tool and checked out the mass of fibre-optic cables. "I can't tell if the cables were active at the time they were bisected, but it would take a fairly heavy blast from a shaped charge to slice them like this."

"We could cut off a piece for the mass spectrometer, and see if any explosive trace was left behind," suggested another engineer.

The Admiral pondered for a moment. "We don't have the equipment to run the necessary tests," he pointed out, "but we can get the analysis done in Solaris quickly enough." He turned to Captain Allandale. "Please make room for one of Bedouin's Fireflies. We'll ship this piece back in her hangar bay. Please contact the Bedouin's captain immediately and advise him I need him to rush to Olympus Mons University." As Captain Allandale started to obey Admiral Delacroix's orders, the Admiral stopped him and added, "I'll need a high-speed message torpedo to Fleet Headquarters as well."

The metallurgical scientists and structural engineers at Olympus Mons University on Mars were thorough in their analysis, and realizing the sensitivity of the subject did not allow their undergraduates access to the labs for the weekend — an edict backed up by polite-but-firm security guards and heavily sugar-coated by an unprecedented "official kegger" at the university's soccer stadium.

Working all weekend, the solons managed to complete their report in 48 hours. The material was reloaded aboard SFS Bedouin with copies of the report, and without delay the cruiser broke orbit and began climbing to light speed.

On Earth's Moon, Admiral Conrad Helfrich briefed his political bosses about the significance of the report. At the Bucyrus disaster site, Vice-Admiral Richard Delacroix and his staff mulled over the implications of the findings. And on Spica II, Ambassador Mike Miller yawned in blissful ignorance as he watched his mother-in-law and her cronies from the bridge club back on Lunar City did a mysterious dance with packs of playing cards.

After two weeks at the disaster site, Task Group Bucyrus arrived at Spica II. There, Vice-Admiral Delacroix had a word with both his country's Ambassador and Spican Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Kurt Meier. Because of the sensitive nature of the communications, the Vice-Admiral kept things brief.

"I'm sending down a secure communication by courier. I have no objection if the Ambassador and the Spican government senior representative discuss this, but I must emphasize the extremely sensitive nature of certain items of information. Let's just say the Spican authorities may want to take steps. I've made my recommendations for local action and they're in the report, I have additional unofficial recommendations for local action and they're in the head of the courier."

Sub-Lieutenant Corinne Masters was young, blond, ambitious and intelligent. She was aware that her current post as aide to Vice-Admiral Delacroix would be excellent for her naval career. She was also aware that right now she was buck-naked, save for official black dress sandals, dark blue collar and wedge cap. She was further aware that the (thankfully female) Petty Office 2^nd Class standing next to her was about ready to burst out laughing. This led to her awareness that at the moment she was doing a full body blush.

"Petty Officer, if you dare snicker, you'll be spending your next tour of duty grinding garbage at the Pluto listening post," Corinne advised grimly, her eyes rigidly fixed on the Uganda's shuttle's hatch in front of her.

"Aye aye, Sir," the non-com acknowledged in a strangled voice.

"Petty Officer, would you like to accompany Sub-Lieutenant Masters to the planet?" enquired a soft voice behind them.

Ohmygod, Corinne thought wildly, her heart in her mouth. I'm naked in front of the Vice-Admiral. I'll be lucky to captain a honey barge.

The Vice-Admiral did not wait for the startled and suddenly horrified Petty Officer to respond. "Now remember what I told you, Lieutenant, and do not get distracted by what you see down there. Your pilot will be here shortly."

"Aye aye, Sir."

The hangar bay hatch hissed open and the pilot, a young female lieutenant who Corinne hadn't met before, strode in. "By your leave, Sir," the petite raven-haired beauty saluted as she opened the shuttle hatch and clambered inside.