The Nordia Incident - 2. Commander Richard Glenn

Captain Scott stood and said, “The board calls Commander Richard Glenn, commanding officer of the Raymond Callahan, DD-1023.”

Commander Glenn stood and approached the witness box. He stopped, stood at attention and snapped off a parade ground salute to the president of the board.”

Captain Scott said, “You understand that you are under oath?”

Commander Glenn replied, “I do sir.”

“Please take the witness box.”

Once Glenn was seated, Captain Scott asked, “Commander Glenn, please state for the record the orders that the Callahan was under at the time of the incident.”

“Per Op Order AF49-1023A, Callahan was four months into a six month presence deployment in the Nordia system.”

Scott asked, “Commander Glenn, please describe a presence deployment for the gallery.”

Glenn sat back in the witness chair and said, “Presence deployments are subsidized deployments of fleet units. The DESERD Corporation…”

Captain Scott interrupted, “For the record, please state the corporation’s full name.”

Glenn said, “DESERD stands for Deep Space Exploration, Research and Development; a TransStellar corporation based on Earth. They have an ongoing terraforming project and have had some trouble in the past. They wanted a fleet presence in the Nordia system so they contracted to cover our operating expenses for the duration of the deployment.”

Captain Scott asked, “Could you describe the trouble?”

Glenn said, “Nordia is relatively close to the Core worlds. A radical green organization opposed to terraforming caused a major disturbance some years ago. There was a bombing on Nordia Station and they tried to destroy one of the terraforming complexes on the surface with a kinetic projectile.”

Scott asked, “So is the Nordia system a trouble spot?”

Glenn said, “Not in my experience. I have been deployed there twice before and have a good working relationship with Alliance and DESERD personnel there. Our recent deployment in the Nordia System was busy with routine maintenance and crew training. The deployment was completely routine before the incident.”

Scott said, “Commander Glenn, let’s take it from the top. Tell us what happened that day.”

Glenn nodded and sat up straighter. “I used our deployment at Nordia to refresh our crew’s training with operational procedures. We were carrying two boot Ensigns and six newly minted Chiefs, so my XO and I decided it was a good opportunity for them to get their hands dirty. We made sure that all of our rookies got a chance to excel.

“On 20 April, a little after two in the morning, I was awakened by the watch officer and called to the bridge. When I arrived, the watch officer informed me that a ship had jumped into the system declaring an emergency.

“The comm watch told me that the ships transponder was squawking an emergency; actually, the code was echo-03 which translates to we have a fire on board.

“The first thing I did was send a message to the incoming ship: Callahan is coming to your assistance, ETA three hours. Do not approach Nordia Station until your condition is stabilized.”

Captain Scott asked, “Why did you warn her off of the space dock at Nordia Station?”

Glenn answered, “Fires on a starship are a nightmare. They can cause unpredictable results and lingering damage to critical systems. I didn’t want the damaged ship to explode close aboard the station and take half of it with him.’

Scott said, “Thank you, Commander. Please continue.”

“Once we got our message off I called my senior officers to their stations. I wanted my best team in place. Lt. Addison took over at tactical and Lt. Jacobs relieved the pilot.

“Once Addison took over he got an ID on her and specifications for her class. She was the Brisbane Maru- a Nakajima Industries model 3200 reefer of about 200Ktons registered out of New Hainan in the Corporate Sector.”

Captain Scott said, “For the record, please restate the type of ship.”

Glenn continued. “Reefer is slang for refrigeration ship. They are set up to carry fragile cargos that require very specific environmental requirements. The data we had on the model 3200 is that they have four big holds for modular containers that can be customized for temperature, humidity and even specific atmospheric gas mixes. That’s what got them in trouble. They had a leak in a liquid oxygen tank. It exploded and the fire took off from there.”

Captain Scott said, “That’s jumping ahead quite a bit in your narrative Commander. Let’s get back on point.”

Commander Glenn grimaced at the mild disparagement, then moved on. “Once we had the class and identity of the ship, we knew her characteristics and layout. I ordered Senior Chief Garnett, my senior enlisted man and Sergeant Mays, top kick of my Marines to prep a couple of damage control parties to board the stricken ship. Then I ordered our shuttles brought to ready five.”

Admiral Liao raised his hand and Captain Scott acknowledged him. He stated, “If I may address the witness, I would like to verify, Commander Glenn, at this point you had not spoken to anyone aboard Brisbane Maru. I see you were making preparations to board her. Was that your intention?”

Commander Glenn said, “No sir. I wanted to be prepared. I was pretty sure we would be boarding her at least to declare her reactors safe to dock at Nordia Station. Any station manager is within his rights to refuse docking to a ship that has a serious casualty and may endanger his station.”

Admiral Liao nodded and seemed satisfied with his answer.

Glenn continued with his narrative. “As we moved to intercept Brisbane Maru, we prepared for the worst. We drilled hundreds of times for approaching, docking and entering ships under emergency conditions. This wasn’t a training evolution, however. Real emergencies are a different matter than training exercises and, we didn’t know what we’d be facing but our crew was ready.”

“The next major development was when our sensor watch reported that Brisbane Maru had flipped ship and fired off a deceleration burn from her main engines. Shortly thereafter she vented her drive plasma into space.”

Captain Scott asked, “What was the significance of this?”

Commander Glenn shifted in his seat and said, “It told me several things. The most important was that there was someone alive on that ship and its systems were under some degree of control. Second, the crew of that ship had the presence of mind to dump some of their velocity—enough for a tug to hook her up. Last, they were concerned enough about the condition of their systems to shut down her primary reactors and go on emergency power.

“Shortly after their deceleration maneuver, we got a reply from Brisbane Maru. It was text only stating that the fire was out and that they had vented their atmosphere into space. They said they had causalities, requested assistance and a tug.

“The exact message is in the log.”

Captain Scott picked up his computer pad and said, “I will read it from the log so it will be entered into the hearing’s record: Callahan—our fires are out but our systems are a mess. We had to vent our atmosphere into space. Crew is all in suits and we have dumped our reactors. We request assistance with our casualties and we need a tug.”

The three senior officers of the Inquiry Board looked at each other and there was some whispering among the observing senators.

Admiral Jennings struck his gavel and said, “Order.” He looked around menacingly for a moment and said, “Please continue, Commander Glenn.”

“Once the Brisbane Maru slowed, it made our intercept solution much easier. It took us a little longer but we easily matched vectors and I sent my Executive Officer, Lt. Commander Andrew McCann, and a boarding party of fourteen render assistance. We saw that much of Brisbane Maru’s port side was blown out.”

Captain Scott asked, “Who besides your XO did you send on the first shuttle?”

“Our first boarding party was composed of four corpsmen and four engineers and the remaining six were a dedicated damage control team. Of course my XO was in command. I also sent gear to facilitate better communications.

“We had matched speed and velocity with Brisbane Maru and were standing off about five kilometers. Ten minutes after our first shuttle docked I got a call from Drew—excuse me, my XO. He said to go ahead and send the second shuttle. He was putting the worst of the wounded on the first shuttle. We launched our second shuttle and the first arrived a few minutes after. It was a horror show.

“Two of the wounded died en route on the shuttle. Two more expired in our sick bay before we made it to Nordia Station. Of the twenty-two crewmen five were killed outright, six more died of injuries and all the rest were injured. Their captain and first officer were killed fighting the fire. The second officer had become senior and was the last to leave the ship.”

Captain Scott asked, “Did anything else happen before Brisbane Maru was docked at Nordia Station?”

Glenn replied, “Even before the tug Nordic Lass arrived, we made a speed run to the station. My corpsmen are good but we had several critical cases and time was of the essence. We had to get them to a hospital or lose them.”

Captain Scott said, “I have no further questions of the witness at this time, but I may want to recall him to discuss subsequent events.”

Admiral Jennings said, “Commander Glenn, you are excused, sir.”