The Nordia Incident - 3. Lt. Commander Andrew McCann

Captain Scott said, “The board calls Callahan’s Executive Officer—Lt. Commander Andrew McCann.”

As Lt. Commander McCann approached the witness box Admiral Stewart pulled up his record on this computer pad. McCann had thirty-two years in the service. He had spent the last five with Glenn on the Callahan.

What would make a man who was not ever going to command a ship stay in two years past retirement? Another rarity was he was older than his skipper by a decade. As Admiral Stewart scrolled through the record, he saw it was full of commendations. Best rated training officer in his division six years running. Three fleet citations. Everything about the man was squared away.

Admiral Stewart looked at Admiral Liao and raised an eyebrow. Commodore Channing was also looking at his pad and nodding. They knew. McCann was a professional and he loved what he was doing. He was the sort of officer that was the backbone of a good wardroom.

Captain Scott said, “Lt. Commander McCann—you understand that you are under oath?”

McCann answered, “I do, sir.”

Scott said, “Please take the witness box. What did you find when you arrived aboard Brisbane Maru?”

“It was a mess, sir. The ship was dying. There were hot spots everywhere and control runs were burned out for the most part. We entered the ship through the starboard side airlock. The crew had evacuated the atmosphere to fight the fire but there were still hot plasma leaks from the manifolds.”

“Our marines are the best in the business at boarding ships in any condition. We had a portable airlock but we didn’t need it. The survivors were all in suits. God only knows how they were still functional. Their suits were charred and covered with soot. It was about as bad as it gets, sir.”

Scott asked, “Did you contact the senior officer?”

“Not immediately. Their second officer, a youngster named Hayakawa, was still standing his post at AuxCon—excuse me sir, that’s auxiliary control. The bridge was gone. It took me some time to work my way to Hayakawa’s station. My first priority was to get the wounded off that ship. I’m not a corpsman, but I could tell several of them were goners if we didn’t get them treated as soon as possible.”

Scott said, “So there was no discussion of what had happened or what the cargo was?”

“Sir, we were in a life or death situation. Our priority had to be taking care of the survivors. The ship looked like a write off.”

Scott asked, “Take us through what your team did when you arrived?”

“I had our people evacuate the wounded to the shuttle and called the Skipper to send the second shuttle. Then I made my way to Auxiliary Control to find the senior surviving officer.”

“When you found Hayakawa, what did he say?”

McCann paused for a moment and said, “The kid didn’t want to leave his post. He was injured and looked like he had been cooked in his suit. His ship was falling apart around him but the kid didn’t want to leave his post.”

Captain Scott said, “How did you get him to leave his post?”

“I told him that the ship was dead in space and drifting. He had done all he could. He still didn’t want to go.”

“What did you do to persuade him?”

“I said that it was his duty to remain at his station until relieved by a superior officer. I then pointed at my rank insignia on my suit and told him that he was relieved.”

“Then what did he do?”

“He retrieved the ship’s recorder from AuxCon and I had to help him to the airlock. He and I were the last to leave the ship.”

Scott said, “I don’t think I have anything further. You may step down, Commander McCann.”

McCann stood as if to leave the witness box and stopped. He turned to Captain Scott and said, “Captain, there’s one other thing that I would like to add.”

Captain Scott said, “What is that, Commander?”

“That young officer, sir—Hayakawa. He had a bad hand but he did everything right. He took care of his people, he got his ship stabilized, and he was the last man off. I just wanted that on the record.”

Captain Scott said, “Thank you, Commander.”