The Nordia Incident - 5. Rachel Ruiz

Captain Scott said, “At this time the Board calls Rachel Ruiz.”

A middle aged woman in a smart business suit approached the bench.

Scott asked, “Mrs. Ruiz, you understand that you are testifying under oath?”

“Yes, I do, Captain,” she replied.

“Please take the stand.”

Captain Scott took a brief look at his computer pad and said, “Mrs. Ruiz, could you tell us your occupation?”

“I am a senior maritime incident investigator for Federated Securities and Casualty. I head a team of five specialists and we respond to incidents within thirty light years of our home base on Evergreen.”

Scott asked, “How long have you been an investigator and what is your training.”

“I have been an investigator for twenty-seven years and I hold a Master of Science degree in Forensic Science from the University of New Granada.”

Scott asked, “How were you brought into this case?”

Miss Ruiz said, “As soon as Brisbane Maru was moored, Nordia Station’s Director, Dr. Van Dorn, shot off a message by StarComm to our office on Evergreen. My team jumped into the system the next morning.”

Scott said, “How did you proceed with your investigation?”

“We started on the flight over. We called up the specs of the Ninja Model 3200…”

“Ninja?”

Ruiz grinned and said, “Sorry. Ninja is a common nickname for Nakajima products. Usually, it’s pretty good stuff.”

“Please proceed.”

“We studied the specs and blueprints for the class. The Model 3200 is relatively new and well-appointed. The 3200 class are built-to-order and there are forty-six of them in service. We looked but couldn’t find any similar incident reports with ships of the class.

“When we arrived at Nordia Station, I checked in with the Director Van Dorn who handed us off to his yard boss. We suited and went aboard Brisbane Maru to make our initial inspection.”

Scott asked, “Could you step us through your inspection?”

Ruiz said, “Brisbane Maru was in bad shape. The station had a standard mooring line hooked up but wasn’t feeding her power, air or water. We were able to interrogate her systems remotely to get a read on her damage but most of the ship’s network was unavailable. We decided that we would have to suit up and go aboard to inspect the damage.

“I had my team break up into three pairs: my team would inspect the forward spaces, bridge and back to frame thirty. I sent the other two teams to inspect the cargo holds and engineering.

“We made entry on the starboard lock and got inside. Red emergency lights were on—that was the extent of what was running. We broke up and went to the sections we were supposed to inspect.

“I started at frame thirty, just forward of the number one hold. I could see that the force of the explosion inside the hold had blown out the seams in the container and a volatile liquid, later identified as a flammable hydrocarbon had leaked out spreading the fire forward. As I worked my way toward the bridge, I could see why so many systems weren’t responding. One of the main conduits for the control runs from the bridge had broken open and the cables inside were melted together.

“I was taking pictures of what was left of the bridge when I got a call from Bob, who was inspecting the holds and the containers. He couldn’t get into the containers. The access points were warped and some were even appeared to be welded shut. He asked permission to use his plasma torch to cut his way in and I agreed.”

Captain Scott asked, “Bob was one of your team members?”

Ruiz said, “Yes. That’s Bob Yarborough. He’s an experienced yard-dog—I mean ship-fitter. He’s got a great eye for looking at damage and figuring out what it will take to fix it.”

She paused, anticipating a follow up question. When none came she continued, “When I finished up front, I went back and joined Bob, as he worked his way through the containers in holds one and two. We got inside and it was a mess. The only thing left intact was a metal lattice work. The fire had burned so hot in those two containers that almost everything had melted and was pooled on the floor—glass, wires cables, plastics—everything. It was the sort of fire that would have smoldered for days if the atmosphere hadn’t been evacuated; the heat transfer was murder on the ship.

“We found the point of origin for the fire in the number two container. The one and two containers were oriented back to back with some sort of equipment immediately adjacent in both containers. In fact there was a conduit with cables and pipes running between the two containers. We identified pipes and pumps but had no idea what the equipment was. However, all the indicators pointed to that equipment as the point of origin.

“Bob suggested that it was some type of cryogenic system and that the explosion had been caused by a pressurized liquid oxygen tank exploding. I had to concur because of the heat of the fire, its intensity and fragmentation patterns we found in the wreckage of that equipment.

“Things changed significantly when we entered container number three. Number three caught on fire but it didn’t burn as long or as hot as number one or two. There was less wreckage there than containers one and two and that’s where we started finding bones.”

Investigator Ruiz paused at that point. The entire courtroom was silent. It took a few moments before she was able to continue. “Container 4 was where we found the bodies. There was very little fire damage in four and almost everything was intact. What we found were racks and racks of tanks with a humans inside. Everything had been exposed to space and frozen solid. We didn’t know what we had found but it was way beyond anything we were insuring. I did a quick count on the tanks. They were stacked ten high in two rows of ten off the center aisle. There were twenty rows. All told I think there were four thousand per container.”

“I think that when Brisbane Maru burned, she took sixteen thousand people with her.”

Captain Scott asked, “What did you do after you discovered the bodies?”

Ruiz said, “We weren’t sure what we had stumbled on. In the early days of interstellar travel, sub-light ships used cold sleep, but I hadn’t heard of anyone using it in a couple hundred years. There were always fatalities then and there’s just no reason to use it anymore.”

“All of those dead bodies! I knew that we had a red hot potato in our hands and I wanted to hand it off to Alliance Authorities as soon as possible.

“We wrapped up our investigation and went back to our ship. I very quietly made arrangements to meet with the local Alliance Customs and Commerce representative and the senior naval officer in the system.

Captain Scott said, “That would be Commander Glenn of the Callahan and Sandra Hughes of the ACC.”

“Yes sir.”

Scott said, “What was the result of that meeting?”

Ruiz said, “No one was happy about it. Both were extremely concerned but neither were in a position to act on their own. Commander Glenn suggested that we bring in Special Agent Anthony Burrows of the Alliance Bureau of Investigation. Ms. Hughes agreed. I didn’t even know the bureau had an agent assigned to Nordia Station.”

Scott asked, “Once Agent Burrows was involved, how did he proceed?”

Ruiz replied, “Burrows didn’t have the forensics support that he would have in a full-fledged field office. He asked for our cooperation in support of his investigation and he didn’t waste any time getting started. Two hours later we were suited up, back aboard the Brisbane Maru collecting evidence and samples.”

Captain Scott said, “Than you Mrs. Ruiz. We appreciate your taking time to appear here. I think we’re done with your testimony.”