Just what all do I have aboard? Kris suspected she was about to find out.
Colonel Cortez cleared his throat. ''By a strange quirk of fate, my date of rank is a week earlier than Captain Krätz's …''
''And lots earlier than mine,'' Drago put in.
''So I am presiding over this Court of Inquiry. While our findings have been expedited, it is the opinion of this court that more time would not result in a different decision … and would leave findings open to questions of data manipulation. I want that entered into the record as a challenge to anyone who attempts to reopen this matter and review our decision.''
For an infantry officer, Cortez seems in full control of the global reality of the situation, Kris thought, but said nothing and schooled her face to an unremarkable mask.
''For the purpose of this investigation, the court has relied heavily on the Ultra High Density Optical Scanner of the scientific task force aboard the Wasp, as recorded by the Super High Speed Visual Spectrum Recorder. These were brought aboard by the scientists to record the fine details of stellar events.''
Cortez paused and studied some handwritten notes in front of him. ''Here I must ask a question of an unusual witness. Lieutenant Longknife, can your personal computer bear witness?''
''I believe so. Nelly, you understand that you must tell the truth as you see it, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.''
''I understand the oath, Kris. Colonel Cortez, I promise that I will do that.''
Kris would not have been surprised if Nelly had called upon God to bear witness to her truthfulness, but the computer left it at that.
''Miss Nelly,'' Cortez said, ''were you aware of the advanced scanner and visual recorder being on board and did you review any of their data during the close encounter with the liner Tourin?''
There was only a slight pause before Nelly spoke. ''I have in storage the Wasp's full inventory. As such, I know these items. They are listed by name with no further information about their capabilities. I have no information about their mounting or of any data they acquired. The Wasp's central computer had no feed from them and, as such, I had access to no input from them. Put another way, sir, I knew these devices were aboard. I did not know they were active, and I saw nothing from them during the close encounter with the liner Tourin.''
''Thank you, Miss Nelly,'' the colonel said. ''That resolved the only matter left unanswered for the board. Lieutenant Longknife, may I direct your attention to the wall behind you.''
Kris turned in her chair. She found herself staring at a stern view of the Tourin. It filled the wall behind her in spectacular detail.
''This is photo 34,215 of the pictures provided to this court,'' Cortez said, and now Kris could spot that number up in the left-hand corner. Below it was a notation: RANGE, 20,412.
''The photos before this one show only the approaching ship or the blurred image of it as the Wasp flipped ship. This photo is the first one that interests the court. Lieutenant, could you describe in your own words what you see in it based upon your plan of attack to damage the liner while causing as little harm as possible to its passengers and crew.''
Kris wanted to say, Not fair. You've had an hour to look at this picture. And besides, you can't make me my own prosecutor .
But the picture drew her. She stood, taking it in and knowing exactly what she was seeing.
The undamaged engines showed large white dots of plasma shooting from the huge mouths of rockets. It was easy to spot the two, no three engines that had been sliced off. Plasma shot out from the tiny holes at the end of the containment field. Two other engines showed a skew of white fire where the sides of the engines had been lopped off. Kris described that to the board.
''Is that the damage you had aimed for?'' Captain Krätz asked.
''Basically, yes. I'd hoped to cut all five of them off like we did the first three, maybe nick the four inner ones a bit, but this was what we aimed for, and I think this falls within our desired results.''
''Do you see anything else?'' Captain Drago asked.
''I don't think so. Nelly, do you see anything?''
''It is hard to tell from a single picture, Kris, but note the occlusion of the stars to the right of the motors. The ship could be heeling over to the right. I would need further pictures to establish a trend.''
''This is the next photos, 34,216,'' Cortez said. The range notation was 22,619. It showed the same damage to the engines. It was hard to tell if it showed more heel.
''And photo 34,219.'' Jumping ahead three pictures, and at a range of 29,239, it was still hard for Kris to decide if the ship was heeling or if it was just a function of camera angle.
''Nelly, did you have any visual on the Tourin during the close encounter?'' Colonel Cortez asked.
''I was getting pictures at about half the pace of these, but the resolution was much worse. Does the court have one of the ship's visuals?''
''Yes we do,'' Cortez said. On the short wall facing Kris, a stern view of the liner appeared. The glare from the working engines showed as a single large dot.
''So you had no way to gauge the damage Pulse Lasers 3 and 4 had done,'' Captain Krätz said.
''That is correct, sir,'' Nelly said. ''At that instant, I was operating on the assumption that our first two lasers had missed, and the only hope we had was the second two.''
''Thank you, Nelly,'' Cortez said. ''Lieutenant Longknife, did you have similar assumptions?''
''Colonel Cortez, I had no assumptions at the time. It was happening too fast for me to observe, review, or make a revision to anything I'd planned.''
''That does not surprise me. Let's see the next picture.'' Photo 34,220 had a range notation of 31,445. Three more engines had been cut away from the left-hand lower engine grouping.
There was no evidence that Battery 1 had hit the Tourin.
''And the next picture,'' Cortez said.
The Tourin was tearing itself apart.
''Here we see that Battery 1 did not miss,'' Captain Drago took over the narrative, ''but rather sliced through the damaged area left by Batteries 3 and 4. Meeting no resistance, it was free to penetrate into the power plant and even to the reactor area. The result is catastrophic.''
''Yes,'' Kris whispered. At her neck, so did Nelly.
''I have personally gone over the records of repair and maintenance on the lasers. They were fully overhauled on Wardhaven before you called us to Eden. We bore sighted them after that overhaul. They were not just within specs but well within specs,'' the captain of the Wasp reported. Beside him, both the colonel and the Greenfeld captain nodded. ''As proof of that, I give you the actual results of this shoot. Batteries 2 and 4 just about nailed their targets. Battery 3 was a bit high and to the left. Battery 1 was off a bit more high and to the left, but it hit its target at thirty thousand kilometers and passing at a speed nearly .03 of the speed of light.''
Now it was Kris's turn to nod. ''The equipment functioned better than anyone had a right to expect.''
''So it would seem,'' Captain Krätz said. High praise from a Greenfeld skipper for a Wardhaven ship driver.
''Now one further matter,'' Colonel Cortez said. ''Miss Nelly, I am going to send you the scientific team's pictures that are in evidence. Would you please overlay them and determine if the Tourin was indeed heeling to the right based on the unbalanced engine configuration.''