‘If you’d seen as many families struggling to come to terms with this, you’d realise just what your help has done. It doesn’t matter that it’s been an unequal struggle; it’s having hope that’s important.’
The words helped, and Matt looked up and smiled, just as Laker touched his arm.
‘They’re opening the doors again. We’d better be getting in. Rebecca – see you in the lunch recess.’ Laker started walking to the committee chamber.
Matt started to say goodbye to Short, but she stopped him.
‘There’s something else. My clients gave me a message for you. They wanted me to say that, whatever happens today, they know you’ve done the very best you could for them. I was given a card—’
She opened her handbag and handed him a large envelope. Matt opened it and took out a plain white card with a child’s drawing on the front, showing a rocket flying to the stars. He opened it carefully, and inside were page after page of signatures and messages of support, some plainly from children. Matt slowly leafed through them all. There must have been hundreds of signatures in total.
Matt was completely unprepared, and as he stared at the pages filled with messages, he felt his eyes filling up and a lump coming in his throat. He looked back at Short and blinked to hide the tears, not trusting his voice to speak.
‘Matt, we need to go in now.’ Laker stood at the open doors.
Short put her hand on Matt’s arm and looked levelly at him.
‘Mr Crawford – all our hopes.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘Over the course of the day, you have heard experts from the Space Accident Investigation Board summarise a great deal of complex information on the investigation into the accident at Erebus Mine on November twenty- eighth, 2142.’
Chairman Trent faced the committee room, late in the afternoon.
‘I thank you for your patience in listening to these presentations. I also thank the parties to the investigation for their persistence and professionalism in investigating this accident, both at the time of the original enquiry and when assessing new data. Everything we learn about any accident makes a direct contribution towards improving safety for everyone working in space, and much has been done since then to improve safety in planetary mines.’
‘Like hell it has,’ Laker muttered near Matt’s ear. The attorney had changed his seat during the recess, and now sat next to Matt.
Trent continued: ‘It is important that everyone understands the basis of the overall conclusion that we have come to, in the light of the detailed reports you have all heard presented here today.
‘Reviewing a closed file is never an easy task, and even more so in this case, where we are dealing with an accident that claimed so many lives. Two hundred and fifty-seven men and women died as a result of the events of that day, eight years ago. Our thoughts, as always, are with the relatives at this time, who have had to face the pain of reliving those moments. Nonetheless, we are persuaded that reviewing the new evidence was the right thing to do. The intense public and media interest in the accident makes it essential that we demonstrate beyond all doubt, that every scrap of evidence has been properly reviewed.’
‘Yeah, like a Federal Court had nothing to do with it,’ Laker whispered.
‘With that in mind, and before I outline our findings, I draw your attention to the key findings from each of the sub-committees.
‘Firstly, the data record. The new telemetry data, recovered from the noise in the original transmissions, has been accepted as admissible and adopted as part of the factual data record. PMI should note that we are concerned that the huge effort put into recovering the data was largely borne by the relatives, and that PMI was less helpful than it could have been in facilitating this work. We will therefore be pursuing a separate review with PMI in that respect.’
So, Matt thought. No public censure of PMI for six years of obstruction and intimidation. So
‘Second, the overpressure readings in the hangar before the outer doors failed and allowed the mine atmosphere to escape. You will recall that the original data record was missing these readings due to the data corruption that occurred at the time of the accident. You have heard from the airlock sub-committee that the reconstructed telemetry data does
‘The lack of a critical overpressure reading, however, does not mean that the doors could not have failed at a lower pressure, due to design inadequacy or manufacturing defect. We support the findings of the original investigation in this respect, however, and find no convincing evidence that either of these possibilities occurred.’
‘I now turn to the third key finding; the recovered data from the systems telemetry. After exhaustive examination of this new data, including simulations of possible command sequences that would produce the data, we cannot come to any firm conclusion. There is some evidence to suggest that the duty personnel attempted to close the internal pressure doors. Some of the other data, however, including the door position readings, contradicts this interpretation, and we do not find it conclusive.
‘Certain discrepancies were also noted in the recovered data for the alarm log, that caused the sub- committee some concern, including some inconsistent data frames, but this cannot be determined with any certainty.’
Trent paused, and went on to summarise the conclusions of the remaining sub-committees. Most had returned the same conclusions as before, with minor changes to the sequence of events.
After giving these, he stopped, and took a sip of water.
Here it comes, Matt thought.
The moment seemed to take an age, as if Trent was drinking in slow motion, the glass returning to the desk like the slow fall of an object on the Moon. Next to Matt, Laker leaned forward, his hands clenched.
At last, Trent adjusted his glasses and opened his mouth, to deliver the long-awaited words.
‘In summary, this board fails to find sufficient evidence for any failure of the outer airlock doors below design loads, nor do we find sufficient evidence of a critical overpressure that would have caused them to fail. The reason for the failure of the main mine doors therefore cannot be determined with any level of certainty. In addition, we cannot reach a conclusion on whether the internal pressure doors in the mine were commanded to close, and if they were, whether they operated as they were designed.
‘The overall conclusion of this board is, therefore, that we cannot come to a decision on the validity of the original findings without an investigative mission to the mine. The board will therefore be recommending—’
The chairman’s words were drowned out by the rising sound of voices in the chamber. Trent stopped, and banged his gavel once, then a second time, glaring round the room. The talking faded.
‘I repeat, the board will therefore be recommending – that an expedition is commissioned to visit Erebus Mine in Chao Meng-fu crater, with a brief to gather evidence to enable the board to reach a revised final conclusion.’
Once again, a hubbub of voices ran round the room. Trent banged his gavel twice more, but the noise would not abate. He banged the gavel again, and continued banging until the talking subsided.
‘This investigation board will re-convene once the expedition returns and will review the new evidence, and provide a revised report once our investigations are complete.
‘In summary, this board makes the following recommendations. One – that the investigation into the accident at Erebus Mine is held open pending the results of an investigative mission. Two – that an investigative mission is despatched to Mercury, with permission from the Space Graves Commission to enter the mine and investigate further the circumstances of the airlock door failure. Three – that this mission is completed and a formal report submitted to this board within one year from now.
‘The scope of this mission is to be limited strictly to a set of key objectives, set out in detail in our written
