Investigator: Ruled out

Posted on Sun Nov 15th, 2026 @ 4:34pm by Commander Thomas Carey & Captain Andre Hunt

1,372 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Ashes of Vega Colony
Location: Some building
Timeline: Current

It had been several hours since their investigation had started, and going over the computers did point to sabotage, but the question still remained. The chief investigator that the mining company had been ruled out, at least for now, so he was heading to the place where he had been detained for the last few hours.

Silas Renn laid on the bed in the makeshift holding area. Instead of taking him to the actually jail, Creed had dumped him here under the watch of two of his security personnel. Upon getting out of here, he would contact StellarCore to place a formal complaint with Starfleet. People around here accused him of being arrogant, but Starfleet had shown up, took over and began pushing the locals around.

After dismissing the security, thomas walked into the detainment area. "My apologies Mr Renn. One cannot be to sure, about who to trust when it comes to mining corporations. Unfortunately, when it comes to accidents like this, and the mining companies previous track record, of not always playing by the rules. We needed to make sure that we could rule you out as a suspect. Which we have done so, at least for now."

Sitting up, Silas looked over the Commander and sighed. "Contrary to popular belief, I am not a puppet of the corporation. I take my job seriously and I do want to find out what happened here. Now I can admit, that StellarCore has a vested interest in their bottom line being affected. But that's clearly their viewpoint on the business end of things."

"My job is a very unpopular one, as yours is. I make enemies from people such as yourself, and at the end of the day we can walk home or beam home whatever the case maybe. Im willing to work through it." Thomas sat down on the chair. "What can you tell me about the events leading up to the accident. Anything suspicious in the last few days."

"One of the workers was injured pretty bad on the job," said Silas. "The protestors have always been outside the main gate being a small nuisance. But things started picking up after that. Crowd, tripled in size. Some folks were arrested for property damage. But nothing anywhere near the level of this here."

"What exactly happened to the worker,"

"He was performing maintenance when the scaffolding he was on collapsed. They other workers attributed it to the equipment being faulty. StellarCore technicians claimed the equipment was being misused by the worker."

"Anyone inspect the scaffolding before the worker got injured? There are regulations requiring it."

Silas was hesitant for a brief moment before answering. "Prior to the incident, the last inspection had been two months prior."

Sighing, he wrote the information on the padd. "I will be checking with the complaints from the workers, see everything that wasn't checked, prior to the accident. Even if this wasn't sabotage, the mining company will still have a lot of explaining to do."

"Look, I will be the first to admit that there are flaws within StellarCore and they need to do a much better job," Renn admitted. "But none of their issues comes remotely close to an accident of this level. And with the camera going out. I'm more along the lines of sabotage more than anything. Which means we should be looking at suspects which would be those pushing for this all to shut down."

"Perhaps so. But im thinking that the prior safety issues went unchecked, so someone sabotaged something to get more attention. Which worked. Whatever this is, the company will not get out of this unscathed." Thomas replied. "I can promise jail time for those who knew about the safety issues, and neglected to report and fix. But that is not the issue we have this immediate time." Pausing, "I need a list of all those injured in 'accidents' or family of those."

Silas Renn listened carefully Thomas, his express remaining thoughtful as he considered the possibility of sabotage. It was theory worth exploring, especially given the company's history of ignoring safety concerns. But without evidence, he wasn't prepared to draw any conclusions. "That's one possibility. But we need to be careful about assuming whoever caused this was trying to make a statement. If someone did trigger this explosion, we need to establish whether their intent was to expose the company's negligence something more sinister."

Pausing for a moment, the investigator had a confused look on his face. "I can get you the list going back to at least the last ten years. That should provide us with a good starting point. The thing that bothers me, that if you are simply trying to expose StellarCore, then why do something of this magnitude that would kill and seriously harm the very employees you wish to protect?"

"Perhaps fear." Thomas replied, "Their intentions are never harm your employees, but to some overlooking a few safety checks here, a new safety device there, is worth the small chance of something happens. And when something does happen they panic and try hide and destroy the evidence."

"I was actually speaking about the possible saboteur," Silas corrected. "But you're right about the company. Cutting a couple of corners eventually adds up. And when something goes wrong those responsible become more concerns about protecting themselves, than the people they put at risk."

"We need to be careful about this... the saboteur, could be someone who over shot their original intentions. Possibly wanting it to be big enough to get someones attention, So the needed changes would be done. Or it could be done intentionally. Which is why we need to check every avenue."

The investigator nodded his head in agreement. Honestly, the last thing he thought was that the Executive Officer would be having a civil conversation with him. Everyone automatically assumed that he was the problem, forgetting that his job was actually to discover the truth. "Just want to put this out here, because I know Creed and his people feel about me. And your initial response to me was to lock me up. But I'm an investigator just like you. My job is to find the truth, good or bad. Now what people do with that truth, isn't on me. I need for you to remember that."

"Mining companies don;'t have a very good reputation on looking for the truth only to blame.." Thomas replied as he leaned back. "Back on earth, mining companies had a reputation of making people disappear if people stood in their way. Our foray into space hasn't changed that much."

"Based on history you make an excellent point there," Silas admitted. "But as far as I am aware, no one has just gone missing. Though this is the type of job where people stay long term deciding to settle here. But we also have a lot of people who pass through for work and leave after a few weeks or months."

"Just want to make sure the company is on the up and up. That is all. The fact that they avoided all these safety issues." He paused looking at the stack of safety issues. And lack of inspections. "Someone is going to take the blame. The fact that people knew about these safety problems that weren't being fixed, It makes it all that easier to have it blamed on safety issues."

"Sounds as if your leaning more to an accident due to safety concerns," said the investigator. "What led to that conclusion?"

"Not leaning into anything at this point in time. I have to look into all aspects. Right now, we know the mining company is guilty of safety infractions that is all. All other witnesses accounts, and surveillance does indicate sabotage... ive got to rule out accident."

"Point taken." Standing up to his feet, Renn brushed him off while straightening himself. "If there's nothing else, then I'll see about obtaining that list for you."

"Inform the company what you need to." Thomas replied, leaving out the fact that they would be monitoring the communications. He had been ruled out as a suspect, but not everyone dealing with this incident within the company was. "Dismissed."

 

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