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A while ago I had an idea and tried to write a story around it. A word of caution, there are no taurs or hanky-panky in this story. It's just a guy who flies out to a ship that had an accident and once there, he tries to find out what caused it. And write a report to the insurance company. ", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Here is something a bit different. A while ago I had an idea and tried to write a story around it. A word of caution, there are no taurs or hanky-panky in this story. It's just a guy who flies out to a ship that had an accident and once there, he tries to find out what caused it. And write a report to the insurance company. ", "writing": "A close call for MV Never Better \n\nby Badgersarse\n\nAuthor's note: I don't know much about ships and stuff. If you do know such things, read at your own risk. Also, the use of the metric system in this story might be triggering for some Americans.\n\nIn the distance, against the otherwise unbroken horizon, Karl got his first glimpse of the ship, little more than a speck at first. The weather was clear and through the bubble canopy of his single-seat copter he could see many kilometers in every direction. The storm had faded in the early morning, but not without doing... something... to the ship ahead of him. Copter approaching, he could see more details of the Never Better. It was a medium-sized container ship, its bright blue hull stacked full of 40-foot shipping containers with a white, narrow bridge at the rear and a landing pad on top of the bridge. The multi-colored stacks of containers made the otherwise clean-looking ship look like it was wearing a harlequin suit.\n\nWhen he came closer he looked down at the waterline. The ship seemed to sit deeper in the water than normal, like it was overloaded or had taken on water. Given the fact it had just weathered a storm, he leaned towards the latter. The faint wake told him the ship had reduced speed. But that was all he had time to see before the copter had sped past the ship.\n\nSlowing down, the copter turned in a large semicircle and approached the landing pad from the stern. Not wasting time, it descended to the pad, landing with a slight thump. The engines turned off but Karl waited until all four rotors had stopped completely before he opened the canopy and stepped out. The strong wind, a last remnant of the storm, ruffled his ears and tugged on his jacket which he had left unbuttoned during the flight, to his immediate regret as he fiddled with the buttons against the wind's best efforts. It was a bit cold for his liking despite the lanky Shetland sheepdog's double coat. His jacket finally dealt with he went around the back of the craft. Opening the small cargo compartment on the copter, he pulled out a small suitcase and a large sturdy box, his work tools. Carrying his luggage toward the stairs off the pad he saw an otter coming up to meet him. His short fur still damp, he looked like he had just come out of the shower and dressed in a hurry.\n\n''Terribly sorry, I didn't think you'd be here so quickly. I'm Geoff Bridges, the captain of this ship.'' he said, holding out his hand. Karl set down his box and shook his hand. \n''Karl Larsson. Here to assess the damage and report back for the folks planning the repairs. And the insurance company. Give me a moment, I'll just send my ride home.'' he said and turned back to his copter. Raising one arm he pointed up and drew a circle in the air. With its sensors registering the proper hand signal received from its passenger, the copter's electronic brain sprung into action. With a roar and a strong gust, the copter's rotors spun up and it lifted off the pad, rising vertically. Once it was high enough it tilted forward and sped off, heading back to shore.\n\n''I was told to stay on the ship until we reached port in about... two days, is it?''\nGeoff nodded. \n''Two, maybe three days. We're only doing five knots to avoid worsening any potential hull damage. But first we'll get your cabin ready. If you'll follow me...'' he pointed down the stairs. \nKarl followed him down into the accommodations area. Passing a small breakroom they came to a row of cabins. Geoff opened one. It had a bed, a small desk, a door to the small bathroom and not much more. A familiar sight Karl had seen before, on several other ships.\n''Your cabin for the voyage. Do you want to get settled in before you start your investigation?''\nKarl opened the suitcase and pulled out his computer. \n''Unpacking my toothbrush can wait. Can you tell your crew I'd like to speak to them? One at a time, whenever they're available.'' Geoff nodded and left the cabin. Karl sat at the desk and began typing on his computer. Geoff returned a few minutes later, with a folding chair.\n''I've told all four blokes on the day shift to come here. While we wait for them you can start with me. The other three are sleeping now but you can talk to them this evening.'' he said and sat down at the other side of the small desk. Karl started a recording on his computer.\n''As you wish. But is there only eight of you? Doesn't a ship this size need a larger crew?''\nGeoff smiled wryly.\n\n''With all the automation, artificial intelligence and remote control it could have zero crew. But sometimes you need someone who can do percussive maintenance, or push buttons if the comms fail or the computer has a glitch. And rules are what they are so ships need a crew of ''meat sacks''. Eight is the minimum number, 'far as I know.'' he told the sheepdog.\n''Right, let's get back to the matter at hand. Can you tell me what happened?''\nGeoff was silent a moment, gathering his thoughts before he started. \n''As you know, all of yesterday and much of the night we were in a storm. Nothing weird about that, storms happen and there was nothing special about this one. We were making about fifteen knots, the waves were a bit rough. Late last night the engine started acting up, probably caused by the storm. The chief engineer can tell you more.''\nKarl made a note of that. Geoff continued.\n''Whatever problem the engine had, the whole ship started shaking. That together with the waves throwing us here and there was downright unpleasant. The chief engineer reduced the power and that stopped the shaking. But that took some time. It's not like an engine the size of a small house slows down in an instant. We decided to run the engine at that power until the storm was over.'' \nThe otter paused again, looking down at his webbed hands. \n''For a time everything was normal. The ship slowed a bit but we still made our way through the waves. Then we started hearing... the noise.''\nKarl's ears perked up.\n''Can you describe this noise?''\n''Creaking, at first we barely heard it, but it got worse. Creaks and scrapes. The ship groaned like it was tearing apart. It got louder until there was a deafening drawn out... screech... of metal tearing... and bangs... like a giant was playing football with the containers. It rattled the whole ship.''\nHe paused. Karl waited for him to continue.\n''Then it stopped and for a moment we thought we only heard the storm before we heard the horrifying roar of water rushing in. I was worried the ship had broken up but we couldn't see anything like that from the bridge. That's when we reported it and made preparations to abandon ship.''\n\nKarl nodded. He had read a summary of the radio report while in the copter. The ship had reported storm damage but were unable to tell if they'd have to abandon ship. Search and rescue had been placed on alert in case the Never Better needed assistance.\n''As you can imagine, we didn't get much sleep last night. And when we did sleep we did it in the lifeboat, in case we had to leave in a hurry. Well, we didn't and here we are.'' he finished with a shrug. \n\nKarl thanked the captain who left to get back to work and the sheepdog started looking over his belongings. After a while the rest of the crew in the day shift came to see him, one by one. Their statements largely matched the captain's. The chief engineer, a tiger named Zorn provided more details on the engine, all recorded and noted down by Karl.\n\nAfter talking to every crewmember in the day shift Karl joined the crew for a late lunch in the breakroom. He noted there was no galley, nor any designated chef. All the meals were MRE-type meals and refrigerated ``TV dinners'', for heating in a pair of microwave ovens or a pair of conventional ovens. That, together with a shelf filled with some smaller snacks were what the crew got to eat while on the sea. Though the sheepdog was happy to see there was a large variety to all the pre-packaged meals. He had no allergies, a rarity nowadays, and did his best to follow the omnivore diet. Whatever faults the ship might have, he wouldn't get bored with the food while aboard. \nMicrowaving a meat pie, he sat down to have lunch with the crewmen. He talked with them about whatever subject came up and listened for any more details of the night's events but no one seemed willing to dwell on that. \n\nAfter lunch the sheepdog assessor went for a walk around the ship, looking for anything to add to his report. Looking over the railing he noted the draft. The bow was lower than the stern. When passing a forward section of the cargo hold he heard water. Shining a flashlight down the narrow gap between the containers he saw water reflecting below him. Confirming that part of the crew's statement he briefly pondered the wall of 40-foot shipping containers before him. The metal boxes had looked the same for nearly two centuries, and there was no replacement in sight. Even the foot as a unit of measurement had fallen out of use long before he was born, now only remaining in the name. Maybe it was the inertia of a global system, too big to change, maybe it was a matter ''don't fix what's not broken''. Maybe a bit of both. \n\nGoing back to his cabin, Karl took his box and a folding chair and carried both up to the landing pad. He hadn't had time to get a good look from the copter. The wind had lessened so now was the time to do something about that. From the box he took out a set of dark glasses, a controller and a small, folded up remote-controlled copter. Folding out the propellers he set it down on the pad, put on the glasses and parked his rear in the chair. \n\nPushing a button on the controller made his glasses fade to nearly black and moments later his view changed to that of the copter's camera, sitting just centimeters from the pad. Some more fiddling with the controller set the copter's rotors spinning and with a high-pitched whirr it lifted off, giving him a bird's eye view of the ship. He waited a few moments to make sure it stabilized above him before he set it slowly moving forward. Tilting the camera down he had to fight the feeling of vertigo that always came when he flew these things. Some folks could do this sort of thing while standing up or even walking around. He definitely preferred to do it while sitting down. Moving forward the copter left the bridge and he began looking over the stacked containers, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary, the camera recording everything. \n\nStacks upon stacks of containers were before his eyes, slowly gliding down and out of view. He wasn't sure what to look for, only that he'd probably know it when he saw it. The copter had covered most of the ship and everything looked normal. All the containers were still stacked in an orderly manner. Until he was almost at the bow. There, near the centerline was a too wide gap between two stacks, one of which looked like it leaned a little to the side. \n\nComing up to the bow, the rest of the containers looked good so he reversed the copter back to that gap and panned to the side. Seen from the railing, the containers looked as they should but he recognized that this was the section where he had seen water down in the hold. Going back to the gap he lowered the copter to take a closer look. Getting closer he confirmed that the gap was one stack leaning away from another. That shouldn't be possible he thought and shifted the copter sideways. On the other side of the leaning stack was a narrow gap that seemed to widen deeper down, like one whole stack of containers was missing. Though looking down in the dark from his small copter wouldn't tell him any more and so he raised his view and again panned to the side. When the little copter was off to the side, giving him a good view of the ship's side he had it fly a slow circuit around the ship. Having recorded the overview and finding nothing more of note he flew the copter back to the pad, setting down next to his chair with a brief disorientation from seeing himself in third person.\nTurning off and packing up the copter he took the box and his chair and left the pad. Going down to the containers he stopped at the flooded section. Once again opening his box he took out his controller, glasses, a small winch and a small underwater rover, not too unlike the copter he'd used to get a bird's eye view. Attaching the winch to the railing, he pulled out a bit of thin line and connected it to the rover. Like before, he sat down in his chair and put on the glasses. Turning on his controller, his glasses darkened and replaced his view with that from the rover's camera, hanging over the railing. Fiddling with the controller, the winch lowered the rover until it went in the water. Luckily for Karl the water was clear and if not for the darkness underwater he could see several meters ahead. \n\nTurning on the rover's lights, he kept lowering the rover until it was below the hull. Setting the winch to slowly reel out more line he drove the rover in beneath the ship. It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for. There, just to the left and far below where Karl sat comfortably in his folding chair, was a vaguely rectangular hole. He estimated it to be bigger than a shipping container. Angling the rover's camera up confirmed his estimate. \n\nThe hole went through the double hull, wrecking whatever compartment was below the cargo hold. He didn't know what had been in that specific compartment, though since he hadn't seen any oil slick from the air it likely wasn't fuel oil. Nor had any of the crew said anything about losing fuel or fresh water. For now, he assumed it had held ballast water.\n\nThrough the destruction of the wrecked hull he saw the other containers, still stacked in the hold. Though one stack was definitely leaning, like he'd seen from above. The hull had been deformed and that stack no longer stood on a horizontal surface. All the containers he saw were battered and dented, and Karl couldn't think of any reason why that was. The entire stack above the hole must have fallen out but he saw nothing obvious that could have caused that to happen.\n\nLowering the rover he had the camera pan around the hole, once from the center of the hole and once from circling around it. He noted that the hull was bent outwards, like a bomb had gone off in the cargo hold. But the crew hadn't said anything about explosions during the night. Going back into the hole he raised the rover to get a better look at the ship's interior and the battered containers. He didn't see any shrapnel holes or burn marks, things he usually associated with explosions. But he was no expert on such things. To Karl, these containers just looked like a car had slammed sideways into them. He didn't quite know what to look for but made sure to get a good recording to review in detail later. Again lowering the rover and moving sideways he got a last good look at the hole. \n\nAfter winching the rover out of the water he turned it off, took off his glasses and packed up everything before returning to his cabin. Looking over the recordings didn't give him any new insights. He'd just pulled up the stowage plan and started looking for the containers in the damaged area when he saw it was dinner time. \n\nWanting to distract himself from the current problem Karl went to the breakroom. Picking an MRE bag he heated some water to make a porridge. He had his rehydrated porridge for dinner and talked with the crewmen, doing his best to be a good guest. No one talked about what had happened during the night and he was in no mood to bring it up. \n\nAfter seeing the sunset through the small portholes in the breakroom Karl went back to his cabin. The three crewmen in the night shift came and talked to him at the start of their shift, he recorded and noted down their stories of the previous night. Their statements were mostly similar to the crewmen of the day shift and didn't provide any more clues as to why the ship had been damaged.\n\nReturning to the stowage plan he'd soon found the stack above the hole, all of those containers were now somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Starting from the bottom the first two held heavy machinery, the third had filters. The fourth one had computers. The fifth had clothes. The sixth was just vaguely described as ''consumer goods'' and finally the seventh was empty. Nothing obviously explosive or otherwise dangerous there. The tri-colored sheepdog yawned and stretched before he considered what to check next. \n\nAt that moment, when he wasn't looking at anything in particular and his mind wandered, Karl noticed something about his cabin. Or rather, the lack of something. He looked around at all the walls to confirm his observation. On most ships the cabins had a calendar on the wall. And those weren't just any calendars. With very few exceptions, it was the kind that had big pictures of scantily dressed females. He considered this a slight lack of creature comforts, though one he could do without during his stay. The lack of naughty calendars filed away in the back of his head, Karl's thoughts returned to his reason for being on the ship.\n\nWhat could have caused the ship to break? He sat for a while and just stared at his computer. He'd found no obvious reason for this incident and had to consider the not-so-obvious possibilities. Had that part of the ship accumulated fatigue over the years? Was something missed when the ship was built and it had a structural flaw? Was there anything wrong with the containers that had affected the ship? He wrote down his speculations. That done, he leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. \n\n''Could an overloaded container have caused this? That heavy machinery might've been too heavy...'' he muttered to himself. Going through the stowage plan again, but this time he checked the weight for all the containers. The machinery was indeed heavy but within the limits, though just barely. The filters... that was odd. He looked over the rest of the stack. Only the machinery was heavy, the other things weren't even half the max weight of a container. But those filters... if the plan was correct those things weighed practically nothing, even with pallets and other packaging. Pulling up the inspection records from the port of origin he checked all seven containers. Their weights all matched the stated weight on the plan, with some insignificant variations. Even those filters, light as they were.\n\nKarl tapped away on his computer with newfound energy. Even if he couldn't find out why the ship had broken, he had documented the damage to ship and cargo. Besides that, he could still satisfy his own curiosity. Going back to those filters, he found the T-ray imaging of that container. It was routinely done to check for contraband or explosives but a trained eye could learn many other things about what was in a container. \n\nThe T-ray image appeared on his monitor. It was just a side picture of the container and at first he thought the imager had malfunctioned. The whole container was uniform in color, like there was just one big block of something in it. Looking down, he saw what he recognized as cargo pallets at the bottom. Looking closer he saw some faint vertical lines in the ''block''. He counted thirty-four lines, meaning there were thirty-five filters. So the filters were big enough that the container was nearly packed full of them. But they weighed nothing, probably less than a similar block of styrofoam. \n''Now why is it like that...?'' he muttered and started tapping again. It didn't take long before he'd found the delivery address for that particular container. With fatigue slowly clouding his mind it took him a bit longer to find a company located at that address and their contact information. He could've written to them but for this he preferred to talk to someone. But not tonight. Karl turned off his computer, undressed and went to bed.\n\nHe woke up early next morning and took a shower. While in the shower, when his morning wood had gone down a bit, Karl amused himself with doing the ``helicopter'', a habit he'd picked up some years earlier. He didn't bother counting the spins, just spun for a bit and then went on with his shower. Having dried off and dressed, he went and had breakfast. Coffee and an energy bar. In the breakroom were two crewmen who were just starting their shifts and a third who was about to go to bed. None of them were in a talking mood and Karl let them be. When they left he left, going outside. He took a brisk walk around the ship before returning to his cabin. He called the number he'd found the evening before, hoping someone would give him some answers. With each signal his hope dwindled. But after too many signals for his liking he finally heard someone answering on the other end.\n\n''Uh, hello. This is Clear Sky Research.'' a male voice said.\n''Good morning. My name is Karl Larsson and I'm calling because I'm investigating an accident on the container ship Never Better. A container meant for your company was on the ship.'' he introduced himself.\n''Oh, good morning Karl. I'm Stephen and I'm an assistant here. You're lucky I was near the phone, our receptionist has today off. I hope everyone's alright on the ship, but why call us? Was our container involved in the accident? Are the filters damaged?'' the voice asked, worry obvious in his tone.\n``Everyone aboard are alright and the ship hasn't turned into a submarine, nor is it likely to do so. As for your container... well, it was involved, in a manner of speaking. It and six others were lost overboard. But I don't believe your container had anything to do with the accident.'' he assured Stephen.\n''Oh. That's good to hear about the ship but very bad news for us. Those filters cost us a small fortune to make and I don't think we can afford another set. It was good of you to call us though, gives us more time to consider other options.'' Stephen's sigh of relief clear in his tone.\n''I called because I was curious about those filters. It seemed like they weigh.... well, nothing.'' Karl said, getting to his reason for calling,\n''It would be great if they weighed nothing but as it is they weigh one kilogram each. They're particulate filters to collect samples with an ultra-high-altitude airship. The air's really thin up there so we must make every gram count. And we plan to make many trips to chart particulate levels at different altitudes and locations, so both the ship and the filters must be reusable.'' Stephen explained with a much calmer voice, now mentally back in familiar territory.\n\n''I see. But how'd you make them so light? Is it some super-thin 3d-printed lattice or something?'' Karl's curiosity was roused and he was eager to know more.\n''That's part of it. They're a printed thin-lattice structure, yes. But that will only get you so far. Have you heard of bureium?'' Stephen's voice was now brimming with poorly hidden excitement.\n``No... that doesn't ring any bells. Is that some super-lightweight material?'' the sheepdog hadn't expected to learn about some new alloy or whatever that stuff was.\n''It's an element and it's understandable if you haven't heard of it. It was discovered a few years ago, maybe you remember there was some noise about a big discovery while mining... some asteroid that's only numbered... and I'm bad with numbers.'' Stephen finished with an apologetic chuckle.\n\n``I did hear something about a big discovery in space back then but don't remember anything specific. Then it disappeared in the noise of the regular news.'' Karl replied, silently wondering what sort of miracle material this bureium was.\n''Anyway, it doesn't exist down here on Earth and it's rare to find in space, but enough of it to be useful has been found on some asteroids when mining for... well, the usual stuff. Gold, nickel, water, and so on.'' Stephen went on, like reciting a well-rehearsed homework. \n\nKarl remained silent, wondering what was so special about that stuff. \n\n''When refined to its metal form it has mostly the same properties as steel. Tensile strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue and so on. It also prints about as well as steel. Up there, it's become a very popular material to build spaceships with. For those who can afford it of course. But what really makes it useful is its density.'' Stephen finished what had increasingly sounded like a sales pitch.\nThe sheepdog knew enough about space to know that a material as strong as steel with low density was a good thing for spaceships. Maybe this bureium had half the density of aluminium? \n\n''How so?'' Karl asked.\n''It varies.'' was the unexpected answer he got. \n''What? How? How's that possible?'' Karl's eyes widened and his ears perked up from the surprise.\n''I don't know how and I believe there are some very smart folks trying to figure that out. But the fact is that any piece of it, no matter how big, weighs one kilogram. Just imagine, the main truss for a spaceship that could weigh tons before, can now weigh a few kilos. Now you can't make the whole truss in one part but the weight saving is still massive if you replace the parts one for one. And some welding techniques will ``unify'' the parts and reduce the weight even further. Just imagine the possibilities!'' Stephen's voice had changed from a sales pitch to nearly religious ecstasy. \n\nWhile Stephen rambled some more about this fantastic element Karl couldn't help but think that the Earth seemed stuck in the past while out there in space, The Future was in full swing. Though some useful trinkets trickled down to the planet at times, like the artificial intelligence in the copter that had brought him out to the Never Better.\n''Wow. That sounds like a very big deal, thank you for taking the time to tell me. But unfortunately I don't think it'll bring me any closer to finding out what caused the accident.'' he managed to squeeze in while Stephen paused to breathe.\n''No problem, today's been a slow day and it's not often we get calls from people who are interested in what we do here.'' Stephen replied, slightly calmer.\n\nThey both wished each other well and ended the call. Karl went back to writing his report. He wrote down what he knew so far, what had happened and a rough timeline of events. He wrote down the extent of the damage. To begin with, all cargo in the containers from the waterline and down, in that hold, would be written off. At least that was his recommendation, salt water immersion had an impressive ability to destroy almost anything. A further inspection in the port might decide to write off everything in that hold, depending on how risk-averse the insurance adjuster might be. \n\nThat done, he wrote down the size and location of the hole. Together with some still images from his recordings the report should let the insurance company and whatever dry dock they enlisted start planning the repairs. The ship could be repaired, of that there was no doubt. But that hole... He leaned forward, head resting on his hands. The metal was bent outwards, like a bomb went off. But no burn marks or other traces of explosions. What if it was a shaped charge? No, it would still leave traces, and he'd already determined there were no traces of explosions. That bureium was some weird stuff. Karl stared down his tapering muzzle at his computer and the half-finished report, head in his hands. Hands that kept squishing his cheeks until his almond-shaped brown eyes were nearly pushed closed. Thoughts running in circles. He knew he was missing some piece of the puzzle and grew more annoyed at himself that he couldn't figure it out.\n\nStanding up, he decided that sitting in his cabin didn't do him any good. He needed some fresh air. And a snack. In the breakroom, on the snack shelf, he found the first of those. A dried rawhide stick, wrapped in thin beef jerky. Sticking it in his mouth like a somewhat lumpy cigar, he headed for the exit. Idly chewing the tough stick and tail swishing behind him, the sheltie walked the length of the ship until he was at the bow. He stood there, taking slow deep breaths of the fresh sea air. He looked around though there wasn't much to see other than the unbroken horizon and the large stack of containers behind him. Meanwhile his jaw went on autopilot, slowly chewing the stick, gradually softening it up. Leaving the bow he stopped to peer down into the ''wet section''. He was relieved to see the water level hadn't changed. \n\nMoving on, he shifted the stick to the other side of his mouth and walked to the stern. Once there he stood and looked around. Besides the wake and water stirred up by the screw it wasn't much different than the bow. By now he had chewed up half the stick. Leaving the stern, he walked up the stairs to the landing pad. Once there, Karl had a higher vantage point, unbroken by containers. He stopped chewing while he looked around. He guessed the horizon was many kilometers farther away than when he was at the bow or stern, but it looked exactly the same to him. Looking forward, he strained his eyes, trying to see anything other than water. Mainland, islands, other ships, anything. The horizon stubbornly refused to be anything other than completely empty. His mind returned to the stick and he started chewing on it again. \n\nNot looking at anything special, Karl stood on the landing pad and chewed on his rawhide stick. By now it was just a short stump left. The tri-colored Shetland sheepdog sighed.\n''Maybe I should do like my ancestors and chase sheep for a day or two. Might help clear my mind.'' he muttered to himself. \nChecking the time he saw it was nearly lunch so he quickly chewed up the last bit of his stick and went down to the breakroom. Finding Geoff and Zorn there he heated a serving of stew and sat down with them. Like the other crew, neither seemed to want to talk much about the events that led to the sheepdog being sent out to the ship. Karl was likewise reluctant to talk about his investigation and was happy for the lack of questions. Luckily the three of them had many other subjects to discuss. Among all the small talk he learned that the ship would arrive at the port of Kuuka-Poorrvo late afternoon the next day. The news lightened Karl's mood, he was getting homesick. But it also troubled him, since his superiors wanted his report before the ship came into port.\n\nLunch eaten and with Geoff and Zorn getting back to work, Karl returned to his cabin. Sitting down at his computer he brought up the still unfinished report. He sat and stared at it but couldn't seem to start writing anything. His thoughts wandered. Bureium... shaking his head he tried to get back to the subject at hand. Those filters... were made to be light, because a bit of bureium always weighed one kilogram, no matter how big... He rose and paced the room, he could go from the door to the outer wall in just a few steps. He stopped at the porthole, looking at the waves moving in the slight wind. If that stuff weighed the same, no matter how big a lump of it was... was that also true for very small lumps? Stephen had said that it was like steel when it came to fatigue and Karl had seen some fatigue failures on other ships he'd inspected. One wave didn't matter to a ship, but the thousandth or millionth might. A storm, together with the shakes of a faulty engine was a good recipe for fatigue. If the filters had shifted and started rubbing on each other or the container walls. The fur on his back stood up when he had a frightening hunch.\n\nTurning back to his suitcase he pulled out a notebook and pen. Though his computer had an excellent calculator software he wanted to flex his mental muscles and solve this problem by hand.\n\n''Let's make some assumptions. The internal volume of a container is 67,7cubic meters but those filters are probably mostly air, let's assume there's ten cubic meters of the stuff.'' he began muttering to himself while writing down his assumptions, followed by the numbers.\n''Then assume the things break down into pieces one cubic centimeter big. Ten cubic meters is ten million cubic centimeters...'' his voice trailed off, ears folding back to lay flat against his skull while he kept writing. \n''...ten million kilos, ten thousand tons...'' putting down the pen, he'd found what caused the accident, but felt no satisfaction from it. Several thousand tons would be more than enough to rip the bottom out of a cargo hold rated to hold a stack of seven containers. He leaned back. The whole scenario played in his mind.\n\nDuring the storm, those filters had started breaking apart from fatigue, increasing in weight, the smaller and heavier bits speeding up the process. When the container got too heavy, the containers below collapsed, the heavy machinery in them taking the load and stopping the containers from getting crushed flat. That's why the other containers were dented, he realized, staring blankly at the ceiling. All that stuff happening would make plenty of noise, banging and creaking, like the crew had heard. But the bureium hadn't cared, the waves tossed the ship around and kept breaking it down, adding more and more weight. When it was too much for the ship to take the bottom gave out, sending the whole stack rattling down the hold, to the bottom of the ocean, with more banging. Like a giant was playing football with the containers... \n\nThe likely cause found, Karl looked back at his report and was about to start typing down his findings but stopped. Everyone up in space, together with Stephen and the folks at Clear Sky with their airship, were obsessed with how light that material could be. But things down on Earth could be heavy, it usually wasn't a problem. But what if you had something you could make extremely heavy when ''activated''? A light container that would crush it's way down the stack and tear the bottom out of a ship? Or bring down an aircraft? The T-ray imagers checked for drugs and explosives, but bureium was harmless. Until some evildoer had the same idea he'd just had. \n\nThough he found some small comfort in two facts. Firstly, bureium seemed horribly expensive according to Stephen, meaning that not every petty criminal could get his hands on it. Secondly, Stephen's company was likely the first time the stuff had been used on Earth. And if they found another option, it might also be the last. But there were some well-funded terrorist groups out there, together with less-than-friendly states who might try to cause destruction and uncertainty. His report would be made public. They always were and once the proverbial cat was out of the bag you couldn't put it back.\n\nNot wanting to leave any trace of his discovery, Karl tore out the page from his notebook. But holding the paper, paranoia set in. What if someone found it and figured out what he'd been calculating? He had to destroy his notes. He first considered burning the paper but a quick look at the ceiling told him that would be a very bad idea. It would set off the smoke detector in his cabin and lead to questions he didn't want to answer. Next he thought about eating the paper. It would taste bad but wouldn't harm him in any way. However, having heard too many jokes about dogs eating homework put him off that idea. The sound of waves outside his porthole presented the obvious solution. Though his porthole wouldn't open, he had an ocean around him.\n\nFolding up the paper and putting it in his breast pocket, the canine slowly opened the door to his cabin and peered out. The corridor was empty. Doing his best to look casual while the paper was burning a figurative hole in his pocket, he walked past the breakroom and out on the deck. Heading aft, he went to the stern and leaned on the railing. While doing his best to look like he was watching the ocean he checked if anyone was watching him. He was alone. No big surprise given that he was on a large container ship with eight other people who were either busy running the ship or sleeping. Taking out the paper, he let it go over the railing and watched it fall into the sea. In minutes it would dissolve in the water and probably get eaten by some hungry fish. He stood there and watched the sea for a few more minutes before returning to his cabin.\n\nBut while he'd destroyed his notes, Karl still had a bigger problem. What to write in his report? He sat for a while and stared at his computer, seemingly trying to coax a report from it by willpower alone. The computer didn't cooperate. Standing up and pacing in his room didn't help either.\n\nNot sure what to do the sheepdog assessor took his folding chair and went up to the landing pad. He sat down facing the bow and sat there in silence, trying to think. Should he tell the truth in his report and possibly unleash another weapon for anyone wanting to cause destruction? Or should he lie? It was tempting but the sheepdog was never a good liar and for this report he had to make it convincing. Not speaking and barely moving he sat there until his stomach growled. He checked the time and saw it was time for dinner.\n\nGoing to the breakroom he found Geoff and one of the other crewmen there. He joined them but wasn't very sociable, still mentally wrestling with his dilemma.\n''You seem troubled. That report not going as planned?'' Geoff asked him while poking at his factory-cooked and reheated fish sticks with potatoes.\n''Not really. I've got a pretty good idea of what happened...'' he started. At Geoff's inquisitive look Karl put down the fork that had been busy shovelling rice and some kind of meat with sauce into his maw, and continued.\n''...part of the bottom fell out and with it a stack of containers. That was the breaking metal and rattling you heard during the storm. But I can't find any plausible cause for this.'' he finished.\nGeoff looked thoughtful.\n''That is indeed strange. But I wouldn't worry too much. Strange things happen at sea sometimes. Battering waves will cause fatigue, made worse by the corrosion from all the salt water spray. Twistlocks get worn and lashings can slip, even if they were perfect when loading. Maybe there was a flaw in that part of the ship that'd been there since it was launched and this storm was the straw that broke the camel's back so to say. Or any combination of these things. We'll probably never know.'' he speculated.\n``You know.'' he went on ``I've met some blokes who still half-believe in sea monsters. Krakens and sea serpents and all that, and I wouldn't say that they're wrong. I've heard stories and seen some things I can't explain. Like I said, strange things happen on the sea sometimes. This might be one of those.'' he finished and returned to poking his fish sticks.\nKarl's mood was still somber but he did his best to be a good dinner guest and when he finished he thanked them for their company and returned to his cabin.\n\nHe sat down and began staring at his unfinished report. Checking his notes again he saw he had written some speculations similar to what Geoff had said during dinner. Great minds think alike, he thought with a wry smile and began typing again. Pausing at times to consider his choice of words Karl wrote down his and Geoff's speculations of what might have happened. Though he kept the report inconclusive, he wrote that a number of things could have worked together to cause the accident. Fatigue, corrosion, poorly lashed cargo, etc. Even potential structural flaws that had been there since the ship was launched. Writing that he'd found no obvious faults with the containers from checking the stowage plan, he avoided saying anything about their contents.\n\nHis report finally finished, Karl leaned back, yawned and stretched his arms. Looking at the porthole he saw it was already dark outside. Turning off the lights he walked to look out the porthole. After a few moments when his eyes had adjusted he saw the stars in the sky. He couldn't see the moon in his limited view but he knew there were several colonies on it, some were quite big and if they weren't self-sufficient yet, it wasn't far off. Besides those, maybe a dozen of the asteroids closest to Earth were also colonized while many more were being explored. Thinking back to the bureium, Karl wondered what was going on up there in space, where The Future happened. Every now and then he'd hear rumors about some amazing invention or discovery happening up there. One day it was a discovery that might enable faster-than-light travel. Another day it was cybernetic implants, or maybe some new medicines that could cure practically any disease or even slow aging. And while the copter that had flown him out to the ship had artificial intelligence, out there in space the AI was probably vastly more advanced than what it took to pilot a copter while following voice commands or hand signals.\n\nWhatever happened in space, some crumbs of it would eventually find their way down to Earth. But as far as Karl Larsson was concerned, not everything from The Future was good and this particular piece of it could stay up there.\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "A close call for MV Never Better

by Badgersarse

Author's note: I don't know much about ships and stuff. If you do know such things, read at your own risk. Also, the use of the metric system in this story might be triggering for some Americans.

In the distance, against the otherwise unbroken horizon, Karl got his first glimpse of the ship, little more than a speck at first. The weather was clear and through the bubble canopy of his single-seat copter he could see many kilometers in every direction. The storm had faded in the early morning, but not without doing... something... to the ship ahead of him. Copter approaching, he could see more details of the Never Better. It was a medium-sized container ship, its bright blue hull stacked full of 40-foot shipping containers with a white, narrow bridge at the rear and a landing pad on top of the bridge. The multi-colored stacks of containers made the otherwise clean-looking ship look like it was wearing a harlequin suit.

When he came closer he looked down at the waterline. The ship seemed to sit deeper in the water than normal, like it was overloaded or had taken on water. Given the fact it had just weathered a storm, he leaned towards the latter. The faint wake told him the ship had reduced speed. But that was all he had time to see before the copter had sped past the ship.

Slowing down, the copter turned in a large semicircle and approached the landing pad from the stern. Not wasting time, it descended to the pad, landing with a slight thump. The engines turned off but Karl waited until all four rotors had stopped completely before he opened the canopy and stepped out. The strong wind, a last remnant of the storm, ruffled his ears and tugged on his jacket which he had left unbuttoned during the flight, to his immediate regret as he fiddled with the buttons against the wind's best efforts. It was a bit cold for his liking despite the lanky Shetland sheepdog's double coat. His jacket finally dealt with he went around the back of the craft. Opening the small cargo compartment on the copter, he pulled out a small suitcase and a large sturdy box, his work tools. Carrying his luggage toward the stairs off the pad he saw an otter coming up to meet him. His short fur still damp, he looked like he had just come out of the shower and dressed in a hurry.

''Terribly sorry, I didn't think you'd be here so quickly. I'm Geoff Bridges, the captain of this ship.'' he said, holding out his hand. Karl set down his box and shook his hand.
''Karl Larsson. Here to assess the damage and report back for the folks planning the repairs. And the insurance company. Give me a moment, I'll just send my ride home.'' he said and turned back to his copter. Raising one arm he pointed up and drew a circle in the air. With its sensors registering the proper hand signal received from its passenger, the copter's electronic brain sprung into action. With a roar and a strong gust, the copter's rotors spun up and it lifted off the pad, rising vertically. Once it was high enough it tilted forward and sped off, heading back to shore.

''I was told to stay on the ship until we reached port in about... two days, is it?''
Geoff nodded.
''Two, maybe three days. We're only doing five knots to avoid worsening any potential hull damage. But first we'll get your cabin ready. If you'll follow me...'' he pointed down the stairs.
Karl followed him down into the accommodations area. Passing a small breakroom they came to a row of cabins. Geoff opened one. It had a bed, a small desk, a door to the small bathroom and not much more. A familiar sight Karl had seen before, on several other ships.
''Your cabin for the voyage. Do you want to get settled in before you start your investigation?''
Karl opened the suitcase and pulled out his computer.
''Unpacking my toothbrush can wait. Can you tell your crew I'd like to speak to them? One at a time, whenever they're available.'' Geoff nodded and left the cabin. Karl sat at the desk and began typing on his computer. Geoff returned a few minutes later, with a folding chair.
''I've told all four blokes on the day shift to come here. While we wait for them you can start with me. The other three are sleeping now but you can talk to them this evening.'' he said and sat down at the other side of the small desk. Karl started a recording on his computer.
''As you wish. But is there only eight of you? Doesn't a ship this size need a larger crew?''
Geoff smiled wryly.

''With all the automation, artificial intelligence and remote control it could have zero crew. But sometimes you need someone who can do percussive maintenance, or push buttons if the comms fail or the computer has a glitch. And rules are what they are so ships need a crew of ''meat sacks''. Eight is the minimum number, 'far as I know.'' he told the sheepdog.
''Right, let's get back to the matter at hand. Can you tell me what happened?''
Geoff was silent a moment, gathering his thoughts before he started.
''As you know, all of yesterday and much of the night we were in a storm. Nothing weird about that, storms happen and there was nothing special about this one. We were making about fifteen knots, the waves were a bit rough. Late last night the engine started acting up, probably caused by the storm. The chief engineer can tell you more.''
Karl made a note of that. Geoff continued.
''Whatever problem the engine had, the whole ship started shaking. That together with the waves throwing us here and there was downright unpleasant. The chief engineer reduced the power and that stopped the shaking. But that took some time. It's not like an engine the size of a small house slows down in an instant. We decided to run the engine at that power until the storm was over.''  
The otter paused again, looking down at his webbed hands.
''For a time everything was normal. The ship slowed a bit but we still made our way through the waves. Then we started hearing... the noise.''
Karl's ears perked up.
''Can you describe this noise?''
''Creaking, at first we barely heard it, but it got worse. Creaks and scrapes. The ship groaned like it was tearing apart. It got louder until there was a deafening drawn out... screech... of metal tearing... and bangs... like a giant was playing football with the containers. It rattled the whole ship.''
He paused. Karl waited for him to continue.
''Then it stopped and for a moment we thought we only heard the storm before we heard the horrifying roar of water rushing in. I was worried the ship had broken up but we couldn't see anything like that from the bridge. That's when we reported it and made preparations to abandon ship.''

Karl nodded. He had read a summary of the radio report while in the copter. The ship had reported storm damage but were unable to tell if they'd have to abandon ship. Search and rescue had been placed on alert in case the Never Better needed assistance.
''As you can imagine, we didn't get much sleep last night. And when we did sleep we did it in the lifeboat, in case we had to leave in a hurry. Well, we didn't and here we are.'' he finished with a shrug.

Karl thanked the captain who left to get back to work and the sheepdog started looking over his belongings. After a while the rest of the crew in the day shift came to see him, one by one. Their statements largely matched the captain's. The chief engineer, a tiger named Zorn provided more details on the engine, all recorded and noted down by Karl.

After talking to every crewmember in the day shift Karl joined the crew for a late lunch in the breakroom. He noted there was no galley, nor any designated chef. All the meals were MRE-type meals and refrigerated ``TV dinners'', for heating in a pair of microwave ovens or a pair of conventional ovens. That, together with a shelf filled with some smaller snacks were what the crew got to eat while on the sea. Though the sheepdog was happy to see there was a large variety to all the pre-packaged meals. He had no allergies, a rarity nowadays, and did his best to follow the omnivore diet. Whatever faults the ship might have, he wouldn't get bored with the food while aboard.
Microwaving a meat pie, he sat down to have lunch with the crewmen. He talked with them about whatever subject came up and listened for any more details of the night's events but no one seemed willing to dwell on that.

After lunch the sheepdog assessor went for a walk around the ship, looking for anything to add to his report. Looking over the railing he noted the draft. The bow was lower than the stern. When passing a forward section of the cargo hold he heard water. Shining a flashlight down the narrow gap between the containers he saw water reflecting below him. Confirming that part of the crew's statement he briefly pondered the wall of 40-foot shipping containers before him. The metal boxes had looked the same for nearly two centuries, and there was no replacement in sight. Even the foot as a unit of measurement had fallen out of use long before he was born, now only remaining in the name. Maybe it was the inertia of a global system, too big to change, maybe it was a matter ''don't fix what's not broken''. Maybe a bit of both.

Going back to his cabin, Karl took his box and a folding chair and carried both up to the landing pad. He hadn't had time to get a good look from the copter. The wind had lessened so now was the time to do something about that. From the box he took out a set of dark glasses, a controller and a small, folded up remote-controlled copter. Folding out the propellers he set it down on the pad, put on the glasses and parked his rear in the chair.  

Pushing a button on the controller made his glasses fade to nearly black and moments later his view changed to that of the copter's camera, sitting just centimeters from the pad. Some more fiddling with the controller set the copter's rotors spinning and with a high-pitched whirr it lifted off, giving him a bird's eye view of the ship. He waited a few moments to make sure it stabilized above him before he set it slowly moving forward. Tilting the camera down he had to fight the feeling of vertigo that always came when he flew these things. Some folks could do this sort of thing while standing up or even walking around. He definitely preferred to do it while sitting down. Moving forward the copter left the bridge and he began looking over the stacked containers, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary, the camera recording everything.

Stacks upon stacks of containers were before his eyes, slowly gliding down and out of view. He wasn't sure what to look for, only that he'd probably know it when he saw it. The copter had covered most of the ship and everything looked normal. All the containers were still stacked in an orderly manner. Until he was almost at the bow. There, near the centerline was a too wide gap between two stacks, one of which looked like it leaned a little to the side.

Coming up to the bow, the rest of the containers looked good so he reversed the copter back to that gap and panned to the side. Seen from the railing, the containers looked as they should but he recognized that this was the section where he had seen water down in the hold. Going back to the gap he lowered the copter to take a closer look. Getting closer he confirmed that the gap was one stack leaning away from another. That shouldn't be possible he thought and shifted the copter sideways. On the other side of the leaning stack was a narrow gap that seemed to widen deeper down, like one whole stack of containers was missing. Though looking down in the dark from his small copter wouldn't tell him any more and so he raised his view and again panned to the side. When the little copter was off to the side, giving him a good view of the ship's side he had it fly a slow circuit around the ship. Having recorded the overview and finding nothing more of note he flew the copter back to the pad, setting down next to his chair with a brief disorientation from seeing himself in third person.
Turning off and packing up the copter he took the box and his chair and left the pad. Going down to the containers he stopped at the flooded section. Once again opening his box he took out his controller, glasses, a small winch and a small underwater rover, not too unlike the copter he'd used to get a bird's eye view. Attaching the winch to the railing, he pulled out a bit of thin line and connected it to the rover. Like before, he sat down in his chair and put on the glasses. Turning on his controller, his glasses darkened and replaced his view with that from the rover's camera, hanging over the railing. Fiddling with the controller, the winch lowered the rover until it went in the water. Luckily for Karl the water was clear and if not for the darkness underwater he could see several meters ahead.

Turning on the rover's lights, he kept lowering the rover until it was below the hull. Setting the winch to slowly reel out more line he drove the rover in beneath the ship. It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for. There, just to the left and far below where Karl sat comfortably in his folding chair, was a vaguely rectangular hole. He estimated it to be bigger than a shipping container. Angling the rover's camera up confirmed his estimate.

The hole went through the double hull, wrecking whatever compartment was below the cargo hold. He didn't know what had been in that specific compartment, though since he hadn't seen any oil slick from the air it likely wasn't fuel oil. Nor had any of the crew said anything about losing fuel or fresh water. For now, he assumed it had held ballast water.

Through the destruction of the wrecked hull he saw the other containers, still stacked in the hold. Though one stack was definitely leaning, like he'd seen from above. The hull had been deformed and that stack no longer stood on a horizontal surface. All the containers he saw were battered and dented, and Karl couldn't think of any reason why that was. The entire stack above the hole must have fallen out but he saw nothing obvious that could have caused that to happen.

Lowering the rover he had the camera pan around the hole, once from the center of the hole and once from circling around it. He noted that the hull was bent outwards, like a bomb had gone off in the cargo hold. But the crew hadn't said anything about explosions during the night. Going back into the hole he raised the rover to get a better look at the ship's interior and the battered containers. He didn't see any shrapnel holes or burn marks, things he usually associated with explosions. But he was no expert on such things. To Karl, these containers just looked like a car had slammed sideways into them. He didn't quite know what to look for but made sure to get a good recording to review in detail later. Again lowering the rover and moving sideways he got a last good look at the hole.

After winching the rover out of the water he turned it off, took off his glasses and packed up everything before returning to his cabin. Looking over the recordings didn't give him any new insights. He'd just pulled up the stowage plan and started looking for the containers in the damaged area when he saw it was dinner time.

Wanting to distract himself from the current problem Karl went to the breakroom. Picking an MRE bag he heated some water to make a porridge. He had his rehydrated porridge for dinner and talked with the crewmen, doing his best to be a good guest. No one talked about what had happened during the night and he was in no mood to bring it up.

After seeing the sunset through the small portholes in the breakroom Karl went back to his cabin. The three crewmen in the night shift came and talked to him at the start of their shift, he recorded and noted down their stories of the previous night. Their statements were mostly similar to the crewmen of the day shift and didn't provide any more clues as to why the ship had been damaged.

Returning to the stowage plan he'd soon found the stack above the hole, all of those containers were now somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Starting from the bottom the first two held heavy machinery, the third had filters. The fourth one had computers. The fifth had clothes. The sixth was just vaguely described as ''consumer goods'' and finally the seventh was empty. Nothing obviously explosive or otherwise dangerous there. The tri-colored sheepdog yawned and stretched before he considered what to check next.

At that moment, when he wasn't looking at anything in particular and his mind wandered, Karl noticed something about his cabin. Or rather, the lack of something. He looked around at all the walls to confirm his observation. On most ships the cabins had a calendar on the wall. And those weren't just any calendars. With very few exceptions, it was the kind that had big pictures of scantily dressed females. He considered this a slight lack of creature comforts, though one he could do without during his stay. The lack of naughty calendars filed away in the back of his head, Karl's thoughts returned to his reason for being on the ship.

What could have caused the ship to break? He sat for a while and just stared at his computer. He'd found no obvious reason for this incident and had to consider the not-so-obvious possibilities. Had that part of the ship accumulated fatigue over the years? Was something missed when the ship was built and it had a structural flaw? Was there anything wrong with the containers that had affected the ship? He wrote down his speculations. That done, he leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

''Could an overloaded container have caused this? That heavy machinery might've been too heavy...'' he muttered to himself. Going through the stowage plan again, but this time he checked the weight for all the containers. The machinery was indeed heavy but within the limits, though just barely. The filters... that was odd. He looked over the rest of the stack. Only the machinery was heavy, the other things weren't even half the max weight of a container. But those filters... if the plan was correct those things weighed practically nothing, even with pallets and other packaging. Pulling up the inspection records from the port of origin he checked all seven containers. Their weights all matched the stated weight on the plan, with some insignificant variations. Even those filters, light as they were.

Karl tapped away on his computer with newfound energy. Even if he couldn't find out why the ship had broken, he had documented the damage to ship and cargo. Besides that, he could still satisfy his own curiosity. Going back to those filters, he found the T-ray imaging of that container. It was routinely done to check for contraband or explosives but a trained eye could learn many other things about what was in a container.

The T-ray image appeared on his monitor. It was just a side picture of the container and at first he thought the imager had malfunctioned. The whole container was uniform in color, like there was just one big block of something in it. Looking down, he saw what he recognized as cargo pallets at the bottom. Looking closer he saw some faint vertical lines in the ''block''. He counted thirty-four lines, meaning there were thirty-five filters. So the filters were big enough that the container was nearly packed full of them. But they weighed nothing, probably less than a similar block of styrofoam.
''Now why is it like that...?'' he muttered and started tapping again. It didn't take long before he'd found the delivery address for that particular container. With fatigue slowly clouding his mind it took him a bit longer to find a company located at that address and their contact information. He could've written to them but for this he preferred to talk to someone. But not tonight. Karl turned off his computer, undressed and went to bed.

He woke up early next morning and took a shower. While in the shower, when his morning wood had gone down a bit, Karl amused himself with doing the ``helicopter'', a habit he'd picked up some years earlier. He didn't bother counting the spins, just spun for a bit and then went on with his shower. Having dried off and dressed, he went and had breakfast. Coffee and an energy bar. In the breakroom were two crewmen who were just starting their shifts and a third who was about to go to bed. None of them were in a talking mood and Karl let them be. When they left he left, going outside. He took a brisk walk around the ship before returning to his cabin. He called the number he'd found the evening before, hoping someone would give him some answers. With each signal his hope dwindled. But after too many signals for his liking he finally heard someone answering on the other end.

''Uh, hello. This is Clear Sky Research.'' a male voice said.
''Good morning. My name is Karl Larsson and I'm calling because I'm investigating an accident on the container ship Never Better. A container meant for your company was on the ship.'' he introduced himself.
''Oh, good morning Karl. I'm Stephen and I'm an assistant here. You're lucky I was near the phone, our receptionist has today off. I hope everyone's alright on the ship, but why call us? Was our container involved in the accident? Are the filters damaged?'' the voice asked, worry obvious in his tone.
``Everyone aboard are alright and the ship hasn't turned into a submarine, nor is it likely to do so. As for your container... well, it was involved, in a manner of speaking. It and six others were lost overboard. But I don't believe your container had anything to do with the accident.'' he assured Stephen.
''Oh. That's good to hear about the ship but very bad news for us. Those filters cost us a small fortune to make and I don't think we can afford another set. It was good of you to call us though, gives us more time to consider other options.'' Stephen's sigh of relief clear in his tone.
''I called because I was curious about those filters. It seemed like they weigh.... well, nothing.'' Karl said, getting to his reason for calling,
''It would be great if they weighed nothing but as it is they weigh one kilogram each. They're particulate filters to collect samples with an ultra-high-altitude airship. The air's really thin up there so we must make every gram count. And we plan to make many trips to chart particulate levels at different altitudes and locations, so both the ship and the filters must be reusable.'' Stephen explained with a much calmer voice, now mentally back in familiar territory.

''I see. But how'd you make them so light? Is it some super-thin 3d-printed lattice or something?'' Karl's curiosity was roused and he was eager to know more.
''That's part of it. They're a printed thin-lattice structure, yes. But that will only get you so far.  Have you heard of bureium?'' Stephen's voice was now brimming with poorly hidden excitement.
``No... that doesn't ring any bells. Is that some super-lightweight material?'' the sheepdog hadn't expected to learn about some new alloy or whatever that stuff was.
''It's an element and it's understandable if you haven't heard of it. It was discovered a few years ago, maybe you remember there was some noise about a big discovery while mining... some asteroid that's only numbered... and I'm bad with numbers.'' Stephen finished with an apologetic chuckle.

``I did hear something about a big discovery in space back then but don't remember anything specific. Then it disappeared in the noise of the regular news.'' Karl replied, silently wondering what sort of miracle material this bureium was.
''Anyway, it doesn't exist down here on Earth and it's rare to find in space, but enough of it to be useful has been found on some asteroids when mining for... well, the usual stuff. Gold, nickel, water, and so on.'' Stephen went on, like reciting a well-rehearsed homework.

Karl remained silent, wondering what was so special about that stuff.

''When refined to its metal form it has mostly the same properties as steel. Tensile strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue and so on. It also prints about as well as steel. Up there, it's become a very popular material to build spaceships with. For those who can afford it of course. But what really makes it useful is its density.'' Stephen finished what had increasingly sounded like a sales pitch.
The sheepdog knew enough about space to know that a material as strong as steel with low density was a good thing for spaceships. Maybe this bureium had half the density of aluminium?

''How so?'' Karl asked.
''It varies.'' was the unexpected answer he got.
''What? How? How's that possible?'' Karl's eyes widened and his ears perked up from the surprise.
''I don't know how and I believe there are some very smart folks trying to figure that out. But the fact is that any piece of it, no matter how big, weighs one kilogram. Just imagine, the main truss for a spaceship that could weigh tons before, can now weigh a few kilos. Now you can't make the whole truss in one part but the weight saving is still massive if you replace the parts one for one. And some welding techniques will ``unify'' the parts and reduce the weight even further. Just imagine the possibilities!'' Stephen's voice had changed from a sales pitch to nearly religious ecstasy.

While Stephen rambled some more about this fantastic element Karl couldn't help but think that the Earth seemed stuck in the past while out there in space, The Future was in full swing. Though some useful trinkets trickled down to the planet at times, like the artificial intelligence in the copter that had brought him out to the Never Better.
''Wow. That sounds like a very big deal, thank you for taking the time to tell me. But unfortunately I don't think it'll bring me any closer to finding out what caused the accident.'' he managed to squeeze in while Stephen paused to breathe.
''No problem, today's been a slow day and it's not often we get calls from people who are interested in what we do here.'' Stephen replied, slightly calmer.

They both wished each other well and ended the call. Karl went back to writing his report. He wrote down what he knew so far, what had happened and a rough timeline of events. He wrote down the extent of the damage. To begin with, all cargo in the containers from the waterline and down, in that hold, would be written off. At least that was his recommendation, salt water immersion had an impressive ability to destroy almost anything. A further inspection in the port might decide to write off everything in that hold, depending on how risk-averse the insurance adjuster might be.

That done, he wrote down the size and location of the hole. Together with some still images from his recordings the report should let the insurance company and whatever dry dock they enlisted start planning the repairs. The ship could be repaired, of that there was no doubt. But that hole... He leaned forward, head resting on his hands. The metal was bent outwards, like a bomb went off. But no burn marks or other traces of explosions. What if it was a shaped charge? No, it would still leave traces, and he'd already determined there were no traces of explosions. That bureium was some weird stuff. Karl stared down his tapering muzzle at his computer and the half-finished report, head in his hands. Hands that kept squishing his cheeks until his almond-shaped brown eyes were nearly pushed closed. Thoughts running in circles. He knew he was missing some piece of the puzzle and grew more annoyed at himself that he couldn't figure it out.

Standing up, he decided that sitting in his cabin didn't do him any good. He needed some fresh air. And a snack. In the breakroom, on the snack shelf, he found the first of those. A dried rawhide stick, wrapped in thin beef jerky. Sticking it in his mouth like a somewhat lumpy cigar, he headed for the exit. Idly chewing the tough stick and tail swishing behind him, the sheltie walked the length of the ship until he was at the bow. He stood there, taking slow deep breaths of the fresh sea air. He looked around though there wasn't much to see other than the unbroken horizon and the large stack of containers behind him. Meanwhile his jaw went on autopilot, slowly chewing the stick, gradually softening it up. Leaving the bow he stopped to peer down into the ''wet section''. He was relieved to see the water level hadn't changed.

Moving on, he shifted the stick to the other side of his mouth and walked to the stern. Once there he  stood and looked around. Besides the wake and water stirred up by the screw it wasn't much different than the bow. By now he had chewed up half the stick. Leaving the stern, he walked up the stairs to the landing pad. Once there, Karl had a higher vantage point, unbroken by containers. He stopped chewing while he looked around. He guessed the horizon was many kilometers farther away than when he was at the bow or stern, but it looked exactly the same to him. Looking forward, he strained his eyes, trying to see anything other than water. Mainland, islands, other ships, anything. The horizon stubbornly refused to be anything other than completely empty. His mind returned to the stick and he started chewing on it again.

Not looking at anything special, Karl stood on the landing pad and chewed on his rawhide stick. By now it was just a short stump left. The tri-colored Shetland sheepdog sighed.
''Maybe I should do like my ancestors and chase sheep for a day or two. Might help clear my mind.'' he muttered to himself.
Checking the time he saw it was nearly lunch so he quickly chewed up the last bit of his stick and went down to the breakroom. Finding Geoff and Zorn there he heated a serving of stew and sat down with them. Like the other crew, neither seemed to want to talk much about the events that led to the sheepdog being sent out to the ship. Karl was likewise reluctant to talk about his investigation and was happy for the lack of questions. Luckily the three of them had many other subjects to discuss. Among all the small talk he learned that the ship would arrive at the port of Kuuka-Poorrvo late afternoon the next day. The news lightened Karl's mood, he was getting homesick. But it also troubled him, since his superiors wanted his report before the ship came into port.

Lunch eaten and with Geoff and Zorn getting back to work, Karl returned to his cabin. Sitting down at his computer he brought up the still unfinished report. He sat and stared at it but couldn't seem to start writing anything. His thoughts wandered. Bureium... shaking his head he tried to get back to the subject at hand. Those filters... were made to be light, because a bit of bureium always weighed one kilogram, no matter how big... He rose and paced the room, he could go from the door to the outer wall in just a few steps. He stopped at the porthole, looking at the waves moving in the slight wind. If that stuff weighed the same, no matter how big a lump of it was... was that also true for very small lumps? Stephen had said that it was like steel when it came to fatigue and Karl had seen some fatigue failures on other ships he'd inspected. One wave didn't matter to a ship, but the thousandth or millionth might. A storm, together with the shakes of a faulty engine was a good recipe for fatigue. If the filters had shifted and started rubbing on each other or the container walls. The fur on his back stood up when he had a frightening hunch.

Turning back to his suitcase he pulled out a notebook and pen. Though his computer had an excellent calculator software he wanted to flex his mental muscles and solve this problem by hand.

''Let's make some assumptions. The internal volume of a container is 67,7cubic meters but those filters are probably mostly air, let's assume there's ten cubic meters of the stuff.'' he began muttering to himself while writing down his assumptions, followed by the numbers.
''Then assume the things break down into pieces one cubic centimeter big. Ten cubic meters is ten million cubic centimeters...'' his voice trailed off, ears folding back to lay flat against his skull while he kept writing.
''...ten million kilos, ten thousand tons...'' putting down the pen, he'd found what caused the accident, but felt no satisfaction from it. Several thousand tons would be more than enough to rip the bottom out of a cargo hold rated to hold a stack of seven containers. He leaned back. The whole scenario played in his mind.

During the storm, those filters had started breaking apart from fatigue, increasing in weight, the smaller and heavier bits speeding up the process. When the container got too heavy, the containers below collapsed, the heavy machinery in them taking the load and stopping the containers from getting crushed flat. That's why the other containers were dented, he realized, staring blankly at the ceiling. All that stuff happening would make plenty of noise, banging and creaking, like the crew had heard. But the bureium hadn't cared, the waves tossed the ship around and kept breaking it down, adding more and more weight. When it was too much for the ship to take the bottom gave out, sending the whole stack rattling down the hold, to the bottom of the ocean, with more banging. Like a giant was playing football with the containers...

The likely cause found, Karl looked back at his report and was about to start typing down his findings but stopped. Everyone up in space, together with Stephen and the folks at Clear Sky with their airship, were obsessed with how light that material could be. But things down on Earth could be heavy, it usually wasn't a problem. But what if you had something you could make extremely heavy when ''activated''? A light container that would crush it's way down the stack and tear the bottom out of a ship? Or bring down an aircraft? The T-ray imagers checked for drugs and explosives, but bureium was harmless. Until some evildoer had the same idea he'd just had.

Though he found some small comfort in two facts. Firstly, bureium seemed horribly expensive according to Stephen, meaning that not every petty criminal could get his hands on it. Secondly, Stephen's company was likely the first time the stuff had been used on Earth. And if they found another option, it might also be the last. But there were some well-funded terrorist groups out there, together with less-than-friendly states who might try to cause destruction and uncertainty. His report would be made public. They always were and once the proverbial cat was out of the bag you couldn't put it back.

Not wanting to leave any trace of his discovery, Karl tore out the page from his notebook. But holding the paper, paranoia set in. What if someone found it and figured out what he'd been calculating? He had to destroy his notes. He first considered burning the paper but a quick look at the ceiling told him that would be a very bad idea. It would set off the smoke detector in his cabin and lead to questions he didn't want to answer. Next he thought about eating the paper. It would taste bad but wouldn't harm him in any way. However, having heard too many jokes about dogs eating homework put him off that idea. The sound of waves outside his porthole presented the obvious solution. Though his porthole wouldn't open, he had an ocean around him.

Folding up the paper and putting it in his breast pocket, the canine slowly opened the door to his cabin and peered out. The corridor was empty. Doing his best to look casual while the paper was burning a figurative hole in his pocket, he walked past the breakroom and out on the deck. Heading aft, he went to the stern and leaned on the railing. While doing his best to look like he was watching the ocean he checked if anyone was watching him. He was alone. No big surprise given that he was on a large container ship with eight other people who were either busy running the ship or sleeping. Taking out the paper, he let it go over the railing and watched it fall into the sea. In minutes it would dissolve in the water and probably get eaten by some hungry fish. He stood there and watched the sea for a few more minutes before returning to his cabin.

But while he'd destroyed his notes, Karl still had a bigger problem. What to write in his report? He sat for a while and stared at his computer, seemingly trying to coax a report from it by willpower alone. The computer didn't cooperate. Standing up and pacing in his room didn't help either.

Not sure what to do the sheepdog assessor took his folding chair and went up to the landing pad. He sat down facing the bow and sat there in silence, trying to think. Should he tell the truth in his report and possibly unleash another weapon for anyone wanting to cause destruction? Or should he lie? It was tempting but the sheepdog was never a good liar and for this report he had to make it convincing. Not speaking and barely moving he sat there until his stomach growled. He checked the time and saw it was time for dinner.

Going to the breakroom he found Geoff and one of the other crewmen there. He joined them but wasn't very sociable, still mentally wrestling with his dilemma.
''You seem troubled. That report not going as planned?'' Geoff asked him while poking at his factory-cooked and reheated fish sticks with potatoes.
''Not really. I've got a pretty good idea of what happened...'' he started. At Geoff's inquisitive look Karl put down the fork that had been busy shovelling rice and some kind of meat with sauce into his maw, and continued.
''...part of the bottom fell out and with it a stack of containers. That was the breaking metal and rattling you heard during the storm. But I can't find any plausible cause for this.'' he finished.
Geoff looked thoughtful.
''That is indeed strange. But I wouldn't worry too much. Strange things happen at sea sometimes. Battering waves will cause fatigue, made worse by the corrosion from all the salt water spray. Twistlocks get worn and lashings can slip, even if they were perfect when loading. Maybe there was a flaw in that part of the ship that'd been there since it was launched and this storm was the straw that broke the camel's back so to say. Or any combination of these things. We'll probably never know.'' he speculated.
``You know.'' he went on ``I've met some blokes who still half-believe in sea monsters. Krakens and sea serpents and all that, and I wouldn't say that they're wrong. I've heard stories and seen some things I can't explain. Like I said, strange things happen on the sea sometimes. This might be one of those.'' he finished and returned to poking his fish sticks.
Karl's mood was still somber but he did his best to be a good dinner guest and when he finished he thanked them for their company and returned to his cabin.

He sat down and began staring at his unfinished report. Checking his notes again he saw he had written some speculations similar to what Geoff had said during dinner. Great minds think alike, he thought with a wry smile and began typing again. Pausing at times to consider his choice of words Karl wrote down his and Geoff's speculations of what might have happened. Though he kept the report inconclusive, he wrote that a number of things could have worked together to cause the accident. Fatigue, corrosion, poorly lashed cargo, etc. Even potential structural flaws that had been there since the ship was launched. Writing that he'd found no obvious faults with the containers from checking the stowage plan, he avoided saying anything about their contents.

His report finally finished, Karl leaned back, yawned and stretched his arms. Looking at the porthole he saw it was already dark outside. Turning off the lights he walked to look out the porthole. After a few moments when his eyes had adjusted he saw the stars in the sky. He couldn't see the moon in his limited view but he knew there were several colonies on it, some were quite big and if they weren't self-sufficient yet, it wasn't far off. Besides those, maybe a dozen of the asteroids closest to Earth were also colonized while many more were being explored. Thinking back to the bureium, Karl wondered what was going on up there in space, where The Future happened. Every now and then he'd hear rumors about some amazing invention or discovery happening up there. One day it was a discovery that might enable faster-than-light travel. Another day it was cybernetic implants, or maybe some new medicines that could cure practically any disease or even slow aging. And while the copter that had flown him out to the ship had artificial intelligence, out there in space the AI was probably vastly more advanced than what it took to pilot a copter while following voice commands or hand signals.

Whatever happened in space, some crumbs of it would eventually find their way down to Earth. But as far as Karl Larsson was concerned, not everything from The Future was good and this particular piece of it could stay up there.

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