30 MAY 3301
It has now been 5 days since Starship One lost contact, and the search and rescue teams have yet to find any trace of the missing ship or her crew.
According to Lieutenant Barringer of the Federal Transport Safety Administration:
“Starship One’s disappearance appears to have been caused by a major malfunction in the Frame Shift Drive’s safety systems. It looks like there was a major power surge, followed by four separate system failures in quick succession according to the data we have, resulting in a catastrophic explosion. We do not believe this explosion would have been survivable by anyone on board.”
“The FTSA has seen each of these failures in commercial and military hyperdrives in the last few years, but each one has resulted in the drive shutting down and the ship failing to enter hyperspace.
“There are strong similarities with the loss of the Highliner Antares in 3251, but since then we have many more safety systems designed to prevent such failures. At the moment it looks like this was a terribly unlucky tragic accident. We have not found any evidence of tampering, and all the systems passed their automated pre-flight checks.”
“Our condolences go out to the loved ones of those lost.”
30 MAY 3301
There is blood in the water and the politicians have begun hunting their prey.
Yesterday, Shadow President Hudson placed a motion before Congress asking that they issue a Vote of No Confidence against President Halsey’s administration. The motion was accepted, and the vote has been scheduled to take place on Monday afternoon.
According to historic procedure, if a Vote of No Confidence in the encumbent President succeeds, then the Shadow President gets the chance to form an administration, which in turn is then put to a vote. If this fails, then a full congressional election is triggered.
The Shadow President succeeding in these circumstances is not unheard of, but pretty rare. The last occasion was when the increasingly unpopular Eugene Cooper was ousted by the charismatic Antonia Madison in 3264 following a mid-term Vote of No Confidence.