In 500... (or less)

Interstellar Inquisition

"We're arriving at the debris field now." The captain peered out the window to inspect the damage. He spotted a body floating among the twisted hunks of metal.

"It would appear the damage was severe," he said. "Total catastrophic failure."

The spacecraft had indeed disintegrated. The first test of a superluminal spacecraft had resulted in the loss of the crew and the craft itself.

The astroforensics team said nothing to each other as they climbed into their spacesuits to begin the macabre task of collecting the remains of the ship and the crew.

There had been a spirit of excitement only a day prior. The ship had powered up its engines on a couple of dry runs before they finally engaged the propulsion system. 

If not for the advanced tracking system, it might not have been clear that an accident had occurred. Only 72 seconds into the flight, the ship went from a single ping on the system to hundreds of smaller objects, a clear sign it had broken up during the flight.

The engineers were mystified. The design accounted for the stresses of faster-than-light travel. A somber quiet fell over the room at mission control as the debris field scattered on the scope. 

It had taken years to collect the fuel for the flight, as it involved creating and collecting rare subatomic particles. Now all that was gone.

One by one, the pieces were collected in the cargo bay. While some wished to bury the crew in space, the captain insisted the bodies must be brought back for autopsy and examination.

"We have to figure out what went wrong," he explained. "That includes the possibility of some type of crew error or injury."

The bodies were not pretty. Decompression is not kind. One of the forensics team had to come back in after vomiting inside his suit at the sight.

At mission control, every aspect of the flight was analysed. The engines were nominal. The flight had proceeded perfectly. It didn't make any sense at all.

Finally there was a breakthrough on the third day of collecting debris. An unnatural gash in the side of the hull of the ship was found at a critical seam. The structure suffered catastrophic damage as a result of the ship's hull turning to plasma. Disintegration and death were nearly instantaneous, the crew would not have had time to react.

"What could have caused this kind of damage, captain? An attack?"

"Not likely," he answered. "Judging from the damage, it seems there was a micrometeroid strike at an acute angle. It cut through them like a hot knife."

The captain called back to mission control, to tell them they had a preliminary cause for the accident.

"A micrometeroid?" the director said, cursing under his breath. "How come that never happened to the humans on Star Trek?!"

"I know," the captain said. "Looks like we'll have to postpone the invasion of Earth until we've worked on the kinks."