"You mean you don't know?"
"I wasn't there at the time it happened, no."
"Then who was?"
Major Briarton spread his hands helplessly. "Nobody was. Your father was alone. From what we could tell later, he'd left the Scavenger to land on one of his claims, using the ship's scooter for the landing. He was on the way back to the Scavenger when the rear tank exploded. There wasn't enough left of it to tell what went wrong ... but it was an accident, there was no evidence to suggest anything else."
Tom looked at him. "You really believe that?"
"I can only tell you what we found."
"Well, I don't believe it for a minute," Tom said angrily. "How long have you and Dad been friends? Twenty years? Twenty-five? Do you really think Dad would have an accident with a mining rig?"
"I know he was an expert engineer," the major said. "But things can happen that even an expert can't foresee, mining in the Belt."
"Things like a fuel tank exploding? Not to Dad, they would never happen. I don't care what anybody says...."