Star Trek Hunter
Episode 5:
The Fires of Pon Farr
Scene 4:
Pichilemu, Chile
The U.S.S. Hunter was undergoing upgrades at the Utopia Planitia shipyards, in orbit of Mars. 2nd Lt. Tauk had requested that the boat's computer be upgraded in order to process an almost astronomical amount of data. Investigator Lynhart Shran had requested an additional and very unorthodox weapon to be added to the already formidable arsenal on the Hunter's tactical unit.
In order to accommodate the mass balancing program developed by Flight Engineer Tomos, several cargo bays were being redesigned for ballast storage. Calculations for the amount of ballast required for the boat would also need to take into account the possibility of adding prisoners to all of the brig units simultaneously.
Additionally, results from the Hunter's first successful flight in recursive warp mode had identified several weaknesses in the main nacelle underneath and the twin nacelles of the tactical unit. Without a complete overhaul, these weaknesses could cause the nacelles to fail catastrophically at high warp with results far worse than just the destruction of the boat with all hands. Additional armor was being added to vulnerable sections, including deck 5, in hopes of decreasing the chance of another hull breach during combat.
All of these modifications would result with a considerable increase in mass for the Hunter, which meant the zip drive calculations that had brought the Hunter to Earth would have to be scrapped and new equations started from scratch. Additional operational requirements from Commander David Pepper specified that additional calculations be prepared for the Hunter's platform and tactical units to enter zip drive separately and for the Hunter to be able to maintain zip drive while launching the wagon (and losing its mass) and independently launching the interceptors and the tactical unit.
This increased the number of separate zip-drive calculations from just one to thirteen. It also required mass stabilization standards for the tactical unit, the wagon and each of the interceptors.
And the whole package had to be ready in five days.
So Dr. Sarekson Carrera took his engineering department surfing.
On the beach of Carrera's hometown of Pichilemu, Chile a small crowd of nervous engineers watched, entirely mystified as their young director paddled his board out into the surf, seemingly oblivious to the impossible mathematical and engineering task before them and its even more impossible deadline. He had required all of the flight engineers to be present, leaving only the transporter engineers, headed by Midshipman Tammy Brazil, to supervise the Hunter's retrofits at the Utopia Planitia shipyards more than 140 million miles away in orbit of Mars.
Not only were the flight engineers ordered to be on the beach, out of uniform, and, specifically required to take at least three rides on the waves before midafternoon, their Quixotic director had also strictly forbidden them from discussing the boat's ongoing upgrades, the impending deadline for the required calculations or anything mathematical in general unless it directly related to surfing.
"I think he's finally snapped," Dr. Moon Sun Salek observed, her eyes just a bit wide. The fact that even the assistant director of engineering, who had worked with Dr. Carrera longer than anyone, thought their director might have actually gone goofy, was of no comfort to the rest of his staff.
The order to go surfing did not present any particular difficulty as under Goofy Foot Carrera's expert tutelage, everyone in the engineering department, including 100-year-old Tomos, had become at least competent, if not expert on a surfboard (although only Tomos, like Carrera, rode with his left foot at the rear of the board.)
Gamely, one by one, and in no small part because Carrera had never yet led them astray, first Dr. Moon, then Ensign Sun Ho Hui, then flight engineers Tomos, Kerry Gibbon, Yolanda Thomas and Thomas Hobbs picked up their boards and followed their director into the surf.
Four hours later, the team were tearing hungrily into bowls of chupe de jaiba and washing it down with Mungku beer. The beach was crowded, but the Hunter's engineering team were located on a small promontory from which they could see nearly the entire beach and they were enjoying an authorized wood fire. Evidently Dr. Carrera knew somebody who knew somebody - very few fire pits were allowed on the beach. The insurmountable problems and insane mathematics involved in getting the Hunter into zip drive under a wide variety of conditions seemed 100 million miles away. In fact, they were almost 149 million miles away, in orbit of Mars.
"Ensign Sun," Carrera started, "I've been re-reading your proposed dissertation. I think the time has come for you to resubmit it."
Sun raised an eyebrow. "Most of my committee were in favor of it, but Dr. Bowman said that the physics of my theory could not be tested and that I should re-apply to the school of Philosophy.”
"And he was correct, if a little unfair," Carrera said. "Even Professor Crumar thought your work was more than sufficient to be accepted by the Daystrom Institute, much less the University of Chile."
Sun took a breath. "Unfortunately, it would be disingenuous for me to attempt to resubmit through Daystrom..."
"I wasn't finished," Carrera interrupted. "Professor Crumar and I had a little talk with Dr. Bowman. He was right.. Until three days ago. Once the Hunter successfully entered recursive warp mode, it was possible to test your theory. In fact, it was helpful in identifying weaknesses within the recursive warp field. Those findings are being used right now in the modification of the Hunter's warp nacelles. I have gone so far as to recommend that the specific repairs we developed for the main nacelle be officially named the Sun Retrofits. You still have time to resubmit your dissertation this evening."
Dr. Carrera handed a communications pad to Sun. "Specifically, you have fifteen minutes. I estimate the entire process will take twenty seven seconds."
Ensign Sun Ho Hui took the communications pad, almost scuttled back to his seat and hunched over it.
Carrera continued. "Of course, Dr. Bowman will receive credit for discovering your talent, encouraging your work and mentoring you and you will not dispute his claims. In light of the notoriety your breakthrough work will bring to the University and especially to their Warp Field Theory department, Dr. Bowman plans to present you with your degree during a special hooding ceremony at the extension campus in Talco tomorrow afternoon. May I be the first to say, congratulations, Dr. Sun."
"I have completed my resubmission. But I wonder," Sun began, "and not to be ungrateful, whether I have my theories to thank or your intervention."
"Then you weren't listening to what I said about Professor Crumar. Neither he, nor I would have intervened if your dissertation did not merit it. Humans play games, Hui. You have to know the game in order to win at it. Dr. Bowman knew quite well that your theory was sound and that you deserved your Ph.D. But he was not about to just hand it over to you because he also knows who you work for. By holding out, Bowman put himself in a position to gain from final acceptance by posing as your mentor and sponsor and to wring other concessions from me and Professor Crumar. And you will play this game if you are wise."
"It hardly seems logical," Sun Ho Hui protested.
"It is coldly logical," Carrera countered. "The cold logic of personal gain. But that personal gain will also bring new resources and notoriety to the University and its theoretical and applied physics divisions. Which will benefit future students. So you will fake a smile, shake the man's hand, and prepare yourself for a future that includes Dr. Bowman. But don't you ever trust the man. Not for one second."
Carrera turned to the rest of his staff. “Churros?”
Almost as if by magic, he produced a platter from a low table behind his chair.
In the aftermath of the churros and the spicy chocolate cinnamon dipping sauce that came with them, Dr. Moon addressed the question still burning in everyone's minds. "Can we finally talk about those calculations?"
Dr. Carrera looked at Dr. Moon for a very long time, slowly, dramatically raising one eyebrow. Even though she was a quarter vulcan, Moon did not have the emotional reserve of Tomos or Sun or even Carrera - the moment stretched out forever. She was simply astonished when her director smiled. Carrera never smiled.
"I knew you couldn't do it," Dr. Carrera said. He took a deep breath, released it, then said, "Okay, just so you can all relax and actually get some sleep tonight, I will tell you this much. When Pep gave me all those permutations I realized there was no way we could develop all those equations in five days. We couldn't do it in five months if we were to use all the mathematicians at the Daystrom Institute. So I lied. I told Pep we would get it done and I gave up."
"That's the important part," Carrera continued. "I just gave up. I just stopped trying to solve the problem. That's when it came to me - and I have Tomos to thank for it. We've been going about this the wrong way. We've been trying to make the math work for the ship's mass."
He paused. His engineers just stared at him. Only Tomos, the old vulcan librarian who had the least engineering experience and education, seemed to have a dawning understanding. "So we're not going to do that. Instead of making the math work for the mass, we're going to make the mass work for the math. There's a sweet spot. I can see it. It's so elegant it will make you cry. Not just thirteen permutations - twenty eight permutations. And I can express every one of them in 100 characters or less."
Dr. Moon boggled at him. "The equation that got us to Earth was almost 1,200 characters.."
"I told you," Carrera replied, "so elegant it will make you cry. I have it all in here." Carrera held up the communications pad he had retrieved from Ensign Sun. "All 28 permutations. So what we have now isn't an insurmountable series of math problems. Tuning the engines to get Hunter into zip drive will take minutes. What we have is a series of entirely manageable logistics problems - balancing the mass as needed for each of the available permutations. We can easily get that done in four days. We will probably have it done in two. So drink another Mungku and let's talk about family or surfing or anything except engineering. We'll go over the equations in the morning and start work on the Hunter once Dr. Sun is officially hooded."
Great little scene, and a wonderful character building moment.
