------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A story for Geordi fans. Just a typical day in Engineering. The story tries to explore some of the central questions associated with Geordi's character, like: How did he go from navigator to Chief Engineer so fast? Why does he keep the VISOR and remain blind instead of risk the eye implant operation if his heart's desire is normal sight? Why is he so dorky most of the time? Plus: an explanation of why the old Enterprise always had so much trouble exiting the galaxy, Ensign Lefler's baptism of fire, and plenty of pseudoscientific technobabble in the best Trek tradition. Respond to cream@applelink.apple.com Please disseminate as widely as you'd like. Just keep this header on so responses can get back to me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION HEAVEN'S SHROUD Chief Engineer's Log, Stardate 45030.7: Today is the report date for Ensigns Lefler, Shipley, and Fletcher, posted directly from Starfleet Academy. "Alright, new recruits- welcome on board the Enterprise. I'll keep my welcoming remarks brief, since you wouldn't be here if you didn't know what you were doing. "There are some rules of thumb I've picked up in my time here that I like to share with new arrivals. First: always, ALWAYS doublecheck the purity of your isolinear optical cleaning fluids. You'll be doing a lot of diagnostic work in your first few months here, and I can't tell you how many all-nighters I've pulled trying to figure out why a Level One failed only to have it turn out to be a random scintillant that got through the filters. "Second: take the time to eat right and chew your food slowly... not only can the schedule here easily induce indigestion, but we've spotted more than one ship-threatening problem in time only because somebody noticed something wrong with the food replicators. "Three: don't be afraid of the Klingon. He hasn't killed any ensigns yet; and he's smarter than any of you. "Four: pay extra attention to your uniform and personal appearance to make sure you're within regulations, because to be perfectly honest, I can't tell if you are or not. "And finally, make sure to keep up with your Saku Mandala meditations. The Enterprise is the most complex ship ever built, and the most rigorously designed along the Mandala's guidelines. You'll never need your visualization skills more than here." "Thank you, Commander," says Lt. Duffy. "We'll see the three of you here in Engineering first thing tomorrow at the top of Alpha Shift. Dismissed." "Wow," says Ensign Shipley in the corridor, "Commander LaForge doesn't waste any time, does he?" "You're telling me! Five minutes on the Enterprise and I already have Laws 92 through 96." Chief Engineer's Log, Stardate 45031.0: Mark start of Alpha Shift. First order of the day: staff briefing at the center console table. "Good morning, Alpha Shift. I trust you slept well." No, I didn't. Not a wink. "The newest crewmembers are in luck. We've gotten new orders that are going to require extra manpower, so we're pulling you off the diagnostics rotation. Instead, you'll be participating directly in the mission. Lt. Duffy, why don't you give us a rundown of the mission specs." "Enterprise has been assigned to do the initial site survey work for the Extra-Galaxy Subspace Telescopy Project. As you know, the galaxy is enveloped in a cloud of ionized non-accreted particulate matter..." Otherwise known as dust. "...left over from its formation. Althought the cloud consists of only a few particles per cubic kilometer, the total electrostatic fields in combination with the gravitational distortion make subspace observation of other galaxies very difficult- the same phenomena that make subspace sensors useless inside a nebula." "Not to mention warp engines," says Shipley. "Right. That's why starships spend so much time mapping interstellar gas anomalies. Run into one of those at high warp and the field stress tears the ship apart: thus we have the so-called Great Barrier keeping us inside the bounds of the galaxy. Our mission is to skirt the edges of the Barrier and map density variations in the cloud, with the hope of finding thin patches where we can penetrate more deeply. The Federation ultimately hopes to place a remote subspace telescope as far out as can be reached to get the best possible picture of the large scale structure of the universe." "What this means," continues LaForge, "is that during this mission we're going to be pushing as close to the Barrier as we can, driving the warp engines right to the edge of what they can handle. I'm going to have people personally monitoring the forward sensor arrays and the warp shear monitors around the clock. It'll be tedious work, but vital. Any sudden increase in particle density could mean disaster if it catches us by surprise. "Oh, and to put a topper on things, the chief scientists of the Extra-Galaxy Telescopy team are on board to keep tabs on our progress; and undoubtedly they'll be poking around down here making sure things are done to their liking. I'm under orders from Captain Picard to remain cheerful and cooperative, and all of you are going to do the same." Dear Wynonna, Well, I promised to write you a letter after my first full day on the Enterprise, so here it is! Maybe now that I'm here Dad will let up on his cheerleading for Starfleet and let you concentrate on your music. One of us making it in ought to be enough for him. If you're lucky he might even let you forget he named you after James Kirk's mother...Gag! Wow, where do I even begin? Me and the other new transfers have been thrown right in the middle of things with no ramp time. Imagine- after four years at the Academy staring across lab benches at Eric Fletcher's bony face, I'm back in the same predicament, but this time it's across conduit configuration panels on the lowest, darkest engineering deck. Oh well, you know Law 14: the more things change, the more they stay the same. The worst part is that Eric's "hero," Prof. Heinrich Engel, is on board leading a special research mission. So today I had to endure a continuous monologue on what a great humanitarian he is, not to mention a revolutionary scientist, and reviews of all his books to boot. My new commanding officer is a Lt. Cmdr LaForge. He's very good of course, but hard to read. He's kind of stiff and uptight... that probably has something to do with the fact that he's blind. He uses one of those VISOR things, I don't know if you've ever seen one. They're supposed to hurt to use, so you don't see them very much. But according to Lt. Duffy (a mission specialist here- good-looking but kind of a jerk), the fact that he's blind has allowed him to become an absolute wizard at the Saku Mandala- no outside distractions, after all. Duffy said that back when he was just a navigator he would get a few synthehols in him and lead expeditions through the Jefferies tubes so people could watch the plasma discharges. ("Always know something embarrassing about your boss." Is that good enough to be a law? I'll have to think about it.) His internal visualization was so good that he could predict exactly which tube the next discharge would appear in. That's pretty amazing. I know I'll be able to learn a lot from him. How's Mom? You know things between her and me have not always been the greatest, but I still wish I could be there during her convalescence. She looked so good at the Academy graduation. It's amazing the things they can cure these days. At least maybe she and I will get some more chances to get it right, huh? Well, that about does it, Sis. It'll probably take a while for this to get to you, but I promise I'll post it at the next Starbase. Take care. Love, Robin "Ensign Lefler? Is that you?" "Oh... yes, Sir." "Aren't you off duty?" "Yes, Sir. I'm just catching up on my letter-writing. I wanted to get a feel for the rhythm of Engineering, so I thought I'd do it here. I hope that's OK." "Sure, no problem at all. I remember what it's like to be an eager ensign. Before long you'll be so used to the thrum of the engines it'll feel weird not to hear them on other parts of the ship. What is this you're writing on?" She hands him her notepad and he turns it end over end in his hands. "Paper? And an ink pen? I haven't seen anyone use these in a while." "I use them for the really important stuff. I learned the hard way not to trust letters or personal diaries to a computer. Law 80: no computer is ever really secure." "What was that?" "Oh, that's one of my personal laws. Every time I learn something essential I make up a law about it so I never forget." "How many do you have?" "Ninety-six... so far. You're holding the pad wrong. Are you unable to see the writing? Oh, sorry." "No, it's perfectly alright. I can see writing on paper, but I can't read it. There's not enough contrast between the light reflected by the ink and the page for me to make out the words. My VISOR allows me to see a very broad electromagnetic spectrum, but the tradeoff is I can't resolve fine details." "So you've never gotten a love letter, or a birthday card?" "No, not as such. There was one... well, never mind." "How do you read the computer LCARS panels?" "The display panels can be set to emit at any combination of wavelengths. It's a little-known but very useful feature. I've created a subprogram that can be accessed from any panel on the ship that configures it to emit at energies I can resolve. "And right now," he continues as his fingers dart across the panels before him, "I'm using it to finish this review of the warp core ejection checklist." "The what!? Are we in trouble...?" "No, no; relax. It's just a precaution." "You seem pretty nonchalant about it." "The warp drive is a very high performance, high precision device. Even during routine operations we run it right on the knife's edge. A week doesn't go by that I don't have the checklist up on my screen with my finger over the initiate button." "I think it would drive me nuts to be always facing that kind of situation." "You'd better get used to it. Every engineer has to be ready to take the extreme step at any moment. If he wastes time dithering about whether he should initiate disaster procedures he's already sunk; there'll be no time to either complete the procedure or fix the problem and abort. You have to know how to keep your head in the midst of the worst case...to be able to jump into a disaster situation with both feet and do everything right, and have the self-confidence to expect you'll have what it takes to pull things out. Any engineer who starts to feel he'd be hesitant to take that route had better- well, maybe find himself a desk job. "But enough shop talk. It's getting late for Alpha Shifters and I need you sharp for tomorrow: Professor Engel will be visiting your section." Oh, Great. "Why don't you grab a late supper and turn in? Ten Forward is the best place to get a good meal, and..." "Chew slowly, I know. Good night, Commander." "Good night, Ensign." Chief Engineer's log, Stardate 45032.5: The Enterprise has been heading straight out of the ecliptic of the galaxy at Warp One for the past two days. We're traveling at minimum warp to keep the impact energy of the interstellar dust as low as possible. Particle density of the space we're traveling through is increasing steadily, but is still within acceptable limits: we haven't yet reached what is sometimes called the "Great Barrier," where warp speed will be impossible. Long range sensors are plotting local density variations of the vast cloud before us. Our mission is still to penetrate as far as possible before we are forced to turn back. Ensign Fletcher is riding up the lift in Engineering to join Ensign Lefler on the catwalk. "Hey, Robin, you'll never guess where I just came from!" The Bridge. "The Bridge! Biggest ship's bridge I've ever seen. I think I've finally found one I couldn't spit all the way across." Could my eyes be rolling back any further? "You should see the main viewscreen. You know how in warp the Cerenkov radiation from charged particles colliding with the warp field make it look like you're shooting past stars? Well the particle density is so high now it looks like we're going through fireworks!" "Was Professor Engel there?" "Yeah! Actually he was right behind me coming down to Engineering. He'll probably stop by our station during his tour. Do me a favor Lefler, and try not to embarrass me for a change." "Whatever you say, Eric." "Ensign Fletcher, Ensign Lefler, I'd like you to meet Professor Engel of the Federation's Extra-Galaxy Telescope Project. He's taking a thorough look at all our critical stations, so please give him all the details of the tasks you're carrying out here. Report back to me at the end of your shift. That's all." "Yes, Sir! Professor Engel, I'm a great admirer of yours. Your books were a major inspiration for my decision to join Starfleet. You know, mankind finding his mirror in the stars..." "Mankind might have been better served if you had applied your talents somewhere other than Starfleet. Forgive me, it's too early in the day for that kind of controversy. I'm sure you're doing fine work here. What can you tell me about your responsibilities at this post?" "Well, er, this is the emergency early-warning tracking station. The density of the charged particle field is fluctuating above and below the average as we move through it. We need to make sure we're not caught by surprise by a sudden gust of way above average density. Ensign Lefler is monitoring the short-range sensors, plotting the curve of density increase and charting error bars. I take that information and tie it into the warp field shear monitor. It shows the amount of electrostatic charge building up on the leading edge of the warp field, and the resulting field shear stress. If the stress suddenly goes above a certain level the computer initiates an emergency instant shutdown of the warp engine." "Excuse me Professor, but I had read that it was impossible to receive or transmit subspace messages through the Barrier." "Yes, the Barrier is impervious to subspace radio. Electromagnetic and gravitic effects create too much static. But it is not our intention to transmit or receive coherent messages. Subspace is still shaped by the real space tangent to it, and it is inevitable that the subspace domain must contain clues to how the supergalaxy and the gigantic matter tendrils beyond it evolved as they did, even if we're not sure now what those clues are." "So understanding the way signals are blocked can be just as scientifically useful to you as having a clear window outside the galaxy?" "Quite so. There is no such thing as an absolute barrier to knowledge of any aspect of the physical world. People are too easily frustrated by apparent barriers. It is fantasy to imagine that we are somehow shut off from an intimate intellectual relationship with our universe or any part of it: a paranoid fear that there is something that we can't know about. The galactic border is a great scientific frontier precisely because it appears to us to be impenetrable, and I expect great findings that even I have not anticipated exactly because others keep insisting this is a bootless errand." "Right! That's what I was talking about, Professor... you've said in your writing that humanity has to pursue science to break down the paranoid barriers that keep us from becoming what we can be. I want to be part of that struggle." "Of course I had to remind Starfleet of the threats to the Federation that have originated outside the galaxy in order to get their cooperation. The Kelvan civilization, the Delta Vega effect, not to mention the M-270 planet killer; Starfleet thinks it's getting a distant early warning system. You Starfleet people waste valuable resources that could be used for real discovery in your mad and mindless dash outward in search of new enemies to justify your existence." "Um, well..." "Tell me more about the emergency procedures you mentioned." "Certainly- uh, yes...the warp field is a delicately intercoupled series of electromagnetic wave patterns, and too much electrostatic charge on its surface can cause a collapse. An uncontrolled collapse would cause different parts of the ship to come out of warp at different times, which would shred the hull and kill us all. If the computer detects that we're on the verge of that, it will snap off the warp drive as fast as can be controlled." "But that itself presents a danger to the ship?" "Sure! It sends a shock wave through the matter-antimatter stream, so if necessary we vent plasma and pray we don't have to eject the reactor core. If we do we cross our fingers the shields protect us from the explosion, and wait a couple months for someone to come pick us up. Still better than the alternative." "I quite agree. At what threshold have you set the shear monitors?" "Analysis of the data from Ensign Lefler's station indicates the proper setting is two hundred millicochranes per meter." "Two hundred! That's suicide! How long have we been traveling at that setting?" "The whole two days." "Oh my God! It's a wonder we're not dead yet! The warp field cannot sustain that kind of shear. We could be atoms before we even knew what happened." "The, the computer analysis indicates otherwise." "You may gamble your life on that if you wish, but you may not gamble mine. There are hundreds of others on this ship, families, children, who deserve much more consideration, Ensign. Why must you people turn everything into a swashbuckling, life-threatening game?" "Sir, we have to balance the danger of the threat with the risks of the cure. Cold choking the engine is not something we can do lightly." "Typical Starfleet attitude, putting valuable equipment before human lives. No scientific endeavor is worth running that kind of risk. My life's work would be meaningless if I were to let you forget that. Let me see that monitor panel." "Please, Professor..." "I'm resetting the threshold to 100 mc per meter. THAT is a safety margin. "Well! it's a good thing I decided to make this tour. This makes inspection of all the other stations all the more imperative. Goodness knows how many other cowboy adventures are underway. Good day, Ensign. Miss." "Oh Boy. Oh Boy. Oh Boy. That could have gone a lot better." "Don't let it get to you. Just restore the settings and forget about it." "Got any laws to cover this little situation, Robin?" "Law Two, Eric: other people's opinions are just other people's opinions." "Open daily planner for Professor Heinrich Engel." "Accessed." "Run through schedule of events for Stardate 45032." "0800: staff meeting with bridge crew." "Mark as done." "1000: tour of engineering department." "Mark as done." "1630: project team debriefing." "Mark as done." "2100: personal correspondence and journal entry." "Open personal journal of Professor H. Engel, and mark time and date." "Ready." "What has heretofore been known as a great barrier is closing in upon us, and it is a beautiful thing. As we approach, the portion of the electromagnetic radiation coming from straight ahead is being doppler-shifted into the visible spectrum, causing a broad horizontal band of pink and purple light to appear before us like a sash. "As has been reported in previous surveys, the net electric charge density is negative; the radiation and energy profiles are consistent with a negative electromagnetic field. Still, the ship's sensors can hardly detect that anything is there, although the shield grid picks up the static interference. It is imperative that we find a way to accurately chart density variations for the purpose of placement of the telescope and its..." "Riker to Engineering: Geordi, what the hell is going on down there?" "A power surge has temporarily taken most ship's systems offline...is everyone alright?" "Just shaken up. That was one hell of a jolt." "Something tripped a cold choke of the warp engines- you'll have to let me get back to you, Commander...I've got some emergency procedures to take care of here. LaForge out!" Engineering is a mess. Semi-darkness and emergency lights through smoke. The evacuation klaxon is sounding. "Eric, are you okay? Eric?" "Oh, no! Oh, no! This wasn't supposed to happen! We've got to get out of here!" "We have to secure our stations first!" "I'm done! Let's go!" Lock down the station. Don't panic. Do your duty. The computer is routing default value change requests for the evacuation program to my panel. I must be the last one left. Alright, deep breath. Add a few seconds to the escape window before the bulkheads seal the deck off, give Eric more time to get out. 'Bye, Eric. Commander LaForge is standing alone on the center of the main deck, staring straight into the reaction chamber. "Commander!" "What... Lefler! What are you doing up there? Why didn't you evacuate?" "I guess I'm taking your advice and jumping into the situation feet first." "Cover your eyes! The reactor is about to vent plasma!" Containment fields go up around the reactor. A solid white-hot sheet of lightning travels down the length of the warp core and out through vents in the bottom hull. It lights up Engineering like an Olympian carbon arc lamp. Robin buries her head in her arms and her eyes still smart from the light. LaForge gazes directly into it. "Lefler, you shouldn't be here. The warp core ejection countdown has begun. I was willing to risk myself attempting to stop it, but not anyone else. If I can't do it, we'll be sucked into space." "Well, how about I pretend I'm not scared to death and try to give you a hand." "Alright, stand by. We still have a few minutes." He snaps off his VISOR. No pain. No pain. The reaction chamber. The dilithium crystals. The warp coils. Power conduits. EPS waveguides. Deeper. Control protocols. Isolinear information flow. Power fluxes. Cochrane's laws. Subspace field theory. Deeper still. The Saku Mandala. The Enterprise is an exceptionally complex and intricately designed vehicle. The scientific and engineering feats required to construct it are almost beyond imagining. It could never have been conceived and built, could never be operated and maintained by humans on a day-to-day basis, unless it were inspired by a single cohesive theory and concept of design, a grammar whose syntax determined both general principles and the cellular elements of creation. Systems of great complexity can be formed starting with a few simple building blocks, like the twenty enzymes that compose all life on Earth, like the notes of the musical scale, like a computer chip's instruction set. Sometimes, in the most special cases, the building blocks can form a mandala, a cycle of symbols and concepts which reinforce and complete one another, whose interrelations give meaning both to each other and to the cycle as a whole. The enzymes composing the DNA molecule are such a case, as are the images of the Tarot, or the fugal elements in Bach's Canto per Tonos. Such is the Saku Mandala: a compact set of concepts, symbolic representations of natural laws, and rules of combination evolved over the three hundred years since the invention of warp drive that bring order to disparate observations and conclusions- like Maxwell's Laws, or Feynman Diagrams. Geordi reaches a state of meditative concentration in which he can visualize the Mandala's concepts; on it's most elementary level, he sees the oblong sweep of its geometry, sees how its totality is expressed in the curve of the hull's saucer. He resolves the totality into its parts- combining and recombining, on every scale and in every proportion, to form a simple yet ever-varying pattern that defines every structural detail, maps every conduit layout, places every bulkhead; ending in the smallest details that once again reflect the totality, as in the shape of the reaction chamber's articulation frame. He sees the Mandala unfold in multiple dimensions, describing the outline of the warp field; he sees how the field acts as a keystone bridging and sustaining the tension between subspace and real space. And in still higher dimensions, he sees rates of change, inflections, slopes, the dynamics of energy and information flow, all still described by the proportions of the Mandala. For Geordi- unencumbered by sight- reality is a landscape of many dimensions, all of equal significance, which he traverses with ease. The three dimensions of visual space, which for us is reality, is for him an abstraction whose significance he struggles to understand, just as his friend Data struggles to understand emotion. What is occupying Geordi right at this moment is the single central symbol of the Mandala, the multidimensional zero, the point of nullity, the singularity that lies at the heart of the warp field. All the other symbols bridge it, form a web of interlocks to encase it, to constrain it to as small a domain as possible. The entire ship can be thought of as a clever cage, a labyrinth entrapping it. When the balance is upset, when the nullity starts to grow in extent as is happening now, it threatens to engulf and destroy the whole system, and the ship with it. It is Geordi's job to minimize it, but it can never be eliminated; it is the axis of the Mandala. Warp speed would be impossible without it. It is the same nothingness which Man has always encountered in the deepest parts of his world, confronted at great risk but ignored at great peril: the vicious mole of nature, the one point of senselessness and negation where all logic cancels, where all known laws cease to operate, which contradict and mock the assumptions he uses to survive from day to day. It once existed in the hearth, in the center of the home, death masks of ancestors hung upon it. From there it fled, like Redjack, driven on by humanity's progress- to the heart of the atom, to ground zero of a nuclear fission explosion, to the event horizon of a black hole, and finally to the center of the warp field. This is the human adventure: to seek out new life is to confront Death, to drive it from its domains, and deny it its claims for as long as can be done. Imbalance. Disproportion. Uneven flow. Higher. Power tensors. Strange attractors. Fractal dynamics. Boundary conditions. Higher. The dilithium crystals. EPS power conduits. The matter injectors. Pain. "I've got it!" Geordi snaps his VISOR back on. "We've got to increase the matter injection rate into the reaction chamber!" "Increase it?! What do you want, a bigger better explosion?" "The plasma shock has made the energy flow off the dilithium crystals turbulent around the edges...and while the countdown is in progress the computer won't release control unless all systems are nominal. Increasing the energy output will reestablish laminar flow... like turning the shower up to quiet noisy pipes. I can't handle all the systems manually myself- you're going to have to calibrate the matter and antimatter injectors by hand up there." "There's no way to calibrate the injectors manually! The computer has to do that!" "Find a way or we're both dead!" Okay. Stay cool. You can do this. Call up the standard iconic keyboard display. Take the right Saku elements from the toolbox and build a model of the injectors' control electronics. Do it right the first time. What do they say? Just see it in your head. Insight can become a habit. Tie all the control nodes together and stick in the equivalent of a big iron lever that I can yank back and forth. Make it a subroutine I can control from the panel. "Alright Lefler, I'm inserting the injectors into the reactor. Get the matter and antimatter flow back to a precise one-to-one ratio. LaForge to Bridge." "Bridge here." "Captain, we're generating a lot of power down here. You've got to bleed it off or the batteries will overload." He hears the Captain give the order to fire all phaser banks, maximum power, any direction. "Commander, I can't hold it! I'm starting to get feedback in the forward injector relays!" "Cycle power through the ventral relays!" The Engineering deck shudders as the phaser batteries drain and recharge. Robin suppresses a scream of surprise as a loud pop sounds. The restraining bolts of the hull plate below the warp core have blown. The plate falls away into space; a containment field covers the opening, keeping in the atmosphere until the last possible extremity of time. Tears stream down Robin's face, but her hands are steady. "Laminar flow reestablished! Computer, abort warp core ejection, authorization LaForge alpha alpha four one four!" "How are you feeling, Geordi?" "I feel fine, Data. Dr. Crusher just wants us to spend the night in sickbay to make sure our radiation treatments were successful. I'll be back on the job tomorrow. I tell you, I sure could have used you there today, though." "Your actions were highly original, Geordi. As an android, I am unable to reach meditative states, or have insights. I believe I would have been redundant there, as Ensign Lefler seems to have performed quite adequately." "More than adequately." "Yes. As your commanding officer, it is appropriate for me to say 'well done' to you both." "Thanks, Commander Data." Data makes his little chirp of affirmation. "Geordi, Captain Picard wanted me to ask your opinion as to whether it is advisable to carry on further with the mission." "Huh? Oh yeah, sure. It was no big deal." "Alright Data, visiting hours are over. Time for these two to get some sleep." "Yes, Doctor. Good night Geordi, Ensign." Lights out. "Well, Lefler, see you bright and early in the morning. There'll be plenty of mopping up to do in Engineering tomorrow." "Good night, Commander." "Good night." ... "Commander?" "Yes?" "Is there any way you can turn those blinking red lights off? They're kind of distracting." "Oh right, sure, sorry. I tend to forget about them. I'm not accustomed to sleeping with someone else in the room." "Thanks." "Sure." "Good night." "Good night." ... "Commander?" "Yes?" "Do you really feel like sleeping?" "No...no, I guess not." "You know, at the Academy when things got tough we used to tell each other that nothing in space could be as bad as what they put us through there. But now I'm starting to think they took it too easy on us." "Don't worry, it doesn't get much worse than today." "Does it ever get easier to handle?" "No, I can't say it does. But you see the reasons why you have to do it more clearly." "What kind of reasons?" "Well, understanding them doesn't make me any better at explaining them. All I can say is that somehow you're most effective, most alert in a crisis if you don't even think about walking away. Retreat can turn into rout before you know it, and then nobody's safe." "I heard professors talking about that sort of thing at the Academy. It still seems to come short of what you really need to know." "I know... what the professors say is true, but there's more to it... see, I'm not doing very well. It's like... finding the courage to stand fast makes you confront yourself as well as the problem- and that's when you find out if you're a friend to yourself, or an enemy. And I hate the idea of missing an opportunity to confirm that bit of self-knowledge. It helps in putting the whole rest of your life in order." "I think I understand what you're talking about. I've sensed that sort of thing in my sister when she walks onto a stage. I didn't expect to feel the same thing myself here, not so soon at least. With my life on the line, no less." "Even on routine days, there's a feeling of clarity and aliveness you get from working right next to a bomb that's constantly on the verge of going off- the moment is always very real. But you lose something too. An engineer can't afford to make any mistakes, ever; but making mistakes is human, maybe the most human thing there is." "Can't afford to make mistakes? We certainly weren't going by the book today. We're going to be up for a lot of procedure violation reviews." "No, it's not a matter of following procedure to the letter. It's mistakes you can't afford. Sometimes it's a mistake to follow all the rules. When you can't make them, there's a certain part of your humanity you have to lock away. You start taking an ironic slant on everything- like when you hear people making plans there's always a part of you saying, 'yeah, providing we don't blow up tomorrow.' You forget to empathize with others, and they sense it. A lot of people are put off, I think. Especially women. But that's the life we choose to lead." "You told me you'd never gotten a love letter, except maybe for one..." "What? Oh, that. That wasn't a love letter. Just the opposite in fact. Funny I mentioned it to you, I've never told anyone about it before. But I've always kept it in my personal bag everywhere I've gone." "Who's it from?" "Oh. Just a girl. Patricia Vanderbilt. Patricia. Lovely voice. We were only about twelve years old...it was kind of a first crush for me." "But not for her?" "No. Even then I was a little awkward. Being blind kept me from developing socially as normally as other kids, even though I had a VISOR by then. And you know how young boys are with girls. Their idea of paying attention is being a pest. Always trying to get a seat next to her at school assemblies, making clumsy attempts at conversation, standing next to her at the bus stop like she's yours. "Finally, one day I sit next to her, and before I can even open my mouth, she hands me the letter, saying she thinks I better read it. Then she walks away. Her girlfriends follow after her, giggling. "She didn't realize that I couldn't read it, but I didn't need to. I got the message." "You could have scanned it into a computer and had it read to you." "I know. But it seemed too private. Maybe I have my own personal version of Law Eighty. Or maybe I was just too ashamed. Funny, I've been lying here talking to you about having the courage to confront yourself, and meanwhile I've been carrying this thing around all my life too afraid to read it." "From where I sit you have nothing to worry about when it comes to courage. Thanks for talking with me, Commander. I feel a lot better." "Suddenly I feel like I could sleep all night and all day." "Me, too. Good night." "Good night, Ensign." "Come in." "Morning, Robin. How are you feeling?" "Hi Eric! Great to see you! Are you headed down to start the shift?" "Yeah. Sorry I didn't visit you in sickbay." "That's okay. I was out like a light almost as soon as the treatments were over." "Robin, can we talk for a minute before we go?" "What's the matter?" "Do you know what happened yesterday?" "Yeah, we hit a pocket of high density particles that was too small to detect in time." "No, I mean do you know why the computer cold choked the engines." "Well, I pieced it together. You left the shear monitor threshold at a hundred millicochranes." "Yes." "So we should have just sailed through the pocket with no problem. Oh Eric, how could you?" "How could I not? What was I supposed to do, second-guess Heinrich Engel? Cochrane himself didn't know as much about subspace field theory as he does. Besides, the likelihood of hitting a pocket even half as small was so low I didn't think it was any real risk." "You should have stuck to your own estimates! Engel doesn't know our engine or our instruments. Have you told Commander LaForge?" "No. Robin, if he finds out, my career is over! What are you going to say?" "Eric, I've got to report what happened on my watch. You know the rules as well as I do. If I don't my own career is over." "Not if they don't find out what happened! The logs show Professor Engel as having made the change. A reprimand for not noticing it is better than a court martial for knowing and going against the computer recommendations. And no one need ever suspect you had anything to do with it." "For God's sake, Eric..." "Four years at Starfleet Academy, a lifetime of dreaming, all down the drain in less than a week. I'm a good officer, aren't I? Is it worth it to lose everything over this? Is it really so much to ask?" "Eric, I know you're a good officer. That's why I'm saying you've got to act like one now and have the courage to face up to it. Let the chips fall where they may. It's not necessarily the end of your career." "Easy for you to say!" "Eric, I've already made my report. I forwarded it to Commander LaForge's station early this morning. Why don't you find out his reaction before you go cooking up schemes that could really get you in trouble?" "Oh my God!" "Eric!" "Good morning, Ensign Lefler. Sleep well?" "Like a log, Sir. How are you feeling?" "Ship shape. Oh, I found this at my station when I came in. It must be yours." He hands her a folded over sheet of notepad paper. "Yes sir, it is." "Let's not make a habit of leaving personal items lying around on my Engineering deck. Report to your station Ensign." "Aye, aye!" Ensign Fletcher enters Engineering, a mess of sweat and hair, pale as tapioca. He sets his jaw and walks right up to Commander LaForge. "Ensign Fletcher, reporting for duty, Sir." "At ease, Ensign. Well... report to your post." Fletcher's eyes dart to Lefler's face. Her expression is utterly blank. "Aye...aye, Sir." Law 97: Sometimes it's a mistake to follow all the rules. And an engineer can't afford to make mistakes. It's the life I choose to lead. Chief Engineer's log, Stardate 45033.7: All ship's systems are back online. The word is given by Captain Picard to press on. After a few routine diagnostics we are scheduled to go back to Warp One at 45034.0 sharp. Mark end of Beta Shift. Enterprise's Chief Engineer is exausted. "Come." "Evening, Commander. Am I disturbing you?" "No, come on in. I was just listening to some mindless music crystals to unwind." "I just wanted to say thanks... for saving my life for one thing, after I was too stupid to evacuate." "I was just doing my job." "And for opening up to me and giving me some things to think about. Some of the things you said really helped. And it occurred to me that I ought to try to return the favor. I couldn't get that letter you mentioned out of my mind. I may be out of line here, but could I see it?" "See it? Well, to be honest... oh. Hmm. See it. Yes... yes you can. Just a second." He rummages down to the very bottom of a bottom drawer. He pulls out a paper envelope and hands it to her. She turns it over in her hands. Soiled around the edges, dog-eared, creased, and still sealed. She stares straight at him, and he right back, as she puts a finger under the flap and tears the envelope open. One page. Girlish handwriting. She sits close to him. "Dear George. There are some things I feel I ought to tell you..." ESSAY: There is a certain set of themes that make Star Trek unique and make it much more interesting than standard space adventure. But it seems to me that those themes are being lost sight of more and more with so much Star Trek product coming out; and with still another series being planned, that process threatens to accelerate. Fewer and fewer writers are able to clearly use the themes that make Star Trek what it is to tell a compelling story. More and more, writers will throw in an obligatory bow to the idea of diversity or brief reluctance to use violence, then go on to write their standard adventure. Star Trek writers, both professional and fan, in order to keep Star Trek alive and interesting should be trying to expand its themes, keep them growing, and keep them meaningful to its audience. In order to do this, its necessary to articulate those themes and be conscious of them. So to raise consciousness I've written down what I think are the essential themes of Star Trek. In my view, to the extent that a story embodies these ideas, it's Star Trek, and to the extent that it doesn't, it's just space opera. So I offer these ideas to the electronic wind, in hopes that they may influence some writers and improve the quality of Trek writing. Kobayashi Maru: Life is a no-win scenario. Death is inevitable. How you face that fact is a test of character. Your character is revealed in the passion and tenacity with which you fight to ensure survival, doing what you have to do to turn certain death into a fighting chance for life. The more hopeless your situation appears, the more passion is called for, to the very last moment, to the final extremity. The primary mission of Starfleet, according to Commodore Decker, is "to preserve life." In Star Trek, the protagonists continually discover that the more danger they are in the more precious they find life to be, and they draw from this the resolve to find new resources to fight with, to pull another rabbit out of the hat. They order their lives and their careers to hold on to that insight, to prepare to experience it again, and to pass it on. This is what gives Starfleet its unique character, and makes Star Trek protagonists different from other action heroes. The Picard Maneuver from "The Battle," LaForge in "Arsenal Of Freedom," Riker in "A Matter Of Honor," Data in "Best Of Both Worlds II," Ltc. Daren in "Lessons," and Kirk in "The Corbomite Maneuver," "The Deadly Years," and ST:TMP exemplify this. In "Gambit," when the buccaneer captain gives the order to destroy a Starfleet science outpost, Picard has a plan ready to save them. When it falls through, he has another one to fall back on, and another still when that one fails. This was a KM test, and Picard's response was a classic example of how to handle one. But eventually ingenuity has to fail, and then what? The only way to prevail at that point is to take the game to a higher level, a new dimension, where the countdown timer is reset; and for that you have to rely on friends, working in the background, giving you new options you didn't know you had. That's the pattern that makes Star Trek drama so much more exhilarating than ordinary science fiction. At the final moment, the Enterprise dives out of the sky to drive the buccaneers away. A deus ex machina? No, an expression of what Star Trek is all about. These ideas are illustrated in "The Best of Both Worlds," "The Emissary," "Peak Performance," and in STII and III. Enterprise: More than a ship, an idea. In one episode Picard questions to Troi the wisdom of having families and children on board. After all, he argues, the Enterprise is liable to be ordered into the Neutral Zone on a moment's notice, or any number of other dangerous missions. Troi responds by saying that you're fooling yourself if you think you can guarantee your children's safety by leaving them on Earth. The best thing you can do for them is let them come along and witness the human adventure. Safety and danger, like everything else in the universe, are yin and yang, opposites which interpenetrate. It's a fundamental mistake to think you can find lasting safety by building walls and hiding behind them. Danger will find its way through, around, under, or sprout up right in your midst. One of the novels, in explaining the divergent history of the alternate-dimensional crew depicted in "Mirror, Mirror," postulated the start of the divergence at the point when the people of the alternate earth decided not to explore space, resolving to remain instead in the relative safety and comfort of their home planet. But their strategy of burying their heads in the sand backfired, as it had to, as eventually the Romulans discovered this defenseless Earth and quickly absorbed it into their empire, starting humans down the path of terror and cruelty. There is no safety in refusing to face risk. Conversely, when faced with real peril, the only way to survive it is to realize that the key to safety lies at the heart of the danger, and you must find a way to plunge into it as deeply as you can. This is enterprise, Star Trek's key concept. If you've accepted the obligation to fight for life, you need to build yourself an extraordinary conveyance to carry you into the vortex of extraordinary threats. This is the universal constant that allows us to imagine that men in the 24th Century will still be compelled to go into space long after there are no more worries about material wants or military competition; not "natural curiousity," or "the need to see what's over the next hill," or even testosterone or any of the other mealymouthed reasons that are always given, but a mature understanding of the way the universe works and of what we owe our children. Hence, "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Doomsday Machine," "Return To Tomorrow," "Obsession," "Spectre Of The Gun," "Time Squared," "Best Of Both Worlds," "Redemption," "A Matter Of Time," and practically every other episode to some degree. The single most thrilling moment of the old series to me when I was a kid was Spock hitting that fuel jettison switch in "The Galileo Seven." He realized that playing it safe was playing it dead, that when it came right down to it he had to hurl himself and his charges that last step into oblivion in order to have a hope of coming out ok on the other side. Ordinary drama is protagonists discovering better ways to blow each other up or chop each other's heads off; Star Trek drama is the protagonists discovering in themselves the boldness to pass up the meek but deadly path for the risky but rewarding path. Way of Harmony: This is the translation of *Aikido,* the name of the Japanese martial art. Aikido is unique in that it teaches no offensive moves. In its perspective, conflict is not viewed in terms of attack and defense, victory and defeat, but in terms of balance and imbalance. A person who reaches out to another with intent to harm throws himself off balance and always opens up a vulnerable spot in his posture. Aikido teaches that a clever and well-prepared person who is dedicated to nonviolence can always exploit that weak spot to deflect the attack and neutralize the attacker. In Aikido, this is seen as doing the attacker a favor; the Aikido master blends in with the attack, comes into harmony with its energy, and by neutralizing the attacker restores his balance. Relative size and strength are of no importance; disadvantage and advantage are yin and yang also, and one can be turned into another with the flip of a wrist if one has one's balance. This of course is the final revelation of the episode "Gambit;" the ancient Vulcan weapon is useless against those who take a nonviolent posture. It was also the secret to survival in "Arena" and "Spectre of the Gun." Time after time Kirk rejects the logic of trading a few lives for many in favor of a more bold option which restores balance and saves all lives. In "Patterns of Force," Kirk gets word that Ekos has launched its final assault force against Zaon. Abram pleads with him to destroy the invaders, which is easily in Kirk's power, saying what is a few thousand soldiers' lives compared to the millions of innocents to be slaughtered. Kirk says, "Yes, we can save Zaon. But who will save Ekos?" Sisko also illustrates the point through his actions in "Armageddon Game." He's facing destruction in a virtually defenseless runabout from an alien ship that is far stronger and faster. He devises an escape that *exploits a weakness inherent in the aggressive move of his opponent.* The jamming field the aliens send out jam their own sensors, and Sisko takes advantage of that technological blind spot. Equally importantly, he exploits a psychological blind spot by feeding the aliens' expectation of conflict. An attacker whose mind is set on violence loses his mental sharpness and falls into an expectation of responses from his victim as simple minded as his own. The idea of nonviolence is intended to keep Starfleet officers from falling into that trap, not to shackle them into a noble but naive idealism (as nonviolence is often represented). Personal Truth. This is likely the trickiest point to get across, but may bear the most fruit. In "The First Duty," Picard says that an officer's first duty is to the truth; scientific truth, historical truth, personal truth. In "The Drumhead," he says, "With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." When I first saw that episode, I was surprised to hear him defend free speech and individual freedom so absolutely. Most people today wouldn't go so far. Later I realized that he was expressing the gnostic viewpoint. "Gnostic" is a term used to describe a variety of religious sects and beliefs from ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages. But I mean it to describe a world view shared by all these groups; in this world view, truth, knowledge, and experience are unreserved virtues. They are the key to individual enlightenment. For a gnostic, the individual's highest allegiance is to the truth, and he has the moral right and duty to oppose authority in defense of it. In a gnostic society (and there were many large gnostic communities in Europe in the first centuries A.D.) the role of the state is to protect and facilitate the individual's quest for the truth, for it is believed that only the individual (not governments or churches), free to to enquire and experience what he wills, can establish truth. The opposite of this view might be called the "authoritarian" viewpoint. An authoritarian, by contrast, believes that the individual's first allegiance is to the state, and a small group of experts has the right to decide what is right and restrict access to knowledge of everything else. The Catholic Church is an example of an authoritarian organization, and Martin Luther a gnostic opponent of it. Gnostic undercurrents have survived to the present day to influence western civilization, and have given western society (which is, like all civilizations, primarily authoritarian) much of its unique character. Trial by jury is a completely gnostic idea, with its assumption that only a collection of free individuals exposed to all sides of an argument can be trusted to come up with reliable conclusions. Universities and the practice of awarding tenure are products of gnostic thinking, as was the U.S. Constitution and its guarantees of free speech, press, and religion. What does this have to do with Star Trek? Well, dedication to truth is an essential theme of Star Trek, but in order to really understand how that works dramatically it's important to understand how dedication to truth can be an expression of a community as well as of individual ethics, and a means of people communicating their commitment to each other and their culture. And it's important to understand that this is not a fantasy, but a depiction of a latent subculture of hope and dignity that exists in human society. Picard's statements, and a great many other things, go from confusing to consistent if you assume that somewhere between our time and that of Star Trek, some kind of drastic and marvelous social revolution has transformed world society from authoritarian with gnostic undercurrents to the opposite. Perhaps this revolution arose out of the century of regional nuclear conflict and social chaos that Star Trek's history of the future predicts for the next hundred years, just as the gnostic-influenced Age of Reason arose out of centuries of Black Plague in Europe in the 16th Century. Many of the differences between our society and what we see of the 24th century make sense if we presuppose this new Age. Starfleet is obviously an authoritarian organization, but it is dedicated to upholding gnostic values; truth, scientific knowledge, and personal excellence. Obviously it is a new brand of military organization, of the kind we'd assume would be dreamed up by gnostic leaders. Star Trek is often accused of being too "PC," but political correctness is an authoritarian concept, a new set of rules and requirements to replace the old. What Star Trek shows is gnostic respect for alternate viewpoints and practices, stemming necessarily from the belief that no one individual is more qualified to figure things out than another. Kirk is often criticized for disobeying orders and getting away with it, but in a gnostic society it would be considered a crime to follow the orders of an authority contrary to what one believed was the right thing to do. I believe Kirk gets away with it because his superiors recognize this, as they are products of a gnostic society too. For them, personal experience and character are to be relied on more than external rules in the face of the unknown and the strange. Finally, the Prime Directive, which I've heard called immoral and senseless many times, is in the end a perfect expression of gnostic values. A gnostic society would not assume its values were superior to another's even if it had more advanced technology or knowledge, and would not destroy the integrity of another culture even to help. Instead it would try to learn, and interfering in a developing culture would make it impossible for that culture to come up with unique, unbiased ways of discovering new truths- and this would be the greatest loss conceivable to gnostics. So the Prime Directive is established to ensure future access to revelation, so the Buddhas, Christs, and Suraks of other worlds can arise freely. When Picard, in "Measure of a Man," argued that Data must have the freedom to discover for himself whether or not he has a soul, he perfectly summed up the gnostic philosophy, and its motivating consequences in the universe of Star Trek. The fact that he won the decision in court over a precedent set in the 21st Century is my best argument that my point is valid. Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations: The glory of creation lies in its infinite diversity, and in the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty. These themes are Star Trek for me, and a good story is one that explores one or more of them. Each one sets the stage for debate on how to improve the circumstances of human existence. This debate to me is what makes Star Trek unique. None of these themes depends on high technology or a future setting, and a Star Trek story need not take place there; I'd like to see one set in the present day. There's a good one waiting to be written about UN soldiers in Bosnia, I think. Every time I see those white painted UN personnel carriers on the news, I can't help but think of them as the precursors of starships. All those people who dress up in Starfleet uniforms and dream of living in the world of Star Trek, it's not a matter of inventing warp drives or phasers and it's not necessarily far in the future. It's a matter of critically examining what its going to take to make human life richer, more spiritual, and more meaningful. This in my opinion is what all Star Trek fiction should be about, and to the extent that these grounds for debate are left behind, Star Trek will lose its uniqueness and eventually evaporate. "A man either lives his life as it happens to him; meets it head on and licks it, or he begins to wither away and die" -Dr. Phillip Boyce, *The Cage*