The Perils of Math

[Keb 0]

Keb’s Personal Log, Stardate 5001.03

 

I worked with Garnoopy today on a cloaking device. Of course, I think those are still against some ancient treaty—but what the heck, a lot of other laws don’t seem to apply to us, either.

 

Computer, pause. Computer, Resume.

 

One advantage of working on the wiring for the cloak is that nobody sent me a “Want to meet after your shift for a drink?” message at my console. It’s not that I mind having someone to eat dinner with in the mess hall, or dating, or even getting the messages…but they’re distracting when I’m trying to work. I’m an engineer, but as an engineer, math is my weakest point. “That’s what computers are for!” I used to argue as a kid. Well, that’s one more thing Dad was right about, you have to know a little more than just how it’s done to explain it to a computer, before it can do the math for you. I’m very good at the theory…just not the computations.

 

So although I can come up with a fix pretty quick, and squeaked by my math-intensive classes in school, it’s not helpful to switch gears halfway through a computation (whether the computer’s helping or not) to what I’m going to wear after my shift. Out of the blue.

 

Garnoopy said something about being impressed with my record. I guess he has to say things like that. I got lucky; there are some things I’m good at. School, writing—I hope, anyways—and banging together a bunch of parts to wind up with a working thing at the end. But there’s so many things I’m not good at, that I wish I was, that I can’t boast anything. And I know of too many talented people who are so much better at the things I’m good at than I am.

 

The admiral says our mission here might get complicated. As in, we might find ourselves firing on Federation ships—Starfleet even. I can’t let myself think about it, because if I do, I can’t help picturing my father or my brother on board one of those ships. They aren’t, of course, but a year or two either way and they might have been. I can’t think of anything more important to me than my family. What would I do if it were them at risk? I don’t know, but I never want to find out.

 

Computer, End log.