Date: 6/27/2673

"I think it was in my 1st 3 months at Star Fleet's new Academy. I was a newbie, and was just trying to hold my own, and figure out all the rules and regulations. We were required to know BY HEART the entire Star Fleet manual, by the end of the 1st year. Using earth's year measurement, that's really isn't a long time to learn 4,000 pages...even if they are on neural receptive readers.

I had a roommate with a mind like a vault. Probably had a photographic memory at that, but he was able to remember EVERYTHING, we were taught, and it was a bit disgusting after a while. He never cracked a video manual, never listened to voice implant tapes...just remembered everything, and had much more time for the women !!

I on the other hand, was always studying, and theorizing familiar situations in my mind in order to be able to relate them to the studies.

One of the things we were to know what the exponential effect of blue-gamma radiation on the newly emerging fleet of starships, because of the speed at which they travelled, they were constantly being exposed to it, and at a much more rapid pace then earlier ships. It is a very hard equation just to master, not to mention to actually be able to calculate it !...and under the pressure of battle..I would be lost !

One night (solar), I was on the "bridge" of a trainer simulation, and was actually enjoying it. The sensi-barriers were all up, meaning that if anyone from outside the simulation tried to enter the "flight", they would be beamed about 50 trax to a holding area, and warned that the next time they would be interned until the duration of the simulation. There were numerous warnings both written and voice imbedded, so there was NO excuse for interrupting a simulation in progress...unless of course you were an admiral or something !

During this particular simulation, the crew was "traveling" to an uncharted region of the newly discovered Kintode sector in very deep space. The navigation officer (an android) unknown to me was programmed to have a fatal positronic overload, and would be useless. I had no knowledge of this, and was busy staying in contact with Startfleet command, and other starships in the area (within 20 parsecs, was considered close by in those days).

We entered the new sector, and were very intent on keeping track of the various radiation bombardments hitting the ship. The mechanical and bio-physical officers were at their stations, and all was 5 x 5.

I kind of sensed something was wrong because the posture of the nav officer seemed to be just a little different, and you know as well as I that if there is ONE thing all androids display, it's perfect posture.

He (it?) turned around to address me and started to say something about our position, when he simply closed his eyes, as little wisps of smoke exited through the side vents (ear canals), and stood up. Standing there, eyes closed, and straight as can be, he leaned back, and all 735 kg of him crashed on his console with erupted in sparks, and went blank.

STARS!!!! I thought , but not a real problem because there were so many redundant systems on board, I just turned around and started to bark the orders to re-route the nav controls to the logistics officer when there was a violent rocking of the bridge, and most of the displays and controls went dead.

Wow, this is some test, I mumbled, and proceeded to hit the red alert button, and was planning on getting the ship's status reports.

"Warning....Warning....Warning.....Warning....Blue-Gamma radiation levels are rising"...Damn, we lost our radiation shields ????

How could this be? They're powered by the dilithium crystals, and CAN'T go down...unless the crystals had disintegrated !!!

What the hell was going on???? Where the hell were we, and why was all this happening??

The con was out, the blue gamma warnings just kept coming noting that the levels were increasing...the controls were un-responsive, and my nav was gone...all 5 backups !!!

So...what to do....

The only thing still working seemed to be life-support.

"Warning...blue gamma radiation levels now reaching critical levels"...

OK...obviously, I had to calculate the blue gamma level, in order to know where we stood...blue gamma radiation as we know now, is swift, and lethal....one second your there...the next your dead...and humans, have such a low tolerance to it that we would all die at once !!!

The idea was to see where the levels were, and turn the bow so that the trimortium shields (the last defense if the regular shields are out) intercepts oncoming radiation.

If the ship was not aligned properly, and we were hit by blue gamma, it would be over in a second or two...

But the problem is that we didn't any control over the axis of the ship, except under manual control, and if we couldn't HOLD the attitude for very long. Blue gamma comes in bursts...,not a steady stream of bombardment.

SO, I had to know EXACTLY what the levels were !!!!

Looking at the gamma level indicator was useless....it was as dead as we were going to be !!!

...and my personal "Calculations and Exponents" calculator was blank !!!!

Would I have to resort to memory to figure the level????

What the hell was going on??? The crew was collapsing all around me...this wasn't like gamma blue....

I would have to control the ship by myself??? And do the calcs in my head????

This was SO real!!!! I completely lost the "simulator" state of mind..I was in a panic mode ! Sweat was soaking my uniform, and the adrenalin was pumping !

OK...calm down..your an officer candidate...do the calcs....do the blue gamma calcs....

BLANK

Totally blank...

Completely unable to remember anything about the equation..all I knew was that was running out of time, but I was too scared to run.

Everyone around me was unconscious, I was alone, with a ship that almost was uncontrollable, and soon I would be dead because I couldn't remember a damn formula !!

"Ensign....can you hear me?"

A hologram ??? Inside the bridge???

"Uh..yes I can", I squeaked out...my throat dry..."Who is this?"

"Ensign...can you remember the reason you are here? Can you visualize your Space Force code of ethics?"

"Well, yes, but what does that have to do with ANYTHING!!!! This ship is about 30 seconds from being..."

I was cut off.."Ensign...remember THIS !! "

"The code of ethics when each letter is juxtapositional to the letter next to it, IS the blue gamma formula...simply provide the variables of your last known position, and your trajectory, and speed. The calcs will be complete !"

I was STUNNED !!! "How do you know THAT !!!! AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU ?????"

The hologram smiled and then barked out "DO IT!!!"

Knowing this trick transcended all the panic and worry ! In 10 seconds I knew the level of the radiation, and then flipped the manual attitude controls all on !

I pulled the ship around to present the bow to the oncoming killer radiation, as the levels when I checked were NOW approaching lethal !!!

"Whoosh" !!!!!!!!!!!!

The hologram disappeared, the monitors all came on, the people stood up, and the sensibarriers opened with a airy sound.

From within the smoke and dust, emerged a shape...and it was smiling !

"Ensign White? I presume?"

The only thing I noticed was the 1st Capt's bars, and I snapped a salute !

"Yes Sir" I almost shouted !

"At ease Ensign, I am Captain Box. I was watching your simulation from the control area, and it was me that had them change the programming on your nav android."

"Sir...I KNOW who you are ! Your reputation proceeds you!"

"Sir....you certainly saved my AS...Uh...my life in there SIR !"

"Ensign White....I have been watching you for a few weeks now...you seem to have the same style of playing the game as I did when I was an Ensign. I programmed your simulation to be an exact replication of mine, when we were concerned with the effects of long term exposure to MTV. We used a similar calculation in case our instruments were down too."

"With all due respect SIR !" , I snapped, "I think you could have been just a little bit less demanding on the equipment SIR!"

"White, Marshalls are made to rock about, they are able to take it...don't worry about the equipment...only worry about one thing....and REMEMBER THIS.....you may have occasions to think about quitting the Academy, and later on, a new group that you will be a part of, it will be the same but different...but always know this....some day you will travel on a Sea of Light, and it will all make sense".

Capt. Box snapped a salute, turned, and started to walk away....

He looked back me for an instant, and flinged a little blue triangular thing at me, and I caught it.

As he left the bridge, I heard him say "Come away Melinda, we have work to do", and I swear I saw a Kerslake (rare breed of humanoid that only communicates by tapping on your temples) follow him !!

..I was very much in an awed condition...the whole ordeal had been exhausting, and all I wanted to do was shower (I preferred the old kind with water, not the usual bio thermic evaporators), and watch a good old 3-d concert..

I started to leave the bridge, and looked down at the blue chip that he had tossed me...

It said.."Uriah Heep" ...

I still have that chip....It has been said that this was actually used by a great ancestor also named Mick Box, while he plucked an instrument known as a "Les Paul"????

I will always cherish this gift from the now Space Marshall Box...

...but I must find out what a Les Paul is ! "