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Main Sim - Lecture Hall 2A - William's lecture on Believing in six impossible things before breakfast: Physics on the edges of Known Space.

Posted May 23, 2019, 2:05 a.m. by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) (marthese bugeja)

Posted by Lieutenant William B. Grey (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Lecture Hall 2A - William’s lecture on Believing in six impossible things before breakfast: Physics on the edges of Known Space.

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Lecture Hall 2A - William’s lecture on Believing in six impossible things before breakfast: Physics on the edges of Known Space.
[snip]

“I did see my son, yes!” replied Glen. “But it was a very brief visit and as he had school in the morning, he was in bed early. He’s growing into a fine young man though, so I’m glad I got the opportunity to go there…”

Cross could see he was visible delighted with the opportunity that he had a chance to meet his son and without a word just pressed his hand then letting it go. In a way the Captain was lucky...... for she would never lay eyes on hers.

…And I hear that you’ve been to the United States of Africa? I’m jealous!”

The doctor nodded ‘’Quiet so,it has been somewhat of an experience, I got to meet the CoS ‘s large family and acquired some knowledge of their culture. How diverse our planet is Captain, when you really do think about it,’‘ she commented more to herself then to anyone else.

“Did you get to see the wildlife reserved parks? It’s one of the few places left on Earth that still has animals roaming free in the wild.”

“That she did, Captain.” came the low baritone of the Security Chief’s voice from behind as he maneuvered himself to a seat directly behind them. “It was an impromptu safari, one might say.” he added with a twinkle in his eye.

Cross slapped both hands on her face and uttered in a muffled voice ‘’Ya,sorry Captain forgot about the darn hyena ‘’. Glen knew her well enough to understand the doctor’s shenanigans.

“I wish I could see more of Earth,” Glen said, “I never get enough time.”

‘’Really!’‘ exclaimed Cross with a surprise look on her face ‘’So you have been on missions to discover new plants and new civilization but never had the chance to see more of mother Earth’‘ she shook her head ‘’Unbelievable Captain, I took two yrs off work from the ER and traveled much of the world but..’‘ she gave a heavy sigh ‘’I met a retired Vulcan he narrated his adventures and well I decided to turn back and join Star Fleet Academy’‘she finished of with a small, lost smile.

“But remember, I lived on Alpha Centauri for most of my childhood, and even though I had family in England and Scotland, we rarely visited them… Wait!… something’s happening… looks like we are about to begin…”

As people started arriving William stopped his preparations and sat down at the desk. He opened the small pack and grabbed several books from it, placing them in small stacks, grabbing one and sitting down. He reached into his bag again and grabbed a pair of spectacles and placed them on his face. Putting his legs on the desk and leaning back casually he started reading.

The doctor gave a lingering look at William his face seemed serious and dedicated at least from her point of view,he somehow reminded Cross of when she was still at school.

Suddenly the computer beeped and William stood up, closing the book loudly startling some of the Cadets “Alright then” He smiled at the group “Believing in six impossible things before breakfast” His tempered Scottish accent and full-moon spectacles completing his professor-like look “Quite the pretentious title innit?” he walked across the center of his ‘stage’ “But it is the cornerstone of my job as Science Officer. Now before I begin a simple introduction: My name is William B. Grey, I graduated from Oxford University at twenty, received Training at the Starfleet Technical Services Academy on Mars and Graduated as a Non-commissioned officer until Captain Glen saw fit to Make me a Commissioned Officer and place me in Charge of the Science Department on the Merrimack.”

As he talked he walked slowly back and forth, glancing from cadet to cadet, gauging their interest “Believing in six things before breakfast” He turned to his book, returning to the desk and lifting it up “Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland, a wonderful read for those who haven’t. Historians argue about whether or not the story was written as criticism on non-Euclidian geometry and as a warning against the non-conformity of symbolic algebra. I don’t think it matters much, what does matter is what the story says. ‘We’re all mad here’.” He casually tossed the book behind him “I guess that could be the unofficial Motto of Starfleet, in fact, I’m fairly certain it is our unofficial motto. Because it takes a certain degree of madness to understand space, its dangers and its wonders”

Glen had never heard, ‘We’re all mad here’ before as a motto. He remembered that the Pilot School had a motto, ‘Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop,’ but that was all.

Impossible things… Tia was an engineer on a deep space star ship. Impossible things were often the norm. The fact that the science chief was lecturing on believing six impossible things before breakfast was a lecture she couldn’t bring herself to miss. She slid into the back of the room just as the book went flying behind the lecturer. She slid into first vacant seat she came to and listened to motto as it was tied to Star Fleet.

Cross fully agreed that they were all mad, to seek knowledge and understand the cosmos,try to grasp their very own existence with the full awareness of risking their lives every second, minute , hour on a daily basis they had to be .

Some say to survive it you need to be as mad as a hatter .

Cadets sat eagerly from mainly the science and engineering departments listening to the lecture so far no one had any questions to raise as it went on.

Glen looked around the room of Cadets; Cadets who had been taught that travel to the Andromeda Galaxy was impossible and that Time Travel was impossible.

“So what constitutes possibility or for that matter impossibility. The Vulcan Science Directorate has been one of the foremost scientific institutes in the Quadrant for longer than Humans have been in space. A few hundred years ago they decided that time-travel was impossible. Since then there have been several recorded examples of Timetravel, controlled or accidental.” William gauged the room “In simpler terms, the impossible is simply things we haven’t really succeeded at doing. Warp travel used to be impossible as did transportation. Sure there are technical limitations at every turn but don’t let that stop you, Leonardo Davinci designed flying vehicles centuries before they were possible. So what if your idea isn’t possible now if you understand the fundamentals of the science behind it someone later down the line may be able to work on your idea and make it our future.” He stopped at the center of the ‘Stage’ once more “Any questions before I continue?”

A hand went up from a cadet, “What about the problems of Muon lifetime measurement error, from traversable wormholes with arbitrarily small energy condition violations, in relation to the Bender-Fry chronology protection conjecture, Sir?”

  • Cadet, Blue-Shirt

William opened his mouth then closed it before opening it once more but this time speaking “What about them?” He asked after deciding to go a more humorous route “Muon lifetime measurements errors within those parameters are mostly due to a lack of empirical data to work with seing as traversable wormholes are as rare as relevant questions in a lecture hall. Just because we can’t measure something so short within something so rare and volatile doesn’t mean we won’t be able to.” He walked around “And I’d recommend relating any Muon or Leptons for that matter with the Tyler-Jones CPC over the Bender-Fry. Although that’s a personal preference.”

CSO

Cross took a deep breath and smiled,it was now that she knew William a bit better then before and he did not disappoint the CMO ‘’It does seem our CSO have the required qualities,of a high standard ‘’ she told the Captain ‘’The science dept is in competent hands’‘.

Cross Dr.


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