Personal Log, 2nd March 2411.

Begin log.

I just keep thinking back to the day I was falsely framed for meddling with Academy examination schemes to benefit myself. That day started out like a regular day, then became hell, but somehow had a happy ending for me.

Begin Flashback

It was the 5th of June, 2408 – the day that the Academy graduation examination was going to happen. I did my usual routine – I woke up at 4am and replicated some toast with milk before sitting down to have it. Then, I took a sonic shower and did some quick Indian meditation. I put on my usual attire and then started tinkering with my custom phaser – the latest technological project I was working on at the time. Kept tinkering with it from 5am to 6am before revising from 6am to 7:45am. Once it was 7:45am, I packed all the stuff I’d need for the day. I went to the examination hall and arrived 1 hour early, as usual, and talked to some cadets. I gave them some pointers and told them to keep their nerves as cool as possible so that they’d graduate with the best possible grade.

Then, at 9am, we entered the hall for the Starfleet Academy Sciences and Engineering Graduation Examination. Despite the fact I was only studying the Mathematics P.H.D., I had also done everything else required to answer the Logic, Computer Science, Systems Science, Cybernetics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Minerology, Physics, Stellar Cartography, History, Astronautical Tactics, Forensics, Quantum Engineering, Warp Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Cosmology, Philosophy, Statistics and Archival Sciences questions – getting the pass rate for all the other subjects also meant I’d be getting a P.H.D. for each of the subject.

Now, at the time, people were wondering why I was such a workaholic. But the truth was that I either loved, had an interest in, made a hobby out of or figured I’d need those subjects. And I knew Starfleet Academy wouldn’t keep re-admitting students, so I decided to sit all 20 P.H.Ds in 1 Academy admission. It was tough, but then again, I wasn’t one to party and I was near-emotionless. Even Erwin Rydenberg, my best friend then and now, called me “as crazy as a rampaging black hole”. And he wasn’t wrong. I had schedules for each subject and kept to them all, each of which intertwined with each other to create the ultimate workday calendar – something even the most devout Stakhanovite can’t help but admire and respect simultaneously. Throughout the year, I was either in my quarters, walking, in Sickbay or in counselling sessions – that’s how anti-social I was. Labelling me as a near-sociopath on top of that didn’t help at all.

Pause Flashback

But, I digress. God, I need to cut out the tangents. Computer, delete the last 3 sentences, which includes this sentence I am saying right now, permanently.

Computer: “Working…”
Computer: “Last 3 sentences removed from personal log.”

Resume Flashback

The examination hall was split into squadrons. Given I was in Blue Squadron, I was in the back right quarter of the hall – the order from front left to back right was Red, Gold, White, Blue. I found my way to my allocated seat and waited for 9:30am, the time at which the examination would start. Once 9:25am came around, the Academy Examination Invigilators came up and reiterated the Academy’s strict examination rules. But once 9:30am struck, this was it – the chance to obtain all 20 P.H.Ds with 1 metaphorical stone, as the altered saying went.

The questions in each subject were distinctly challenging, as if they had a personality of their own. Luckily for me, I applied my unconventional methods and technical creativity to form solutions that no examiner would see coming – they’d be blindsided by my ingenuity. Each subject had a wide range of topics, ranging from easy to thought-provoking – mathematics had Riemannian topological inversions, astronomy had magnetar nulceonic chains and so on and so forth. As the hours rolled by, people began leaving while I was still going through the examination – I was doing 500 out of the 1275 questions on the digital paper, which meant that for each one of the 51 potential P.H.Ds you could get, there were 25 questions designed to test you for that particular subject.

It was now 11am, and everybody had left the examination hall but me. I was in the middle of doing Logic Question 16/25, and having done 213 questions so far, when an Academy Examination Invigilator walked by me and was surprised.

AEI: “Excuse me, Cadet.”

I quickly stopped what I was doing and pressed the Pause button on the console, which is there whenever you need to go to the bathroom or address an Invigilator, even though I’d have ideally liked the interaction to happen after I had done my working out and submitted my solution to the question. I then addressed the AEI.

Me: “Yes, Invigilator?”

AEI: “You do know you can leave, right? Everyone else has left.”

Me: “I’m actually hoping to get 20 P.H.Ds in 1 examination.”

AEI: scoffs.

AEI: “Nobody is allowed to do more than 1 P.H.D in an examination, Cadet.”

Me: “With all due respect, Invigilator, cadets are not explicitly banned from staying back and completing questions from different disciplines and even getting the discipline’s respective bachelors or P.H.Ds on graduation day, as long as you’ve notified the lead Invigilator, which is your boss, in advance. And I told her about 1 month in advance of this examination, which is unprecedented. But I got her approval.”

AEI: has an irritated face but cannot defeat a Cadet who’s gone through the protocols.

AEI: “Fine. You may continue, Cadet.”

The Invigilator simply smiled in a weird manner before leaving me to finish the examination.

Pause Flashback

Back then, I put that smile down to embarrassment and it being forced. Now I know it wasn’t forced – it was genuine and it was formed from the depths of malice and cunning – he was starting a plan that could’ve ruined my Starfleet career forever. I should have picked up on it, but I was and am a near-sociopath, so I don’t blame my past self for thinking that way.

Resume Flashback

Eventually, when it struck 8:30pm, I had finally finished all 500 questions. 11 hours of processing every single question. Some were very easy, some were harder and some were even thought-provoking, difficult and challenging simultaneously.

Once done, I packed up everything and pressed Submit, sending the script over to the Academy Examination Department, before leaving the hall and returning to my quarters, where I had my dinner before collapsing onto the bed. Little did I know what was going to happen the very next morning…

The very next day, I still followed my ‘Stakhanovite calendar’ until 6:45am, when a shrill doorbell ring echoed throughout my quarters. I perked up, wondering who on hell would come to my quarters at all, let alone come at this hour. I securely put away my custom phaser, which I was tinkering with, and set up the quarters nicely, in the event guests were somehow over, before asking whoever was outside to come in – the doorbell had been rung 2 more times by now. When the doors opened, a senior Admiral alongside some security officers and the same AEI from yesterday entered. The AEI looked smugly at me. But I didn’t look back at him – I decided to get to the bottom of this.

Me: “Admiral.”, putting my hands behind my back and clasping them together.

Admiral: “Cadet, you’re under arrest.”

Then, the security officers attempted to place me under arrest, but they found that my hand clasp was quite strong.

Security Officer 1: “He won’t loosen his clasp, Sir.”

Me: “Admiral, name me the charges for my arrest and I’ll let go of the clasp.”

The Admiral and I stared at each other for a few minutes. It was a dangerous game, sure, but I had stood up to 1 or 2 other senior officers and even a top brass officer during my time here in the Academy, so I knew this was the safest way to “face off” against the Admiral, so to speak.

Admiral: “Fine. You’ve been charged with manipulation of data, manipulation of evidence, falsifying data, falsifying evidence, bribery, emotional blackmail, altering of examination marking material, manipulation of examination marking material and cheating.”

Although my exterior was calm, I was raging inside. I let go of my clasp, as promised, and the security officers handcuffed me. I knew this meant that the Academy Court would have a case on their hands. All this time, the AEI kept giving me a smug smile. I was taken to the brig and placed there with handcuffs on. Over the next week, my attorney showed me everything I was allowed to be shown, and I was stunned at the extent of the framing – altered video footage from the examination day showing that I bribed and manipulated, blurry video footage potentially depicting me scaling buildings to alter and manipulate examination marking material, isolinear chips logging an altered script that showed I had somehow implanted a virus into it and so much more. Me and my attorney started building my defence up over the next month and a half, preparing for the trial date. We used everything, from my already diagnosed acrophobia alongside other medical conditions and surgeries to eyewitnesses on the day of the examination itself and contradicting cross-references in regards to the defendant’s statements, at our disposal.

However, one night, my attorney suggested something… outrageous.

Attorney: “We could mention your…”, pointing to his heart, he said in a hushed tone.

Me: eyes widen in shock.

Me: “Absolutely not! Only Starfleet Medical and those that need to know in the Academy knows about it.”, I pretty much whispered in protest.

Attorney: “The nano-clicking, quantum pulses, the fact you have a tool for unjamming quantum chips and the rest of the mechanics of the quantum cybernetic heart you built will strengthen our defense to the point where their attacks may not be able to do much, and we’d have a higher probability of winning the case. Because, right now, it’s about a 43% win rate to us. And, even then, there’s more evidence on their side rumoured to take our chances down to 31%. So, this might be our best chance to get a leg up while we can.”, he responded softly.

I then had to grapple with the fact that one of the few secrets I keep to myself could become public knowledge. But, I quickly realised that, if it ultimately saved my Starfleet career, I had to – choice was out of the equation.

Me: “Fine.”, I responded.

With that, the attorney acquired the blueprints from Starfleet Medical and spent another 2.5 months using everything he could gather about my quantum cybernetic heart to strengthen our defence. Overall, it took exactly 6 months from my arrest for the evidence-collecting to stop and for the trial to finally begin. Even graduation day was suspended for all the cadets in the Academy because of me – the outcome of this trial literally would make or break all of their grades.

My family, meanwhile, had publicly decided to emotionally disown me, saying that this is final regardless of the outcome. But they also mentioned that if the outcome went against, they’d legally disown me as well. Although that was heartbreaking, it felt… kind of relieving since they never cared about me growing up.

Inside the Academy Court, we fought against the AEI that framed me for another month, slowly winning in a game of evidence attrition. At the end of the trial, the Academy Court Judge conferred with another panel of judges before coming to a decision.

ACJ: “It is the court’s final decision that Cadet Yajat Shamji is found… not guilty. It is also in the court’s interest that the defendant be fired from his job.”

I slumped in my seat, knowing that I emerged victorious after 7 months of fighting. Meanwhile, the AEI was furious, his smug smile replaced by a seething expression. However, the Academy cadets started protesting, saying that they’d potentially have no grades now. I suddenly raised my right hand, with my index and middle fingers whilst the rest of the fingers were near the palm, to silence the cadets.

Me: “Your Honour, may I propose something to this Court that’d satiate this protesting?”

ACJ: “Proceed, Cadet Shamji. But do make it quick.”

Me: “Acknowledged, Your Honour.”

I then stood up.

Me: “Your Honour, I propose abolishing fixed/set mark schemes for Starfleet Academy examinations and replacing them with flexible mark schemes that consider all angles and approaches to a solution.”

The Cadets murmured amongst themselves before one of them stepped forward.

Cadet 1: “We agree this is a suitable solution. But why are you suggesting this?”

I then, to make a long story short, explained to the cadet that the values of curiosity and inquisitiveness are lost in a classroom and that this is the first step to regaining them. I also used other cadets as examples where the traditional mark schemes let down the students when their approaches were valid. After 45 minutes of making my point, I sat down. Then the Academy Court Judge once again conferred with the panel of judges before coming to a decision.

ACJ: “The court has also ruled that Cadet Yajat Shamji’s suggestion should be… implemented immediately.”

I sighed out of relief, as I knew another victory had just been secured. But later that night, I mentally and psychologically broke down – the last 7 months were too much for me. Plus, the entire Academy Class of 2408, the media – everyone now knew about my quantum cybernetic heart. Erwin consoled me for a week and managed to make me see the light at the end of the emotional tunnel by giving me a pet Tribble, whom I named Srinivasa after the first name of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. On graduation day, I was valedictorian of the class and was awarded a special medal they commissioned starting from this year onwards – the Claude Shannon Medal of Mathematical Excellence, given to a valedictorian who showcases exceptional mathematical skills beyond what is shown in the curriculum.

End Flashback

However, still thinking back to that day hurts. They now teach it in Criminal Justice back at the Academy on Mellstoxx III. They’re calling the incident “The Isolinear Prodigy Scandal”, or IP Scandal for short.

As I hear the humming, clicking, quantum pulses and shockwaves of my quantum cybernetic heart, I gently clutch the region around it.

I’m now off to do my night-time routine of playing 3D Chess and Kal-Toh against myself in the Mess Hall whilst everybody’s asleep or on duty – nobody goes to the Mess Hall in the middle of the night except me.

Come, Srinivasa.

Oh.

End log.