Disclaimer : I know that Paramount (ad infinitum) holds the copyrights that own the context and the characters of the Original Star Trek series. I also know that I'm playing with their creations without permission. What I do makes me happy, but doesn't make me money.

Spock and Christine, Finally! - Stats (Not part of the series, just for fun)

Christine was struggling at her terminal in the foyer of their quarters, while Spock kept an eye on Samek. Three months old, he was at the 'crawl around like crazy then pull yourself up and see what you can reach' stage. Meanwhile, supper was simmering on the stove. A typical evening after work. "Spock? Can you help me a minute here?" He sensed that her level of frustration continued to rise. Hoisting Samek over his shoulder, he went to help his wife.

"You've been working on this for over an hour. What's the problem?", he asked.

"You know how much fun I've been having posting my stories on the ship's new fan fiction bulletin board. It's my account, and trying to interpret these darn 'stats' that's driving me crazy."

"If this is affecting your mental stability, perhaps you should discontinue."

"No... no... I just can't figure it out. Let me explain. I post a story. It has two chapters. A reader clicks on my story for the first time. Chapter One comes up and my account statistics show I've received one 'hit'. Somebody looked at my first chapter, doesn't mean they read it... but the number of 'hits' tells me if my story is popular." Christine felt foolish explaining this to one of the highest rated computer scientists in the quadrant.

Samek was squirming around and wanted 'Mommy'. Spock handed him over. "Please continue, my Love."

"Okay. They read the first chapter. Then click on 'Next' for Chapter Two. I receive a 'hit' for chapter two. So far, everything is logical, right?"

"Right. A 'problem' is not obvious to me."

"I'll show you. Here's my 'statistics' page. I have five stories posted at this time. I'll use this one as an example. People have looked at chapter one 184 times, but they've looked at chapter two only 37 times! Why the discrepancy?"

"Christine, you have to remember that a person will read chapter one first, then perhaps sign off. When they return to read chapter two, the first chapter will receive another 'hit', as you call it... even though it doesn't really count."

"So I subtract 37 from 184 for those cases. What about the other 147? Does it really mean that all those people looked at only the first chapter, but never moved on to the second?"

"It would seem so." He felt her concern. "Are you disappointed?"

"Makes me want to just give it all up. Maybe I'm not good enough for this."

"Others have sent you feedbacks with positive remarks. Why do these 'stats' continue to trouble you?"

"I'll give another example. This story here received 89 hits on chapter one and 22 hits on chapter two, leaving 47 who didn't continue. How come I don't get, say, 50 and 50?"

"Christine, I did not program this feature. Perhaps you can find out who did, and let them explain their reasoning."

"I wish you had done the programming, but you're not into fan fiction."

"It sometimes seems like I'm in it a lot more than we realize. Have you spoken with other writers regarding this?"

"No, but I hope there's someone out there who may have this figured out."

Samek wiggled down off of Christine's lap and scooted off towards the kitchen. Spock was hot on his heels. "Come now, my Love... dinner is ready. We can continue this tomorrow."

"What's for dinner? Wait a minute. I can tell by that great aroma...Lasagna !!"