Consequences

by DoctorH

This is a follow-up to "Failure Analysis," but it's not a sequel (and it is much shorter). A Physics professor arrives on DS9 and proposes to conduct experiments on the wormhole. The equation that forms the basis for the experiments is so complicated that almost no one can understand the equation... or its consequences. Sisko must decide whether to allow the experiments to proceed.

7. Bashir's spare time

Chapter 7: A strange activity in Bashir's spare time.

At seventeen hundred hours, Dr. Julian Bashir, drink in hand, sat down with O'Brien, who also had a drink in hand, at a table in Quark's bar.

O'Brien smirked. "You had to do medical evaluation for all of the new personnel, did you?"

"That I did."

"Tedious, was it?"

"Yes. Quite tedious. I was pleased to report to Commander Sisko that all of them passed their physical examinations. Was your day tedious as well?"

"'Tedious' is not the right word," O'Brien chuckled. "'Frustrating' would be more like it."

"Frustrating? Why?"

"Because Commander Sisko asked me to explain something to him called 'Vuldt's Equation'; and I couldn't do it."

Bashir shrugged dismissively. "Well, it is a difficult equation to understand."

O'Brien wasn't sure he'd heard what he'd just heard. "Julian, do you know about Vuldt's Equation?"

"Yes. A little."

O'Brien was stunned. "Do they teach Vuldt's Equation in medical school?"

"No, not really. I've heard it might come up in some advanced studies of biochemical interactions, though."

"Is that where you heard of it, in studying Biochemistry?"

"No."

"Well, Julian, where did you hear of it?"

Bashir looked at his drink, then looked at O'Brien. "This is just between you and me, all right? When I was studying Pre-Med Physics, I met a young lady, and I became rather interested in her. She was studying Advanced Physics. The time came when I asked her out to dinner, and during that dinner, the subject of Vuldt's Equation came up. I had never heard of it, but she was obsessed with it. And since I had taken a fancy to this young lady, and since I wanted to engage her in conversation, I started learning about Vuldt's Equation, so that when we talked, I wouldn't sound like a total fool. We had about a dozen dinner dates, and we talked about the equation, and a few other things, and then she was assigned to Starbase Forty. I never saw her after that. That's the entire story. After she left, I never had another thought about Vuldt's Equation, until you mentioned it a few moments ago."

"You learned about Vuldt's Equation on your own, then? You didn't take any classes, is that right?"

"Yes. I just read up on it in my spare time."

O'Brien wondered how any man could be so taken with any lady that he would go to all the trouble to learn about Vuldt's Equation in his "spare time." O'Brien looked Bashir in the eye. "Julian, do you think you could help Commander Sisko? He has to deal with the meaning of Vuldt's Equation, as it relates to the wormhole."

"As it relates to the wormhole?"

"Yes. Do you remember Commissioner Nguyen from the Observer incident? Well, he's Professor Nguyen now, and he's come back to DS9 to study the wormhole. He's going to do experiments to see whether Vuldt's Equation can describe or predict what the wormhole will do."

Bashir seemed frozen, and then after a long pause, he spoke in a very low voice. "Yes, I think I had better talk with Commander Sisko."