Chapter 17- Testing 1-2-3

It didn't take long for the newness of the cleaned ship to wear off and the doldrums of days and weeks of drifting in blackness to take their toll. Everyday was the same: Jim twisted listlessly in his chair while Spock paced. Uhura had no news to report at lunch and even Scotty was tinkering with the idea of pulling a fire alarm just to cause some excitement for the crew. I once again delved into my studies, but I made time for lessons with Spock and Sulu in part to keep them busy and feeling as though they had a purpose as well as the relaxation it gave me. On some days I hit the PADD so hard that by the end of the day I wanted nothing more than to flex my physical muscles rather than my mental ones.

I only had about 4 days left of my studies before I had completed the courses and McCoy scheduled my license exam in two because even at that, the ship had to sit at full stop. We had been heading for deep space and were at the very edge of the range for subspace communications with Starfleet. Regulations stipulated that the link must be directly from the ship and not relayed as would have to be done should we venture any further into uncharted territory. The entire ship was waiting on me; no pressure or anything.

I skimmed the rest of the material and chose to use the rest of my allotted time to brush up on a few weak areas, and for that I needed volunteers. "For what?" McCoy asked in a bored tone while he rearranged his drawers yet again. I swore he had OCD sometimes the way he constantly moved items around and cleaned sickbay compulsively.

"Well, stats have never been a strong point for me. Christ, I took it in undergrad and again in graduate school and once more now, and I know how to make sense of research reports but I am not sure I totally get it for an exam. I thought I might ask Pavel if he would be willing to help me." I thought out loud.

McCoy chuckled dryly. "A woman asking him about math? That would be his wet dream."

I smiled. "But I need to find someone I can practice the psychometric tests on. I remember how to do the old versions, but I need to make sure I get the updated procedures right and I can't just use them on anyone."

He raised his eyebrows slightly while he dug deeply in his bottom drawer- the one he kept his brandy in. "Which ones are you going to do?"

"Intelligence…"

"Jim." He blurted out. I started to laugh but he continued. "I'm serious. He would be a good test subject for that one."

"Why? Because he has ADHD? I already know that." I snickered. "He couldn't sit still long enough to do the test without being distracted by something shiny."

He laughed and replied, "He might surprise you. What else?"

"The Rorschach ink blot." I winced.

"Oohhhh." He frowned. "That one's nasty. You could practice on me."

"No way, McCoy." I protested. "I do not want to know that much about you. When I learned it in graduate school I was told to never give it to anyone I was close to because you find out all kinds of things about them that you may not want to know. I need someone relatively safe- I was thinking Spock."

He let out a mighty guffaw. "That would be a big mistake. Hand him one of those blots and ask him what he sees and he will go round and round with you about how illogical it is to designate a subject to a random and meaningless shape."

"Good point." I conceded. Light a light went off in my head, I exclaimed, "Sulu! He is probably the most psychologically stable person on the ship and he is the least likely to give me pathological responses. Now I just have a memory test…"

He pointed at me and stated, "That is Spock." Indeed. I wanted to see how nearly perfect his memory really was. I gathered my materials and set out to find my volunteers.

Since it was slow, I didn't have to worry about removing my subjects from the bridge during their shift as they were not needed in the first place. I didn't tell them which tests I was giving, but they all consented anyway. Sulu seemed eager to have something to do, even if it was sitting though a psychological test. Spock quietly agreed, but didn't seem either excited or hesitant. Jim, however, was chomping at the bit for a challenge and was disappointed I took Sulu first. He sat in his chair with his arms folded like a petulant child that did not get his way.

Judging by Sulu's reaction, he had never seen a Rorschach test before and he was amused at the task of picking out objects among the ambiguous ink splatters. For me it was pure joy to watch him hard at work, slowly rotating the cards and moving them closer or further away to identify familiar shapes because each action along with his answers told me more about the way he approached the world. As I suspected, he gave fairly normal answers that indicated he was an individual who liked to be in control of his environment, which was not surprising given his occupation as a pilot, but he was also able to adapt well to novel situations by alternating between minute detail and the big picture adopting a more holistic approach to problem solving. He was a little short on emotional content, but what he did have was appropriate and healthy. In terms of relationships, he had a nicely balanced attitude between being open and fair in his expectations of others and not being too reliant on them for his sense of self. I did pick up a hint of depression, but I chose to interpret it as situational boredom.

I thanked him as I opened the door to the conference room. Jim immediately perked up and looked at me expectantly, but I asked, "Spock, are you available?" Jim's face fell as Spock stopped pacing and walked in my direction with a determined look on his face. I just wasn't ready for him yet. I knew Sulu would be easy and I suspected Spock would accomplish his task with equal ease; Jim I would save for last because I just knew he would sap every ounce of strength I had left.

He sat tensely at the table and had I not known him better I would have said that he was experiencing test taking anxiety or as we in the profession called it, 'white coat phobia.' I tried to put him at ease by thanking him for helping me and telling him it was a memory test, but the whole time his eyes never moved from the pile of test materials on the desk. The test required him to memorize a series of 50 human faces, 16 word pairs that were not associated by similarity, minute details of 4 complex pictures, and details of two stories that were several paragraphs long all to be learned and repeated again 45 minutes later unprompted as well as strings of digits to be repeated forward and backwards, and sequences of mixed letters and numbers that he had to first memorize and then repeat in cardinal order. It was bizarre to watch him: he didn't once move for the entire two hours it took to administer the test and he barely blinked. It was like he was in some kind of trance, but he recalled all of the information almost flawlessly. I was blown away by his near perfect eidetic memory. Just for kicks, I asked him to repeat the number and letter sequences which no human could do and he was able to recall most of them. I had an even deeper level of respect for him and his godlike capabilities and was still in awe when I finally called Jim.

He bounced in the room and plopped down in the chair with a playful frown. "I can't believe you made me go last." He pouted. "Hey!" He smiled playing with colored blocks I had placed on the table.

"Give those back!" I gently scolded moving them out of his reach and looking at him suspiciously. "Have you had this test before?"

He flicked the last block at me across the table and answered, "Yeah, I think this was one of the ones Bones gave me when he was doing his psych rotation back at the Academy. It is an intelligence test, right?"

"It is." I grudgingly answered. You were never supposed to tell the examinee what the test was for since it usually induced panic, but I could see it clearly wasn't the case for Jim.

"Damn. I was hoping I would get the ink spot thingy. I tried to talk Bones into giving it to me once, but he just laughed like a maniac. I never could figure out what was so funny…" He scratched the back of his neck and smiled with eager eyes. "Can I have a beer while I do this?"

"If you want to lose a few IQ points." I replied setting the test up, making sure most things were out of his reach so he wouldn't be tempted again. Despite all my reservations, the moment testing began he settled into an intensely focused mood and he approached each task with a single minded concentration that surprised me. He worked quickly and decisively, often employing unconventional strategy and fluid thinking that I found amusing and wholly creative. Sometimes it cost him points and sometimes it earned him bonus points, but in the end he was fairly consistent in his approach. When we were finished, he sat back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head with a smile. "Well, how'd I do, Doc?"

I quickly scored the test and looked it over. "Not unlike most men, you do a little better at non-verbal things than you do verbal, but overall your scores are well above average."

He smirked at me. "What's the big number? C'mon, I know you don't like giving it out, but I know you have it. What's my IQ?"

I shifted in my chair and sighed. "IQ is a composite number that…"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved dismissively. "It's a composite number that is only a snapshot of this moment in time. It is flexible and is only a rough estimate of ability." He leaned forward and his blue eyes sparkled. "So what is it?"

I gave him a guarded smile, McCoy must have given him the spiel when he gave him the test. "132." I whispered.

"Yes!" He hissed raising his hands above his head in victory. "Better than last time!"

"Well, from the way it sounds you may have benefited from a very steep learning curve since your last test." I stated packing up my tests.

"Whatever," he smiled, "the point is I am smarter now, so take that down to Bones and shove it in his face." He did a little victory dance and I laughed. "So are you done now- with everything?"

"Yeah." I sighed happily. I didn't think the moment would ever come. "My exam is in two days."

He leaned on the back of the chair. "That's cool. That should give us enough time."

"To do what?" I inquired walking with him to the door.

"Chekov spotted a small planet not far off and we were going to skip over there real quick to do some scans and maybe a surface exploration if there is anything interesting before hurrying back in time for your exam. The crew is dying for something to do." He explained. It did seem grossly unfair that I was holding everyone up, but I just had a bad feeling about this. "Mr. Chekov, what's the ETA?"

"Approximately 36 minutes, Sir." He dutifully reported.

"Mr. Spock, anything on preliminary scans?" He asked reclaiming his seat.

"The planetoid appears to have an oxygen rich atmosphere with bodies of water present. Scans indicate microbial flora as well as larger aquatic plant matter." He stated pushing buttons on his console. "Most have been matched to the database, but there are species that are unidentified."

"Great." Jim said mildly hopeful. "Sulu, Uhura, saddle up 'cause we are going down."

"If I may inquire, Captain, what good will Cadet Uhura's presence be if none of the species appear to be sentient and therefore able to communicate?" Spock asked calmly agitated.

Jim leaned his head back to look at his Science Officer without actually getting up. "C'mon, Spock. She never gets to go anywhere, give her a break." Uhura smiled and removed her earpiece. Spock clasped his hands behind his back and drew his mouth into a tight line, he knew he had no real grounds to object yet he very much wanted to.