Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction

"Humph," Erica snorted. "I derived general c-prime relativity
when I was in Junior High. Of course, I am a genius." She added a
theatrical grin and a toss of her head.
Paula swung the back of her hand at Erica's face, just missing her.
"Whap. Behave yourself, old woman."
Jan grinned.
Paula cracked a smile. "So is almost every member of the crew,
Jan included," she said, looking at Erica. "Nevertheless, I doubt if ten
percent of them could do this math without tutoring." She turned
back to Jan. "But that still leaves us in a bind. Right now, we need a
programmer who can hack this math."
"I'll work with you for a couple of days to straighten this program
out," Erica injected. "Long term, though, I'm afraid we're going to
have to reassign you."
"Which presents a problem," Paula added. "Jan, I've always been
impressed with your general knowledge of the ship's systems.
Unfortunately, you don't have enough specialized expertise in any
particular system, other than the computers, to let us reassign you to a
technical specialty post. And we're already fully staffed with
computer experts."
"But," Erica chimed in with a wicked grin, "we do have a nasty
little job which Paula, Raj, and I have been kicking around between
us."
"I'll clean the heads," Jan offered. "I'll do the windows.
Anything. I want to stay on."
"Good, I was hoping you'd feel that way," Erica replied. "But
this job is even worse. Calls for someone who knows every nook and
cranny of the ship, and how it all works. Calls for someone with good
organizational skills. Calls for an innovator, particularly for someone
who can think on their feet."
Jan perked up. "That doesn't sound so bad."
Erica rolled her eyes. "You haven't seen the mountain of bovine
excrement regulations you'll have to plow through to get it done, or
dealt with the morons who'll be expecting reports from you every time
we head out."
"Basically, we need someone to run security for the Dreamer,"
Paula explained. "And we think you can do it."
"More to the point, we need someone with your skills who is
desperate enough to stay aboard that they'll accept a non-science job,"
Erica added. "We particularly don't want an outside specialist coming
in and cramming a packaged program down our throats. We want
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