
                      STAR TREK: IN SEARCH OF POWER


"Sulu, set path to the root directory and install the ram disk for 320k. We're
taking her out."

"Aye, sir."

"Scotty, I want full power to the megabit ram chips and to the hard drives."

"Captain, yer overloadin' her as it is. The power supply just isn't built to
take two hard drrrives."

"Power, Scotty! I want more power! Chekov, install the disk cache. Spock, any
word on the millions of instructions per second?"

"Fascinating, Captain. It seems as if the turbo accelerator board is
overrunning the hard drive, which, due to its poorer response time, is slowing
down the system performance."

"Scotty, where is that power!?"

"Captain, I'm givin ye all she's got. It's that miserable 80986 with the 512k
bit bus multiplexed down to one pin. The wee beastie has these teeny weeny
little segments that can only handle so much. You'll have to install an
extended memory board, do bank switching, and allocate a huge ram disk if you
want to go any faster."

"Chekov, install the EMS board."

"Yes, sir."

"Uhura, any word from mainframe command?"

"Well, Captain, we're received several interrupts from the serial port, but
because we're not multitasking, the data is just sitting there."

"Scotty, how much longer until we can shift into Unix?"

"Captain, if ye can squeeze another 60 megabytes onto that hard disk, we might
have room for Unix and a couple of system utilities. Possibly an application.
We'll need to increase the clock speed to 28 gigahertz. I think we can do it,
but there are too many unknowns, too many bugs in the system! We'll have to do
a proper shakedown."

"Spock?"

"Unix is a massive system, Captain, and the commands have to be decoded from
hieroglyphics invented back in ancient times. It may be more than we can
handle."

"Sulu, put in the 60 meg hard drive, install Unix for mouse drive. Prepare to
go to Task speed on my signal."

"Mouse drive? ......Aye, Captain."

"Now! Yes, Bones? What do you want?"

"Jim, you just have a little spreadsheet work, mailing labels, and some word
processing. Don't you think you're overdoing it a bit?"

"Sulu?"

"Captain, she's shifting into multitasking. Task one. Task two.... Captain, I'm
losing control at the helm. It looks like we've encountered a bad sector."

"Put it on visual, Sulu."

"Captain, the VGA is not responding, sir. Shifting resolution into EGA mode."

"Spock? What's the problem?"

"Unknown, Captain. Unix seems to be rerouting all input to a null device."
Trying 'grep'", now muttering, "whatever that is."

"Scotty, what's happening with those '/dev' subdirectories?"

"Captain, she canna take much morrre.... Another fifteen seconds and me math
chips'll burrrn up for surrre...."

"Scotty, we're not using the math chip."

"Sorry, Captain, but I haven't been able to say that for twenty minutes."

"Uhura, notify mainframe command."

"Captain, either communications is breaking up, or you're dropping into
Shakespearean stutter mode again."

"Captain, she canna take much morrre.... Another fifteen seconds and me math
chips'll burrrn up for surrre...."

"Enough Scotty!"

"Captain! I'm getting a message from mainframe command......Apparently, sir,
they're going to time-warp previously forgotten modes of data handling, it
looks like SQL syntax is forming in the language port now."

"Scotty, quick, pop-up the menu shields. This could be a trick to get us back
to card punching."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but Dbase LCXIX doesn't have pop-ups that work yet."

"Chekov, we need hardcopy! Fire HP LaserJet!"

"Aye, sir."

"Bones, how do I see which tasks are active?"

"I'm a doctor, Jim, not a command shell!"

"Scotty! Why can't I get a directory on this thing!!?"

"Captain, ye just canna have a mouse driven pull down menu system with Unix.
It's like matter and antimatter, the system's too bogged down. Yer drainin me
quartz crystals."

"Chekov, report."

"Captain, the little arrow is responding, but it gets to the side of the screen
before the windows have a chance to move..."

"Spock? What's happening to our multitasking?"

"It appears as if the needs of the one are outweighing the needs of the many."

"Captain, she's not even runnin on reserve now. We'll have to do a cold boot
for surrre."

"Reboot scotty "

"I can't captain..we have lost cmos"

"Install floppy backup"

"We can't captain..intense magnetic radiation from overloading thre power
supply has wiped the backup floppies"

"Doctor"?

"it's dead jim"

"Bones?"

"It's dead, Jim."
