Picard cringed. "Who was this *Prince*?" "Prince," said Data, aka O-+->, aka 'thingee', born Prince Rogers Nelson. He was a popular singer in the late 20th century. Interestingly, the plot of his first film, 'Purple Rain' bears striking similarities to the famous Klingon opera 'Bok Choi', especially in the character of the father, whose own talent is abjured--" "Abjured?" said Worf. "I would say 'abnegated'." "Ah," said Data. "But--" Picard asked, "Enough, Data. Now, what is this O-+->? Some archaic mathematical symbol?" "Actually, for Prince, it represented the combination of the male and the female, the yin, the yang, the j, the i, the m--" Ramanujan looked up very briefly and said, "That's so lame." "Whatever became of this Prince?" "He went looking for the ladder," said Ludwig. "Sometimes it snows in April," said Hollystone. Data said, "Perhaps I can explain better in song: His name was Prince And he was spunky When it came to spunk He was a junkie..." "Funk, Data," said Riker. "I believe the word is 'funk'. Although your version is no less--" "That's enough," said Picard. "Pete," said Wiles, "I have to ask. Did you have a proof or not?" "Of what?" Up in the gallery, young Wesley boy genius was distracted. "Young Wesley boy genius," said Picard, "what's on your mind?" "I was just wondering if Scully will ever be allowed to really *act* on the X-Files." "Oh, young Wesley boy genius," said Picard, tousling young Wesley boy genius' hair, "and what would you know of *real acting*?" "Hey, I was good in 'Stand By Me'." "Well, if you take 'good' to mean 'nauseatingly earnest' then yes, you were quite good." "Just because I don't do Shakespeare doesn't mean--" "Oh, petulance. You're expanding your range." "Captain," said Counselor Troi, "I sense hostility." "I sense a cipher," said Picard, and smacked her. "Well," said young Wesley, "if you're such a hotshot actor, how come you can't do an even remotely-convincing love scene?" "Good one, Wes," said Geordi. "It's a *choice*, Ensign. You understand: a *choice*!" "I believe I understand," said the boy genius, thinking a moment. "You're *choosing* to act badly in love scenes." Riker grinned. Worf nodded. Beverly licked the tip of her forefinger and drew an imaginary "one" in the air. "One more crack like that, young Wesley boy genius, and you'll spend the rest of your life in a pain enhancer." "Pain enhancer, Patrick? said Riker. "You do realize this isn't 'Dune', right?" Troi said, "Did you hear Lynch is interested in directed an episode next season? But he wants to feature 'Bob' and Berman says No." "Pain enhancer," said Worf. "Tell me more." Ramanujan was showing a peculiar property of theta functions to Gauss, Fermat and Wiles. Marilyn was writing out the first few terms of a number series. Smullyan had taken two cubes and on one had written the numbers 3, 4 and 5. Marilyn said, "Okay, listen to me. What's the next number in this series?" "Data, get in on this," said Barclay. Data moved over to the table. "Here, you want pencils, paper?" They all just glared at her. "Fine. Here goes. 8, 9, 12, 15, 21, 34. What's next?" Gauss, Fermat, and Ramanujan all said, "56" before she was done saying "34". Ramanujan was continuing the series. "88..." Ludwig broke a pencil. "Yes, 56," said Wiles. "Data?" "56 is correct, Captain. I don't know how they beat me. Permission to destroy myself." "Permission denied. Data, sometimes you can make no mistakes and still lose." Ludwig said, "Would someone please explain to us down here in the cheap seats why 56 is the next term in the series?" Gauss muttered under his breath, "Boeotian." "I heard that, Carl. I don't know what it means, but I heard it." He was tossed a dictionary. "This dictionary sucks" said Ludwig. "There's no 'gullible'." Gauss muttered under his breath, "Dickweed." "All right," said Riker. "Who introduced the Kibo sub- process?" He was roundly ignored. "Okay," said Marilyn. "I don't know how you did it, but you got the next term in the series. Now, here's a question I got last week from a reader in Des Moines. 'Ignorant in Idaho' wonders..." "Wait," said Ludwig. "Explain this 56 business." "Yes," said the boy genius. "What's going on?" Data answered. "Marilyn forgot with whom she was dealing. If she'd begun the series at a thousand, it would have been much harder." "No, not really," said Ramanujan." "A million?" "Okay," said Ramanujan. "Starting with a million would have taken a few minutes. It would not have popped into my head as it did starting with eight." Fermat said, "You see, Marilyn, we've played with these numbers all our lives, especially the primes. Don't fuck with us, okay?" "Primes?" "Jesus Christ, Ludwig," said Gauss, "once she started with eight and nine, she'd pretty much given it away. Eight and nine are the only two numbers, less than 10 , neither of which is prime, and between which there are no primes. There's one prime between nine and twelve, one between twelve and fifteen, two between fifteen and twenty-one, three between--" "The Fibonacci series!" exclaimed young Wesley boy genius, who consequently had to change his uniform. "Why 21? Why not 22?" "Whenever there was a choice like that," said Ramanujan, "she picked the median. For example, after 21 her next term lay somewhere between 31 and 37. Difference of 6, halved, added to 31, badabing badaboom: 34." UN-altered REPRODUCTION and INSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is a MORAL IMPERATIVE. RICHH