Bab 7: Space Race, Take Two. Part 5: Katherine is called to the Principal's Office.
The next morning, Dorothy Vaughan comes by to check on me and tries to do the same, before we get going. I need to check their facilities, Katherine's work, and the state of research in NASA. On the road, I talk with Dorothy, while I know her from her biographies, I'm supposed to be her friend, so I try to mingle and get her to talk about what she does. We talk about space, culture, and society. It seems the original Katherine had the same mentality and drive as I have, as well as the same desire for space.
During our talk, I get an incline into her work and get her to show me her research when we'll be on site. I use my memory loss as a mean to get into her papers. To 'unlock' it, is what I say. It seemed to work, as she'll be getting her work and mine to my office at noon. In the meantime, as we arrive at NASA, I'm called into the office of Paul Blike, the current director.
"Ah, Katherine, are you alright?" he says, as I'm ushered into his office by his secretary.
"I'm fine physically, and mentally, but I have a slight memory loss, sir."
"Memory loss?" I see him frown.
"As soon as I see what I was working on, it should be fine. I can still do the calculations, sir."
"Hmm…" he looks down, in thoughts. I stand there, looking around his office. I don't think he would have invited or talk talked to the original Katherine until John Glenn would have asked me on the board. "Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Here, this is a few calculations you did before, without the answers. I expect to see them on my office by noon, or I'll be forced to take some harsh decisions. You'll be forced to take a medical leave at first, but if your memories don't come back…"
"Don't worry, sir. I'll be giving these back to you soon. Where can I work? I had to be accompanied to your office, and I don't want to go on my desk, or I'll be distracted by my own research, sir."
"Very well, Dorothy will take you to an empty meeting room. If you need anything, ask her."
"I will, thank you, sir." I take my leave. This was easy. I'm sure there's a trap in those papers, though. I saw he didn't look at me directly, and he's definitely glad about the memory loss. I think a black girl less will make him a bit happy. Let's prove him wrong.
As I get started, I first need to know where the problem is, so while I check the papers, I ask Cassie to scan them as well and cross-reference them to see if she can find it. The faster she does, the faster I can counter it. Hm, this is a problem. It's not hard or anything. That's the problem. I can solve all of them easily. These are old. I'm from the 21st century, and not to brag, but I was considered a math genius even then. The problem is I need to act the part of a "current" genius, without too much fanfare. I ask Cassie if she can tell how long I'm supposed to take to answer those questions. Blike gave me about three hours. I did it in about twelve minutes. That is far too quick for this time period. With Cassie helping me take a few ineffective steps, getting it wrong a couple of times, we answer everything in about two hours. I keep the third to check out the trap. It seems I was right. This should have given Katherine a hard time. The equation was messed with at the start. I act as if I don't see the problem, trying to find the answer. As noon comes, I haven't found the solution. I try the equation again, using the correct one this time, and get an answer. This should do the trick.
I go back to see Dorothy, and she invites me into his office. A man walks out. I hand him my papers, and he takes a look. He checks with the original copies, and match the results. Mine are a bit less precise since I didn't know how Katherine got the original results and tried getting an imperfect answer. When it comes to the trap, he frowns and says
"Katherine, I'm impressed, you've managed to find the answers to most of it, but this is wrong. I'm going to have to give you a leave of absence. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be better."
"Sir," I say, "I tried hard but couldn't come up with anything for this equation. So I came back to the original problem. I think there might have been an issue with the copy machine or something because the equation you gave me was incorrect from the start. The corrected equation and answer are on the back of the page." He frowns hard and clenches his teeth. He checks the paper, the original copy, and frowns harder before relaxing his face and giving me a "warm" smile.
"You're right, there seems to have been a problem with the copy. You're free to go back to your post. Thank you, Mrs. Goble."
"Johnson, sir. James Goble was my previous husband."
"Oh, forgive me. Thank you, Mrs. Johnson. Take care of yourself."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
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