Kobayashi Maru
In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Kobayashi Maru is a third-class neutronic fuel carrier-ship which serves as the basis of a graded training exercise in which command division cadets are presented with a no-win scenario as a test of character at Starfleet Academy. Viewers first learned about it in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khaney poos.
The name is Japanese, and loosely translates as the ship named Kobayashi, with Kobayashi (小林) meaning small forest and being a common family name. Maru (丸) simply is a suffix for Japanese ship names.
The Simulation
The simulation takes place on a replica of a starship bridge, involving both cadets and senior Starfleet officers. Cadets and officers are placed in key positions around the bridge. In the scenario of the 2280s, the cadet receives a distress signal, stating that the Maru has struck a "gravitic mine" in the Organian Neutral Zone and has lost power, hull integrity and life support. Furthermore, there are no other nearby vessels save for the cadet's own ship. The cadet is then faced with a decision:
- Attempt to rescue the Maru's crew and passengers, which involves violating the Neutral Zone, and potentially provoking the Klingons into hostile action or an all-out war; or
- Abandoning the Maru, preventing war but leaving the crew and passengers to die. Some cadets choose this option, but doing so almost certainly results in a lower grade.
If the cadet chooses to save the Maru, the scenario progresses quickly. The senior officers notify the cadet that they are in violation of the treaty, which is duly noted in the mission log. As the starship enters the Neutral Zone, the communications officer loses contact with the crippled vessel. As efforts are made to reestablish contact, three Klingon starships appear on an intercept course or decloak nearby. Attempts to contact them are met with radio silence; indeed, the only Klingon response is to open fire. The Klingon weapons inflict far more damage than would their real-life counterparts, and the simulation ends with the understanding that the cadet's ship and crew have been lost. There is no way to 'win' the scenario; its objective is to test the cadet's behavior and thought processes in the face of defeat.
James T. Kirk took the test three times while he was at Starfleet Academy. Prior to his third attempt, Kirk surreptitiously reprogrammed the simulator so that it was possible to win -- which he did, though we are not told exactly how. He justified it by arguing that putting cadets in a no-win situation was cheating, and so he had to cheat in return. He received a commendation for original thinking.
By the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Federation had reached an alliance with the Klingons, rendering the previous format of the scenario no longer suitable. In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Learning Curve, Lieutenant Tuvok placed several former Maquis crewmembers in a similar scenario on the holodeck using a damaged Ferengi starship and Romulan warbird as the opponent in a tactical training scenario.
The Kobayashi Maru scenario has appeared in several novels and short stories (as published by Pocket Books, these are not canon, but have been approved by Paramount). The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar, tells how each of these officers faced the problem:
- Chekov evacuated his ship and then crashed it into the three Klingon cruisers, destroying all four ships in the process
- Sulu realized it was probably a trap and refused to cross the Neutral Zone.
- Scotty's performance clearly demonstrated that you should never send a pious engineer to do a captain's job (he too cheats, by employing a trick the computer erroneously thinks will work).
- Kirk reprogrammed the computer so that the Klingons would be afraid of him.
In his Star Trek: New Frontier novels, Peter David suggested that future versions of the scenario would involve the Romulans; the novel Stone and Anvil has Mackenzie Calhoun destroying the ship because he determined that it was a trap laid by the Romulans to lure Federation ships across the Neutral Zone for sinister purposes.
In William Shatner's novel Star Trek: Avenger, Captain Christine McDonald of the U.S.S. Tobias tells Captain Kirk that in her time, the Kobayashi Maru scenario is no longer used to test character, but rather to evaluate the very "original thinking" for which Kirk had received a commendation. In the new version of the scenario, cadets are charged with coming up with ways to outsmart the simulation by reprogramming it to counter various moves made by the more advanced A.I. of the computer.
In A.C. Crispin's novel Sarek, Peter Kirk, James T's nephew, uses his experiences through the novel to come up with another way to defeat the unwinnable scenario. Entering the Neutral Zone provokes the Romulans who are expected to destroy the Enterprise. Before the Romulans open fire, Peter challenges the Romulan commander to a ritual fight-to-the-death, in which actual battle is prohibited until the contest is resolved. As Peter enters the fake teleportation chamber, he instructs the crew to beam aboard the 'survivors' and escape, leaving him to certain death. The simulation ends with the Commodore promising to change the scenario so no-one else thinks of that.
Three short stories in the Strange New Worlds anthologies series have also tackled it. In "The Bottom Line," by Andrew Morby (SNW III) and Shawn Michael Scott‘s "Best Tools Available," (SNW VI) cadet Nog solves it in two entirely different (and thoroughly Ferengi) manners. Kevin Lauderdale’s “A Test of Character” (SNW VII) depicts a different solution from Ecklar’s, one in which Kirk’s tampering is “cheating without cheating,” since Kirk merely creates a level playing field, where success is not necessarily guaranteed.