Synopsis: After deserting Cerritos, Ensign Peanut Hamper lands on an alien world.
This episode can be seen as illustrating what it can feel like for a neurodivergent individual trying to fit into a neurotypical world.
In “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption,” Ensign Peanut Hamper, a sentient exocomp, finds herself in a debris field, where she pieces together a warp-drive to escape Drookmani scavengers that arrive to salvage items from there. She crash lands on a planet, Areore, where she is rescued by its leader, Kaltorus. Using her inherent abilities, Peanut Hamper saves Kaltorus’s life, and his son, Rawda, is instructed to familiarize her with the planet’s culture. Initially, Peanut Hamper is dismissive of the society because it has turned its back on the technology that she embodies, but then learns that it once had warp capabilities when Rawda shows her ancient space vessels. Some time later, Drookmani scavengers come to the planet in an effort to salvage the ancient ships, and Peanut Hamper sends a distress signal to Cerritos, But before Cerritos responds, Peanut Hamper goes aboard the Drookmani vessel, and destroys it. When the Cerritos arrives at Areore, Captain Carol Freeman, Lt. Shaxs, and Ensign D’Vana Tendi beam down to the planet, and are told of Peanut Hamper’s heroics. Peanut Hamper tells Freeman that the Areore have made her understand what it is to be a Starfleet officer. However, it is revealed that the Drookmani scavengers came to Areore because Peanut Hamper sent a message to them telling them that ancient ships were there. Meanwhile, the Drookmani that survived the destruction of their ship use an ancient Areore ship and begin to fire again. Rawda then finds an even bigger ancient vessel and saves the day. When he returns to Areore he tells Peanut Hamper that she is no longer welcome. Freeman takes Peanut Hamper into custody and she is sent to Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage where she will remain.
In this episode, Peanut Hamper, brilliant but not always following Starfleet protocol, can be compared to a neurodivergent individual. The episode begins in a debris field where Peanut Hamper arrived after having left the Cerritos after she did not agree with what was being asked of her. She then created a way out of the debris field and ended up on an alien planet, that had turned its back on the technology that she embodies. However, when the planet was threatened she contacted the Cerritos, to save it. Peanut Hamper admitted that she made a mistake, yet because she was not behaving in a way deemed appropriate for a Starfleet officer, she was locked away with others of her kind, that similarly did not fit in and were deemed threatening to Starfleet. This can be analogized to what a neurodivergent individual sometimes goes through in a neurotypical society, trying to fit into it and yet being rejected by it because of being different.
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