A disabled veteran rated 10% for schizophrenia discovers a super-fast Mars trajectory. He’s a semester away from a Ph.D. when – boom! – the university discovers he’s schizophrenic. He fights them two+ years, only to be expelled with extreme malice. His disability rating is by now 100% permanent and total. True story.
SYNOPSIS
W.H. “TRUCK” Clark is a disabled veteran with a mild case of schizophrenia, working as a licensed Professional Engineer in Austin, Texas.
Truck’s major at the University of Texas is aerospace engineering. Six missions to Mars had failed recently, circa 2000. His research topic is a computer optimization of the Earth-to-Mars trajectory.
Truck earns a Master’s and soon passes all the coursework for a Ph.D. with excellent grades. He discovers a super-fast Mars solution, “faster, safer, and cheaper” than any NASA trajectory. Nobody in the orbital mechanics group will give him feedback. He complains. They retaliate. He complains to the licensing authority for college engineering programs. They throw down the gauntlet.
Truck has been very diligent, documenting every last action by the University, almost everything in their own words, on University letterhead. He has one last chance: an interview with a student reporter from the campus newspaper.
BROOKLYN is a psychology doctoral student, and somewhat sympathetic to Truck’s situation. However. As the interview drags on, her optimism fades away and turns into a deep melancholy, then worse. She tries to hide her angst but Truck clues right in, and out of options – he attempts suicide.
Based on the screenwriter’s True Story.
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A review. (As MALICE.)
Bill H. Clark