The Starfleet Academy has been conducting the Kobayashi Maru for decades. Every cadet knew that it was the ultimate test to determine if they were ready to face the challenges that lay ahead. However, none was aware of what it entailed.

My godfather, James T. Kirk, was the only one I knew who had succeeded. But if my father, the half Vulcan former First Officer of the USS Enterprise, is to be believed, Jim had cheated.

'If Uncle Jim were alive, I am sure he would have helped me cheat,' I sighed and stepped into the simulation hall.

A computerized voice narrated a scenario: A no-win battle simulation against the Klingons, and proceeded to introduce me to my virtual crew: Chief Engineer, Veer; Communications Officer, Decker; Chief Medical Officer, Jules, and Navigation Officer, Korn.

"Cadet Tiberius, the Kobayashi Maru begins now. Good luck." The mechanical finished, and an instant later, the white walls of the simulation hall dissolved and morphed into the deck of a standard Starfleet class A ship.

I knew that cheating wouldn't bode well with the Vulcan side of my father.
I had to think out of the box while staying within the limit of what could pass for 'not cheating'.

Not a split second later, an idea took form in my mind. I commanded Korn to give me our current coordinates and reversed them. At the moment, we were at the eastern border of the Klingon territory. The new ones would put us on the western side, which is where we needed to be.

Once there, I requested that Jules prepare the medical bay and ordered Decker to transmit a message to our closest allies, the ones with the weakest air space security: the Alpha Centuria.

Decker nodded, "What do you want it to say?"

"Fifty grams of red matter has been reported stolen. No demands have been made yet. Watch your airspace and refrain from approaching any unidentified vessel. Inform the federation if they contact you." I answered with confidence, confusing the communications officer. He enquired, "That's it?"

"Yep." I nodded, smirking.

There was a 99.9% chance that the Klingons would intercept the message. And if they did, they wouldn't attack a ship that might be carrying something as dangerous and volatile as the red matter, a drop of which could consume their whole planet.

If Kobayashi Maru was indeed a civilian vehicle losing fuel and drifting into Klingon space and not a hoax designed to trap us, they would do everything in their power to get it out of their airspace. They would probably use their famous Repellers, I reckoned.
Once the civilian vessel was out of Klingon space, the rescue would be a piece of cake.

With my plan in place, I began its execution.

As luck would have it, my plan worked perfectly, and as soon as the last 'virtual' civilian was beamed up, green light flooded the deck, declaring that I had passed the Kobayashi Maru with flying colors!