Search works in UI but refuses to be referenced in a script

We have the contract module. We need a link between each contract and the order that creates the following contract (essentially the sales order that results from the previous contracts system generated renewal quote/transaction).

Sounds simple enough. We added a field to the contract object that is a transaction list/record filtered of the contract customer's sales orders of renewal type.

I created a transaction search search that shows the internal ID of their corresponding booking for quotes which
A. are system generated renewal transactions
B. are booked

The search works perfectly in the UI, and runs very quickly. The issue is that when used in a script it times out (300-305 seconds) every time. The error thrown is a time out on line three of the script (which is simply var searchresults = nlapiSearchRecord('estimate', 1798, null, null);). Mode copies of the search and pointed the script ot them, I changed the sort order, tried different column heading etc. Nothing seems to work. If I remove most of the criterion from the search the script will run, but not correctly (it runs into errors because I have to