Jerry O'Donnell

Appearance
Standing at just over 6 feet tall, Jerry would be slightly above average heightwise if he were a human. His skin is a complete and utter white with little tinges of green here and there, the result of his breaking his own tanning routine on Earth. He has a birthmark under his left eye and light blonde eyebrows, a short forehead obstructed by a gently overgrown sea of blonde hair just a bit darker than the rest of his self. He has two fingers and a slightly oversized thumb on each hand for grasping objects but he has trouble picking anything up that’s too heavy.

Personality
He is generally a level-headed person, calm and welcoming to anyone that wants to talk to him. He can have spurts of extreme energy at times when eating sugar, though this does not make him drunk like it would make a Vulcan drunk. He is very, very easy to talk to when other folks come around especially when it comes to intellectual conversations. He is absolutely terrible at small talk, failing at every turn when someone asks him how he is with no idea of conversation afterward.

Ambitions
He hopes to captain the next USS Enterprise.

Morals
Don’t fight back, you’ll only hurt yourself more. Fight forward when your enemy is weak.

History
Jerry O’Donnell was born Waku on the Watraii homeworld on December 25th, 2360. His mother had been engaging in illegal relations with a Federation supplier that had been giving humanitarian aid to the planet followed by the beginning of an amicable relationship with the Federation just over a half century before this. The doctor on this vessel had been spending more time than usual on and around his shuttle while on and around the planet, toying with the physical structure of an unborn Watraii child while it was still in its mother’s womb. The doctor manipulated the child’s bone structure and muscle structure while it was in the womb to see if it would work, which was later shown that it did work.

The child was born three months after this manipulation on the planet in a three person subterranean hut connected to the Watraii main complex. It was soon found out that the child was indeed manipulated by an outside source by the planet’s medical team; the head doctor was killed in cold blood by the mother of the child to gain time to escape via shuttle. Eventually, the woman’s brother took a shuttle across the neutral zone to Federation space in a request for asylum. The man tragically died from wounds sustained during the escape, leaving the unnamed infant.

The infant was taken in by the O’Donnell family shortly after the ship made it to the starbase, the Watraii Hegemony refusing to take the child back from the Federation after what transpired with the doctor. The law-breaking doctor was arrested, tried, and convicted in August of 2361 of illegal genetic manipulation and jeopardizing intergalactic relations with the Watraii Hegemony, jailed for 30 years without the possibility of parole beforehand.

This family named the unnamed child Jerry O’Donnell after receiving no notice of a name from the starship that rescued the child, going against the mother’s original wishes that were never heard. His early life up to the age of five was pretty normal save for an abnormal hunger and alien sapphire eyes that spooked most that came to visit the family during this time. The child’s unusual habits and mannerisms as he grew up were attributed to instinctual urges to survive, hence the constant hoarding of grapes and other fruits in his room and in his toybox. His adoptive parents eventually managed to overcome this with time and patience, showing that food was indeed always readily available.

As the child entered Kindergarten and other early education schemes, he was woefully unable to grasp pencils or paintbrushes in a normal way like the other children could with his two fingers and one thumb. His adoptive parents debated having an intensive surgery to give the child the human standard of five fingers, but decided against this as this would be altering the alien child which they didn’t want to do. Jerry eventually figured out how to write with his limited digits, holding the pencil with his pointer finger arched around it. Despite these hurtles, he came out as above average as he entered middle school.

During middle school, Jerry faced incredible adversity in the small Wyoming town he was growing up in. A few of the residents in the town had parents that fought in the combined fleet against the Watraii threats many years earlier, provoking a certain time tried human sentiment against Jerry and his species. Many of the children in school were ignorant and thought of Jerry as a monster and a ‘slinky spy’, so they decided to bully him endlessly. He still pushed through and refused when his parents suggested homeschooling because he wanted to hang around a certain human girl that he had grown fond of as a friend during these times. He graduated with rather high grades as he pressed on into high school.

In high school, most of the children had grown out of their phase of ignorance and treated Jerry as just another human going to the 95% human school. A certain bully decided to make Jerry’s life miserable regardless, a jock that pushed him to his limits. Jerry’s fighting back and self defense landed him in the principal’s office on many occasions, suspended a few times due to an unjust bias against him. Jerry’s box of goodies was meanwhile sent by the doctor that attempted to save his brother on the original starship. He got the Watraii mask and his brother’s rank insignia, two very important parts of his life. This empowered him to press on and feel better about himself during the remaining years of high school up until his graduation at eighteen.

His then girlfriend was going to enter Starfleet Academy with him, but she perished in a shuttle accident. He received a love note from her via the local area’s archaic mail system a week after her death, signifying her desire to go with him. He was completely and utterly devastated by her death as he went to New York with his adoptive parents to participate in the Starfleet JROTC year end gymnastics competition that he was supposed to run with his fellow cadets. He still performed admirably for his fellow men despite the grief. An admiral at the event noticed his unsmiling face and gave Jerry a simple encouraging pat on the back after Jerry’s team pulled through and won the planet’s top competition. This little burst of encouragement prompted Jerry’s joining of the Starfleet Academy…

Jerry’s academy years were rather uneventful. He forged many relationships with students here, many coming to him after learning about Watraii culture to see his face and ask him about how they live and operate. Of course, he didn’t know the answer to this question so he simply tried to make conversation in other ways. He felt mostly connected to the Vulcan students as he found them helpful during logical debates and homework help where he excelled further and further, putting in a decent amount of elbow grease to graduate near the top of his class as salutatorian. He returned home to celebrate with his adoptive family for a few weeks before his first assignment aboard a starbase.

As he served aboard the starbase, he got one of his very first assignments. He was to transport Ambassador Spock from Earth to Starbase 55 where he worked and lived. The reason for this transport was Spock’s need to get to a starship to be transported to a rim colony to mediate a dispute with the Klingons on who had claim on the system. This needed a logical solution and Spock was the best for it at the time. The only shuttle available was Jerry’s as he was leaving from a short visit with his family. He transported the ambassador and found issues with the shuttle’s warp core when they almost made it there. One of the coils were slightly misaligned, so the ensign popped it back in place with a hyperspanner. He proceeded to get Spock where he had to go on time… The rest of Jerry’s three year posting on the starbase was uneventful. He received a good recommendation from the station’s CO before his reposting to the USS Arcadia.

Core Courses

 * ADMIN101: Star Fleet Operations
 * ADMIN110: Chain of Command and General Protocol
 * DIPL101: General
 * ENG221: LCARS Programming 1
 * ENG231: Computer Memory and Personnel Interfaces
 * ENG232: Replicators, Transporters, and Holodecks
 * ENG233: Sensors, Communications, and Helm Systems
 * HIST101: Birth of the Federation
 * LANG101: Federation Standard
 * LANG110: Major Species (Elementary) - Cadet's Choice
 * LAW101: Federation, General
 * MATH101: Concepts
 * MED101: First Aid and Field Medicine
 * PHYS101: Concepts
 * PILOT101: Runabouts and Shuttles
 * SURV101: Starship Emergencies
 * SURV110: Environmental Suits and Zero-G Training
 * TAC101: Combat, Unarmed
 * TAC110: Combat, Small Weapons
 * BIO101: Concepts
 * XEN101: General

Majors

 * TAC170: Combat, Introduction to Starship Combat
 * TAC260: Combat, Minor Starships
 * TAC270: Combat, Major Starships
 * ASTRG101: Navigation of Starships, Sublight
 * PILOT210: Minor Ships
 * TAC301: Strategy of Battle 1
 * ENG331: Operations and Command Functions
 * ASTRG102: Navigation of Starships, Warp Speed
 * ASTRO200: Advanced Astrophysics
 * PILOT220: Major Ships
 * ENG201: Impulse Systems
 * ENG202: Introduction to Warp Systems
 * ENG203: Advanced Warp Systems
 * TAC250: Combat, Shuttles and Runabouts
 * PHYS400: Warp Theory
 * ENG311: Starship Engineering
 * ENG201: Impulse Systems
 * ENG301: Transwarp Theories

Minors

 * ENG222: LCARS Programming
 * ARM101: Introduction to Weapons
 * TAC200: Combat, Martial Arts, Anbo-Jytsu and Federation Standard
 * SURV150: Land-based Survival in Desert, Ocean, Jungle, and Moderate conditions.
 * SURV200: Captivity
 * PSY302: Hostilities

Trivia

 * Nobody has ever seen a Watraii’s face save for Jerry and his deceased brother.


 * Jerry’s sapphire eyes give the illusion of being lighter or darker with his moods, he simply tilts his head with the light. The light shining off of his eyes produces this illusion.


 * He can’t cook, totally reliant on replicators.


 * He can throw a lasso and rope a calf.


 * On the human IQ system, he is rated as 164. This is below a Vulcan but above a human.


 * He loves 80s music and country from all eras, though he genuinely believes that country stopped being country in 2015.


 * He sometimes wears his cultural mask.

Likes

 * Holodecks
 * 1969 Ford Mustangs
 * Hard-boiled eggs
 * Pictures of his homeworld

Dislikes

 * His homeworld
 * The notion of ever visiting his homeworld
 * People that lash out at him for simple mistakes.

In-Depth History
The Adventures of Jerry "Blue Eyes" O'Donnell

This is a collection of stories that form Jerry's past.

Prologue
Starting on a homeworld a thousand light-years away from the Sol System stands a vast empire, the Romulan Star Empire. Spanning a grand reputed total of around ten planets with large populations, this empire has been able to match the firepower of the Federation and the Klingons for centuries before this with spies and relentless scientific advances to keep up. This empire’s technology was matched and sometimes trumped by a single planet of Vulcan offshoots lingering on the border near the Romulan neutral zone with the Federation. These people lived on a harsh, barren planet filled with isolationists and a small genetic pool of people that devoted their lives to striking back at the Romulans for stealing their homeworld from them. The former masked slaves now had a voice, and were now fighting back against their former oppressors.

In battle, the Watraii always hide their faces. The frequent use of live ammunition meant that many troops from the other side fell to heavy casualties and injuries by this race; one theme still reigned supreme with the Watraii. Not a single member of their species was captured in battle nor was one of their bodies found. Whenever a member of the species died, the mask was removed and the body was instantly and completely vaporized by the use of an energy weapon. They never wanted anyone to see their faces in any circumstance for unknown reasons, preferring to remain the masked warriors in any battle. The species came to accept death as they seeked vengeance on their betrayers, the Romulans.

These people, the Watraii, fought endlessly to exact their revenge against their Romulan oppressors. They gave their lives and luxuries to devote resources to fight the Romulans at every turn where their faces were never seen. These people fought and fought to no end, no chance of defeating this empire. For years they attacked and attacked their Romulan oppressors, numbers dwindling… but one never saw a Watraii’s face. This species hid their faces so well, in fact, that nobody has ever been able to catch a glimpse of anything but their dark blue eyes and the tips of their ears, usually hidden underneath their robes. Of course, this was the case… until now.

The Infancy
A single boy was born on the harsh, barren planet in the year 2360, around the time that the planet had decided on a peaceful ‘amicable relationship’ with the Federation years before this. A single subterranean hut made of anciently-crafted concrete and glassified sand housed the single three person family at the time, the general improvement of conditions allowing for the family’s ability to raise the child in a somewhat better way than before.

The infant’s blonde hair and generally humanish attributes made the father of the child rather suspicious of the mother, T’Marian. T’Marian’s many encounters with humans were regarded with suspicion among the people of the Watraii, rumors of her showing her unmasked face to a certain human medical officer when the vessel came to give supplies to the people running rampant. Of course, T’Marian’s history of having unsavory contact with humans wasn’t unheard of. The leader of the council decided to question the female on her transgressions with the humans. Of course, the female tried her very best to diffuse suspicions about her transgressions with this man. A simple blood test of the child proved her right, however, though the scans were deemed unusual by the planet’s medical team.

Doctor Hanik was quite confused with the results of the blood test. He had a contemplative grin written across his face as he looked down at the infant. The blood had, as a human would say, a funny something that just didn’t add up. He decided to do a further investigation, dissatisfied with the results.

“This child is very unusual, and this is not a product of our planet’s small gene pool. The genetic tweaks give somewhat human features, but they show Watraii DNA patterns. T’Marian was rather quiet during the testing process, I want her in here along with that human when he comes back, I want to compare his genetic research with the child’s deformaties.” The doctor huffed as he grabbed his barebones scanning device to scan the infant over once again.

In a rather rushed reply, the female simply replied, “the child is different, so what? It is my child and none of your concern. These genetics are from my grandfather’s side, one of the founders of this planet. You should be able to find his genetic patterns and cross-reference them in the database. There is no need for this continued air of suspicion.”

T’Marian looked down and away as the doctor scanned the child again. Perhaps it would be discovered soon enough, this would be very bad for both her and the child in many ways.

The doctor looked over at the female once his scans returned. This child indeed had pure Watraii parentage, but it was manipulated in the womb. The child’s attributes were from a form of illegal genetic engineering, a way to edit a child before it was born to have specific features and mental abilities beyond its normal capabilities. This child didn’t show any signs of enhanced mental capabilities but it did show evidence of manipulation of the child’s genetics around hair color and facial structure along with a few tweaks of the genome regarding muscle mass and bone density. The child’s physical structure was weakened! The doctor looked over at T’Marian angrily.

“You have altered this child with alien technology to make him like your… happy human lover. His genes are altered irreparably, he will not be placed back in our gene pool to contaminate future generations. Neither will you-.” The doctor paused as he didn’t seem to be able to speak. He grasped for his throat multiple times, his lips turning a shade of green. He was poisoned.

“He won’t be killed by you, Doctor Hanik. I know of your experiments on our people as well, to prolong our lifespans and durability in battle. I won’t fall victim to your hypocrisy any longer, just like how you manipulated my husband when he was an infant, nearly killed him. You’re seeing the end of your torture, Doctor... “ The female stated, triumphantly standing over the downed doctor. Her voice was triumphant and strong, like she won the battle that would save their planet for good. Of course, this one action wouldn’t save the planet and she’d likely be hunted for the rest of her life for the one thing she’d been trying to avenge. Murder.

She seized the child and fled the scene, making her way to the nearest fighter. Her husband would likely attempt to betray her and turn her in so she knew she had to make it without his help. She stunned two Watraii guards with an energy weapon as she burst out of the newborns’ ward, turning down an unpopulated hallway. A rather stupid getaway, but they wouldn’t let her leave without the doctor’s authorization and he was likely dead by now. T’Marian bounded down another corridor that led to the military section of their underground compound, desperately hoping that she would be able to get off of the planet. She wouldn’t be able to do it alone, however…

As she made it to a certain part of the complex, a hand came over her mouth as she was pulled into a side room. Lieutenant Pek, one of the lowly test pilots. He had to test all of the new machinery and craft, perhaps one of the riskiest jobs for a Watraii at the time. He looked at the female with an abundance of concern, knowing full well what she did to escape the doctor by the mere look in her eyes. He sighed and looked at her, removing his hand from her mouth. He knew that she probably wouldn’t scream, she was a somewhat logical being after all.

“What are you doing, T’Marian? You do know that you cannot escape this complex like this… think of the child! They will not let you leave, and a stun blast to an infant would mean a complete and certain death. Are you insane?” He huffed, blue orb eyes flicking around the room as his heart rate soared. He knew he had to help his sister, but how? They’d surely crucify him for aiding a fugitive like this. His father warned him about displaying empathy and how it could get him killed, he should’ve listened to the man while he had the chance.

“I need to get out of here, Pek. You know that they’ll do that anyway, the penalty for what I did is the pole, the painful pole. The child will grow up in a dark room only to suffer the same fate when he reaches adulthood, you must help me…” T’Marian pleaded. She knew that the child needed to get off of the planet, but how was the universal question. How would she get the child off of the planet? She needed to save her baby boy’s life, but the surveillance systems would recognize her face in every instance. She was stuck, helpless… Pek was stuck and stumped as well, the security teams going back and forth outside of their room as they searched for T’Marian. The isolationist society was going too far with this, too far and too long. Pek sat down in a chair near the back of the room as he rubbed his nose. They wouldn’t come to this room for another while. He looked up at his sister with concern, hand leaving his whitened face.

“T’Marian… I can take the child. I am scheduled for a test run in a third of a cycle, I can take the child on one of the high-warp testers and outrun the patrols. Get to the Federation side and possibly give this baby a chance. You’re not gonna make it at all, I’m sorry to say. The second you step outside you’ll be detained and tried for murder and illegal genetic modifications. You’ll be sent to the surface! Mavuk…”

The man pressed his hands on the wall in desperation, tears welling from his sapphire eyes. He wailed slightly. His sister was his only childhood friend even through all of the harsh training they were forced through. Children forced to walk military lines and patrol the edges of the compound endlessly, the eldest brother forced to test out a new fighter at the age of twelve with minimal training… the lack of inertial dampers tearing the vessel apart. Pek slammed his fist on the desk in the room as his borderline Vulcan emotions seeped through. He had to stop this. He just had to stop the cycle of his family dying. His father wasn’t a man to go to, but his mother always showed him the benefits of compassion. His mother’s voice bellowed in his head.. We must break free of this militant society! Pek, Pek! Don’t let them take me! Pek was simply a child back then, a boy comparable to five Earth years. He cried for his mother when he got home that night, not understanding why the evil men had to seize her. He now knew and resented this… the small group of people on this planet that actually cared for each other, he thought to himself. They ain’t taking my sister’s child… no. Pek rubbed his face and looked at her. He sighed.

The rather silent woman looked down at her child. Only a few days with the child… only a few days. They wanna take my baby away from me. I must stay strong… strong. I must hold on! She looked at her brother and handed the child to the man, entrusting him with its life. She kept her eyes locked on the baby, her life’s pride and joy. A mother’s love for a child can never be trumped, this was being proven. She was willing to sacrifice herself for her child, her only child. She looked at her brother and nodded, a single string of words moving from her mouth to the child’s ears.

“Go home…”

Pek took the child and looked at his sister. He extended his hand and grasped her arm, leaning down and booping his nose on her forearm. A very rare farewell with the species, his way of saying an eternal goodbye. Few words, few thoughts. Keep your emotions down, Pek. They will blind you. Take this child and treat it as an objective. Failing the objective means failing the child’s and your own life. He moved to the door and put a medic’s mask on in an attempt to look like a doctor delivering a newborn to its parents. One final glance back at T’Marian, one final tear.

Pek pushed the door open and made his way out, scanning the corridor. A troop patrol was going from door to door, even kicking down doors to several elderly and terminal patients. A fugitive was not handled lightly on Watraii Prime. Pek walked down as casually as he could manage, eyes straight and narrow. Each footstep could be a step closer to being discovered, a step closer to death. Pek looked at the child in his arms and picked up his pace down the hallway, rounding a corner. His commanding officer, Sub-Commander Astor. Pek’s emerald blue eyes blinked once as he looked at the commander, attempting to get past.

“... yes, yes… we will have the new fighter ready before the next cycle. This woman attempting to hide her child from us will not succeed. It is simply illogical… if you wish to mingle with outsiders and not follow your duty to be a warrior, you will be struck down!” Astor looked over at Pek, an emotionless glazed look in his eyes. He stepped aside after a few seconds of uninterrupted eye contact, perhaps a staring contest of domination. Astor was a brute of a man, an issue that was thankfully too busy with bashing Pek’s sister to notice the child’s slipping right through the security checkpoint.

Pek managed to get past Astor and exit the complex with the infant in his arms, moving down the musty ways past the water extraction plant. The masses of engineers working tirelessly to pump the planet’s water dry from its stores, the new planet being cycled and recycled over and over again. The bang bang of the systems was near deafening, so Pek shielded the baby with his body as he went. He blinked with relief as nobody else was coming down the way he was going down, a welcome break. He again quickened his pace to a mere run as his thoughts ran wild. Had they found T’Marian yet? Were they questioning where the child was? These thoughts kicked his already sweaty, panicky body into a form of advanced overdrive. Each step was painful, his body went cold… how could he survive this? His heart nearly jumped from his chest when a bit of dust poofed out of a wall crack.

After a few minutes of painstaking speed walking, he made it to the shuttlebay. His test vessel was near the door, near the wall. He could board it with no issue at all. The pair of guards at the door were standing alert, however, and a man coming in with a child would be very suspicious. Pek set the child down on a stop-cart and took the weapon from his sister. He opened the doors and fired it on the right guard, the left one tackling him to the ground. Pek felt a sharp pain in his back as he fell, firing his stun weapon at his aggressor. A greenish blood trickled from Pek’s back… he was injured. He had to hurry now… Fighting the pain, he picked the child up and took the poor soul to his craft. I sure hope this works, Pek thought to himself. He crawled into the cockpit and placed the child down into the passenger’s seat, carefully strapping the infant in with the nanofitting technology. The baby was eerily silent during all of this, perhaps the child was as shocked as his mother, Pek thought. He pressed a compress on his back as the pain throbbed in his body. He groaned and powered the craft up, the engines whirring. An unscheduled departure for sure but the security didn’t take notice as people tested their shuttles all the time. The engines roared as the craft lifted off of the ground into the air, slowly exiting the shuttlebay and moving into a long tube.

This tube was the gateway to the surface, a gateway used many times over. The crackles and slams of the wind of the surface became audible, but the noises weren’t as loud as they would’ve been without the craft. The gentle rocking of the planet’s volatile surface became evident as he exited the surface tube, the relentless flashes of lightning and winds a sight to behold. He pressed the throttle forward as he exited, exceeding the planet’s version of mach 1… mach 2… mach 3… soon the red flashes from the planet’s warning system below became visible, they were on full alert. Pek needed to punch it, push the air-engine. It accelerated out of the atmosphere with a gentle stop of the rumbling, the vessel’s warp engines now powering up. A squadron of interceptors moved to intercept his vessel as he hastily powered the engines up. His heart was already racing, the pain of his ailing body impairing his ability to think. He pushed the vessel to warp as a shot slammed the side of one of his engines, but he wasn’t dead. He was in shock, in awe. Had they decided to spare him? He looked back at his engine with a relieved smile only to learn that his engine was failing. The ship’s computers didn’t register this because the ship was experimental… he cursed the engineers and rammed the throttle to max, his only chance of making it to Federation space. The stars whizzed by as they shifted colors, a result of the vessel’s violently malfunctioning engine.

Thirty-one seconds… thirty. He counted the seconds to Federation space as his engines were running on a miracle. Warp 9.9 was a hell of a speed to maintain with such engines… the ship would certainly implode once they dropped from warp. He sighed with fear and decided to scan for a starship, any starship. He was around the eight second mark when he found one… and it was on an intercept course. He hastily hailed the vessel… “This is Lieutenant Pek of the Watraii Hegemony. I am requesting asylum! My ship is due to explode! I need to beam this infant to safety…” He stated as the engines’ whine reached their maximum volume. The Federation captain at the other end observed this with the utmost urgency, dropping from warp to collect the occupants of the splintering Watraii craft. Pek’s craft started to uncontrollably jolt as its speed decreased, the ship’s computer now measuring the implosion time as less than a few seconds. Pek placed a transporter enhancer on the child as he approached the Federation vessel, foot and body tapping in anticipation. Yes, his back was tapping the seat… He dropped out of warp at the last second, coming up on the saucer section of said vessel. Pek’s engines fired as the ship started to explode, the two occupants of the vessel beamed out right before the vessel exploded. The Federation ship went to high warp as Pek’s vessel blew, a relatively minor explosion compared to what a larger warp core could’ve done. The two Watraii were safe and sound in the vessel’s medbay…

Pek looked around at all of the Federation officers, then to the child. The baby was fine… all of the doctors were working on him instead. His consciousness faded as he finally passed out on the bed as a doctor administered a knockout hypo to him. He was out, out cold. Meanwhile, the doctors worked for hours attempting to repair his internal bleeding and partial artery puncture. The man’s vitals kept getting worse throughout it all, blood pressure steadily dropping.

“Doctor Akron! We need another neural shock! We need to keep this man alive!” A nurse said with deep concern, pressing the devices on the dead Pek’s head.

“Alright, Ensign! Hold and pulse on my mark. We’ve almost succeeded with the surgery, it makes no sense to lose him now!” The human Lieutenant Akron replied, waiting another second. “Now!”

The pulse didn’t succeed. The doctor eventually ended up failing in his endeavor after several pulses. The patient was lost. Pek laid dead on the biobed as the greenish color drained from his pearly white face, never to be seen again. The brown-haired Texan man shook his head and took the three-fingered Pek’s hand into his own. “You died for a noble cause, friend. Perhaps I shall tell my Vulcan son about you, hmm? He is always one for heroics…”

Akron felt the Watraii’s warmth fade away as he looked down at his patient. He sighed and looked down. “Live long and prosper, good buddy. Live long and prosper…” He walked over to the infant and furrowed his brow. He took Pek’s rank insignia and put it in a crate next to the infant along with Pek’s mask that once hid his face. He sighed again and rubbed his forehead with despair. The poor infant will go through hell in his life, but someone by golly better be there to protect him.

A few hours later, the infant was taken to the care facility of the ship. A form of babysitting, a single nurse overlooked the single infant throughout the day. Since the child was very alien, she had to keep a constant watch. What was the infant’s needs? Was he supposed to eat a certain kind of food? The unnamed infant soon turned out to have no special requirements other than the special touch of a living being. After several days in the care facility, the ship finally dropped out of warp at a starbase. Starbase 42, close to Earth.

The ship docked with the starbase. The child was eventually moved via a beam-over to an adoptive family that had already heard of and volunteered to take the child in. A specially trained family that had dealt with the care of Orion and Romulan children throughout their years, a well-tanned archaeologist from Wyoming and his wife, an equally tanned and similarly mannered woman. They took the baby in and taxied on another starship to make it back to Earth.

“Norma, I told you. The child can’t tolerate sugar. You can’t make him your… uber-fattening apple pies with all o’them sweets. The child is an offshoot of them Vulcanians…” Jack grumbled, looking over at his wife as they started packing their things from the starship to go back to Earth.

“But, hon… why don’t we get a doctor and ask him if this species is different? I don’t wanna be using them sugar substitutes…” She looked at her husband as a smile crossed her lips. “Eh, you’re just excited. We haven’t taken a kid in… has to be for about twenty years now. He’ll be our last, Jack. A nice boy with cute eyes, have you ever seen someone with complete sapphire eyes? No white, just blue. Huh…”

Both Norma and Jack O’Donnell made their way out of their quarters with their suitcases of goods in tow. Packed lightly… They walked past all of the Federation officers as they went through the corridors to the turbolift, then to the transporter room. The chief on duty gave a halfhearted salute as they all got on to the transporter pad, Normal holding the basket containing the unnamed baby.

“Beam us down, Chief. All in one piece, of course. I heard how these things transport folks down and the person at the bottom ain’t the same person at the top…” Jack paused as Norma gave him a death stare. He looked back at the chief as if to say ‘help!’ as they all dematerialized to move back down to Earth. They would realize, many years later, that they forgot the crate containing the unnamed child’s brother’s rank insignia and mask, a part of the infant’s past that would be crucial to the infant’s future.

They all materialized in front of a rather large ranch house, a huge blue sky above them. This was quite a contrast from the infant’s original homeworld; they never even saw the sun. They had to go out in environmental suits on the Watraii homeworld, this was never the case on Earth. A complete and utter paradise by every known standard. The grass rolled off into the distance as it rolled off into endless lines of untapped prairie, a mountain range long off in the distance where the old Interstate highway curved north to avoid going through the mountains. A cloud or two sailed across the sky lazily as the group was fully materialized.

Norma and Jack uneventfully moved into the house and set their goodies and travel items down, eventually taking the infant to a room with a handcrafted crib. They both gently set the baby down as the infant finally started crying. Hunger.

“Jack, you got any more of that Jerry’s baby food? I think he still makes it…” Norma looked back at Jack. Jack shrugged, a solemn look on his face. “I got word that he moved to Fort Erie to be on the lake as he has… he can barely move anymore, Noerma. He just wants to live out his dream of swimming in the lake. Oh, Jerry… I’ll miss him. Does the kid have a name? Folks on the ship didn’t say anything about it…” “They said that the infant has no name. His… friend had no identifying information so they were unable to formulate a name. Or figure out his friend’s name either. I dunno, Jack.” She scratched her shoulder and looked back at her husband. “Why don’t we just call him Jerry? All so used to that baby food business…” “Yes, Norma. Name the kid after the man that used to supply our baby food. All of this talkin’ and the kid’s starvin’, too…” He chuckled and moved over to the house’s replicator. “One can of sugar-free peach baby food.”

The food materialized in the replicator and he took it out, cracking the can open. He motioned to the high-chair in the dining room. Norma complied and brought the baby over as Jack held the food out on a spoon. The baby didn’t waste any time, gulping the food down greedily. The child’s hands reached about for the spoon eagerly as it came again…

“Yep, he likes Jerry’s. Replicated Jerry’s. You like the name ‘Jerry’, don’t ya?” Jack looked at the infant as he continued to feed, no end in sight. “Jerry O’Donnell it is, sure has a nice ring to it…” After the infant was done feasting on the delicacies of Earth, he slept soundly. A nice, warm bed in nice warm clothes… what else could one ask for?

Laramie County Fair
The smell of popcorn and baked beans marinated the air at the 2370 Laramie County Fair. A themed fair about horses and all kinds of livestock milling about in enclosures throughout the grounds, most of the animals holographic save for a few chickens and ducks with fresh eggs waiting in front of each coop ready to be taken home. Holographic suites where people could live out their wildest dreams, even a few ancient arcade games like The Gunslinger. This sure was a place to be during the cooling fall months of the late summer…

Jerry had a large bowl of popcorn and a few molasses cookies mixed in the bowl as he walked down the main way. He saw the games, shoot the water in the hole to get a stuffed animal, ski-ball, basketball hoops… all of this seemed very fun, but he was only here for the one thing that mattered the most. The holosuite! This place let him do whatever he wanted whenever, but his parents would never approve. They’d tell him to go and play with the other kids or play on the machines when he clearly hated it. He would most certainly come out for the rodeo, however, because the sight of grown men riding oversized cows always intrigued him. Especially when one got bucked off.

He slid away from his parents in a crowd, en route to one of the larger holodeck suites where they were playing a game of immersive Battlefield 1 with a very realistic scene. First person shooter, this made Jerry vibrate in a new form of happiness. A clear sign that read 18+ on the door was consequently ignored as the boy wanted to shoot! An ancient military ensemble materialized around his body as he started out, the weapons firing off green pulse shots instead of the normal bullets one would expect. He got a kill or two before a green orb smacked him in the face, a light tingling sensation as his health bar went down to one percent. He got down on the ground and huddled there as his health bar slowly went up, firing at a sentry.

After about an hour, his father came in and grabbed him by the arm, game settings be damned. Jack was enraged but his face didn’t show this, Jerry was just a child that didn’t know right from wrong even when it came to abiding by the strict set of rules laid out for him. Jack took Jerry out as Jerry’s military costume vanished.

“Jerry… why have you gone against what I said? Those games on the holodeck are too real, they can get you easily addicted and they can easily ruin your life as you turn to living fantasies… I care about you, boyo…” Jack hugged his adoptive son tightly to show that he indeed cared, but one doesn’t learn unless a punishment is instated.

“I’m gonna have to ground you for a week. No coming back to the fair… you need to learn your lesson. I’ve tried time and time again to show you your fallacies but… it is time that I instate discipline. Logical discipline… like a Vulcan.”

“But Dad… I don’t wanna be grounded… and I’m not a Vulcan!” Jerry stood strong and proud, head arched up pretending he was wearing the Captain America costume. Jack couldn’t help but chuckle, patting the boy on the back.

“Alright, Jerry, you have one more chance. If you do anything I tell you not to do, it’ll be a month. Not a week, a month. Until you get back to school. Comprende?”

“I understand, Dad. Totally understand.” The Watraii boy smirked, sapphire eyes arching up into slanted smiles.

Prejudices of a Different Kind
“I’ll get it! Jesus! I already said it a dozen times…” Jerry slammed the door behind himself, generally irritated. Yes, he forgot to put the horse in its stable from the night before because his friends showed up in a hover-car to take him to a ‘movie’ that turned out to be another way to drench both him and his clothes in the water hole. His mom always told him to choose his friends wisely… but at 14 years old he thought he knew better.

The boy made his way up the driveway to the road, starting to take the three-mile walk to school. His parents prohibited the use of the transporter unless they accompanied him, something that bothered him deeply. His slim and trim haircut was akin to what would be required of a 21st century army man and a requirement of the Starfleet JROTC program he happened to be in.

His face had gotten tanned over the years, but his pointed ears were still as white as a ghost. He was mostly pale all around and his sapphire blue eyes made him stand out like a sore thumb. His three fingered hands also didn’t help him much, the two fingers and a thumb made it difficult for him to hold a typical pen or pencil properly…

Jerry made his way into the school’s courtyard after he turned off from the main road, the same long and boring walk pushing him into a daze. He had some catchy song playing in his head as he walked through the courtyard, head bopping with the tune ironed in his brain. He was an oddity in a school with a 95% human populace, earning a few indirect stares even though he had been coming for the past two weeks. Typical annoying high school freshman…

“Hey, Ears!” A loud, booming voice startled the Watraii as he froze in his tracks. That dude that dunked his head in the toilet on his first day. He went to the principal like a model student and reported it, but nothing came of it. Jerry winced and started walking again, the naive decision to round the corner with the dumpsters would be a decision he would regret.

“Oh, shit.” Jerry mumbled. He stared forward and internally tried to hold himself together, but it was no use. A second later he was up against the wall, squirming and blushing. He turned his head away. Why can’t I be left alone? Why must I be constantly harassed by this stereotypical jock that probably will be working at a replicator plant? All of these thoughts made the Watraii chuckle despite his being held up against the wall. The jock’s response wasn’t good.

“Are you laughing at me? You’re the laughing stock of the galaxy. A planet of incompetent bastards that are just a bunch of pussies. I’m the one that should be laughing at you… we all know that your parents didn’t want you.” He pressed the poor freshman up against the wall harder, Watraii boy having enough of the insults and the physical touching. His three fingered hand moved to punch the jock square in the nose, making contact. A cute little crunch could be heard as Jerry was dropped to the ground.

“You punched me, man… you’re in deep shit!” The jock held his nose as he winced in pain, a painful smirk on the man’s face as he started away. The jock’s gang of typical dudes in bomber jackets walked away with their leader, all snickering like a gang of jackals.

“Oh no… no…” Jerry blinked and looked at his hand. He sighed and decided to brave the winds and make his way to his first class. He’d have to deal with the principal later, no doubt, and the jock was the principal’s son. He rubbed his pointed ear between his fingers and looked at the teacher as he walked in as the bell rang.

“Jerry O’Donnell, you’re late. I informed you about my late policy when we started this class. I’m marking this tardy on your record.” The English teacher stated, marking him down on her padd. Meanwhile, other students filtered in and weren’t marked late. Jerry’s face grew green with frustration.

“I came in as the bell rang! They came in after me too, why aren’t they being penalized?” He asked in the politest of tones. The teacher smirked at this, somewhat enthused.

“Are you talking back to me, Mr. O’Donnell? Because I honestly think that you are. I’m talking to you right now...” She pressed a button on her desk to check his file, sure enough the jock’s report was there with the report from the week before about another incident. “Well, isn’t this interesting? You're a bully. And the principal was just about to call you down on top of your tardiness…”

Jerry shook his head, frazzled by this. Why was he getting in trouble for simply defending himself or doing what the others were doing? Was it because he was different? Did these kids’ parents teach them any better than this? The kids in the class started snickering as they saw him getting in trouble. Jerry blushed and ran out, humiliated in front of all of them people. How could they be so cold and heartless towards him? Was it because many folks in town had relatives that served aboard the Federation fleet that attempted to destroy the Watraii fleet many years before? Jerry didn’t know this yet.

He ran out of the courtyard and back up the road, starting to cry. He wailed as he passed a certain threshold, the halfway point. The mailman came down the road with a certain package, rolling to a stop next to the distressed boy.

“Hey, Jerry! Mail on the double and… hey, I can’t remember the last time I delivered a package this big up here. Wanna hitch a ride?” The man queried. Jerry always liked the mailman, an unbiased soul that just brought the mail. Didn’t gossip, didn’t know half of the town… hell, nobody even knew where he lived. Jerry jumped up on the back of the mailman’s hovercar as they accelerated again…

“What kinda mail, sir?” Jerry asked as he tried to get a peek of the package, brow furrowed curiously. He prodded the package with one of his tripod hands before they arrived, but they indeed arrived before he could get a good glimpse of the package’s contents.

Jerry jumped out and grabbed the package, smirking back at the mailman as he flew across the grass and up the steps. He opened the door and realized that his parents were out… score! He didn’t have to explain an unbelievable story about how the folks were treating him at school and he had a cool box. He decided to read the note attached to it first to make sure it wasn’t something that would jump out and bite; surely enough it was the same name from when he was aboard the starship that rescued him, but he didn’t know this. The note read:

'''From: Galveston, Texas, Earth. Address: Locator coordinates: 33.3943° N, 104.5230° W

Greetings, Jerry. I hope this message finds you well. When your brother and you came on my ship 14 years ago, I was unable to save his life as his injuries were too great. I never got the chance to properly apologize for my shortcomings, and for this I am sorry. I know that growing up may be difficult with the prejudices of a small town, so I decided to send this letter to you as soon as I got word that it was at Starfleet HQ in San Francisco. I hope that this helps you connect with your culture. At this age, you hopefully know about your people well enough to understand what this box contains. I believe that there is a simple rank insignia in there along with a Watraii mask, as well as some fudge recipes from my son. After you left, I also found a note. It is in Watraii but hopefully you can decipher it during your free time.

Live long and prosper, good buddy,

William Akron Sr.'''

He looked at the letter he got from this strange man from Texas. Hmm. Very interesting, he thought to himself as he opened the box of goodies… a Watraii mask? This is almost unheard of. He took it out and examined it, looking the straps over with a smirk. He washed it off in his house’s sink before putting it on, his sapphire blue eyes flickering as he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Masked wonder, he thought to himself. He kept the mask on as he went back to the box, pulling the rank insignia out from all those years ago.

He brought it up to his eyes to examine a simple bronze bar with a pair of solid iron slashes. He felt it all over, the textures, the touches, the feelings. This is from my homeworld! This is so cool. He smirked and put it down as he moved to the note. Ain’t nothing a little 24th century translator can’t fix. He scanned the note with his padd as he waited for it to come in. A whole bunch of characters and symbols in Watraii… what did they mean? He looked at his padd as the translation came back.

'''Go home, Waku. Go home. Follow the coordinates. '''

He shook his head and tried to figure out what that meant. Go home? Oh no, not that hell planet. He shook his head and put the note back in the box. Follow the coordinates, though. Hmm, the only pair of coordinates he received were the ones from Mr. Akron. He looked at the coordinates himself, only to find a singular oddity. They looked off. He rubbed his chin and typed the info into his padd. Roswell, New Mexico. The site of the UFO crash in the 1950s. He smirked at that; nice try, Mr. Akron. Nice try.

But who was Waku? Am I Waku? What does Waku mean? That wasn’t translated… he blinked and rubbed his chin again. Waku is a funny name, a funny one. He ran his ultraviolet light over the note from one of his detective kits, returning nothing else of substance. He shrugged and looked at the mask… an authentic one. He smiled and put it on his face, wearing it with a certain degree of pride in his own kind against prejudice.

“I’m gonna go back to that school with this baby and show them what it means to be a Watraii! Yeah!” He put the rank insignia on his t-shirt as he got a baseball cap from his dad’s rack of stuff. He put it on his head and tilted his head in the mirror. The mask gave him tons of confidence. Tons of strength. He wiggled his tripod hands and closed the box, walking back to the kitchen. He stepped on the transporter padd and tilted his head.

“Computer, beam me back to Mrs. Watson’s English class!” With that the boy dematerialized back to school.

During the years after he decided to sporadically wear his species’ mask, he earned respect from the others in the school. The school’s bully ended up earning himself an expulsion when he tried to pantse the Vulcan exchange student out of nowhere, the uber-logical being’s adherence to logic and near inability to lie knocked the bully’s credibility out of the park. Times changed, and Jerry eventually entered his senior year of high school…

Is it in My Head?
“It’s summertime, woo!” He tilted his hand out the window of his father’s 1969 Ford Mustang collectible as he whizzed down the road. He was savoring every minute of the experience, his sapphire eyes a lighter shade of glee. He eased down on the pedal as the dial passed 60… 70… 80… 90…

“Jerry! The recommended speed limit is 80…” A human female stated from the passenger’s seat. A blonde, 18 year old senior just like him. She was the football team’s chief cheerleader and Jerry was a lineman for the team. Go Dusties! Of course, the only times she rode in an old fashioned vehicle was with Jerry and he always drove erratically, the reckless dude always finding a way to deviate from the specified human norm.

A rusted out sign that read ‘Interstate 25 South’ followed by a certain ‘Welcome to Colorado’ sign reminded them that he was now a full three hours from home by car. The empty road leading up to the city was a stark contrast from how it might’ve looked in the 21st century, but everyone now used transporters to get to work. Jerry’s parents were still against the use of their home transporter, the age old suspicion of the person not being the same person when beamed away was ever so present. Jerry rubbed his nose and decided to repeat something called a meme from the 21st century as he passed an antique Prius.

“Eco-friendly but can’t accelerate. That was the last car that Prius made before the company went under in 2025 because they couldn’t compete with the new hover cars. But you’ve gotta feel the road, Jenny. The Federation’s got so much resources that they maintain an eight lane highway for kicks!” Jerry looked at his binary name sister.

“Yeah, Jerry. Mhmm. There’s a Five Guys in Denver and I’m hungry…” Jenny replied, looking over at Jerry. He shrugged and looked around at the scenery as they drove through, likely to get some healthy vegan food instead. She looked back at Jerry as she placed her hand on his tripod hand. He smiled slightly.

“Y’know, I always liked how you loved me for who I am. Girls at school say I’m a three-toed freak and they wouldn’t touch that, but three fingers gets me out of writing those boring-ass essays by hand. Only girl to ever date a buff Watraii dude, ain’t that a fun kick?”

Jenny looked over at him with concern. She looked down as he drove. “Jerry, you’re joining Starfleet. You say that you love me but you wanna leave me…”

He looked back at her, his brow furrowed. “Jenny, that’s why I said you could come with me. Them straight A’s need to go someplace, a Starfleet Academy entrance exam seems like the logical… as a Vulcan would say, the most logical course of action. Hell, we could study together… y’know? I’m gonna pilot the helm of one of the Starships up there…”

She sighed and looked at him as they drove, Jerry eventually taking the corresponding exit for the Five Guys restaurant. He parked in front of the place, stretching his arms. “A historical landmark, eh Jenny? Holograms flippin’ burgers. Imperfectly, too. A fresh shipment of meat from Omaha every week. And there’s a lineup.”

Jerry got out and stood in the line with his girlfriend, milling over the burger choices. Not that many, it seemed. He pointed at the sign above the place, the iconic checkered red and white. But, Jerry had to run to the bathroom before anything else, his mom’s sandwiches getting to his head. He went anime back out, everything looking and feeling much different than it did when he went to the bathroom. Something was off, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. A little boy pointed at Jerry as he strolled out, gleefully bouncing up and down. “It’s E.T! E.T!” The boy smirked and pointed at Jerry, Jerry woefully confused. He turned and furrowed his brow at the kid, then at the whole place. Everyone was just staring at him. He rolled his eyes and went out front to greet his girlfriend to find that she was gone. The car was gone, too. The buildings looked funny… actual motor cars going up and down the road? Jerry sighed and chuckled at the scene. Ah, some kind of holo-prank.

Jerry turned to walk down the street, a blinding blast of pepper spray greeting his eyes. He yelped and collapsed, writhing around in pain. Nope, this is indeed real. Must get the hell outta here! He ran back into the restaurant and went back to the bathroom to wash his eyes out, emerging to the same old scene with the same old patrons before his blast to the past journey. His girlfriend rushed up to him, mushing his face with her hands.

“Aw, Jerry… what happened?” She asked concernedly.

“Jenny, I just got a blast from the past. Weird as hell but it’s probably all in my head. Are the burgers ready? I swear to God if the burger’s sittin’ on that counter and not comin’ to me I’ll be mad…”

She looked very confused. “You were in the bathroom for an hour, Jerry. The burger’s cold but it still tastes good…”

“No, Jenny, my momma always said not to use a bathroom at a fast food place… major disappointment. Major!” He said in an exasperated tone.

Jerry grabbed his burger and his girlfriend and made their way back to Wyoming to spend the night together looking at the stars…

The Career
Finally, off to the academy. After going to that gymnastics competition in New York, an admiral noticed Jerry as a promising young man ready to join and make Starfleet a better place. Jerry was having second thoughts, but the admiral solidified the man’s desires. Jerry was gonna be a Starfleet Watraii, through and through. His parents were solidly behind this, even excited for him. He knew he wanted this and he pressed for it tirelessly for the better part of his last summer at home. After getting the house’s new replicator installed by the old jock and a trusty hyperspanner, he was out. He passed the test a good month before and celebrated endlessly with his clan of buddies that couldn’t tell a medical scanner from an engineering scanner. Jerry was clearly the sharpest tool in the shed, the valedictorian… save for Jenny. His girlfriend passed in a shuttle accident shortly after their drive to Denver, shortly after her graduation. Jerry would press on in her memory and make a good career in her memory, for she was his first love that he’d never forget.

As he took his father’s antique Mustang to the shipyards in San Francisco, he was accompanied by his whole family. His 100 year old human grandfather was the pride of the troupe, the one that made the marmalade sandwiches and carved out wooden figurines of each family member. He sure knew how to set a mood, and this was set by his playing 1970s disco music all the way into Salt Lake City. What an interesting city this was, the dried up salt lake instead a place with a gift shop and a gold-sifting machine much like a tourist trap would look like. A creek trickled through the depressed lakebed, a wooden-plank walkway across the creek that ran through from the nearby mountains.

A day there, a day gone. They made a point of it to use that machine, a few slivers of silver and gold in a small vial. Not too shabby…

They took the old highway up through northern Nevada, a two way interstate from the unrepaired bombed out parts being preserved to show the effects of small-time kinetic weapon warfare during the third world war. A few people were stopped along the road to look at this, including a futuristic boy scout troop. The history of this planet is amazing, Jerry thought to himself. He didn’t know the slightest thing about Watraii’s history, only that his kind were related to the Vulcans. He knew about the hellish conditions on his planet; who would want to live on such a hellish place? This completely stumped him, the warrish ways of his people were completely bewildering. He was such a pacifist, slightly cocky like the average human his age too. He would’ve been a simple soldier dying in his 20s or 30s on Watraii but he was granted a better life instead. The only one of his kind to ever grow up and live off of the homeworld. Not a day went by where he didn’t think of the blessings in life he had from the actions of a heroic man he never knew. His real father he may never know, but he certainly wanted to return home to his real family if he was ever afforded that opportunity.

They eventually made it to California, past the big redwoods into the urban climate of Sacramento. They took a few pictures together and shared a few laughs, even ate some Cicilian pizza that was thicker than any other pizza they’d had before. Those were the times, the fun times before Jerry went off to the academy.

Another ten hours later and they arrived in San Francisco. Jerry walked on the bridge as he made a point of it to click a lock on the edge with his name on it with the ones from the 21st century, a small tradition in the O’Donnell family going back for over three centuries since the construction of the marvel of engineering. Jerry walked back from the bridge and hugged his mum, then his dad, then his grandpa, before bidding them farewell as he entered the Starfleet Academy complex.

He walked up to the main receptionist. “Hi! I’m Jerry O’Donnell from Jay Em, Wyoming. I’m here to… uh… get enrolled!” He had no idea what he was doing, his parents always shouldered the load of managing his schooling. The receptionist smiled slightly and motioned to an area off to the side, the processing area. Jerry slid off to the side and went through. He gave his name, date of birth, his species. Hmm, a comment about his being the first of his kind in Starfleet. This was a weird comment for sure, but he expected it. He shuffled his blonde hair aside and moved back to the tailor’s to get his uniform fitted.

“Six foot… arms are pretty long and the waist is slim. Nice eyes… eh. Just plug these measurements in the computer and you’ll be good to go. Classes start tomorrow, 0800 local time. With you it’ll be your first class of Warp Theory, have fun!” The man patted Jerry on the back as he moved along through to the main complex.

Starfleet Academy, finally here! The cadet’s pearly whites showed through as a toothy smile covered his face. He checked his padd for his quarters arrangement. Hmm, a human. Jerry spent most of his life around humans so this wouldn’t be much of a problem at all. Someone to relate to in the hopes that they didn’t grow up on a border colony… he hated the thoughts of living that far away from the civilized center of the Federation. He hoped that he’d be posted on a starbase to pilot shuttles back and forth or pilot a big starship into the great unknown, the possibilities were nearly endless. He plugged his headphones into his smaller earholes, playing a bouncy tune as he made a beeline for his quarters arrangement…

He eventually settled into the academy very well over his first and second years, making scores of acquaintances. The Vulcan students were a Vulcan version of fascinated with him, frequently inviting him to lunch so they could question and debate philosophy for hours on end. He befriended them most of all as he learned more about himself and the world through the eyes of ‘the machines’. He eventually befriended a specific female, a Manei. They debated for hours on end, Jerry actually enjoying it. He grew to like this Vulcan however weird this may have seemed, always holding back from a relationship due to her already being joined before they even knew of each other to a Vulcan male on the homeworld. Jerry despised this through and through but went along with it, knowing that there were more fish in the sea.

He ended up graduating from the academy the second to the top in his class, the salutatorian. He had a choice of vessel to serve on or starbase due to this, so the most logical thing in his mind was to take a starbase until he became more acquainted with his job. He piloted the odd shuttle here and there, took ambassadors up and down the line day after day. The doctors on the starbase wished to further study his genome so he hesitantly submitted a slice of his DNA so they could properly link the Watraii back to the Vulcans to determine how they evolved away from their common ancestors.

“Increasing to full impulse, Ambassador. We shall make it to our destination in one hour’s time since the warp engines are fried…” The green ensign looked at his console and realized that he indeed pushed the engines too hard. Thankfully they were close enough to make it otherwise they’d have to request help and Jerry would be in more trouble than anticipated.

“Ensign, it is alright. Mistakes are all part of learning your trade.” The pointy-eared ambassador replied as he looked at the nervous ensign. He knew that this was his first time piloting such a shuttle with warp power, so he cut the ensign some slack. He looked out at the stars as the starbase loomed into view. The pointy-eared ambassador was on this vessel as it was the quickest form of transport to the starbase where a starship was waiting to take him to a rim world.

“T-thank you, sir. I’m trying my best to get us where we need to go on time…” He looked down at his lap for a second before looking up again. He monitored the engine systems more closely this time to make sure that the same mistake wasn’t made with the impulse engines… you trained for this! Work it out, he thought to himself. He sighed and clambered to the back with it on autopilot to figure out what was wrong with the engines.

Sure enough, it wasn’t pilot error, it was a simple error with how the warp core was set up. One of the coils was slightly out of alignment, fixed with a certain engineering hyperspanner and a little bit of elbow grease. He came back to the front and powered the warp engines up again, a gleeful smile on his face. He did it!

Ambassador Spock nodded, impressed with the ensign’s craftiness. Spock looked down at his own padd to review his speech as the vessel jumped to warp again, the stars streaking by in their iconic fashion. The vessel rattled slightly but they were going where they needed to go…

The rest of his three year stint aboard the station was less than fun. The ensign had many, many boring piloting duties ranging from transporting warp coils to refining of dilithium for a mining colony during his week’s exchange. He was ready for a change of scenery, ready for an out from the boring starbase. His same sentiment as a kid wasn’t following him as he continued to grow, rather it died off as his adventurous spirit grew. He wanted to reach his lifelong goal of piloting the USS Enterprise and be on the helm of the flagship of the Federation. He saw the older models of these ships in museums and documentaries all the time, he wanted to be a part of this, be a part of something huge.

The final recommendation from his commanding officer was a very good recommendation before his next posting, a certain ‘Mr. O’Donnell is a very ambitious and level-headed officer’ along with many other good things. Jerry had left his mark on the commanding officer and the others on the starbase, many of his friends for life for years to come. He wanted his reassignment so they recommended the Luna Class USS Arcadia, constructed in 2385 as a vessel of exploration.