Sam Fuchida

Early Life

Fuchida was born Samyueru Fuchida in 2236 in the city of Shingu, Wakayama province, Japan where his father served as a police officer. Shortly after Sam was born, the family moved to Wakayama city to follow his father’s promotion.

His upbringing was typical in most respects, he perhaps spent too much time chasing girls and tinkering with his friend’s hoverbike, so his grades marked him out as an average student. He did not have the easiest relationship with his father who was not able to separate his work life from his home life, insisting on obedience to his rules, and dispensing harsh punishment for noncompliance.  Indeed, it was this rigid environment that drove Samyueru away from home as soon as he was able. Determined to get as far away from his father as possible, he took a job as a cargo lift operator in Tokoyo, but after just a few days, his father used his official connections to alert the local police to collect his son and return him home. With the police just minutes behind him, Sam ducked into a storefront only to discover that it was a Starfleet recruiting office. The opportunity to put light years of distance between himself and his father was just too appealing.

Academy History

Initially, his uninspiring grades precluded him from studying at the Presidio for four years, but wastage from that year’s incoming class was higher than expected, and those who were waiting were drafted in restore the size of the cadre. The rough physicality of Security did not appeal to him and he lacked the patience or the grades for the hard sciences or engineering, so opted for the middle track of Operations: a little bit of tinkering and dabbling in a lot of different things. At some point as a cadet he was a student in Doctor Rebane’s Formative Literature class.  Overall though, San Francisco was a great time for the young Fuchida. He shortened and standardised his name to Sam, to better fit in. Despite the rigidity of Academy life, he personally thought it more relaxed than where he had just come from. The melting pot of cultures and traditions of the city also appealed and as often as could, he went exploring off campus.

As a Senior Cadet, Sam was assigned to the USS Mercury for field training. While aboard the Mercury, he participated in the Battle of the Binary Stars manning a station in auxiliary control. Not long after, Sam was among a number of crew selected by extra-dimensional aliens to participate in a ‘quest’. This experience was reminiscent of those described in ancient earth literature like Ivanhoe, Beowulf, Gilgamesh… Further details can be found in mission record SFMR-5244876QH.