Noah Slater

Noah Slater was born into a single-parent home on the Luna Colony, in 2362 to Elizabeth Slater. His father was a musician, but his mother did not think that a mere pregnancy was reason enough to marry him; she made sure that Noah did not ever come to know him. As a child, Noah found himself spending much of his time in his mother’s office, as she worked on medical and biological research, so he was exposed to science from a very young age.

Even in primary school, he demonstrated an incredible capacity for knowledge, across most of the subjects that were taught in the Federation schooling system. By age 16, he had finished secondary school, a full two years ahead of schedule. After secondary school, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained first Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, then a Master of Science, and then finally a Doctor of Philosophy during his ten years there. In that time, his academic skills flourished, but he never really branched out and socialized, and this was not helped by the fact that he stayed at the same institution for so long. While working on his dissertation on advanced warp physics, he worked on several projects for Starfleet Science, on deep space observation platforms in the Sol System, as a provisional Ensign.

When he finished his dissertation in Warp Physics in hand, he began to look for a suitable position, eventually settling on continued service with the fleet, after experiencing the vast scientific resources that it had to offer. He was admitted as an active-duty line officer after one year’s additional training in starship operations at Starfleet Academy.

His first posting, in perhaps an ironic move, he was made an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Starfleet Academy in 2389, never having attended the institution as an undergraduate cadet. Having been ensconced in academia all of his life, he thought it would be the perfect posting.

A personal lab with research assistants was perfect for him, but he found teaching to be very difficult, especially when trying to deal with students on a one-on-one basis. He began to realize that he could only explain things to people who were as smart as he was, and not all cadets were, so he tended to leave entire classes behind in the dust. Most of his contributions to the fleet at this point were to engine designs, which he reviewed and modeled with the Academy’s advanced computers. Specifically, he was responsible for the final audits on a number of engine systems and the design of a new warp reactor for Nova-class science vessels in their second-cycle refits.

Slater tended to get into disagreements with the Dean of the College of Engineering, who was one of the many people in the universe that Slater couldn’t talk down to his level. In 2394, the Van Buran, a Nova-clas ship recently refitted with Slater’s new engine was in orbit and in need of a Chief Engineer, so the dean arranged for Slater to be promoted and posted there Chief Engineering Officer, which was a complete culture shock to him. He was well-versed in the technical operation of starships, but being in charge of others and actually running one in theory rather than in practice was difficult for him. As little as he paid attention to other people and their motivations, he was well aware that it was an attempt to prove that he didn’t belong in the fleet, so he devoted himself to proving the dean incorrect.

Slater’s engine room was one of the most well-run (at least in terms of its mechanical efficiency, less so in terms of personnel efficiency) in the fleet. After the conclusion of the ship’s three-year surveying mission—and a change in leadership at the College of Engineering at Starfleet Academy—Slater returned to Earth in 2397 as a tenured Associate Professor of Engineering. He held that role for only two years before being tapped to serve under Captain Akintoye Okusanya as the Second Engineer abord the brand new USS Arcturus. He held that role for a year, before being granted command of his own SCE team, which was assigned to the vessel.