Oakley Zych

Early Years (2366 – 2384)

Oakley was born with his eyes set on the stars. Though Vega Prime was a backwater colony amongst those stars, his formative years were spent dreaming of exploring places even farther. His parents, immigrants from Earth, took him to visit family, thinking that it would cure whatever wanderlust he had developed. Instead, it was the moment that fanned a spark into a flame. Faced with becoming an engineer like his parents, monitoring and maintaining automated mining equipment for the Galactic Mining Company and stuck in Vega, he set his sights on Starfleet.

His schooling years were spent on Vega IX – a last attempt by his parents to quell the restlessness in their son. Again, it had the opposite effect. The metropolis of Vega IX instead exposed him to a life beyond the tiny Vega system. Here he developed a love of baseball – an exotic Earth sport to a child born on Vega Prime. His time wasn’t just taken up with studies and during the time of the Dominion War, he saw the buildup of logistics and the importance of Starfleet. He always felt that it still wasn’t enough – that to live within the fold of the Federation, whether Vega Prime or Vega IX, was still to live inside of the known. His time spent on Vega IX, while softening his ascetic personality, didn’t deter him from his goal and he made the Academy.

Starfleet Academy (2384 – 2388)

Looking to leverage his knowledge of mining and mineral processes from his time in Vega, Oakley began in sciences, hoping to go see planets faraway and unknown. A fortunate meeting with an Academy counsellor saw the potential in him and steered him towards the Command track. Alongside earning his degree in Planetary Sciences and Philosophy, his passion for exploration and the stars made him a top rate navigator and shuttle pilot. The Academy also instilled a sense of duty that combined with the discipline of growing up on a backwater colony, created an ensign of austere fortitude. This made him stand apart from his peers, being known as a courageous team leader, a loyal teammate, and an unyielding rival.

Early Career (2388 – 2403)

Oakley’s first posting was as an unglamorous shuttle pilot on an equally unglamorous station deep inside Federation space. It was as far from what he had joined Starfleet for as it could possibly be, but it was a mercifully short one. His career went up and out towards the unknown with his next posting aboard a Plymouth-class as a science officer, conducting planetary surveys and assisting with second contact missions.
Then came a sudden move, and one he saw as a move back. He was posted to a Saber-class along Ferengi space as a bridge officer. Back inside the Federation, he was patrolling spacelanes and checking transports. While the move was not a happy one, even if he had made lieutenant, he would eventually come to respect it was he met his mentor: Captain Vernon Bennett. Amongst the cramped crew quarters of the patrol vessel and under the close tutelage of Captain Bennett, Zych hit his stride. He worked his way up, spending years patrolling spacelanes and handling mundane Starfleet missions, eventually becoming Lieutenant Commander and XO of the tiny vessel.