Sarah Stanton

Early Life (2270-2288)

Sarah Stanton was born on in Tycho City on Luna in mid-2270. The oldest of three siblings, Stanton from a young age was expected to help her parents manage her younger siblings, ensuring that they practiced their emergency atmospheric loss drills, got to school on time, and did their homework. It was a role that felt very natural for her, and so caring for children was always something that she thought she would end up doing when she became an adult herself. Growing up on the lunar surface, she was used to artificial gravity, artificial oxygen, and close quarters, but it was an exciting place to grow up with the expansion and innovation happening there in the 22nd century. Stanton excelled in school, especially in biology and she began to develop an interest in medicine, which she intended to pursue in college. In 2386, however, Earth and hence Luna were encountered by the Cetacean Probe, which severely damaged the moon’s power generation abilities and created widespread chaos, until Starfleet was able to stop the damage. A half-dozen Starfleet ships were sent to provide technical and medical assistance to the colony, which was Stanton’s first real encounter with Starfleet. It was this episode that made her decide to apply to Starfleet, as she wanted to be part of a humanitarian force for good.

Starfleet Academy (2288-2292)

Stanton entered Starfleet in 2288 and the transition to an M-class environment was significantly more difficult than she thought it would be. As with many individuals who grow up in lunar habitats or LaGrange stations, Stanton underwent therapy for agoraphobia from being outside of an atmospheric dome or another pressurized environment. Despite that, the transition to Starfleet itself was highly enjoyable for her, as she reveled in getting to know members of other races, something that wasn’t often possible on the Human-dominated moon.

As a life sciences cadet, Stanton took extensive coursework in nursing, biology, and chemistry in preparation for entering Starfleet Medical Academy. During her time there, she met fellow cadet Archie Barron with whom she fell quickly and deeply in love, but during her final year at the academy during a routine physical she learned that she did not have the ability to bear children, which sent her into a deep depression. While she knew that motherhood was just one part of life, it was something that she had been looking forward to since her own childhood. She pushed away Archie and the rest of her friends while she came to terms with this news, resolving that she would find a way to overcome that barrier in her medical studies.

Starfleet Medical Academy (2292-2296)

As an Ensign, Stanton entered Starfleet Medical Academy and threw herself into her studies, resolving to pick up as much as possible as quickly as possible to the expense of her social life. While as an undergraduate Stanton had a reputation for being a social butterfly, she was seen as cold, distant, and unnaturally driven as a medical student, taking an elective course load far beyond the minimum requirements, which earned her endorsements in neurology, reproductive medicine, and genetics.

Starfleet Medical (2296-2302)

Following graduation from the academy, now-Doctor Stanton pursued a residency in Reproductive Medicine at Starfleet Medical, where she learned to handle both routine and extraordinary procedures for many Federation races. In the back of her mind was her desire to one day find a “cure” for her own situation, but this became less and less of a priority as time went on. She was commended on several occasions for innovative thinking, but also for her bedside manner, as she never had anything but empathy for beings in the middle of their own reproductive crises. She published work on best practices in Andorian reproducitve health during her residency, which put her in contention for the Carrington Award for the first time, though she would not win that until later in her career.

Following a four year residency, Stanton was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and became an Attending Physician in Reproductive Medicine, overseeing residents of her own. She had been on Earth for over twelve years by that point, though, and she was beginning to desire a return to the stars, so she began completing additional training alongside her work to qualify as a starship medical officer.

USS Aries (2302-2312)

In 2302, Stanton was assigned as Assistant Chief Medical Officer aboard the Constellation-class heavy cruiser Aries, which had been given an entirely new crew for the start of a five-year mission into the Beta Quadrant. The ship operated near Klingon space for the majority of this mission, thanks to the continuing improvement in relations between the Klingon Empire and the Federation following the Khitomer Accords. Because she had been used to having any medical resource she would ever have needed available to her during her twelve years on Earth, it was a challenge to adjust to the much more limited facilities aboard the Aries, which had essentially the same medical facilities as the much earlier Constitution-class, but she reveled in getting to move beyond her specialization and her comfort zone, as she was one of only a handful of doctors on board and had to become an expert in everything from trauma to dentistry to cosmetic surgery.

Stanton did well enough during her first five-year cruise that she was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and Chief Medical Officer, for a second cruise in 23o7, this time on the extreme rimward edge of the Federation exploring unclaimed space far beyond any known powers.

USS Repulse (2312-2322)

Following the Aries‘s return to Federation space in 2312, Stanton was again promoted and transferred to the much larger and more prestigious USS Repulse, an Excelsior-class vessel, where she would serve for a further two five-year missions.

Starbase 4 (2322-2328)

Following her tour on the Repulse, Stanton was recognized as an expert in space medicine and was selected to lead the hospital on Starbase 4, with a corresponding promotion to the rank of captain, even despite having no prior command-level experience as an executive or second officer. Going from a staff of a few dozen to several thousand doctors, nurses, and technicians was a bit of a learning curve, but Stanton quickly learned to trust her instincts and was well-regarded by both her subordinates and her superiors.

While on Starbase 4, Stanton began to have much more regular contact with the rest of her family, as they were now just a few days away by interstellar transport. She had long since moved past her sadness about not being able to have children of her own, though she had never married as she had also deprioritized that aspect of her life; in many senses, she was alone other than her shipmates, but being closer to home brought her back in contact with her nieces and nephews, whom she doted on.

Command School (2328-2330)

Though being on a large starbase had its advantages, Stanton started to feel stagnated after six years on Starbase 4. She had been considered for promotion into the lower level bureaucracy of Starfleet Medical, but she wasn’t about to end up behind a desk for the rest of her career, so she instead requested to undertake the Command Training Program for consideration as a starship captain. Though she already held the rank of captain, there was some resistance to her application, as she was fifty-eight and had never demonstrated a prior interest in starship operations. However, thanks to the intervention of her commanding officer, she was accepted into a two-year program for scientists and doctors moving into the command track.

Getting used to being addressed by rank rather than title and being back in a red training uniform was something of an adjustment for her, but she was surprised by how exciting she found the transition to be. It was like she was eighteen again and ready to see the universe from the bridge of a starship for the first time.

USS Mercy (2330-2338)

Stanton’s first ship following the completion of her transfer to the command branch was the hospital ship USS Mercy, which was a hospital ship converted from a retired Soyuz-class light cruiser. With the trademark sensor pods removed from the vessel, the Mercy (ex-Griffin) was a well-equipped, spacious vessel that could hold up to 250 patients in comfortable accommodations or up to 500 in triage situations. While she had been hoping for an exploratory vessel, she found that she was in the best of both worlds with a medically-oriented vessel, though she often had to restrain herself from leaving the bridge and going down to sickbay herself.

During the Klaestron Civil War, the Mercy offered medical assistance to the people of Klaestron IV as a prelude to peace mediations by the Federation. This was a tricky situation, as the Federation was unwilling to say that only one side or the other would receive aid, so the Mercy had to set up several different field hospitals on the surface while also hosting some patients aboard the ship, for which Stanton was commended both for her effectiveness with logistics and for her diplomatic ability.

USS Saturn (2338-2340)

Following eight years in command of the Mercy, Stanton was granted command of the USS Saturn, one of the new Ambassador-class starships that had just entered service in that decade. She was given the assignment to embark on a seven-year mission of exploration in the deep Beta Quadrant, investigating the powers that existed beyond the reaches of the Romulan Star Empire in the hopes of getting a better sense of the Empire’s extent during their long silence.

During the second year of the mission, the Saturn encountered a vessel of unknown origin approximately 2,000 light-years from Earth. Following standard procedures, Stanton attempted to make contact with this vessel when it was revealed to have interstellar capabilities, but the Saturn came under attack. Despite being one of the most advanced ships in Starfleet, the Saturn was crippled and left for dead.

The ship limped through space for weeks before it found an inhabitable M-class world, where Stanton led an expedition via shuttlecraft to locate usable materials to repair the ship’s systems. As it was rich in dilithium and the component ores required to make duranium, she was hopeful that she would be able to get her crew back to Federation space. However, initial scans of the planet missed some particularly virulent native life forms, resulting in the infection of the away team with an unknown virus. As a doctor, Stanton was able to synthesize a cure, but not before suffering the virus’s effects for too long herself, and thus she succumbed to its impacts even after managing to cure her crew.

Legacy

The Saturn returned to Federation space after another year stranded out in the wilderness, where her story became known to her family. Her niece, Linda Stanton, was inspired by the actions of her aunt and went on to become a Starfleet officer and doctor herself, rising to the rank of commodore after having commanded both hospitals and starships.