Cody Stanton

Early Life and Education

Cody Stanton-Knox was born at the end of 2376 aboard the starship Hephaestion to Linda Stanton, the ship’s chief medical officer, and Jonathan Knox, the ship’s captain. He was the youngest of three siblings. Stanton-Knox grew up on starships, attending school with the other children of officers or on the holodeck. When he was four, his family transferred to the Nebula-class USS Agincourt, where Stanton-Knox lived until the end of his father’s captaincy there in 2388 when he was twelve. The next year, he moved again with his family to Deep Space 38, a small station in the Barzan system. Throughout his life, he had mainly been around adults and never more than a few dozen children his own age at a time, which led him to be both shy and preternaturally mature. Introverted to the core, he was raised to be discipline and polite at all times. His decision to join Starfleet Academy was mainly out of a desire to please his parents (who insisted that they only wanted him to do what he wanted to do) by following in their footsteps, but more secretly or even subconsciously out of a desire to get out from their shadows.

Stanton-Knox spent the first two years of his Starfleet Academy studies on Earth, where he managed to hone his social skills thanks to being around more people his own age than he had ever been in his life. While still introverted, he began to find his confidence. While his parents were both scientists, he elected to study astronautics to one day become a pilot. After two years on Earth, he was admitted into the Barzan II satellite campus, so that he could prepare for service in the Delta Quadrant. Ironically, this brought him back into close proximity with his parents, in order to obtain an assignment far away from them—not out of malice, but out of a desire to find himself.

Early Starfleet Career

Stanton-Knox had just graduated from Starfleet Academy and earned his promotion to Ensign when disaster struck: his father, Vice Admiral Knox, was killed in action defending Starbase 38 from a Breen attack. He sacrificed his own life to save others and instantly became a hero. His loss impacted Stanton-Knox profoundly, as his family had always been close to one another. In the immediate aftermath he received lots of support from his friends and superiors, but he didn’t open up about his feelings for quite a while.

Accepting a posting aboard the starship Arcturus as a relief flight controller, Stanton-Knox joined a cadre of his Academy classmates for their long-awaited mission to the Delta Quadrant. Stanton-Knox was promoted to lieutenant junior grade and gamma shift flight control officer the following year, and in 2401 he accepted a transfer to the Apollo to serve as chief flight control officer.