John Clark

In school John excelled in his literature classes, as was expected, since he’d been reading since he was only four years old, and also in the sciences, which surprised both of his parents, as neither of them were much good at them. His only other passion at school was sports, and he went for every team they’d allow him to be on, staggering his choices from year to year to get the best of all of them. His favorite two were baseball, and swimming, with soccer coming in third, and basketball fourth.

When he was fifteen John took a general aptitude test at school, and scored so well in the science portion that he was offered the ability to take advanced classes in those areas. One in particular, introduction to general medical practices, stuck out to him, and he jumped at the chance to take it. That would be a revelatory moment for him, as on his first attempt at taking a medical course he found himself both enjoying it, and doing impressively well at it.

He would take this and run with it, using it to get a full scholarship to Kansas State University, where he would immediately begin work on a medical degree. He began his course work at the age of eighteen, only months after graduating from high school, and would graduate six years later with an M.D. in General Medicine. He had every intention of moving forward and becoming a general practitioner, or as everyone in his family called them, a family doctor. Then, he met a man who would become a powerful influence in his life. He was an older man, quiet, and reserved. They’d gone to church together all of John’s life, but he knew absolutely nothing about the man, other than his first name, Paul.

Paul was a retired Starfleet officer, who had served as a medical officer aboard several starships, and then a posting on a starbase before his retirement more than thirty years previously. He noticed John’s enthusiasm for medical work, and his aptitude for it as well, and suggested that John might want to sit the entrance exam for the academy, and just see what happened. Seeing it as another challenge John did just that, and was gratified to see that he was accepted, happily, for the medical track at Starfleet Academy.

It would take him another four years, learning things he never thought he’d learn, or even need to know, from officer training courses, teaching him about things like chain of command, and protocol, to xenobiology on races he’d never even heard of. But then, it was over, and he was not just a doctor, he was now a Starfleet officer. He walked across the stage that day with a bright smile on his face, and held the diploma high as he accepted his new rank of Ensign.

He would spend the next four years working his way through an internship, and then a fellowship, going from a starbase, where he was watched, and corrected, at every turn, feeling like a completely inexperienced field doctor, instead of the well trained physician he was, and then on to a ship-board posting as a junior medical officer aboard a starship. Now, at the age of 32 he has finally completed all of that, and is getting his first solo assignment, as the chief medical officer of a starship, nearly unheard of for someone so young, and so newly finished with formal training, though helped by the fact that he already had a medical degree when he joined Starfleet.