Q

Quentin was born and raised on Vega Colony which was one of the earliest trading partners with Earth and vital to early Human exploration of space.

When Quentin was born there, Vega Colony was a very large, thriving colony with several million people of various species, though the dominant species was still Human.

Quentin was raised in Sector Seven, a large sector of the colony with a thriving metropolis and economy. The particular neighborhood he lived in was populated almost exclusively by Human Catholic Fundamentalists (a religion nearly dead and clung to by only a few small factions mostly on Earth and a few throughout the galaxy) and he and his brother attended the local Fundamentalist Catholic School their entire lives.

Quentin’s entire childhood was filled with the pressure of achieving his parents’ hopes and dreams for their children which was to follow in their footsteps and become brilliant scientists and doctor and to get married, have lots of beautiful Catholic babies, and live close to home so that the kids could run down to grandma and grandpa’s house.

By the time Quentin was only five, his parents already knew that Talo, his older brother, would not be the one to fulfill their life’s desires and the responsibility fell to Quentin’s shoulders, growing even more severe when Talo left home, completely abandoning the family in his parents’ eyes. Quentin grew up hearing about all of the ways that Talo had done wrong, had betrayed them, was a terrible person and a terrible son and he should be nothing like him.

By the time Quentin was twelve he knew he wanted to be a doctor and had a fierce determination to stay home and be everything that his parents wanted him to be. He wanted to make them proud more than he wanted anything else in the world. He would become a great doctor, would work in the local hospital, get married, have a bunch of kids, and fulfill their dream for him.

He was fourteen when the way they treated him started to shift. His mother started asking him almost obsessively if he had any crushes on the girls at school and who he thought was pretty. His father yelled him when he found Quentin absently watching a couple of older boys play with water guns across the street in their swim trunks. Quentin was fifteen when one of the guys down the street, the older brother of one of Quentin’s friends, came out as gay. Across most of the Federation this wouldn’t cause most to bat an eye, but in their little community it caused a stir Quentin would never forget. At church, at home, even among his friends were reminders of the sin of homosexuality and how it went against God’s Plan for us all.

Quentin soaked it in, believed it with the kind of openhearted naivete only children possess. He’d been hearing it his entire life.

He wasn’t expecting the way that they had forbidden him from having any contact with his friend anymore and how their mild concern turned into something full blown, with them finally telling him straight to his face that they thought he was gay. The accusation had hit him like a blow and to Quentin, it seemed to come out of nowhere. He had denied it vehemently, believed his denials, and did everything that he could to show them that he wasn’t gay.

He started getting girlfriends, going to school dances, hanging out with the “right” kind of boys instead of the somewhat abrasive or awkward friends he’d gravitated toward naturally, and his parents began to back down a little.

Quentin was seventeen when his father walked in on him and a school friend in his room, on his bed. Their books were laid out before them, though their bodies were close, touching. Looking back Quentin wonders if the friend had feelings for him, but Quentin had been oblivious and innocently leaning in to look at something on the other boy’s pad when his father threw open the door, saw them, and kicked his friend out of the house.

After that, the torment was relentless. Quentin couldn’t escape the constant accusations that he was gay, that he was sinning, that he needed to repent his impure thoughts. Quentin was confused, he didn’t know what they were talking about. He didn’t even masturbate much and his sex drive was well, well below that of his peers.

Eventually it all drove him out of his home. Both his needing to get away from the vitriol and his parents’ none so subtle hints that he was a disgrace to the family and that they’d rather he go wallow in sin and shame elsewhere. Now their hopes rested squarely on the shoulders of Quentin who disappeared before the sun even rose one morning, off to follow in his brothers’ footsteps and join Starfleet.

It took him a little bit of time, but he finally settled on a direction. The direction. The Starfleet. The Federation. He could go anywhere in the universe, but first, he was going to go to the place where he could have a little bit of a leash on himself, to be able to do something he knew he could do, at least in the barest possible form. And he had a lot to learn.

He failed the first time, but succeeded the second, after taking a year to absorb as much as he could to get inside. He worked himself hard, joining every club he could, fitting in every class, trying his hardest, and networking with lots of different people from many different walks of life – many were civilians, but some were off-duty and held something of some power. He didn’t use those connections to succeed, but he did keep them in mind for future problems that he might need. Everything he ever did was very much in line with what he might one day need to do or anyone he might need a little bit of help from or with. He tried to keep himself in good graces, and through that, he made an excellent side-hobby in communications, though he never personally majored in it.

Quentin is no longer on speaking terms with his parents and fell out of contact with his older brother when he moved out of the family home, though he knows that Talo is an Admiral in Starfleet. He could contact him, but he doesn’t, and Talo has made no attempts to contact him either.