Cynthia Jackson

Cindy was accepted into Starfleet Academy when she was 17 years old much to her mother’s chagrin. Cindy’s mother much rather would have liked to see Cindy in a profession that would keep her close to home so that she could meet a proper young man with which to settle down. Cindy, however, was a restless spirit. She wanted to see the stars. She wanted to meet new people and see new places.

Despite her mother’s misgivings she enrolled and showed an aptitude in astrosciences, stellar cartography, and interspecies ethics. unfortunately, despite her logical mind when it came to the sciences, she had a great deal of difficulty with tactical analysis, which she deemed boring. To Cindy, tactical analysis was nothing more than memorization. It had little application. After all, who cared what some ancient commander did? It was not applicable to the expressed mission of Starfleet to seek out new places and boldly go where no one has gone before. Despite this, she passed the class and graduated with honors from the Academy in 2252.

She immediately was assigned to the USS Copernicus, a science vessel. Life on the Copernicus was exciting at first to Cindy. However, after being promoted to a Junior Grade Lieutenant, she started getting bored. The routine was the same day after day and she felt as if she was not getting to do enough exciting work.

Excitement soon came in the form of a rather attractive Lieutenant Mark Craig. He was tall, at six foot six inches tall and had deep dark brown eyes that she got lost in. Not to mention he had a tight butt and was simply scrumptious. When Mark was near, every part of her felt alive. Mark realized the level of his power over Cindy and made full use of it, daring her to do more and more dangerous things until it all came crashing down over both of them when both were caught in a turbolift in a rather compromising state out of proper uniform.

Cindy was quickly admonished and transferred to the USS Newton where she started working with a new resolve. Her head cleared of Mark, she once again started to perform her duties at a high level and was rewarded with a promotion to Lieutenant. However, Newton class starships were small and Cindy had greater ambitions so she transferred to the Mayflower class flagship, the USS Mayflower’s science department.

On the Mayflower, Cindy was promoted to Assistant Chief of Science and First Lieutenant. With these credentials in place, she started her application process to the Command School. Before, she could get to Starfleet Command for said training, the Mayflower was sent to study a dark matter nebula. Her commanding officer took a shuttlecraft deep inside the nebula and it was instantly destroyed by one of many ion storms. The Mayflower also was severely damaged by the ion storm.

Cindy was immediately given a field promotion to Chief Science officer and Lieutenant Commander. Sensors now blind due to the ion storm, Cindy, with the help of Engineering, developed the first ion pod (which is now standard on Constitution class starships) to take readings on the storm and assist the Mayflower to navigate safely out of the ion storm field. It, like all ion pods, had to be manually manned in a rather cramped compartment and Cindy personally accepted the responsibility for this task.

When the Mayflower reached Starfleet, she officially was promoted to Commander and headed to command school. When Nero attacked and destroyed Vulcan, she was at the school. She was crestfallen to hear that her old ships, Mayflower and Newton were destroyed in the defense of Vulcan and sank into a rare depression causing her grades to fall, especially in her notoriously weak area: tactics.

Thankfully, her teacher, Commander Phil Wilson, a young man himself, was there to help. After a particularly bad test, Cindy approached Phil about helping her so she could get to the next level. He agreed and Cindy started to spend a great deal of time with him.

Initially, Cindy was not sure how to talk to Phil because he was rather prim and proper whereas she was a lot more informal and free. Without thinking, she started acting true to her normal self with him. She almost immediately started calling him Phil rather than Commander in private. Phil relented after a bit, much to her relief.

Despite the fact that Phil was not her teacher for anything other than tactics, she often found herself with him. They discussed a great many topics and Cindy found she had great affinity for the stuffy bugger. As they grew closer, she began to inquire more about his injuries and why he was teaching at such a young age. Unfortunately, as long as she was a student, he would not relent and tell her the story. Worse, when Cindy became curious, she found that the story was classified!

Graduation soon came and she was informed that she would be assigned as the First Officer on Helin. Phil was the first to congratulate her. He did not even wait for the graduation ceremonies. He merely came up to her shortly after she received her notice and handed her a PADD stating, “You now have the clearance to see this.” He politely but without emotion congratulated her on her achievement, saluted her, and then left.

Cindy was torn between curiosity and Phil’s unusual, even for him, stiff behavior. Cindy was certain that Phil knew that her curiosity would win and as expected, it did. She watched his encounter with the Kzinti, the mauling of his leg, and his challenge of the Kzinti when he had only a choice of dying or fighting. He really had no choice. He defeated the Kzinti despite his obvious pain and then <<REDACTED – only accessible to officers of rank Captain and above>>

Cindy watched the rest, wondering why he blamed himself for this incident. He made the right choices. He saved his crew. He got them assistance. So why would he hide this? He deserved the medals!

Cindy tried to reach Phil at her graduation but somehow he always managed to duck away or distract other people into her, knowing that she would be obligated to talk to them. After the party, she still tried to reach him but somehow he was always away. Phil did not answer her until she was gone on the Helin and even then, Cindy suspect it was because Phil figured out that she would not stop calling until he talked to her.

Cindy tried to reassure Phil that he made all the right choices. That he did everything anyone could have expected in that situation. However, Phil disagreed. Only through more conversation did Cindy realize that he believed that the Kzinti actually beat him when in fact the opposite was true. She gave him a curt look and in a rare display of anger mixed with affection stated that if he did not get his head out of his ass, then the Kzinti really did defeat him.

Eventually Phil started to perk up, at least for him and Cindy kept in touch with him throughout her assignment to the Defiant. She knew that he would be his first officer one day. He was the only person that she knew that she could trust to out think her opponents where she might rush into action. So, when she was offered the Legacy, it was no surprise to her, but seemed to be one to Phil, that he would be selected as her First Officer.