Background |
Paul Tankersly was born on the colony of Verdasan, to George and Tina Tankersly. He was quickly apprenticed to them, to help repair
their freighter, used for hauling various items around the sector. As a
result, he quickly became familiar with a variety of systems on board
the vessel. As everything was mostly held together with spit and baling
wire, he learned how to repair items quickly. Over time, he sent out for Starfleet mathematics and engineering courses, and studied them. Soon, he was helping in repairs on other freighters that were near his parent's vessel, and that allowed them to trade his repair skills, for various supplies they needed. On his twentieth birthday, he received the news that his application to Starfleet Academy had been accepted. It had taken two years longer, as his parents had not wanted to part with his skills, but he had managed to slowly upgrade the freighter to better components, and soon his parents were able to handle the repairs without his assistance. |
Service
Record |
Entering Starfleet Academy, his first key problem was a
different form of agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces, and adapting to
wind. He had lived in space most of his life, and had been used to
either confined environments, or staring into space, with nothing to
block his view for several light years. With buildings a few miles
away, he started developing signs of claustrophobia, but it only
manifested while outside. The psychiatrists tried to help him, but as
most of the cadets had been used to planetary life, his case was
different.He finally managed to overcome his claustagorphobia, by sitting
inside the buildings, and staring out the windows. He would do that
every day, determined to overcome his own brain. Eventually, he was
able to overcome the problems, and was a regular on the outdoor sports
tracks. He would often study martial arts outdoors, using the combat
techniques to keep his mind calm. Unfortunately, when he gets nervous,
his arms tend to move into those combat rhythms, and this led to a
number of fights at the academy, as personnel going through the security
training would react to his moves, and fight.
Wind was the other key problem he had. He nearly panicked when the first breeze blew across his face. The reason, was that in a spaceship, if you felt a breeze, without a ventilator near you, that meant a hull breach, a critical problem. As there was no hull to breach on a planet, wind was normal to everyone there. He slowly managed to
get over that thought mode as well, but his pulse would still rise
slightly, when he felt wind on his skin. Other times at the Academy, when they would take cadets onto a shuttle ride, and leave them in space, over a light year from any star system, the other cadet would get nervous, while he just turned over and went to sleep. Actual claustrophobia was no problem either, as that was normal when he grew up.
In the Academy, he applied himself towards repair, and
engineering, and studied the ways that different races would repair
their vessels. He studied as much as possible the Borg regeneration
technology, seeing how their automated repair systems could be used on
various ships. Out of the Academy, his repair skills were first put to use in
starbase 54. It was barely deserving of the name, little more than an
orbital station, needing repairs. He enjoyed the place, as he got to
work on advanced Starfleet equipment, and the base also traded with
other races, allowing him to work on their equipment as well. He soon
figured out a few systems to allow Starfleet and Klingon systems to talk
to each other, allowing him to use Klingon systems where needed to keep
the base operating. After two years there, and being promoted to Lt jg in the
meantime, he was transferred to the Endeavor. The commander in charge
of the station had not wanted him to be transferred off, as her station
had been up to specs only when Paul had been aboard. Still Paul had to obey Starfleet Command, and is now on board the Endeavor, fixing whatever was broken. |
