Fleet to the Corp

[2nd Lt JacobD 0]

For 12 years after his father's disappearance, Jacob spent his time studying and preparing for a life in Starfleet.  He had heard a lot about his father and how he was a great man, and Jacob felt that it was his calling to follow in his footsteps.

 

When Jacob was 17 years old, he received a dispatch advising him of his acceptance into Starfleet Academy.  Not knowing where this was coming from or who his mysterious sponsor was, Jacob had no other choice but to accept the spot.  His mother always taught him it was impolite to refuse a gift.  This was some gift alright.  This gift guaranteed him the future that he was hoping for, but it wasn't exactly how he wanted to get it.

 

Jacob went away to San Francisco to begin his classes.  Jacob excelled in everything from Introductory Composition to Introductory Quantum Physics in his first year of education.  He had made many friends, including one notable friend name John.  Jacob had even met the legendary Boothby, and learned that Boothby had a theory on everything from peaceful relations with the Breen to exactly how a plant produces oxygen for our use.  Boothby was an extraordinary person and in Jacob's opinion, definitely in the wrong line of work.

 

Jacob had finally made it through his first year of the Academy and felt that he had made a wise decision.  His relationship with John seemed to be taking off and life was generally good for him for one of the few times in his life.  Jacob had finally gotten the chance to relax a bit from the rigors of the Academy, and he had decided to go out one night...that night which was to change his course.

 

He had shown up at the Club Crowne, in the heart of San Francisco.  John didn't go with him because he didn't much care for the club crowds, but John had an amazing trust that Jacob wouldn't be doing anything that he wasn't supposed to.  The night had a lot of promise.  Some drinking, some dancing, everything that Jacob needed to unwind.

 

After his first round of drinks, the waitress walked over and dropped a padd on his table and a new drink for him to put away.  He had gotten his ability to handle his liquor from his father and his distaste for the synthehol from him as well.

 

The padd had a simple note on it.

 

"Meet me out front after this drink."

 

No name, no signature, not even as much as a fingerprint was showing on the padd itself.  Jacob quickly downed the drink and walked out front to find a burly man...standing under a lightpost quietly watching the passing crowd.  The man looked up and his eyes met with Jacob's and the man knew that this was the child of the illfated Artemis commander.

 

"Ahh, yes...you've grown up to be a fine young man, Jacob," the man started out.

 

"Excuse me? I don't believe that I know you and if you are looking for someone to accompany you for the night, I definitely believe that you've got the wrong person," Jacob quietly said in return.

 

"No, no, no," the dark figure flatly replied.  "I guess that I should be a little more formal with my introductions.  I am Commodore Jerry Banks...Starfleet Intelligence."

 

"Oh...umm...I'm sorry, sir, but I still don't know who you are."

 

"I knew your father," the commodore said.  "I know your mother, and I know about the box that you carry with you.  How are you enjoying the Academy?"

 

"It's fantastic, sir...I am learning everything that I can."

 

"Then I made a good decision to recommend you, Jacob.  I was hoping that you would take the invitation, and I really wasn't sure what I was going to do if you hadn't taken it."

 

"Thank you, sir," Jacob replied.  He was stunned at this mysterious benefactor, and why exactly he would have recommended him for such a high honor to be educated by the finest institution in the galaxy.

 

"All gifts come with a price, Jacob.  You are going to pay that price through your service.  You will spend your remaining summers at the Academy training to become a Marine.  You will join a company that is stationed at the Academy and learn everything there is to know of the Corp and its history."

 

Jacob looked up at the commodore and was becoming more angry by the passing second.

 

"Sir, I appreciate you recommending me to the Academy, but I cannot enlist in the Marines at the same time.  It's not allowed and you know it as well as I do."

 

"I have connections, and it's already been done.  Now...don't make me have to make this an order.  I've come here to make a request and advise you of what you must do to repay your gift."

 

"Well, I guess I don't have much other choice, now do I," Jacob said...anger brewing in his voice.  "You didn't have to give me this..and I probably shouldn't have accepted it.  I definitely know that I wouldn't have if I knew the implications that this would have."

 

"Jacob, I've been watching you and trying to take care of you and your mother since your father disappeared.  How exactly do you believe that the ranch was paid for after he disappeared?  How did you have food on the table every night without your mother actually lifting a hand and working?  How could you expect to follow in your father's footsteps?  It's all because I have watched you grow up.  It's because it is my job to make sure that you make something out of yourself for your father to be proud."

 

To Jacob, this almost meant that Banks was taking the blame for his father not being there at all while he was growing up without actually saying that it was his fault.  Jacob knew that he didn't have much choice in the matter and that this was his only option.

 

"Fine...if this is what you want, then it's what I'll do," Jacob relented.

 

With that, Jacob turned to go back inside.  As he neared the door, Jacob turned around to look and see the dark figure gone.  He went in and had another drink and called it a night.

 

Through the rest of his Academy career, he spent his summers away from his lover, John, and at boot camp.  Each day that he spent away was another nail in the coffin that was being built for his first adult relationship of his life.