Marc Xavier

From TFC Galactopedia

Categories: Current Main Cast | TFC Episode 1 | TFC Episode 2 | Federation | Starfleet | USS Felix | Terrans | Betazoids | Fox | Hybrid

Marc Xavier by Avran Farlek

• Full Name: Marcúsco Shamus Xavier II

• Alliance: United Federation of Planets

• Rank: Captain

• Species: Terran-Betazoid Hybrid (¾-¼) (Vulpes fuscus)

• Age (EpI): 28; (EpII): 30

• Sex: Male

• Assignment or Location: Commanding Officer, USS FELIX, NCC-2072

• Born: July 31, 2345

• Location of Birth: Somewhere en route to Cestus III from Earth

• Parents: Marcúsco Xavier I and Alicia Xavier

• Education: Starfleet Academy, 2361-2365 (Red-Squad augmented)

• Marital Status: Single, dating Dr. Elizabeth Denver.

• Created By: Marc Xavier

Background:

Marc Shamus Xavier was born to a pair of busy parents somewhere between Cestus III and Earth in 2345, en route from an extraplanetary paleontological dig to Starfleet Academy. His parents, Marcúsco and Alicia Xavier were on their last leg of an eight week trip to visit their unborn baby’s uncle, Javier Woodabedo, who had just recently been named the dean of Starfleet Academy’s school of Sublight Propulsion Sciences. Their young son was born unexpectedly―two weeks before his due date, prompting his parents to make a change of plans.

Xavier’s father was a well-to-do freighter runner, captain of the SS Fortuna and president of the Fortuna Shipping Co., who had met a bright and headstrong young archaeologist by the name of Alicia Fa'al. Well known in Betazoid academic circles, Alicia’s life work involved traveling to ancient ruins all over Federation territory and uncovering secrets of civilizations that had long since turned to dust. It so happened that she found herself enlisting the services of Marcúsco’s company to transport some ancient artifacts so precious that Alicia insisted on staying in the cargo hold while they were moved. The trip lasted over twelve weeks, during which time the bright young archeologist came to tolerate, and even form affections for the Fortuna’s comparatively unrefined captain. The two were married sometime later.

In the years that followed, Fortuna Shipping Co. signed a contract with the Betazoid Archeological Science Institute, making Alicia’s husband the sole service provider for the academic coalition. But even as a married couple, the two still often traveled across the quadrant, sometimes together, more often apart. Marc’s father maintained his command of the SS Fortuna and his mother made a career for herself rewriting the archeological histories of over thirty different worlds.

But when young Marc was born, the couple made a decided change of pace. The family settled for several years in Marcúsco’s home town of St. Michael, Barbados. But after their son became a toddler, his parents decided that an earthbound childhood was not what they wanted for him. Although Alicia herself was actually only half-Betazoid (her father was Terran as well), she expressed concern about her son not ever visiting the world she thought of as her home, fearing that as he grew he might forget his empathic heritage. The couple moved to Betazed when Marc was five years old, but remained onworld for less than a year. The boy’s mother was offered an opportunity to study some recently discovered relics of the T’kon Empire, an extremely rare and coveted opportunity, but one which would take her away from her family for three months.

In the time she was gone, Marcúsco returned to his work aboard the SS Fortuna, running freight back and forth between some of the more inland Federation planets while his wife pursued her studies. It was in this short period that young Xavier, no more than six years old, began to earn his “space legs.” The early experience awakened a sense of adventure and curiosity in the young boy; Marc would be content to sit for hours staring out of one of the viewing ports into the stars.

When Alicia returned she found her son had gained an extensive vocabulary, mostly freighter-speak jargon he picked up from his father and other members of the Fortuna’s crew. As she had completed her research on the T’Kon Empire, Xavier’s mother felt as if she had reached a point in her career that would be almost impossible to top. She could also see in her growing son the heart of an explorer, a curious young spirit she felt she would miss too much of if she continued in her career pursuits. She decided to settle for awhile aboard the Fortuna as a member of her crew, much to her husband’s surprise and delight.

As the years went by, the couple watched their son grow into a young man, bright as his mother and as in love with space travel as his father. Since the Fortuna had a mainly civilian crew, it was often Marcúsco or one of the other men who had to deal with repairs when a plasma conduit began to leak or a phase inducer coil burnt out. Young Marc gained an intuitive sense of how to work with technology, a talent which eventually lead him to apply to StarFleet Academy.

Young Marc Xavier was accepted to the Academy at the age of 16 in 2361 as a student of Engineering and Starship Design. Although his father Marcúsco had no particular love of Starfleet, he did not object to his son’s joining the prestigious organization. His mother Alicia was able to secure several key recommendations for her son which doubtless were a boon to his admission application.

Freshman year of the academy was a struggle for Marc as his education hadn’t been too formal when he was growing up. The tireless onslaught of studying, exams, papers, simulations and projects almost caused the hopeful cadet to wash out. But one thing he had learned from his parents, his mother especially, was to persevere regardless of the opposition. She had tirelessly chased her dreams and saw no reason for her son to do otherwise, instilling in him a kind of hard headedness which all but barely helped him to pass the average that year.

Sophomore year, however, was an entirely different story. After properly getting adjusted to the workload, Xavier opted to take several courses toward his emphasis on Starship Design and took up the unorthodox hobby of sword fighting. Marc had actually no previous interest in the sport, but his roommate considered himself something of a virtuoso and often enlisted Marc as his sparring partner, or―as Marc sometimes called it―a target. He eventually, however, cultivated a passing interest in the sport which helped provide some much needed relief from his studies.

One of the classes Marc enrolled in during his second year was Advanced Warp Field Geometrics 453, which dealt primarily with the use of nonpropulsive Cochrane fields and their applications. The classroom in which the course was conducted took place next door to Experimental Warp Field Design 632, where higher level students conducted live experiments with warp drive technologies.

About a quarter way through the semester, a group of students from the other class became convinced that they had discovered the secret to constructing a usable transwarp drive. Without authorization from their professor, they began secretly experimenting with a unconventional ring-shaped warp nacelle design. Unfortunately, one of the experiments ended in disaster, opening up a micro-wormhole which breached the stasis field and remained active for a little over four and a half minutes. The wormhole caused serious structural damage to the entire classroom complex and would have lead to the deaths of over 3,500 students had not Xavier discovered the source of the problem and coordinated a quick impromptu evacuation of the building. The students involved in the experiment were expelled from the Academy and Marc was awarded a Medal of Honor.

Several of Xavier’s professors, while noting his fine performance in the Engineering Division, nevertheless suggested that Marc consider transferring to the command division. Marc had never seriously considered himself command material and insisted that he only did what anyone should have done in his situation. His reaction to the crisis had been mostly instinctual, the cadet recognized a need for action and he took the necessary steps to see that through. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his professors knew that what he was describing was the very essence of leadership. Much to Marc’s surprise, despite his own misgivings about the viability of his application to the Command Division, he was accepted and transferred over during the second semester of his Sophomore year.

2363 proved to be Marc’s golden year at the Academy. He spent extensive time studying the adventures and missions of great StarFleet captains of the past, including Archer, Halen, Kirk and even Jean Luc Picard. Their leadership examples reminded him of his father’s escapades in command of the Fortuna, and Xavier earned high marks on his command character exams. The most difficulty he had, like many command students, was with the infamous Kobiashi Maru test, a computer simulation that forces a command student to psychologically deal with a “no-win” scenario.

One of Xavier’s more notable accomplishments in his Academy Command career involved a "mole" exercise. A group of one-hundred-fifty cadets were taken to a special complex of abandoned warehouses outside the limits of San Francisco. Each cadet was given either a hand phaser or a rifle permanently set to "stun.” The instructors sealed the students inside the complex and told them that one of them was an assassin given orders to “kill” the rest of the cadets. The group’s only mission was to “stay alive.”

In reality, there was no mole, but the false information was designed to instill mistrust among the cadets, and for the first day, it worked. Several dozen students were "killed" in firefights fueled by suspicion and fear.

Xavier and his group of friends were at first no different than the rest of the command students. Like everyone else, they looked sideways at each other, quietly suspecting if one of them was the infamous mole. But halfway through the second day of the exercise, Marc came up with a plan. He took a group of his trusted friends and established a "base" in one of the closed off warehouse rooms. He assigned two people to guard to every entry point and offered sanctuary to anyone willing to join the protectorate so long as they surrendered their weapons at the door.

The plan turned out to be a success with seventy percent of the cadets opting to take up a part. Everyone on Xavier's team "survived" the ordeal. Of the remaining cadets only a handful remained “alive” long enough to receive a passing grade.

In the middle of his junior year, Marc was invited to join Red Squad, a fraternity of elite Command cadets who engaged in consistently more intensive training and harder testing than other students, but also had first privilege on all the equipment and resources the Command Department had to offer. Those fortunate enough to be invited into the organization were considered the envy of the rest of the students and consistently proved to be the most upwardly mobile and talented commanders once they graduated.

Xavier kept up with the sword fighting hobby that he had picked up from his sophomore-year roommate and―after some coaxing by his friends―decided to apply to compete in the Alpha Cygnus Tournament. As he had expected, he did not make placement, but he determined to practice harder and compete the next year. His senior year, he took a two week leave from the Academy and competed in the tournament again, placing a narrow first against the other student competitors.

Marc Xavier graduated from StarFleet Academy, Red Squad standing, in 2365. He accepted a brief posting aboard the USS Venture and served onboard as ensign until the Borg attack in the spring of 2367. The Venture was too far away to make it to the battle of Wolf 359, though Xavier later learned that the SS Fortuna had actually been on Mars during the incident; perilously close to the danger. He took leave to visit his parents as soon as he could spare the time, where they urged him to resign his commission for fear he might become a casualty of another attack.

But the young Ensign Xavier returned to StarFleet, despite his parents wishes, knowing that the only way he might be able to protect the people of the Federation―to protect his family―would be to return to duty. By summer of that year, he was promoted to lieutenant (j.g.) and transferred to the USS Cairo.

In the years that followed, Xavier's command-oriented attitude began to assert itself in big ways, especially during dire emergencies―which seemed to happen with an unnatural frequency. His performance and ability to think on his feet earned him another quick promotion while onboard, some attest much too quick. Three years out of the academy, the young lieutenant had earned the StarFleet Command Decoration for Gallantry, The Starcross and the Legion of Honor medal. His acceptance and completion of a high-risk spy mission to Romulus in 2369 earned him another promotion after that--this time to commander.

Upon his return to the Cairo in 2370, he met a new officer; an attractive and bookish young ensign by the name of Elizabeth Denver. Fresh out of the academy Psychological Division, she proved to be a type of individual Marc had never come in contact with or could figure out. Every time he had thought he understood her, she always proved able to do something that he would keep him off balance. The kind of banter that this social intercourse caused fueled an attraction, although neither of them would dare to admit it.

From an objective standpoint, the pair did not hit it off well. Well before their relationship even reached the point of a simple date, Elizabeth had dismissed the brash young man as a self-centered egotist. Xavier accordingly classified her as a dreary and monotonous bookworm. His high-profile service record continued to impress StarFleet Command and Xavier was eventually offered the position of second officer aboard several Federation starships, but he declined, preferring to wait for an offering as a ship's XO. This, however, did not seem to impress Elizabeth in the slightest, a fact that only made his attraction more maddening as the pair continued to serve together aboard the Cairo.

Later that year, a disaster aboard the Cairo tossed Marc and Elizabeth into a desperate situation. The ship collided with an inverting dark matter fragment, which robbed the vessel of its main power systems and pierced several decks of the hull. With reserve power failing and emergency forcefields only barely holding in the atmosphere of those decks, Marc had the endangered crew members filed into one of the ship’s shuttle bays. Sickbay was on one of the decks in danger, which forced injured crew members, as well as a handful of rattled others into the shuttle bay's landing area, uncomfortably close to the gripping cold of space. Once the forcefields failed, they had to remain inside, only able to use a few makeshift heating implements and the life support from the ship’s shuttles to keep warm for twelve hours until a rescue effort was made.

During the course of that emergency the two were each witness to the others unique abilities; the talents that had gotten them through StarFleet Academy. Marc's ability to take charge and bring order to the situation and Elizabeth's ability to bring psychological calm and sanity to it worked in concert to keep a general panic from running rampant while the stranded crew members awaited rescue. When the ordeal was over both the officers were commended for their actions and from that point forward they grew to respect each other. That respect turned to admiration, admiration to affection, and eventually into love.

By the end of that year, the position for XO opened up onboard the Cairo, and Xavier took the position without hesitation. The captain, Edward Jellico, was later transferred to another ship, and Xavier remained first officer under another captain for an additional year. But unexpectedly, in early 2372, Xavier was offered command of a new design of starship, recommended by one of his professors from the Academy who had left academics and returned to StarFleet Command. This created quite a bit of buzz in StarFleet circles, as it meant Xavier had broken the legendary "Kirk record"―making his way to the rank of "captain" in a mere seven years.

The ship he was given was the USS FELIX, an experimental StarKnight class vessel that employed a ring-shaped warp nacelle ironically similar to the design at the Academy that had changed his career path. Marc eagerly accepted the offer and began to put together a crew request list for StarFleet, at the top of which was Elizabeth Denver. StarFleet assigned him a crew of specialists to fill his new starship, all high raking in their fields of study as he had been at the Academy.

Other voices in Starfleet, however, were not so eager to have someone so young in command of a starship, let alone an experimental new design. Despite the new captain’s record and demonstrated abilities, the crew roster was not approved until a key change was made: the assignment of the much older Commander Romeo Weiss as Xavier’s executive officer. It was only with this safety margin to “guide” Marc’s command did the reluctant voices in Starfleet finally allow his first mission to get underway.

Following the involvement of Marc and his crew in the brief war between the United Federation of Planets and the Galactic Empire, Marc married Dr. Elizabeth Denver. Marc and Elizabeth have three children: Elizabeth's adopted daughter Perdia and their own twins. They continue to serve in their respective positions aboard the FELIX. When not performing his shipboard duties, Marc spends some of his time training in the Jedi arts with Zannah Lyles.

Character Notes:

Xavier is very intelligent, cunning, young and able to think on his feet. But he this is also his first command and he has been presented with a daunting amount of responsibility as a starship captain of a ship such as the FELIX. He is somewhat goofy at times and awkward, trying to find his niche as a starship commander. He is obviously new to the job, but not uninformed. His outstanding performance above and beyond the call of duty propelled him to command of a Federation starship in a quarter of the time as other great captains like Jean Luc Picard or James T. Kirk. However, despite his resourcefulness, intelligence, and personal inner strength, Captain Xavier lacks the one thing critical to starship command: experience. He is still young, and has a lot to learn.

TFC Canon