Blackstar Squad

## History of Blackstar Squad

In the beginning (the beginning being 2369 and before), Starfleet Academy had numerous groupings of students known as squadrons, or "squads" for short. Blackstar Squad was not one of them. The formation of Blackstar Squad actually began far away from Earth and Starfleet Academy. Events and people would come together in unusual and unpredictable ways, and Blackstar Squad would evolve into everything that it is today, except in name. That would come later.

It all began in a distant star system, on a planet known to many as Bajor. A lone Bajoran applicant to Starfleet Academy was awaiting a transport headed to Earth. The Academy had made arrangements with some independent hauler to transport this young man, and another applicant from the planet Trill, to Earth. The Bajoran, Ro Bren, and the Trill, Radle Chode, were berthed together on their voyage and quickly became friends. Bren's sister, Laren, was an Ensign on the USS Enterprise-D at the time, and Radle was a promising candidate to be host to a symbiont.

Their journey to Earth was far from uneventful, however. The reclusive and unfriendly crew of the freighter *Toda* slipped up in their procedures and left a clue to their unscrupulous activities. It seems that they were conveying an illegal shipment of trilithium, a very dangerous and highly explosive compound, to sell to some unknown arms dealer. Bren and Radle found out about the shipment, and a game of "hide-and-go-seek" ensued between them and the crew, who were now trying to kill the two young men. By rerouting power to a food replicator, they managed to access the ship's computer and send a distress signal to Starfleet. They also knew they could not let the trilithium fall into dangerous hands, so they managed to gain access to engineering and proceeded to start a warp core breach. The crew panicked and most abandoned ship. The captain was still on the bridge, though, and was taunting Bren and Radle via the comm system. Bren, having a very short temper, took the taunting personally and soon a fire-fight was underway on the bridge. Before anyone could die, a Galaxy-class starship arrived, beamed everyone off the *Toda*, stopped the core breech and took possession of the trilithium. Bren and Radle would be almost famous by the time they reached Earth.

The year was 2370, and Bren and Radle arrived at the Academy the night before classes started. Their first year was uneventful, with a few major exceptions. They met and befriended Samuel Pierce, D'jara Brental, and Jhill Taral, all fellow cadets. An accident in one of their classes stranded them on Academy grounds in an alternate future. With some ingenuity and teamwork they managed to reverse the processes and return to their proper time, but not before Sam was almost killed by an alien organism that invaded his body. Sam was never the same again, and often showed signs of baser animal tendensies and abilities. Another time they discovered that a member of Red Squad was selling copies of an exam to other cadets. Through acts of stealth and computer sabotage, the group managed to trick the Red Squad member into revealing himself and his actions to the Academy faculty.

During the year it was also revealed that Sam's father was somehow involved with the Orion Syndicate. Sam's father was an archaeologist and had discovered some ancient alien artifact which he called the "Black Monkey." When Sam's father disappeared, the group attempted to find and rescue him. Although they could not find Mr. Pierce, Cardassians, Ferengi, and the Orion Syndicate all made appearances looking for the Black Monkey. The group managed to thwart their efforts, but the Orions escaped custody.

Later there was an altercation between the group and Red Squad in a drinking establishment. The 22 Red Squad members were beaten by the five friends, which made them targets of Red Squad for the remainder of their Academic careers. When Starfleet Security apparently arrived to escort the friends to the Superintendent's office, security turned out to be the Orion Syndicate back to kidnap the friends. The Syndicate thought that Sam still knew the location of the Black Monkey. They were correct, but had to extract the information from Sam's subconscious. During the journey to the alien planet, the friends managed to escape their restraints before being terminated. Recalling past experience, Bren and Chode managed to rig the ship to self destruct. The ship managed to reach its destination, and the Orions transported to the planet before the ship exploded. The friends did the same and confronted the Orions in the underground cavern that was the location of the Black Monkey. A firefight ensued, which resulted in two things. First, the Black Monkey was destroyed by phaser fire. Second, Sam was shot by the Orions and died. Starfleet ships arrived to capture the Orions and rescue the cadets, but Sam's death greatly affected them.

Even in the midst of their sorrow, the friends were given commendations by Starfleet for their actions. In a ceremony held at Utopia Planitia, in the shadow of a new Sovereign-class starship with the registry number NCC-1701-E, the friends received commendations, medals, and awards from various cultures. The master of ceremonies was an Admiral Jacob Russell Krieger, who the group was fated to meet later.

In 2371 the friends returned to Starfleet Academy for their second year. Usually by 2nd year cadets are chosen to join different squads. Since Red Squad had a vendetta against the four remaining firends, they used tremendous peer pressure to see that any particular squad chose none of the group. Because they did this, the Superintendent of Starfleet Academy gave the group special permission to start their own squad. The friends all agreed to do this, and voted Chode to be the squad leader. He did not want to be, but he was the only one who did not vote for him. So Ro Bren, Radle Chode, D'jara Brental, and Jhill Taral formed "Blackstar Squad." Later that year they added Wallace Thorne to their numbers. During the year, Red Squad and Blackstar Squad competed in everything: sports, academics, projects, flight group, etc. The two groups were fairly evenly matched, even though Blackstar Squad only had five members. Independent of Red Squad, another thorn in Blackstar Squad's side was Solek, a Vulcan cadet who had been Chode's roommate during first year. With Solek around, one could easily forget that Vulcans were not supposed to have egos.

During second year, Academy cadets begin to focus their studies towards a particular department within Starfleet. But not all their learning was academic. One weekend, Chode and Ro were assigned shuttle duty. Their mission was to transfer a Federation special envoy from a pickup point out past Pluto, back to Starfleet Command. Little did they know that this envoy was a Cardassian named Glinn Lamarr. Working as a Federation spy, Lamarr had been gathering intelligence for Starfleet for several years. With his cover blown, and facing persecution from his own people, Lamarr was been granted asylum by the Federation. He was on his way to Starfleet Command to hand over classified documents, and to be debriefed.

Starfleet had particularly chosen Ro Bren for this ferry mission because he needed to overcome his hatred for all things Cardassian, because of what happened to his family and his people. The question was could he? And could Lamarr make it to Starfleet Command without Ro killing him? The shuttle ride back to earth was not a pleasant one, but in the end Ro learned that one should not judge one member of a species by the combined actions of that species. Ro had learned some tolerance for Cardassians, but was still a long way from trusting them.

Toward the end of their second year, one of their science professors approached Chode about spending his summer on Vulcan in an enrichment science program at the Vulcan Science Academy. Chode thought it over and accepted. While he was on Vulcan he met a first year Starfleet cadet named Samantha Kirk. After getting to know her she revealed that, yes, she was the grandniece of the legendary Admiral James T. Kirk. Chode and Samantha got to know each other very well that summer.

Chode finished his extra-credit Science classes on Vulcan and caught a return transport to Earth. Sam was staying on Vulcan for another term, but would be back at the Academy later in the year. They promised to keep in touch. Upon returning to Earth, Chode transported down to the Academy grounds and headed to his dorm room. Once there, however, it was revealed that his room had been given to other cadets. A PADD, with Chode's name on it, led him outside the dorm and off the school grounds into the city of San Francisco. The directions lead him down the street to an old fashioned Pizza Parlour. Beside the door to the restaurant was an enclosed staircase going up. At the top of the stairs was a red door, with a secure lock on it. The PADD gave him the combination, and the door opened for him, leading him into an apartment.

Chode and Ro were to be roommates for the remainder of their Academy life. The apartment was an open concept, two-story apartment, much larger than the dorm rooms were. Chode was also to find out that Bren and D'jara started up a relationship over the summer while he was away. Bren and Chode shared the apartment, and D'jara still stayed in the dorm with Taral, but ended up spending most of her free time at the apartment. In fact, it became the unofficial headquarters for Blackstar Squad.

2372 saw Blackstar Squad continue their mastery of Red Squad, and of their third year Academy courses. When the second semester began, Chode was reacquainted with Samantha Kirk, who returned to the Academy. This new Sam ended up joining Blackstar Squad and they really began to dominate Red Squad.

Unfortunately, Chode heard from the Trill Symbiosis Evaluation Board. They regretted to inform him that he did not quite meet their expectations of a Trill initiate, and that a symbiont would not be made available for him. He was upset for a while, but his friends got him through it.

In fourth year (2373), there was a lot more practical experience and hands-on schooling, with more off campus classes and field trips. Graduation came on Stardate 50735 and separate Cadet Cruises were assigned. Chode was assigned for a one-year cadet cruise on board the *USS Annapolis*. Bren disappeared and no one in Blackstar Squad knew to where. Thorne was assigned to the *USS Okuda*, a Nebula-class starship. D'jara was assigned to the *USS Comanche*, and Taral was sent to Starbase 217. Blackstar Squad had gained more members over the years, and the originals felt pretty confident in leaving the squad in Samantha Kirk's hands as Squadron Leader.

As a kind of a last hurrah before they parted for their Cadet Cruises, Blackstar Squad committed one last practical joke, the kind that makes one famous, intentional or not. The night after graduation Wallace had broken into the assignment files and found out when Solek was scheduled to beam up to his new ship. The squad snuck into the transporter facility and set up some overrides, so they could implement a special program of their very own. So, while Blackstar Squad was finishing off Thorne's bottle of triple malt whiskey and packing, poor Solek arrived on his ship in grievous violation of the uniform code. Actually, he was not wearing a uniform. He was not wearing anything at all. Rumor was that Solek's grades had been so impressive that the captain of the ship had asked specifically for him. Which meant the captain was in the transporter room when Solek arrived.

Thorne met that transporter chief some time later, in the crew mess on Starbase 441. Thorne bought him a drink and he described the scene for Thorne in exquisite detail. The man said it had been the first time he had ever seen a Vulcan blush. When he found out that Thorne had been one of the infamous perpetrators of the stunt, he bought Thorne a drink. Apparently Solek had not made a great impression on this man either.

A couple months after their Cadet Cruises started, however, the Federation and Dominion declared war. For the next two years, the Cadet Cruises were forgotten. The Squad members were on ships now used for fighting, and there was no time for "training."