Christopher Pike

**Christopher Pike** was a 23rd century male Human Federation Starfleet officer. During his early career, he served on three Federation starships before being assigned to the USS *Enterprise* as Captain.

## History

### Early Life

Christopher Pike was the grandson of retired Starfleet Admiral Josh Pike, and was raised in Mojave, California, Earth. .

Chris' godfather, Mahirn, was a friend of Josh's.

As a child, Pike had two horses – Tango and Mary Lou – which he rode through parkland that surrounded the city.

Pike's father Heston was a science teacher, and when he wasn't teaching science, he taught comparative religion. Because of that, it led to a very confusing household for Pike, causing Pike and his father to not agree on much At one point during his childhood, Pike heard a fable that described Hell-Fire, something that he carried with him into his adulthood.

### Early career

Pike enrolled in Starfleet Academy after Starfleet officer Alexander Marcus convinced him to join Starfleet in 2229, receiving his commission four years later.

Upon graduating from Starfleet Academy, Pike was commissioned as an officer in Starfleet where his first assignment was being a test pilot. Pike went on to serve on Five Federation starships, the USS *Antares*, the USS *Chatelet*, and the USS *Aryabhatta*, before being assigned to the USS *Enterprise* as  Captain

### USS *Antares(2235-2237)*

During his service aboard the *Antares*, Pike became good friend with the ship's chief engineer, Glenn Pitcairn. Pike was promoted to LTJG by the time he was assigned to the Antares, during this time he was assigned as Helmsman, and later Chief Helmsman

#### USS Chatelet(2237-2242)

Pike eventually was given a promoted to LT in 2237 and assigned to the USS Chatelet as Chief Helmsman He held that position until 2240 when he decided to switch career divisions and went into the Science Division.

While this interested him for some time the Chatelet was not a science vessel and was not benefiting him much remaining on the vessel in 2242 he transferred off.

#### USS *Aryabhatta(2242-2244)*

Pike was assigned as Science Officer aboard the Aryabhatta which main focus was Scientific missions which Pike enjoyed but realized eventually he wanted more, he wanted Command.

His Grandfather a retired Admiral suggested he embark on one of the new Constitution class vessels he had heard about, but with the command structure while a Lt Commander at this point that he may not get a Department head position, but it would help his career advancement none the less.

#### USS Enterprise(2244-2246)

Assigned to the Enterprise as a Junior Navigator under the Command of Captain April, was a eye opening experience for Pike, while he had worked under good Captain's April was next level experience. Pike would remain as Junior Navigator for the entire two years he was on the ship but Pike would later admit that in those two years he learned more about Commanding a Starship then his previous entire career.

#### Starfleet Recruiter(2246-2247)

Pike was a commander serving as a recruiting officer for Starfleet Academy. During this time he held the record for most Contracts signed in one year.

#### USS Olympus(2247-2249)

Pike was assigned as First Officer aboard the Olympus.

### Commanding the USS *Enterprise(2249-2264)*

In 2249, Pike was given command of the *Enterprise*.

#### Year four: meeting the Talosians

Four years after assuming command of the *Enterprise*, Pike led a landing party to Rigel VII. On this mission, the group was attacked by the Kalar, and Pike himself was trapped by one of the warriors in an abandoned fortress. Three crewmen, including Pike's own yeoman, were killed, while an additional seven, including Spock, were injured, some severely. The loss weighed heavily on Pike; with all the strain and overwork that followed, he began to question his own continuance as starship commander. The *Enterprise* then set out for Vega colony to hospitalize the sick and injured.

En route to the Vega colony, the *Enterprise* intercepted an old-style radio-interference distress call carrying the call letters of the SS *Columbia*, a survey expedition from the American Continent Institute which had been lost in the Talos star group in 2236. At Pike's reluctant command, the *Enterprise* diverted and traced the signal to a crash site on Talos IV. After an initial encounter with supposed survivors, including an out-of-place young beauty named Vina, it was revealed that the native Talosians had used telepathy to create the illusion of an encampment; all the survivors except Vina were dead.

Pike was overpowered and kidnapped, and placed in a Talosian menagerie. There, the Talosians attempted to manipulate him into mating with Vina, to create a population of illusion-controlled Human servants. Due to the Talosians' telepathy, Pike was forced to relive old memories and placed in illusory scenarios of lives he could have, if he abandoned his career as a starship captain. The scenarios included reliving the fight on Rigel VII, a picnic in parkland near Mojave with his two horses, and an illusory day in the life of an Orion slave-trader dealing in green animal women. Pike refused to mate with Vina, so the Talosians began to take steps to convince him to breed with other females of his crew; to this end, Yeoman J.M. Colt and Pike's first officer, Lieutenant Commander Una, were captured.

Inside his cell, Pike managed to capture and hold captive The Keeper. Pike then threatened to break the Talosian's neck if he resisted, and all the illusions ceased from that point forward. Escaping with the others to the outside of the Talosian complex, Pike had Una set a laser to overload, in an effort to make a statement to the Talosians about holding Humans captive. Indeed, the Talosians believed this violent reaction made Humans unsuitable for breeding. Vina's true appearance was then revealed, and Pike convinced the Talosians to restore her illusion of health and beauty while letting him and his crew members go free. Although the experience with the illusory worlds restored Pike's confidence in his command, it was recommended that all contact with the Talosians' powers be restricted. General Order 7 was enacted, threatening the death penalty should anyone travel there, for fear of the Federation falling to illusory indulgence

#### Klingon War(2256-2260)

At the outbreak of the Federation-Klingon War in 2256, the *Enterprise* was engaged in a five-year mission and was removed from the Mission and pulled to add support.

By 2260, his first officer Una said that Pike was "the most heavily decorated fighting captain in Starfleet"

### Passing the torch(2264)

In  2264, following the end of his second five-year mission aboard the *Enterprise*, Pike accepted a promotion to Fleet Captain, following the conclusion of final negotiations with the Agni species, and informed Commodore Robert Wesley of his decision, as well as his formal recommendation to officially turn command of the *Enterprise* over to James T. Kirk, who had recently impressed Pike. Prior to joining Kirk on the *Enterprise*, Spock had served with Pike for a total of eleven years, four months, and five days.

### Fleet Captain Pike

Shortly after his promotion, Pike was a guest at a conference on Babel, reflecting bitterly about how his promotion had led to becoming a little-known celebrity at tedious diplomatic receptions. Nevertheless, he uncovered criminal activities by a Tellarite delegate with the peculiar aid of Leata, an Orion slave girl/assassin/bounty hunter. By this point, Pike declared that he had been mind-controlled by the best and knew all the tricks, and was able to resist an Orion woman's pheromones and persuasion.

In 2265, aboard the USS *Tereshkova*, he participated in a joint Starfleet–Trill study of a rogue comet in the Trill system. At the request of Trill scientist Audrid Dax, he agreed to keep the discovery of a parasitic life form inside that comet classified. Pike's reports on the encounter were added to the Starfleet file *XENO-02884/1*. Pike was assigned to Starbase 11 at the time.

### Tragic fate

In 2266, Pike was on an inspection tour of a cadet vessel, an old class J starship captained by his former yeoman J.M. Colt, when one of the baffle plates ruptured, causing a radiation leak, just as he had seen in the time crystal vision on Boreth nine years earlier. Pike went in and managed to bring out all the cadets who were still alive, but found himself caught in the automatic lockdown as delta radiation reached critical levels.

The disfigured Pike was put on a form of advanced life support which sustained his withered body and life functions, but he was too weak and incapacitated to ever move or respond to physical stimuli again. A wheelchair that was tuned to his brain could use blinking light signals to respond to simple queries in the affirmative (one flash) or negative (two flashes), but that was the extent to which he could communicate.

### Return to Talos

In 2267, after being contacted by the Talosians, Commander Spock devised a plan to use a fake message in an attempt to divert the *Enterprise* (of which he was now first officer under Captain Kirk) to Starbase 11, where Pike was hospitalized. Spock's intention, risking execution if caught, was to deliver Pike to Talos IV, where the Talosians could tap Pike's mind with telepathy and illusions, providing a hospice of sorts in sparing him from dying helplessly in his lifeless body.

Pike, also contacted beforehand by the Talosians, at first refused Spock's plot to spirit him away to Talos IV. However, on the journey to the forbidden planet, images of Pike's earlier experience on Talos IV – presented during Spock's on-board court-martial (a court-martial later revealed to have been concocted by the Talosians) – convinced Pike to accept the Talosians' offer.

On Talos IV, with the help of the Talosians, Pike lived out a life of illusion with Vina, in which his devastating handicap no longer existed. Pike went into retirement from Starfleet active duty and lived on Talos IV permanently.

On Talos, Pike and Vina lived a life of illusion, freeing them from their ruined bodies. But soon, the illusions came to feel empty to them. So, Pike, still an explorer at heart, looked for a way to give his life meaning again. He found it in the abandoned technology of the Talosian race. He studied their history, their rise to power eons ago, and their fall when the illusions they had created consumed them. Pike also learned the Talosians' mental abilities. With the Talosians' help, he repaired the equipment that had manipulated the environment long ago, and started the world back on the road to new life. The Talosian robots even built a home for Pike and Vina in a reclaimed part of the surface.

Pike also studied the ancient Talosians' medical techniques. Using them, he and Vina finally were able to have the only thing missing in their lives – a child. Phillip Joshua Pike was born in 2276, ten years after his father had returned to Talos.

In 2294 One year after the tragic Death of James Kirk, Captain Spock made a return visit to Talos. He had been sent by Starfleet to offer Pike a way to return home – to undergo an experimental procedure that would put Pike's brain inside a partly-cloned, partly-bionic body. After Phillip attacked Spock out of fear that his father would leave forever, Pike refused the offer, and remained on Talos with his wife and son. By now, the retired Fleet captain sported a full beard, a stark contrast to the scarred face Spock last saw.

On Talos, Pike helped inspire the Talosians to reclaim the surface of their planet and rebuild their former culture. Pike passed away peacefully in 2310 along with his wife Vina, but by then Talos had again become a thriving world, and Pike (in a recorded message, relayed after his death) appealed to Spock now Admiral to take some of his ashes back to Earth, and to help bring Talos into the Federation

## Personality

Pike had a strong moral center and devotion to the values he found embodied in the Federation, spending his life in its service and defense. In numerous incidents, he risked his life for causes he deemed just. Even when faced with evidence of his future, Pike accepted this fate as he had confirmed that his sacrifice saved lives.