2381: Assigned, 3rd Fighter Squadron, Pilot, Starbase 212

John was born to Sean and Ellenor Davidson in the Memorial Hospital at Utopia Planitia on Mars on a cold winter's morning. With five siblings in the family, and a female twin sister, Sarah, John felt like the black sheep of the family. Always picked on by his elder brothers, John found his early years to be a hard struggle, despite his father being the Commanding officer of the Sol Marine Defense Force stationed on Mars.

As a teacher, his mother Ellenor was desponded with the way the schooling system was working on Mars and found herself wanting to home school her five young children. She retired from her job at the Neil Armstrong School to look after their education. John was an adept student, though he found himself wanting to go to a normal school where there were other kids.

That wasn't to be. However, on his eleventh birthday, his father took him to his office and showed him the newly installed, and somewhat experimental, virtual reality simulation computer. The forerunner of the common holodeck, the VR Simulator was being tested as a training tool for the Marines stationed at Utopia Planitia.

At first, John thought the device was a big joke, but as the first program was loaded, a rudimentary obstacle course for the Marines, he saw that it was much more than just an empty room and fascinated beyond belief, he took in everything the elderly programmer maintaining the machine could offer.

Hooked as he was, John spent most of his free time working within the boundaries of the VR Simulator learning how it worked and how to write programs to utilize it to it's potential. As the months went on, he began improving the training simulations and creating other more enjoyable locations such as the beach his parents took the family to on Earth on a vacation when he and his twin were 9.

His attentions diverted away from the VR Simulator over the next year when a couple of events changed him. The first was the beginning of High School and his mother, having taught them for many years decided that Sarah and John needed to be with other children as their school days went on. The new experience of going to a normal school, where his brothers picked on him less, appealed greatly.

The second occurred one warm summer day when he bumped, literally, and quite accidentally, into Mary-Anne, the daughter of a visiting General. As he stood over her fallen form, he couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful she was. The bright red blush that spread across his face when he noticed that she was looking at him showed no sign of abating as he held out his hand to help her up.

Despite the awkward beginning, they quickly became friends and a romance blossomed. When her father found out, he shipped her back to Terra, leaving an empty hole in John's heart. It was to take a few more years before he would recover.

At the start of his senior year, a unit of fighter pilots and their craft were attached to the Defense force and John's first sighting of the fighters had him hooked. He found himself envisioning himself as a fighter pilot cruising the stars protecting the innocent from vicious aggressors and tried to spend as much time as possible getting to understand how the fighters operated.

He met a couple of rookie pilots, Lawrence and Stephanie, both of whom looked to only be a few years older than he, and quickly became friends with them both.

As the year progressed, he kept asking if they could take him up in one of the fighters, but they both refused. It was against regulations.

One day, having given up asking, Stephanie, whom he had gone out with a couple of times offered to take him up for a flight. It was the most amazing experience he had ever had. His euphoria crashed when, upon landing, they were met by a bunch of armed MPs and a General who escorted her to his office and kicked John from the base.

That was the last he saw of Stephanie, whom he later found out was demoted and shipped off to another base somewhere in Federation space.

Banned from the hanger, the rest of his senior year was spent in a depressed mood. Nothing Sarah or his other siblings or parents could do would cheer him up.

As the year drew to a close, John was given an application form from his mother. It was for Starfleet Academy. At first he didn't know what to make of it, but upon seeing the areas one could become proficient in, he understood.

He sent in his application to enter the Fighter school the next day, but was saddened to find that he had been rejected. It seemed the man in charge of the Air base on Mars had talked to the Dean of the Starfleet Fighter Corps and thus John was rejected.

Dismayed, he signed up for Operations. He had no other jobs lined up and if he got to work with Holodeck technology then he would at least be a little bit more happy than he currently was.

While he excelled at his studies, he still harbored the desire to fly Fighters and applied for a transfer as the year neared it's end. With the first year basically the same over all the disciplines, he figured it wouldn't take much to get up to speed.

Amazingly he was accepted into the Fighter Corps training program.

His first posting, after graduation, was to Starbase 212 near the Ferengi/Cardassian border. As a member of one of seven fighter wings, John found himself living his boyhood dream. Going from battle to battle, John found himself becoming a fine fighter pilot.

In early 2383, he was in the local bar celebrating the life of a pilot who had died earlier that day, and heavily drunk at the time, he started chatting up a woman in the bar. One thing lead to another and they ended up in her bed.

John woke suddenly as a door slammed open and as he blearily opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the angry face of the Starbase Commanding Officer. Suffice to say, he was charged, unjustly he would add, with Insubordination and demoted back to Pilot, stripped of his flight status for two months before being forcibly transferred off the starbase.

And when he turned to look at the commander's wife, he found she wasn't quite as attractive as he had believed in his drunken state the night before.

Having been kicked from the Starbase, John found himself on the USS Saratoga with the 107th. While he hated having to start from the bottom again, he relished the chance to prove his flying ability again. He worked on his flying technique and continued to amaze his fellow pilots with his abilities, having only been flying for five years. Many of those he was billeted with had been flying for a decade or more.

Eventually he was given a promotion and applied for a transfer to the Galaxy. He had heard the ship was one of the strangest in the fleet, but had a solid Fighter squadron. And when you want to see if you're the best, you have to match it with the best.

Unfortunately for John, just days after arriving, he was involved with a harrowing accident with a rookie pilot who had also been assigned to the Galaxy. With the collision of the two ships, John was left in a coma with multiple lacerations to his face and arms and a mild case of frostbite.

When he came to, so frightened was he that he couldn't even step onto the hanger bay and was placed on extended leave until he recovered. With little else to do, he asked if he could work in the Ten Forward lounge as a bartender until he recovered.

The request was granted.

Until his accident, John was a cocky individual. He was an arrogant man, who believed he was the best pilot in the fleet. Since then, he was been second guessing himself and is struggling to regain his confidence.

Trouble seems to follow him wherever he goes.

He can out drink most people, yet rarely finds himself in such contests of stupidity as he was often taught a telling lesson by his elder brother Joel.

He has had a varied life from his humble beginnings as a member of a 7 person family, to the highs and lows of designing holodeck programs for a little extra money during his school years, to his love of flying fighters.

He is generally willing to give anything ago, and often finds that this leads to trouble.

He is a loyal person, but as with his father, his family and friends come first. He has not had to test his loyalty to Starfleet in relation to his loyalty to his friends, and hopes to not have to test it.

John loves the Beach and making sandcastles and has several holodeck programs designed just for this. It was for this strange passion that he given the callsign "Sandman".

Nicknames: JD, Sandman, Maestro
Features: Dark Hair, Brown Eyes, Caucasian

Family:
Father: General Sean Davidson, (62) Former Commander of the Sol Marine Defense Force (Retired)
Mother: Ellenor Davidson, (58) Teacher (Retired) and Botanist
Brothers: Joel Davidson, (32) Security Midshipman, USS Dallas
Commander Sean Davidson Jr. (28) Engineering Lecturer, Starfleet Academy, Terra
Sisters: Joanna Valen, (29) Mother and Wife, USS Excelsior
(Twin) Sarah Davidson, (26) Research Assistant, Morris Igelson Technology, San Francisco, Terra

John has a habit of making holodeck programs for anyone who asks, though he does sometimes charge a nominal fee due to his need to make them as accurate as possible. The longest he has ever taken to create a program is a whole week, but that was of a Talaxian Monastery where Technology is barred, and hence there were no images of the place in the databases he had access to.

He has two tattoos, one of a small castle on his upper right arm, and a hawk on his back between his shoulders.

John also has a twin sister, Sarah, who works for a technology company on Terra.

He is currently too afraid to fly his fighter after the horrific accident he was involved in.