Xavier Michael Smith was born on June 3, 2354 to Lieutenant Paul Smith and Lieutenant (JG) Monica Hilliard-Smith on board the U.S.S. Hood. Xavier's mother was a tactical officer, while his father Paul was the assistant chief science officer.

Music was a huge part of Xavier's life. Both Xavier's parents were part of a jazz band along with another crewmate on the Hood, along with a couple officers. (At one point one of the members of the band was Commander William Riker on the trombone) Xavier started playing the piano at the age of 4, and by the age of 8 was playing piano with his parents' jazz band on the Hood.

Things were wonderful, until inevitably, life changed. Xavier's mother was killed on an away team mission, and his father sent him back to Earth to live with his grandfather in St. Louis. Xavier missed his parents dearly, yet his grandfather saw to it that he lived in a home full of love.

Tragedy struck again for Xavier as a teenager, when his father, now a Lieutenant Commander on board the USS Kyushu was killed in the Battle of Wolf 359.

Xavier took up new hobbies to try to keep the deaths of his parents off his mind. Xavier entered into Starfleet Academy in 2371 at the age of 17 and quickly made friends with another Academy freshman, a lovely Terran female named Maria De La Vega. Maria was in the sciences program as well as Xavier, and the two of them quickly became best friends, though Xavier secretly wanted for it to be more than that. Many times he tried to tell her how he felt, but his shyness with the opposite sex in matters of romance held him back.

Xavier and Maria graduated from the Academy in 2374, and both were overjoyed to find that they were both assigned to the same vessel, the USS Gettysburg. Things seemed to be going wonderfully again for Xavier. He had finally told himself that he was going to tell Maria how he felt when they went back to Deep Space Nine for resupply. Fate had other designs however.

The Gettysburg became one of the many Federation ships that became a part of the ill-fated Battle of the Chin' toka System in mid 2375. The Breen energy dissipater weapon devastated the fleet, and left them all as prey to be picked apart by the Dominion fleet. The abandon ship order was given by the Captain, and the crew began to attempt to make it to the escape pods. On his way to the escape pods, Xavier found Maria. They began to run for their assigned escape pod, when the deck they were on was heavily damaged by the Dominion attack. The explosion sent shrapnel ripping through the hallway. Maria was hit, and was terribly wounded. The shrapnel clawed Xavier's left side of his face, and left his left eye blinded.

Xavier picked up Maria and carried her to the escape pod. The pod fired off and cleared the ship, but as the other pods were firing, the Gettysburg exploded, leaving their pod as the only one that made it out. When Xavier went to check on Maria, she was dead. Xavier's pod was recovered, and he was immediately taken to sick bay for treatment.

His left eye had to be replaced by cybernetic implant. Xavier was inconsolable at the loss of Maria and his friends aboard the Gettysburg, and had to be sedated. His mental state began to even further deteriorate to the point that he became completely incoherent.

He was relieved of duty and sent to the Federation Mental Rehabilitation Clinic on Betazed, where he spent the next 7 years of his life. After years of counseling and different medications, Xavier has recovered to the point to where Starfleet has re-activated him and assigned him to the USS Galaxy.