Farl Ferrus

Farl was born on the Bolian homeworld. His parents had decided to settle there, as there were no records (to their knowledge) of any Caitians having lived there before (this may or may not be true, they didn’t dig terribly deeply into Bolian census records). His parents decided that Farl and his siblings would join various space-faring organizations. Farl, being the eldest, got first pick, and set his sights on Starfleet.

From childhood, Farl had a deep love of quantum mechanics and astrophysics. He double majored at Starfleet Academy, and his first posting was to the USS Cochrane, where he spent the next two years studying and cataloguing various unusual stellar phenomena. It wasn’t a terribly exciting post, but Farl got to put his passions to use, and learned a lot about starship operations in his two years there. He even got a glimpse of the USS Enterprise once, when they delivered some cadet from the Academy.

When Farl was offered a shore duty rotation, he declined and opted for another space duty. He saw no reason to take a break from his studies, and didn’t imagine he’d get much science done working as an aide for some flag officer back at Starfleet Headquarters. So, he took a posting as the deputy science department head onboard the Tian An Men. Farl learned an important lesson here about looking ahead, as the Tian An Men was destined for spacedock for some major overhauls. Instead of furthering his scientific pursuits, Farl spent the next couple years updating the aging Miranda-class equipment to modern scientific instruments. Before upgrades could be completed, the Tian An Men joined a blockade along the Klingon-Romulan border, helping to deploy an advanced cloaking detection field. Farl found the wartime applications of scientific equipment a bit scary, but fascinating, and gave some thought to how he might serve if war did break out.

Such applications rolled around in Farl’s mind as he finally took a shore duty at Starfleet Academy. Instead of heading out to explore on finally-upgraded the USS Tian An Men, he headed to Earth. There he spent four years teaching astrometric evaluation and research to aspiring young minds, eager to get out among the stars. When the Dominion war broke out in 2373, Farl decided he wouldn’t sit this out at the Academy, or in deep space, cataloguing rogue planets. He put in for an opening on the USS Denver, where he hoped he could do his part in keeping the Federation safe…

Despite his resting-cat-face, Farl is actually a pretty friendly guy. He doesn’t socially much, but puts in the effort with those he considers friends. On duty, Farl is all business, preferring to avoid any cross-bridge chatter, even during lulls in activity.

Farl’s favorite story to tell new friends is from his childhood. Allegedly, his best friend growing up was Klard, a Klingon from a fairly traditional family. Klard initially teased Farl at school, until one day Farl whispered to Klard that his family still practiced the old tradition of hunting and eating Betazoids. Klard immediately developed a newfound respect for Farl, and they became fast friends. Historically, Farl’s friends have laughed at this story, and then shoot each other quick worried glances as it becomes apparent that Farl is not going to offer up a denial of this fact. Farl loves to chuckle about this in private.