Symbiont School and Starfleet Academy

[Guest Pax]

Hello all, I'm looking at playing a Trill but have hit a stumbling block: Application and training to Join with a Symbiont and to become a Starfleet Officer both occur during one's early 20s. How have previous Joined Trill players reconciled the two? I assume Starfleet doesn't just let cadets/ensigns take extended leave that may result in a totally different person than the one they just vetted and trained. Suggestions and advice are greatly appreciated, thank you!

[Jalana 1,243]

Hiya, thank you for your question!

I personally have written to first done the whole becoming an officer thing and later on went through remote training to become a host. That required a mentor close by which was another Trill character who was played by another player. That way I could do both without interferences and include another player in the process as well.

The early 20s is a required minimum age, that does not mean it has to happen at that time, so you can become creative with that.

Hope that helps!

 

[Kelrod 186]

Regarding Trills is a tricky species to play with. As I understand, the age to enter the academy is a minimum age, and that depends on the species. So, it'll be possible for your character to remain on Trill, preparing to become a host, passing all the required tests and then become joined. Once joined, your character could decide to enter the academy, so, you can state that when your character entered the academy she or he was like. 22, 23, 24, 25... whatever the age you feel comfortable with. Of course, sharing classes with younger cadets could have it's pros and cons, so you'll be able to make an interesting bio about the academy years once you're assigned to a ship and feel comfortable within the group so you can expand your bio with as many details as you want to.

I hope this helped you.

 

[Saveron 597]

There is the option to enter the Starfleet Academy as a mature age student if you would prefer to enter as a joined Trill. My character was a civilian physician on Vulcan before he joined, and we also see this in the canon character Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, who was a civilian physician who joined Starfleet later in life.

So you could either join Starfleet first, and sim your Symbiont training and joining later, which could be an interesting storyline, or you could have your character already joined and entering Starfleet a little later in life.

[Sal Taybrim 2,195]

Also remember that not all species mature at the same rate - and that with medical science being much farther progressed in the future, joining as a student who is older than early twenties could still mean your character is quite youthful in their late 20's or 30s!

 

And some species might not be mature until much older

[FltAdml. Wolf 2,630]

Just echoing those above in that it's not required that someone be in their 20s when they enter Starfleet Academy – that's simply a guideline. We've heard onscreen of characters, especially Vulcans, being much older.