Tom Rathers

"Watch it, Scarecrow!"

Tom woke up with a start. He had been dreaming that he was back home again and 13. He had shot up to his present height almost overnight, but without the lean muscle that he now sported. His size and intelligence combined with his physical and social awkwardness had earned him the derisive nickname 'Scarecrow'. Tom was placed in accelerated physics classes many years above his age, which did nothing to help him in his social skills. By the age of 24, Tom had earned a doctorate in theoretical physics and now had the look and muscular build of a rock climber (which he was, in his spare time). Tom could have lived out his life in the seclusion of academia, but one of his thesis advisors talked Tom into joining Starfleet. So a very shy Lt. (j.g.) Rathers had reported to the USS Potemkin the night before and got settled in. The Chief Science Officer and the fellow members of the Science Department had been very kind and helpful in getting him settled in, but Tom was still very shy in dealing with strangers. He hoped that his thesis adviser was right when he thought that a stint in Starfleet would do wonders for Tom's social skills.

Tom quickly cleaned up and reported to his team. Tom had been assigned to a team to study samples which had been collected by the ship's away team at a planet that the Potemkin had visited two weeks prior to Tom's coming aboard. A sample with some very strange physical and chemical characteristics.