Tristan Percival Finn's life has been an interesting one. It all started on a dark and stormy evening in New York City, though while it was dark it wasn't really all that stormy. Finn, as his friends call him, prefers 'it was stormy that night,' because it makes for a better story. A dark and stormy night makes for a better mystery, and not many people will get all excited about a dark and drizzly night.

His childhood was fairly normal, as far as childhoods go. He was interested in all the things that young boys were, especially magicians. He wanted to be magical, just like them. Small hands didn't make for great magic tricks, but his parents always gasped and applauded when he made barely-concealed coins appear from what-was-supposed-to-be nowhere. His hands grew, and soon the gasps and applause were real.

His love of mysteries, the unknown, and magic led him to, of all places, Starfleet. A friend had gone off to Starfleet Academy and Finn helped him move in. He spent a week there, looking around, enjoying the sites, and one thing he noticed (well, one of the things anyway) was that the female Starfleet cadets were very nice looking. He made that observation to his friend, who laughed and mentioned that it was a requirement. There was more to Starfleet than all the pretty faces (and other parts), and Finn soaked up everything he could. There was adventure, to be sure, but there was so much more. The week that Finn spent at Starfleet Academy was eye-opening, and he decided he wanted to try it out (and not just because of all the attractive women...though, that did have some small part in helping him make up his mind).

Before leaving, he submitted an application. The wait was long and arduous (about as long and arduous as it can get for a teenager in New York), but he finally shipped off to the Academy. He was well liked (who wouldn't like the guy who could pull a coin out of their ear?) and made friends easily. He selected security as his primary focus, since that was where the investigations would happen...and the investigations were as close to solving mysteries as you could get. He took a secondary focus of volcanology, and joked to his friends about being the expert on the science of Vulcans.

Four years seems like a long time, but for Finn, it seemed to pass in the span of a heartbeat. During the time at the Academy, he managed to forge himself into a decent security officer. One day during his second year there, Finn decided (seemingly out of the blue) that he wanted to learn Bajoran, so he did.

Finn's first posting was aboard the USS Davies, as a security officer. He performed well and quickly expanded upon the knowledge he'd gained at the Academy. One thing that was obvious right away was that no amount of Academy training could truly prepare a new officer for what waited them out in the depths of space. But, Finn learned and adapted and performed well at what he was assigned to do.

During his time aboard the Davies, Finn discovered a gift he'd only peripherally realized he had, and only peripherally through the mystery holoprograms in which he particpated during his free time. Finn realized that he had a very sharp and finely tuned tactical mind. "Glad I didn't join engineering then," he told one of his friends after the observation was made. "I mean, how often are you called upon to outthink a phase coupling, hm? Pass the mustard, woudja?"

His first posting went well and he'd hoped to remain aboard the Davies, however Starfleet had other plans. Finn was transferred to DS9. It was a wild time, given the frontier nature of the station and the fact that it was run by Bajorans. He developed a taste for hasperat, though most Bajorans thought him odd when he added a dab of spiced mustard to it. He also found a love for spending time in Vic Fontaine's; he even taught himself to sing with Vic's help. As he was leaving DS9 to join up with his new posting on the USS Sulu, he visited Vic's one last time. The hologram gave him a smile and a wink and said, "Pally, I don't know what it is you got, but you got it. Knock 'em dead, Kid."