View source for Kenneth Goodspeed

Born January 16, 2348 on Earth, during a stopover. His childhood and young adulthood was spent traveling with his family, merchants, from Earth to other Federation worlds and outposts. He learned the family business, and fully expected to follow in his father's line and become a captain himself. During the numerous trips along the trade routes, he became familiar with how space worked. He learned how to make repairs without having access to all the right tools and materials. After an encounter with dark matter and almost losing family, ship, and cargo, he spent as much time and resources learning about space anomalies. He swore he wouldn't be caught off guard again. And didn't. In addition, traveling to unique planets and outposts, he learned quickly how to assess what the planetary scans told him. Otherwise, it would be costly. 

September 8th, 2374, Kenneth was traveling with family making a delivery to Regulon after stopping at Starbase 310 when a Cardassian warship attacked their transport. As they had minimal shielding and weapons, they were quickly disabled. The Cardassians claimed they were transporting contraband and claimed the area of space as theirs. During the battle, a console blew out injuring his mother, who was also their navigator. A Federation ship, the Narcissus, responded to the emergency call, but too late for his mother.

After this, he joined Starfleet to help insure the safety of other merchants in the quadrant. He graduated the Academy in 2379. For two  tours, he was stationed on the USS Biko, a scout ship stationed near the Cardassian Neutral zone. After the Federation negotiated with the Cardassians and made concessions of space and resources, Kenneth became disenfranchised with the politics. Upon hearing about the Pathfinder mission, he volunteered for the assignment.