Before becoming the Federation's finest, Jean-Luc was an ordinary student at Starfleet Academy with sights on the stars. His path forward was blow his classmates out of the water on the infamous Evasive Maneuvers exam and graduate early. But there's a detail Cadet Picard hadn't factored into his the exam was a group project and he'd need to make friends with, ugh, people if he stood a chance at passing. Federation starships aren't run by a party of one, after all. During the training exercise, Picard accidentally puts the lives of himself and two of his classmates--Doq and Marty--in danger. But using skills he gained on the farm, Picard manages to pull them out at the last minute, saving their lives and impressing his teachers.