Among other vital doctrines such as peace, justice and equality, a unified pursuit of scientific discovery was one of the core foundational principles of the United Federation of Planets. By gaining further understanding of the forces that governed existence itself, member states of the Federation who were once considered disparate entities instead sought to thrive and prosper under a single banner. Perhaps one of the greatest scientific minds of her time, Doctor Carol Marcus was among the Federation’s leading scientists in the 23rd century. As head scientist and chief architect of “Project Genesis”, Dr. Marcus endeavored to create “life from lifelessness”. Following the deployment of Genesis on a barren planet, the molecular structure of the planet itself was reorganized at the subatomic level into life-generating matter of equal mass. A dead moon could instead be transformed into a living, breathing planet capable of sustaining life. Genesis was to be the culmination of Dr. Marcus’ life’s work. However, when her research fell into the hands of one Khan Noonien Singh, Dr. Marcus was to instead realize the destructive potential of Genesis, should it fall into the wrong hands. Following a brief relationship with James T. Kirk, Dr. Marcus gave birth to their son, David. Although he retained the capacity to be an influential father figure in David’s life, Carol knew deep inside that Kirk’s place was on the bridge of a starship, exploring strange, new worlds. She instead chose to raise David alone, a decision that would see David’s brilliant scientific potential realized - a potential that closely matched his mother’s.