Frank Thomson was getting ready to land on the planet Gallic to deliver some farm equipment, and it was a planet that he hated. He hated this planet, as it was where he was born and was orphaned at a very young age of two years old. Both of his parents died fighting for the rulers of Gallic against some other planet, or so he had been told.

The orphanage was not a good place to be as those who ran it liked to hurt those that were there or work them very hard in the fields. Those that ran it could do anything they wanted to the children there as no one cared about them. The girls were treated the worst by the headmaster and the male caretakers. Anyone who tried to fight them was either killed or beaten badly as there was no one to question their actions. He ran away from the orphanage at the age of 14 in the middle of the night, as he knew he was getting too old to get adopted by anyone or take the beating of the people working there. He also knew that when he turned 15, he would be forced into the army to fight in one of the many wars on some of the planets fought in this system or against the raiders.

He escaped from the orphanage and made his way to the main spaceport near the orphanage. He then stole his way onto the first freighter that no one was guarding named Mars. It was only after two days in space before Captain Mike Brown found him hiding, and after hearing his story, he let him stay on the freighter. The captain asked him to work to earn his keep on the ship as he liked the boy for some reason.