Ian was found on the planet Tethannis during the civil war when he was just a baby, and was put into Foster care on the Alliance planet Folia Prime. At least, that's what they told him...

During his childhood he had different Foster Parents. Often moving from one to another one when they had enough of him. It never felt like he had a home. Often he was wandering around. Trying to break in somewhere when he was bored, just to see if he could get in. The rest of the time he spend on him room, using space flight simulators. He was really talented in that, and he enjoyed doing it. It helped him forget the rest of his terrible life, and he always dreamed of being a pilot. He learned how to fly almost every spaceship there was (in the simulator).

When he was 14, he applied for a sponsorship for flight school, since he could never afford it himself. He wasn't sure why, maybe it was just luck, or maybe he did great at the test, but he got in!

Flight school itself was great, but the rich kids were terrible. They didn't like being beaten by this Foster boy. And often after school they ganged up, and bullied him.

At some point he was bullied again by 5 rich kids. One of them had a knife. During the fight Ian accidently pushed the knife into one of the kids arteries. Blood was everywhere, and Ian ran away as quickly as he could. He was sure the other kids would tell that he did it on purpose. Also his flight school carreer was over, and all his dreams about being a pilot.

While fleeing he bumped into Lotus. She seem interested in him, and offered him a drink. They talked a little, and when she found out he was almost a pilot, she asked him to join her crew. Ian was very impressed by her, and was sure that if he stayed on this planet, he would have to go to prison for a long time. So he decided to join her crew.

Before they left, Ian told the ship's crew about a pair of gravimetric dampers, which would vastly improve the speed of the ship. Ian once saw those in some storage space he broke into, but never thought about taking them away, since they are useless without a ship. Together with Max they stole them, and the engineer put them into the ship.

gravimetric dampers

They left quickly after, and it was then that Ian found out the old pilot died, and he had to fly the ship... did Lotus really put him into control after he told her he never had flown a real space ship before?