Entirely how Dan ended up where he is is somewhat of a mystery. Born in Varati to parents that, unlike seems to be abundant in success stories, actually cared for him. The origins of his name are a bit of a mystery, except that it comes from the archaic language of Dutch, which hasn't been used in hundreds of years. He himself says 'I'm not sure, I think it means fighter or something'.
The same can be said of the remains of the language in his accent. Some weird generational leftover, he imagines.
His entire childhood life, ever since visiting Thompson Dock, he dreamed of becoming a Pilots' Federation Commander. This continued into his teenage and young adult years, and his good performance in school earned him a consideration during selection for the next round of classes. Winning a local lottery gave him the necessary funding, and he was shipped off to the academy. He passed with flying colours and rented his first ship: a classic sidewinder. Doing some missions he quickly gained the necessary funds to buy his own vessel and found his footing in exploration and exobiology. As such, his main source of income is going into deep space for weeks if not months at a time and seeking the very frontiers of space that seemed so unreachable in years past. Now a proud commander for the Canonn Research Group, his mainstay and fleet flagship is CRV Perseverance - an Anaconda that's been stripped to the bone and kitted out only for deep space exploration.

Personality-wise, Dan may seem a bit closed off at first, but once he opens up you see he's actually very talkative. And nerdy...