Matthew Kagle was the youngest of six children born to cattle ranchers in Emblem, Wyoming. He graduated elementary school two years early and went on to study high energy physics at Carnegie Mellon University. He was expelled after an experiment he was running caused university's linear accelerator to detonate. He quit physics to explore his love of the sea, eventually becoming captain of the Grandcamp (a cargo frigate) which capsized after an unexplained blast in the hold. When his lifeboat arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, he decided to stay, working at Vacuum Genesis, a video game comp...