Return of the Orion Pirates
Prologue
[A/N] - This book is set
right after the end of the Dominion War.
Bold text - Authors Note
After the war with the Dominion, the Federation, and Starfleet in particular, faced a great number of challenges. One of the greatest, however, was rebuilding the fleet. This would be no easy task, as at least 50 Miranda-class ships were destroyed during the war, and outfitting the 6 Galaxy-class ships built just before the war began with the sensors and other scientific equipment that that class of ships normally carry (A/N - these ships lacked the scientific equipment as they were built from the six spaceframes talked about in the Next Gen technical manual). However, the Federation knew that a LOT of Starfleet personell went through some very traumatic experiences, so, as a result, psychological counseling time was rather hard to come by. One of the worst cases, though, was that of Michael Spadaro, captain of the U.S.S. Galaxy NCC-70637.
Mike, who was aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D when it was destroyed, never fully recovered from her destruction. You see, he was aboard the Enterprise at the time of the whole "Veridian Incident"(A/N - That's what I call it). The Enterprise was heading to Earth for a refit that Starfleet had come up for the entire fleet of Galaxy-class ships, thanks to the destruction of the U.S.S. Odyssey the previous year. Mike, who had recently been promoted to Captain, was also heading to Earth to talk to Starfleet Command about possibly commanding the Enterprise-D, as Starfleet was planning on bestowing the name Enterprise on a newly constructed, then-nameless Sovereign-class ship, and they were planning on having Captain Picard and crew assigned to that ship, while keeping the Enterprise-D in service. (Hey, two Enterprises in service would be better than one...) As a result, Mike took John Raia, his best friend, with him to Earth after a long tenure of service aboard the U.S.S. Endeavour NCC-71805.(Mike wanted John as his first officer on his ship.) However, fate intervened, and the Enterprise-D was destroyed. To make things worse, Mike was asked to head the investigation into the ships destruction. The Board of Inquiry eventually found that Commander Riker could have done more than he did, such as remodulate the sheilds after the first two torpedo hits, or used the large amount of torpedos the Enterprise had, instead of firing the phasers ONCE, and finally, he could have ejected the warp core when the breach occured. However, charges were not pressed because Mike felt that Riker may have been under some stress at the time, although Dr. Beverly Crusher could not explain why she did not find the video communications tap placed on Lt. LaForge's visor when she examined him. Lt. Cmdr. Data would later admit that, just before the Enterprise was attacked, he had detected some strange readings in engineering, and believed that those readings were caused by the tap. Sensor logs retreived from the computer cores of the saucer section, confirmed this, so no charges were pressed against any of the senior staff, though to this day, Mike still has the occasional breakdown where he berates himself for not going to the bridge and taking command after the first two torpedo hits.
Shortly after the investigation ended, Mike was given command of the U.S.S. Galaxy. He picked his senior staff, made up mostly of his friends from the academy, some of these friendships dating as far back as his years in junior high. When the Dominion War broke out, Mike and the Galaxy distinguished themselves a number of times in various roles, eventually ending up with the title of 'Most Enemy Ships Destroyed'. Right now, the Galaxy is on a routine partol near the Synton system, looking for any Breen warships, as they were not too happy about getting their butts kicked at the end of the war, along with any renegade Jem'hadar vessels. The patrol route takes them rather close to the Romulan border, and this is where we join the story....