Chief Petty Officer Miles Edward O'Brien is one of the most experienced of Deep Space Nine's crew, with a Starfleet career spanning twenty five years. He joined at the age of eighteen1 as an enlisted man2. As a child he enjoyed building models of all kinds, including ships in bottles3, model starships4, and subspace transceivers.5 His father also made him practice playing the cello every day, and when he was seventeen his father sent a recorded audition to the Aldeberan Music Academy. He was delighted when Miles was accepted, but Miles had second thoughts and joined Starfleet two days before he was due to leave. His father was furious until he realised how badly Miles wanted to join. By 2370 his father was introducing Miles proudly as "Senior Chief Specialist Miles Edward O'Brien."6Early in his career O'Brien served on board the USS Rutledge under Captain Maxwell while that ship was involved in the Setlik massacre. Whilst on Setlik, O'Brien was in a room full of survivors when a Cardassian soldier entered. A woman in the room threw him a phaser which he fired at the Cardassian; unfortunately, the phaser had been set to kill and O'Brien vaporized the man. Up to this time O'Brien had never purposely harmed anything - he was even squeamish about killing insects - and the trauma of the event left him with a deep-seated dislike of the Cardassians who had forced him to become a killer.7 It was at Setlik that Miles first found that he had an aptitude for engineering; with the Cardassians advancing on his position he managed to repair a field transporter in less than ten minutes and evacuate thirteen men.8 Miles also displayed his tactical skill when he led two dozen men in a counter-attack against the Barrica encampment, driving out an entire regiment of Cardassian troops.9
O'Brien's best friend, Raymond Boone, was captured by the Cardassians during Setlik. Unknown to Starfleet, Boone was actually killed and replaced with a Cardassian agent who had been extensively altered to resemble a human and given a false identity. This Boone later joined the Maquis and framed O'Brien for the theft of photon warheads from DS9. O'Brien was convicted of the crime under the Cardassian legal system, but was released when Commander Sisko threatened to reveal Boone's true identity in order to embarrass the Cardassian government.10
O'Brien was a member of the Enterprise-D crew when the ship was launched.4 He served in various departments, including the conn position11 and tactical12 - but he was most commonly found in the transporter room.13
His dislike of the Cardassians would rise to the surface when the Enterprise assisted the Cardassians in locating the USS Phoenix after Captain Maxwell began launching unprovoked attacks on their shipping. Maxwell had finally given in to his own hatred of the Cardassians, who he believed were preparing to start another war with the Federation. Miles finally began to deal with his own feelings when he talked Maxwell out of further action.7
Whilst aboard the Enterprise Miles met Keiko Ishikawa, a civilian botanist. The two married in 236714 and had their first child the following year.15
In 2368 O'Brien transferred to Deep Space Nine as Chief of Operations.16 Shortly after arriving he received a black mark on his record when he helped a Tosk to escape captivity on the station, violating the Prime Directive.17 On a visit to Bajor he found himself being forced to assume the position of Sirah, religious leader of a Bajoran village community, when the previous holder of the title died whilst he was visiting. Fortunately he was able to quickly pass the post on to somebody else.18
In 2370 Miles was abducted by the Paradans whilst assisting in the setting up of a peace conference. An identical replicant was substituted for him whilst he was held captive. The replicant had all of O'Brien's memories and personality, and actually believed he was the real thing. The Deep Space Nine crew engaged in an elaborate deception to play along with the substitution whilst they investigated, but the replicant became suspicious. Thinking that everybody else had been subverted in some way he made his way back to the Paradan home world where he managed to find the original Miles before being killed.5
O'Brien is one of the few Starfleet personnel to maintain a successful marriage, although his relationship with Keiko has often been strained badly by the pressures of living and working on Deep Space Nine.19 Keiko eventually accepted a position on a botanical survey team on Bajor, and the two lived apart for some time.20
Like many Deep Space Nine personnel, O'Brien initially disliked Doctor Bashir. In 2370 the Kellerun and T'Lani attempted to murder the two after they helped to destroy the Harvester weapons which the species had developed. Both sides hoped to destroy the knowledge of how to build the weapons by killing all those involved with both their original construction and their eventual destruction. O'Brien and Bashir grew closer during the incident.21 They eventually grew to be good friends, sharing many hours playing racquetball22 and darts23 and recreating events such as the Battle of Britain24 and the Battle of the Alamo in Quark's holosuites.25
O'Brien was killed in 2371 when a bizarre set of circumstances caused him to repeatedly jump through time. Another, apparently identical O'Brien from an alternate timeline took his place and has continued to serve on the station ever since.26
Miles' second child was almost killed before birth when Keiko suffered an accident whilst in a Runabout. Doctor Bashir was able to save the child by beaming it to Major Kira's womb, where it gestated27 before being born in 2373.28 In 2374 O'Brien was holidaying with his family on the planet Golana when his daughter Molly fell through an ancient time portal. He was able to get her back through the portal, but inaccuracies in the device meant that the Molly who returned was ten years older. Molly found it impossible to readjust to life on the station, so O'Brien returned her to the portal and sent her back through again. She emerged just an instant after her earlier self arrived, and sent the child straight back through. The original version of Molly was thus returned, but the older version erased herself from history with this action.29
Miles and Dax implemented Rom's idea for a field of cloaked self-replicating mines to prevent Dominion ships from coming through the Bajoran Wormhole in 2373, an action which sparked the Dominon war. He fought many battles during the war, either aboard the Defiant or in ground combat. Miles was frustrated by the Dominion's initial success in the war and was glad to be able to strike a blow against the Founders by destroying a Ketracel White production facility using a captured Dominion warship.30 He would go on to participate in many of the decisive battles of the war, most notably including the mission to retake Deep Space Nine31, the invasion of the Chin'toka system32, the attack on the Monac shipyards33, the later retreat from that system34, and the eventual advance on Cardassia itself.35 He also served at least one mission for Starfleet Intelligence in which he penetrated the Orion Syndicate on Farius Prime thanks to a friendship he struck up with Liam Bilby. The Syndicate was working with the Dominion to assassinate the Klingon ambassador, a mission O'Brien was able to prevent. He also uncovered a Dominion agent within Starfleet thanks to information from Bilby.36 Miles would eventually travel to New Sydney to locate Bilby's widow, worried that the Syndicate might blame her for her husband's failure. He fell foul of the Syndicate himself whilst on the planet, but Ezri Dax was able to use her family connections on the planet to secure his release.37
Miles felt that his friends had drifted apart during the conflict, distancing themselves as a way of protecting against the possibility that they might lose friends. The death of Lisa Cusak made him rethink this, and he appealed to his friends to provide more emotional support to one another.38
In 2375 Miles was offered a teaching post at Starfleet Academy once the war ended. He accepted, and soon after the final battle of the war the O'Brien family left Deep Space Nine for good.39
Played by
References
