View source for William Robert O'Connell (KIA)

{{Character Infobox
|dept=engineering
|name= William Robert O’Connell
|callsign=“Billy Bob”
|image= Master Chief O'Connell.jpeg
|rank= Master Chief Petty Officer
|species=[[Human]] [[Category:Humans]]
|position=Propulsion Chief
|age=41
|gender= Male [[Category:Male]]
|orientation= Heterosexual [[Category:Heterosexual]]
|face= Nathan Fillion
|writer= Formerly [https://uss-theurgy.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=7 Doc M.]
|birthplace= Nimbus III
|height=6’2” (1.87 m)
|weight=200 lbs.  (90.7 kg)
|eyes= Blue
|hair= Brown
|interests= Archaic Technology <br>
Card Games <br>
Conspiracy Theories <br>
Federation History <br>
Gadgets and Cutting Edge Technology <br>
Holodeck Roleplaying
|education= [[Category:Recruit of 2359]] 2358-2359:  [[Starfleet]] Boot Camp and Specialist School. <br>
2359-2360:  Engineer Replacement Training Center, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.<br>
2364-2366:  Warp Engineering School, [[Starfleet Academy]], San Francisco, California.<br>
2372:  Starfleet Drill Instructor School, San Diego, California.<br>
2375-2379:  Starfleet Academy student and instructor.  Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, California
|servicerecord=2360-2361:  Served as a combat engineer with [[United Federation of Planets|Federation]] Ground Forces during conflict with the [[Cardassian]]s. <br>
2361-2364:  Assigned to the ''[[USS Horatio]]'' under Captain Walker Keel.<br>
2364:  Destruction of the ''Horatio'' under suspicious circumstances.<br>
2367:  Assigned to [[Starbase 234]] as part of the starship repair and refit teams. <br>
2368:  Briefly serves aboard the ''[[USS Excalibur]]'' in January.<br>
2370-2371:  Assigned to the ''[[USS Hiroshima]]''.<br>
2372:  Passes the chief's exam and is promoted to chief petty officer.  Spends a year as a drill instructor at [[Starfleet Academy]]’s Officer Candidate School.<br>
2373-2375:  Serves as Propulsion Chief aboard the ''[[USS Resolve]]''.  Meets [[Tristan Kendrick]].<br>
2375:  Promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer for actions aboard the ''Resolve.''  Updates his skills and teaches at [[Starfleet Academy]].  Meets [[Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan]].<br>  
2379:  Promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer, assigned to ''[[USS_Theurgy|USS Theurgy]]''<br>
2381:  Assigned the position of Chief Engineer by [[Captain Jien Ives|Captain Ives]].<br>
2381:  Assigned the position of Propulsion Chief
|decorations= Prentares Ribbon of Commendation,<br>Starfleet Decoration for Gallantry.
}} [[Category:Player Characters]]
Assigned to the ''[[USS_Theurgy|USS Theurgy]]'' as a maintenance chief, '''William Robert “Billy Bob” O’Connell''' served as acting chief [[Engineering|engineer]] after the death of [[Tatiana Marlowe]] in 2381.

== Background ==
==== Wild frontiersman ====
William Robert O’Connell was born [[Nimbus III]], a planet that has the distinction of being a protectorate of three interstellar nations, the [[Klingon]] Empire, the [[Romulan]] Empire, and the [[United Federation of Planets]].  He grew up in an isolated area of the planet where he learned many archaic customs and idioms that would seem strange to citizens of the 24<sup>th</sup> century [[United Federation of Planets]].  Described as a hillbilly or a “space cowboy,” William “Billy Bob” O’Connell’s accent and mannerisms have been compared to those of Earth’s 19<sup>th</sup> century North American Ancient West.

When he reached his teenage years he fell in with a bad crowd and stumbled upon a [[Cardassian]] plot to break up the United [[Federation]] of Planet’s Grand Alliance with the [[Klingon]]s by fomenting unrest amongst the colonists. Young Billy Bob discovered that he was being used and confided to an undercover [[Starfleet]] Observer named [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Walker_Keel Walker Keel] the commanding officer of the ''[[USS Horatio]].''  After [[Starfleet Intelligence]] arrested the leaders of the plot, Captain Keel offered young O’Connell a chance to enlist in [[Starfleet]].  Weary of his home world and eager to make something of himself, O’Connell accepted.

==== [[Cardassian]] Conflict ====
[[File:SPRNF.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Crewman O’Connell, combat engineer.<br><sup>Image © Paramount</sup>]]
When he was twenty O’Connell started at the bottom of the ranks as an enlisted crewman.  He began as a combat engineer, assisting ground troops by building, repairing and maintaining buildings, roads, equipment, and power supplies. He became familiar with explosives for construction and demolition projects. Such tasks typically include constructing and breaching trenches, tank traps and other fortifications, bunker construction, bridge and road construction or destruction, laying or clearing land mines, and other physical work in the battlefield.  He got the opportunity to use these skills for the [[United Federation of Planets]] and the [[Cardassian]] Union were in armed and open conflict at the time.  After a year of supporting ground forces he was ready to transfer off the front lines and Keel offered him a position aboard the ''[[USS Horatio]].''

====Conspiracy====
For Billy Bob O’Connell, his shipmates aboard the ''Horatio'' were the closest things he ever had to a stable family.  On Stardate 41754.7, (October 2<sup>nd</sup>, 2364) Petty Officer O’Connell went on shore leave.  A few days later, the ''[[USS Horatio]]'' was mysteriously destroyed.  It was nowhere near the [[Cardassian]] front when it happened.  After a lengthy investigation, the official cause of the mishap was “an implosion caused by persons or phenomenon unknown” but the real cause of the starship’s destruction was never released.

Young William O’Connell started studying [[warp]] mechanics after that, and he also started investigating the ''Horatio''’s destruction.  It wasn’t too long before he discovered his queries were being blocked by the highest offices in [[Starfleet]].  When he sensed a cover-up, the naturally suspicious O’Connell became a full-fledged conspiracy theorist.

====From Petty Officer to Chief====
[[File:Chief O'Connell.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Chief O’Connell  <br><sup>photomanipulation by [https://uss-theurgy.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=7 Doc M.]</sup>]]
Petty Officer O’Connell served [[Starfleet]] in a variety of roles for the next ten years.  He made many friends he would remember later, including [[Nolak Kalmil]], who he served with aboard the ''[[USS Excalibur]]'' during the [[Klingon]] Civil war January of 2368.  In 2372 he was pulled off duty by his superior and personal hero Chief Warrant Officer [[Sten Covington]] and told to take the Chief’s exam to earn the promotion to Chief Petty Officer.  Covington saw something in O’Connell, a tendency to stick with it and get the job done hiding under an irreverent distrust of officers and authority.  He saw something that O’Connell didn’t see in himself just as Walker Keel had.  O’Connell passed the Chief’s Exam and went back to [[Starfleet Academy]] to update his skills.  He never forgot his debt to CWO Covington, and never forgot what Covington had told him about the role of Chief Petty Officers:

''“A chief on your side is worth his weight in latinum.  They get the job done and can anticipate your needs.  They can work the system to keep an officer from drowning in procedure and allow them to actually concentrate on the mission.  When an officer dreams up a mission, a chief makes sure he doesn’t forget any of the equipment needed to get it done.  And when a Hammerhead flies off into the black, a chief makes sure that rutting thing doesn’t blow up as soon as the pilot asks it to go.   God bless all chiefs.”''

After making chief, O'Connell spent a year as a drill instructor in [[Starfleet Academy]]'s Officer's Candidate School, turning recruits into cadets.

====A test of ''Resolve''====
During the final year of the [[Dominion War]], Chief Petty Officer O’Connell served aboard the ''[[USS Resolve]]'' as a propulsion chief.  His personal physician was the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]''’s chief [[medical]] officer, [[Tristan Kendrick]].  During the [[Battle of Ricktor Prime]] the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]'' lost all of its senior officers with the exception of [[Tristan Kendrick]].  After overseeing some hasty repairs, Chief O’Connell was sent to the bridge where he served during the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]''’s reengagement and defeat of the enemy.  For his actions during the battle and his emergency command of the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]''’s [[engineering]] department, O’Connell was promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer and sent back to Earth to update his skills and teach officer cadets at [[Starfleet Academy]].

====Back to School====
At [[Starfleet Academy]], SCPO O’Connell drilled the officer recruits on one day and learned new technical skills the next.  With little time on his hands to mix with others he didn’t have much choice of who he spent his day with.  Although normally he had nothing but contempt for the spoiled youths sharing his classes, he did get close to at least one cadet, a young [[Efrosian]] by the name of [[Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan]].  Suq had the highest grades, and O’Connell had been around long enough to know that if you want to learn something quickly, stay near the smartest student in the class.  When Suq graduated in 2377, O’Connell stayed in touch with Suq’s subspace handle majorChocolate and shared conspiracy theories, even though for the young Eforsian it was just a hobby.

====Band of Outlaws====
[[File:280px-Billy Bob.jpg|left|thumb|150px|On the run.  <br><sup>photomanipulation by [[Doc M]].</sup>]]
In 2379 O’Connell was promoted to master chief petty officer and assigned to the ''[[USS_Theurgy|USS Theurgy]]'' the first in a new class of starships, where he was reunited with his old shipmates [[Sten Covington]] and [[Nolak Kalmil]].  O’Connell served as a maintenance chief for two years, overseeing a company of technicians diagnosing, repairing, and maintaining the carrier’s superstructure and systems.  He was naturally suspicious of a [[Chameloid]] commanding officer, not recognizing the difference between [[Captain Jien Ives]]’ species and the Changeling species that controlled the [[Dominion]] but mistakenly believed that Ives was the one [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Odo Changeling] on the Federation’s side during the war.  

When Ives revealed that [[Starfleet Command]] was compromised by an unknown enemy that had replaced Starfleet’s highest ranking officers with imposters, O’Connell was one of the first to believe it.  All of his private investigations, all of his conspiracy theories, had drawn Master Chief O’Connell to a similar conclusion; [[Captain Jien Ives|Captain Ives]] had finally presented him with proof.  Granted, O’Connell’s conclusions were drawn from paranoia as much as the truth, but even a stopped chronometer is correct once a day.  Since that day in 2380, the ''Theurgy'' was on the run, fugitives from a [[Starfleet]] that would silence her officers and crew at any cost.

====Uncontrolled Libido, Undisciplined Master Chief====
Cut off from shelter, reinforcements, or supplies, the logistics of keeping a ship the size of the ''Theurgy'' in working order was a huge challenge.  When the ''Theurgy'' visited the Mahéwa System, an away team was sent down to a verdant and uninhabited M-Class Planet by the name of [[Niga]] and encountered a plant that used its parasitic pollen to propagate itself within the vector's body - spreading itself through the vector's bodily fluids to new vectors. The infected had become vectors for a parasitic virus with the intent of interplanetary pollination – the spreading of the infectious flora. The main symptoms of the intoxication were suppression of all sexual inhibitions, a rising urge to copulate with as many others possible.  Master Chief O’Connell, who had always thought of himself as a ladies’ man, succumbed to this insidious infection, helping to spread it until help from the future in the form of intervention from the ''[[USS Relativity]]'' eliminated the threat.

O’Connell, who was at heart a throwback to earlier times, took the violation of his body and libido hard.  Once a man who mentally undressed every woman he saw, the sexual urge now filled him with shame, revulsion, and self-loathing.  Considering himself a broken man, he didn’t volunteer to beam down to his home planet of [[Nimbus III]] when the ''Theurgy'' visited his birthplace in search of a replacement replicator.  Counselling helped, but the death of the ship’s counselor [[Garen Nelis]] and the encounter with the omnipotent alien entity calling itself “[[Ishtar]]” undid his therapy and left him ashamed of his reproductive urges.

As O’Connell’s self-loathing grew his conduct suffered, until [[ThanIda zh'Wann]] chipped his tooth and ordered ship’s bartender [[William "Bill" Regal]] to only serve the master chief snythahol until Andor’s sun froze over.  Afterwards he tread lightly around the [[Andorians|Andorian]] officer as evidenced by the way the morning after the ''Theurgy''’s escape from Admiral [[Command NPCs|Sankolov]]’s task force he left [[Below Decks]] shortly after entering to avoid her even after working a sixteen hour shift.

====Battlefield Promotion====
[[File:O connell 02 by auctor lucan-d7l5jrh.png|right|thumb|300px|Master Chief Engineer]]
O’Connell would find a new sense of purpose after sabotage of the plasma relay control in main [[engineering]] fatally injured the new chief engineer [[Tatiana Marlowe]].  The master chief’s cool head during the plasma relay disaster impressed [[Captain Jien Ives]] enough to appoint O’Connell the ''Theurgy''’s acting chief engineer for the upcoming mission to [[Starbase 84]].  That mission was postponed by the treachery of the ''[[USS Harbinger|USS Harbinger]]''’s captain and first officer, Captain [[Declan Vasser]] and Commander [[T'Rena]] who had used [[T'Rena]]’s telepathic abilities to brainwash the selected members of the officers and crews of both ships into following their twisted agenda.  

====Unconquerable Soul====
O’Connell was on the bridge when [[Declan Vasser|Vasser]] and [[T'Rena]] staged their coup.  After witnessing the execution of [[Cale Winterbourne]], O’Connell fled the bridge with Lieutenant [[Commander Carrigan Trent]].  After dealing with the pursuit party led by the psychically compromised [[Sjaandin Fedd]], O’Connell and Trent made their way to the Vector Three [[USS_Theurgy#Battle_bridges|Battle Bridge]] and assumed command of the ''Theurgy'', broadcasting the details of [[Declan Vasser|Vasser]]’s plot to everyone aboard the starship and encouraging every hand aboard to do their duty.  [[T'Rena]] responded by locking the battle bridge out of the computer and pumping the atmosphere out.  Fortunately O’Connell had used the Vector Three Battle Bridge’s ready room as a storeroom for emergency gear and managed to get a breath mask on Trent so he could use his command override to open the doors.  When [[T'Rena]] entered the battle bridge and murdered the battle bridge relief officers O’Connell shot her dead with her own [[phaser]].  Immediately afterwards, the ''[[USS Calamity|USS Calamity]]'' attacked and O’Connell went back to main [[engineering]] where he managed to rally his engineers and keep the [[USS_Theurgy|ship]] together despite the previous damage to the ship and the skeleton crew remaining.

====Master Chief Engineer====
Unfortunately, due to the actions of mentally dominated mutineers in sickbay, Lieutenant [[Tatiana Marlowe]] did not survive surgery.  Impressed with O’Connell’s actions and initiative during the crisis, [[Captain Jien Ives]] permanently assigned William O’Connell the position of acting chief engineer.  Although [[Captain Jien Ives|Captain Ives]] offered to promote O’Connell to the [[rank]] of lieutenant, the master chief turned the offer down, feeling unworthy of the promotion and hoping that the position of chief engineer would be only temporary.  Despite being a noncommissioned officer at heart, O’Connell found himself thrust into the command of an entire department, not just for an event or engagement, but for the duration.

==== Relieved ====
After the battle against the [[Borg]], the addition of several qualified officers made it unnecessary for O’Connell to remain in a position he was barely qualified for.  Lieutenant Commander [[Blue Tiran]] former chief [[engineering]] officer of the ''[[USS Endeavour]]'' was appointed chief engineer of the ''Theurgy'' and Master Chief O’Connell became just one of the many propulsion chiefs aboard the starship, grateful to have the awesome responsibilities off his shoulders.  With the addition of the [[Klingon]]s as allies against the [[parasites]] that had taken over [[Starfleet]], the normally suspicious and skeptical noncommissioned officer became optimistic and hopeful, much to the surprise of his shipmates.

==Personality Profile==
[[File:O'Connell.png|left|thumb|300px]] 
A man of contradictions, Master Chief O’Connell was often a bitter and wary man who tried unsuccessfully to hide his paranoia.  He was described as a cynic who’s the first one to tell you the flaws in a plan but go along with it anyway.  He often said his brains were in his hands; problem is, sometimes they were in his fists.  Irreverent and sarcastic, O’Connell didn’t trust many officers and looked for ways to work around them the best he could.  His speech was peppered with archaic slang and folksy idioms that could only be found on isolated colonies or holodeck programs simulating Earth’s North American ancient west.

By 2381 O’Connell took a paternal view of shipmates who were younger than him, which was most of them.  Formerly a self-styled ladies man, the [[Niga]] and [[Ishtar]] Incidents left him feeling violated and dirty.  He went out of his way to avoid romantic entanglements by being as annoying as he had to be to drive away any potential paramours.  Once he became the ship’s chief engineer, he no longer needed to put up a façade, for he was usually too busy fixing something or troubleshooting something or other, leaving little time for socializing or adventure.  Before the ''Theurgy'' went on the run, ‘Billy Bob’ was known for telling tall tales in [[Below Decks]], getting into brawls while on shore leave, and playing make-believe on the holodeck, but after he was appointed the position of chief engineer a weekly poker game with the other senior noncommissioned officers became the focal point of his recreation.

O'Connell made numerous personal log entries during the day to record his investigation of the ‘conspiracy’ so that his knowledge wouldn’t be lost if anything unforeseen happened to him.  Unfortunately he wasn't discerning about what he included in his log entries and never gotten around to editing them.  Just what he knew if anything was hidden in hours and hours of personal messages and minutia.

==Physical Profile==
William O’Connell was a tall Caucasian male [[human]] with dirty blonde hair and a wide square face. Despite his crooked smile and a large nose that had been flattened by numerous bar fights, William referred to himself as ‘ruggedly handsome’.  He had a tattoo on his right hip of a Risan storm god that was supposed to increase fertility.  He had a scar on his right bicep just below his shoulder from an old knife wound.  

==Personal Relationships==
Despite his suspicious nature, William Robert O’Connell made several friendships, allies, and contacts during his long career in [[Starfleet]].

====Captain Walker Keel====
[[File:Walker Keel sq.jpg|thumb|150px|The late Walker Keel<br><sup>Image © Paramount</sup>]]
The late '''[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Walker_Keel Walker Keel]''' was the captain of the ''[[USS Horatio]]'', the first starship William O’Connell ever served aboard and the reason Billy Bob enlisted in [[Starfleet]].  O'Connell met Keel when Captain Keel was working undercover on [[Nimbus III]] investigating unrest that was part of a scheme of the [[Cardassian]] [[Obsidian Order]] to destabilize the colony and jeopardize the [[United Federation of Planets|Federation]]-[[Klingon]] Grand Alliance.  O’Connell had always considered him a father figure and credits Keel with saving his life three times:  The first time was writing the letter of recommendation that got William O’Connell off [[Nimbus III]] and into [[Starfleet]] boot camp.  The second time was approving of O’Connell’s transfer from ground forces to the ''Horatio'', and the last time was granting O’Connell shore leave a few days before the ''Horatio'' was destroyed with all hands.  It was the destruction of the ''[[USS Horatio]]'' that made William O’Connell a conspiracy theorist and allowed him to quickly accept the truth when [[Captain Jien Ives|Captain Ives]] revealed the secret takeover of [[Starfleet Command]].

====Lieutenant Junior Grade Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan====
[[File:Suq 01 thumb.jpg |left|thumb|150px|Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan]]
William O’Connell met '''[[Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan]]''' at [[Starfleet Academy]] in 2375 after being promoted to senior chief petty officer.  O’Connell was assigned as an academy instructor while updating his skills for the post-[[Dominion War]] [[Starfleet]] and got to know the socially awkward cadet and share some of his conspiracy theories with him.  The grizzled chief had such an impact on the [[Efrosian]] that Suq gained an interest in conspiracy theories and became part of his unofficial network of fellow conspiracy buffs, although for the young officer it was more of a hobby than anything he actually believed.  When Suq heard something he passed it on to O’Connell and his fellow conspiracy theorists under the pseudonym “majorChocolate”.  When the ''[[USS Resolve|USS Resolve]]'' vanished in 2378 investigating an unknown anomaly, O’Connell assumed that the last piece of data that Suq sent him was deadly accurate, but in truth the fate of the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]'' was merely a coincidence.  In 2381, only a few months after the ''[[USS_Theurgy|Theurgy]]'' severed all ties with [[Starfleet]], the ''[[USS Resolve|Resolve]]'' returned safe and sound to [[Federation]] space, weathered and weary from its adventures in the [[Delta Quadrant]] with Suq in the position of acting chief engineer.

====Chief Warrant Officer Sten Covington====
[[File:Covington thumb.jpg|thumb|150px|Sten Michael Covington]]
O’Connell often bragged about his network of senior noncommissioned officers spread throughout [[Starfleet]] he could count on for help.  First and foremost amongst them was Chief Warrant Officer First Class '''[[Sten Covington]]''', an old friend, personal hero, and fellow shipmate aboard the ''[[USS_Theurgy|USS Theurgy]]''.  It was CWO Covington who persuaded O’Connell to take his Chief’s exam and remain in [[Starfleet]] in 2372, a tale that grows more colorful every time Billy Bob tells it.   It wasn’t until months later that O’Connell learned about his hero’s divorce and realized just how much [[Sten Covington]] had [[devoted]] his life to [[Starfleet]].   Upon hearing that CWO Covington was in charge of the flight deck aboard the soon to launch ''Theurgy'', Billy Bob O’Connell put in a transfer request to the prototype carrier.   After the truth about [[Starfleet]] was revealed, O’Connell’s workload increased exponentially, but he never missed a weekly poker game with Covington and the other chiefs, even after being promoted to acting chief engineer.  When [[Sten Covington]] perished during the a battle against the [[Borg]], Billy Bob vowed to never forget Sten and the lessons the chief warrant officer had taught him.

====Master Chief Petty Officer Nolak Kalmil====
[[File:Nolak-Kalmil-02.png|left|thumb|150px|Nolak Kalmil]]
William O’Connell met '''[[Nolak Kalmil]]''' when they served together aboard the ''[[USS Excalibur]]'' during the [[Klingon]] Civil War of 2367-2368.  After that they lost track of each other before meeting up as instructors at [[Starfleet Academy]] in 2372.  In those days, O'Connell was a drill instructor and Kalmil was an academy instructor.  After that they kept in touch until they were both assigned to the ''Theurgy'' where they set up the weekly poker game for all non-commissioned officers of [[rank]] chief petty officer and above.  When it came to personalities they couldn't be more opposite.  [[Nolak Kalmil]] was quiet.  William O’Connell was loud.  Nolak had taken the [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Deltan Deltan] vow of celibacy.  Billy Bob had chased every female he saw before the ''Theurgy'' entered the [[Niga|Mahéwa System]].  When under fire Acting Chief Engineer Kalmil’s orders were calculated, direct, and almost soothing.  When things got hot Acting Chief Engineer O’Connell’s orders could get emotive and downright belligerent.  Yet somehow they had managed to become friends, their contrasting personalities complimenting each other. When Nolak broke his neck and was put into cryostasis, O'Connell assumed he would never see him again.  He was ecstatic when Nolak received the surgery he needed over a month later.  Sadly Nolak Kamil's return to duty was short lived.  After the  ''Theurgy''’s confrontation with [[Task Force Archeron]] at [[Starbase 84]], the Deltan was killed in the line of duty while attempting to rescue [[Rihen Neyah]] during an unsuccessful attempted takeover of the ship by a religious cult calling themselves the [[Devoted]].

==== Senior Chief Petty Officer Calvin Reagar====
[[File:Reagar.jpg|right|thumb|150px|SCPO Calvin Reagar<br><sup>image by [http://gazomg.deviantart.com/art/Star-Trek-Firefly-5-Adam-Baldwin-591560329 gazomg]</sup>]]
William O’Connell met '''[[Security NPCs|Calvin Reagar]]''' on an earlier posting.  Reagar was one of the few enlisted men aboard the ''[[USS Theurgy|Theurgy]]'' who had served twenty or more years in [[Starfleet]] by 2381.  As such he was part of the unofficial fraternity composed of senior noncommissioned officers aboard the ''Theurgy'' that included [[Sten Covington]] and [[Nolak Kalmil]] and was a regular to the weekly poker games the ''Theurgy''’s chiefs held in an unused cabin on Deck 08.  He was one of the few people who O’Connell consistently trusted, finding in Reagar a man of similar convictions and temperament.  SCPO Reagar collaborated with O'Connell during the creation of the [[SAFTI Gear|Subspace Armor Field Tactical Integration (SAFTI) gear]], a personal protection system that used subspace harmonics to generate a personal force field around the wearer.  He assisted O'Connell in assembling the first functioning SAFTI units by hand; together they built over twenty units in time for the mission to [[Starbase 84]], the mission that was destined to be his last.

==== Chief Petty Officer Ekon Okotie-Eboh==== 
[[File:Ekon-03.png|thumb|left|150px|Ekon Okotie-Eboh]]William Robert O'Connell met '''[[Ekon Okotie-Eboh]]''' while they were both petty officers serving aboard the ''[[USS Hiroshima]]'' in 2370.  While serving together, Billy Bob and Ekon played a number of pranks on each other, not limited to setting up a shipmate on a date with a [[Gorn]] of the same gender, beaming the other into a holodeck simulation of his quarters while he is sleeping and then simulating an emergency, and volunteering the other for additional duty.  Yet there never was a streak of maliciousness in their pranking, and it remained a friendly game of one-upmanship until O'Connell's transfer in 2371.  They remained correspondents, congratulating each other when they passed their chief's exams, and passed each other news of what was happening in [[Starfleet]].

The last contact they had with each other was Master Chief O'Connell's letter of congratulations when Ekon achieved the [[rank]] of chief petty officer in 2380.  After that, Billy Bob's ship, the ''[[USS Theurgy]]'' fled [[Federation]] space when it learned the truth about [[Starfleet Command]].  Billy and Ekon had no contact with each other until March of 2381.

Chief Petty Officer Okotie-Eboh was aboard the ''[[USS Cayuga]]'' when it was attacked by a [[Borg]] cube and left disabled and adrift in a sector adjacent to the [[Azure Nebula]].  The only ship in range for their weak distress signal was the third stardrive vector of the ''Theurgy'' that house main [[engineering]] where Billy Bob had been stationed when the three stardrive sections separated.  As the ''Theurgy''’s acting chef engineer, Master Chief O'Connell beamed aboard the ''Cayuga'' and was reacquainted with his former shipmate.  Sadly their reunion was short-lived when Ekon died during treatment after the [[Battle of the Aperturess]]. 


[[Category:Humans]]
[[Category:Original Theurgy Crewmembers]]
[[Category:Original Nimbus III Inhabitants]]