USS Excalibur

The USS Excalibur
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The USS Excalibur (NCC-26517) was a 24^th century Federation Ambassador-class starship operated by Starfleet.

The Excalibur was under the command of Captain Morgen Korsmo from 2362 until 2368. After Captain Korsmo retired to his homeworld of Daa’V in 2368, the ship spent the next year in a period of rotating captains including Commander William T. Riker during the Klingon Civil War in January of 2368.

Petty Officer Third class Nolak Kalmil transferred to USS Excalibur in 2362 and served aboard her until 2369.

For a brief time in 2365, Captain Al Smutko was the commanding officer of this ship. In that year, this ship was assigned a patrol mission of the Neutral Zone in Sector 130 while Morgen Korsmo was on a classified mission. The ship was named on the Starship Deploy Status chart in the Starbase 173 courtroom. (TNG: "The Measure Of A Man", okudagram)

In early January of 2368, when the Excalibur put in for repairs at Starbase 234, the ship's crew was reassigned. Later that year, the ship was selected for a mission into Klingon territory under the command of Commander William T. Riker. After the mission was over, Riker relinquished command. (TNG: "Redemption II") During that mission, Petty Officer William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell was temporarily assigned to the Excalibur where he met Nolak Kalmil, who had made petty officer first class by then.

In 2369 the USS Excalibur encountered the Borg Cube 45208 and many of the officers and crew were lost or assimilated. Only the timely but desperate actions of Petty Officer Kalmil and the remaining crew of Excalibur prevented the ship from being completely assimilated into the collective. (VOY: "Survival Instinct") (Source: Memory Alpha)

After the USS Excalibur returned home to be refitted and repaired from the Borg encounter, Nolak Kalmil took a two year leave of absence to recover on his home planet.

(An okudagram from the Excalibur TNG episode "The Measure Of A Man" indicates that Captain Al Smutko was the commanding officer of the Excalibur in 2365. Since this contracts the information in Nolak Kalmil’s background, I’m assuming that Captain Smutko took over the Excalibur temporarily the way Captain Edward Jellico took over the USS Enterprise-D in the TNG episodes "Chain of Command, Parts I & II".)