USS Horatio

The USS Horatio in 2363
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The USS Horatio was a 24^th century Federation Ambassador-class starship operated by Starfleet. In 2364, a twenty four year old William Robert O'Connell served aboard the Horatio under the command of Captain Walker Keel.

In that year, this ship secretly rendezvoused with the USS Renegade, USS Thomas Paine, and the USS Enterprise-D at Dytallix B. On the planet's surface the four ship captains had a covert meeting in which they discussed the possibility of an alien conspiracy within Starfleet Command. Soon afterwards, the Horatio was destroyed with all hands in Sector 63 when the ship imploded. The cause for the implosion was believed to have been due to sabotage at the hands of Horatio’s first officer. (TNG: "Conspiracy") (Source: Memory Alpha)

Petty Officer Third Class William O'Connell was on leave at the time and is the only known crewmember that was currently serving aboard Horatio that survived the starship's destruction. It was the destruction of the Horatio and the loss of other hands that turned William O'Connell into a conspiracy theorist searching for the truth that Starfleet wouldn't reveal. As of 2381, it was unknown whether the alien conspiracy that destroyed the Horatio has any connection to the alien conspiracy that took over Starfleet in the early 2380's.

(In the Star Trek: Theurgy Canon, the Horatio was destroyed by an act of sabotage committed by an agent of the Cardassian’s feared intelligence organization, the Obsidian Order. William O'Connell, Starfleet’s very own conspiracy nut, believed it was destroyed by a conspiracy of intelligent neural parasites, which is why he was instantly convinced when Captain Jien Ives revealed the alien parasites that infiltrated Starfleet Command.)