USS Righteous
The USS Righteous is an Excelsior class heavy cruiser in service in the 24th century. The Righteous would see a distinguished, though unusual time in service, with it's most famous exploit making her one of the few surviors of one of the Federation's most devastating battles.
In 2367, as the first Borg Invasion attempt of Earth was underway, the Righteous was assigned as part of the fleet Admiral J.P. Hanson assembled to intercept the Borg at Wolf 359. While the fleet was being assembled the Righteous, which was the second closest ship to the cube, was assigned to follow and monitor the Borg as they moved towards Sector 001 following the USS Enterprise's failed attempt to destroy it by it's modified navigational deflector. While doing so, the Borg would beam several lone drones onboard the ship in order to donload information and sabotage the ship. The crew successfully repelled these drones, undid the attempts at sabotage and then proceeded to join with Hansen's fleet at Wolf 359, as part of it's 3rd wave. Following the failed attacks of the USS Saratoga, Melboune, Bellerophon and Yamaguchi, the Righteous, alongside the Kyushu, Tolstoy and Bonestell were called in to relieve the pressure on those ships while their few survivors evacuated and tried to continue on their strategy of attack against the cube's percieved vulnerabilities. However, it was the Borg, using information from the assimilated captain Jean-Luc Picard, who would continue to exploit the vulnerabilities of the Starfleet ships, destroying each of them in systematic order. For the next ten years, it was believed that the Righteous was destroyed alongside the rest of the fleet at Wolf 359, presumed to have been completely vaporised by a Borg weapons discharge due to the lack of any debris at around 0800 hours.
This would change however In 2377. During this year, the Borg would make their fourth and penultimate attempt at conquoring the Federation, by sending a small fleet towards Sector 001 while utilising a new type of ship designed to quickly assault and assimilate planets on the fringes of settled terriotory whilst the Federation was distracted. Starfleet initially responded to this threat by marshalling it's own fleet to the home system, while also deploying an experimental new Carrier ship, the USS Typhon, as well as several other ships to slow down the Borg advance.
In a battle between a Federtation task force lead by the USS Cheyenne and the Borg in the Beta Syracuse system, the USS Righteous suddenly appeared in system. Thanks to the Righteous, the Borg were distracted long enough by a transmission sent to them that fooled the Borg ships into beliving that the Federation ships had all been destroyed, which gave enough time for the Righteous, the Cheyenne and the remains of it's task force to inflict substainial damage to the Borg force and to disengage from their persuers long enough for the USS Typhon to arrive in time to aid in the battle, also answering the task force's distress call. Between the efforts of all ships, the Borg force was defeated and the system secured. However, the Federation task force was now left with a mystery as they soon identified that the Righteous and it's crew were supposed to have perished around ten years ago.
It was soon revealed that it was through the actions of Cadet Qaylan Furlong, son of the Righteous's science officer Lieutenant Ralph Furlong that the ship survived. Originally, Cadet Furlong had been assigned to the Cheyenne before the battle as part of a cadet expereince training program when the ship recieved the disress call from the USS Canalie warning of the impending Borg attack. As a precautionary measure, the cadets and other non-essential personnel were re-assigned to the medical research facility on Marnus 3. Before he could depart with his fellow cadets on a shuttle however, Furlong was approached by Q, the same being who had introduced the Federation to the Borg, offering him the chance to go back in time ten years into the past to save both the Righteous and his father. Despite how this would breach both his orders and the Temporal Prime Directive, Furlong chose to accept this offer and true to Q's word, taken back in time and space to the USS Righteous four hours before the battle of Wolf 359, disgusied and assuming the role of the Righteous's security officer Lieutenant Coris Sprint, who had died from a Borg attack several at this point of time from a raiding Borg drone and, after multiple attempts and newly gained insight in the Borg's command programming, succeeded in deceiving the cube into believing it had destroyed the ship.
With the battle over, Q revealed himself and Cadet Furlong to the crew. When the issue was raised that their actions had altered the timeline, Q's response to solve this was to send the Righteous and its crew into the future, to the point in time in 2377 that Cadet Furlong had left from.
After deberiefing the Righteous's crew, the Typhon would escort the ship back to Deep Space Nine, where family and friends of the crew were waiting to reunite with their loved ones, long thought lost to them.
Cadet Furlong would be placed in front of a general court martial for his actions. However, the crew of the Righteous and their families, along with many in Cadet Furlong's cadet class and others across the Federation, strongly advocated in support for Furlong's actions, citing how he was able to make right one part of one of the Federation's darkest days. He would even gain the support of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who cited that very reason to commend him for his actions.
It was also determined during the hearing that Cadet Furlong had shown initative in using the opportunity for vengance to instead save theRighteous and it's crew through ingenious use of the Borg's technology against them, determination against long odds with little chance of success and numorous setbacks, bravery in the face of death of both his professional career along with literal death or assimilation and finally loyalty to his fellow officers, traits that, while used in breach of orders, are none-the-less among the most sought for in a Starfleet officer and demonstrated among it's best. Finally, it was concluded that no harm had been done to the timeline, as the Righteous had still been recorded as having been completely destroyed in the battle prior to it's reappearance. It was determined that charges against Cadet Furlong would be dropped, except those for disobeying an order from a superior officer and for that Furlong would be placed on probation, held back for a year at the Academy and once completed, assigned under supervision to a non-ship based posting for another year. In memoirs years later in 2395, Captain Furlong of the Sovereign class sucessor of his father's ship would recount that this was worth it for what he wa able to bring back.
In 2391, the Righteous would be decommissioned and placed within the recently expanded Wolf 359 wing of the Starfleet Museum of Deep Space Exploration, placed alongside her sister ships in arms and the only other surviving ships from the battle, the USS Endeavour, the USS Victory, the USS Ahwahnee and the USS Yamaguchi.
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