History: Micheal Daniel McKnight was born in Eveleth, Minnesota, Earth in the year 2291. His father, Samuel, was owner of five spaceship salvage yards located in the Orion Star System. His mother, Nora, a Lieutenant in Starfleet, worked at a Starbase in the Orion System so she could stay close to her family. His sister, Daisymae, was learning about her father’s salvage business in hopes of working in that field in the future.

When Micheal was ten years old, his father wanted him to come and start learning the business of the space salvage yards. His father made quite a living off of his business, and the family lived very well from the earnings. Samuel believed that after Micheal learned the business, he could retire in great wealth and the business would stay in the family’s hands for many years.

Once Micheal got into the business his interests turned to studying the ships and would look up their history and design on his computer at home. He would access text journals from library files and would study into the night to learn all he could about starships. The desire of what he truly wanted to do was not to take ships apart and sell components, but to design and build them. He would have to tell his father and find a good academy that taught courses in drafting and design. The best choice was Starfleet Academy.

When his father heard about his son’s decision, he couldn’t believe it. "You are going to throw all of this away just so you can go to school and build ships? I can’t believe you are going to throw away an easy profitable life for one that has no certain future in it. Get out of my sight."

Micheal was hurt by his father’s words and turned to his mother for advice. Nora told him that he had put a monkey wrench in his father’s great plans for retirement, but Micheal needed to follow his dreams. She spoke to a few of her friends at Starfleet and they helped and encouraged Micheal to study for the Starfleet Academy exam. At the age if 18, Micheal took the Starfleet Academy entrance exam and passed.

In his first year at the academy, Micheal, took courses that one day would teach him how to design starships and other deep space vessels. A contest, in his junior year, was to see who could build the better ship with certain parameters listed. Micheal worked feverishly on the project, drawing his resources on what he had learned at the academy and his father’s salvage yard. He passed the contest with the highest mark. He was summoned to the Dean’s officer where he found his instructors also present. They asked him about all of the knowledge he had for his ship’s plan that the instructors hadn’t talked about. Micheal informed them of the years he studied the ships in his father’s salvage business. During a school break some of the instructors visited the salvage yard and Micheal pointed out some of the components he used in his ship’s design. The instructors paid for some of the items and decided to add them to their next year’s study courses.

After Micheal graduated from the academy his mother threw him a happy send off party. His first assignment was aboard the USS Roanoke. He was part of the refit team to repair the ship after battle. A year had passed when Michael received a communication from his mother that his father and sister were killed in an explosion on a new ship that they had acquired. Michael took a few weeks off to attend his family’s funeral and make sure his mother was doing ok. Nora was taking over the business and had the help of a friend to see things ran smooth.

Michael returned to duty and after several positions aboard Starfleet ships, he was transferred to Third Fleet and posted aboard the USS PHOENIX as an engineering officer.