Miles O'Brien found that his winning ways and jovial personality often took him as far as did his seemingly innate talent for uncovering the problem in any mechanical device. He graduated fourth in his class from Starfleet Academy and was granted a deep space assignment as soon as he applied for it. This assignment was to a relatively small passenger liner. It was there that his skills with the transporter were sharpened, abilities that would serve him well in the years to come.
A shuttle service wasn't exactly what Miles anticipated being granted when he asked for a deep space assignment. There were greater challenges than that in Starfleet and he'd proved in the Academy that he was more than capable of meeting any challenge he encountered.
It was that skill for being a first rate troubleshooter that brought Miles to the attention of Ben Maxwell, Captain of the USS Rutledge, several years after O'Brien had graduated from Starfleet. He was transferred to the USS Rutledge. Captain Maxwell kept a sharp eye on his new technician and after several months of exemplary performance Miles was promoted to the rank of Bridge Tactical Officer, Lieutenant j.g. It was after this that Miles began to learn first-hand just how perilous a deep space assignment could be.
But the Cardassians were still there, looting and pillaging the settlement. What the Rutledge had been unable to provide in assistance they tried to make up for in exacting vengeance. The fighting was brutal and during an encounter with two Cardassians, O'Brien was able to stun one but was forced to kill the other. In spite of the slaughter he had witnessed, killing was not an easy thing for him to do. He resented the Cardassians both for their crimes against humanity and for forcing him to kill in battle. That wasn't what he joined Starfleet to do. He carried a deep resentment for everything relating to Cardassians for years thereafter, and while he recognized the source of his prejudice he found it difficult to overcome.
It wasn't long before O'Brien's service distinctions warranted another promotion, this time to the rank of a full lieutenant. With it came a transfer to the Enterprise, the flagship of the Federation under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
As transporter chief, O'Brien seldom was assigned to the away teams the way he had been when he was posted to the Rutledge. Instead his skills were directed towards maintaining and operating the transporters. He was soon skilled at keeping the transporters functioning at their peak performance.
O'Brien had a reputation for being a shrewd card player and this led to an invitation to join the weekly poker game which some of the ship's officers indulged in. But Miles met his match in first officer Commander Riker. It wasn't unusual for the other players to fold just so they could sit back and observe the masters of the game at work. It made for an lively often evening.
It was apparently his recreational skills as much as anything else which dictated that O'Brien be selected to accompany Commander Riker on an away team mission to Alphard V, a world where gambling had been elevated to a high art. Their mission was not an elaborate shore leave but rather an investigation. Eighteen Federation personnel, including Captain Dale Robbins of Starfleet, had vanished on that deceptively harmless world. No trace of them had been found.
Miles was up to the pose, gambling his time away with credits supplied by the Federation in the company of a comely lady Enterprise security guard, Ensign Jardenaux. As it turned out, O'Brien was the pigeon selected to be the next target. He and the ensign were beamed aboard an alien vessel, but a malfunctioning transporter caused them to materialize several feet above the floor. During the confusion that followed, O'Brien activated his communicator which notified the others as to where he was. As a result O'Brien saved his own life and that of his companions, as well as those of the other prisoners.
When they returned to the Enterprise, O'Brien chanced to ask Will Riker why he had selected him as part of the mission. The first officer admitted that it was because O'Brien looked the part and as it turned out he did indeed act his role well. So well in fact that Riker recommended that a commendation be placed in O'Brien's file. This could only have helped him when the time came to consider promotions.
Miles once had a fear of spiders until he was forced to climb into a tube full of the creatures to keep a generator from being destroyed. Miles later took an alien tarantula as a pet as a way to further overcome that fear.
The quote he used was from philosopher Thomas Moore (1779-1852). The poem became a drinking song for warriors over the centuries. The poem was entitled "The Minstrel Boy."
O'Brien finally found the right woman in his life when he met Keiko Ishikawa, the botanist on the Enterprise. They eventually tied the knot with Geordi as best man. Data stood in for the father of the bride while Captain Picard performed the ceremony. Held in Ten Forward, it was an Irish/Japanese ceremony. Some months later Keiko gave birth to a little girl named Molly, with Worf acting as reluctant mid-wife.
O'Brien almost saw his future chances at promotion, much less existence, end when the Enterprise arrived at one of the moons of Mab-Bu VI. He was part of an away team, along with Data, Troi and Riker, and found his body taken over by an alien entity. Data and Troi also suffered this fate as beings who had been trapped on that world, actually imprisoned there, saw their one chance to escape. It was through the efforts of Captain Picard, Riker and others that the plot of the aliens was defeated and they were forced to vacate the bodies they had stolen. Through a fluke, the being in O'Brien's body found himself with a group of hostages that included Keiko and her baby. But O'Brien was himself in form only and threatened his wife along with the other hostages, a night-marish circumstance which it took Keiko some time to get over.
Keiko quiddy found that this new life was far different from what she'd known aboard the Enterprise. A botanist was like a fifth wheel aboard the space station and she chaffed under the conditions of her new lifestyle. She and Miles often argued and Miles wondered if his marriage would stand up to the strain. But finally Keiko solved the problem herself by establishing a school on the station for the children who lived on Deep Space Nine. This was something that made her feel useful again and the happiness returned to Miles and Keiko's marriage.
Other things have plagued Miles, though, such as when his mother died shortly before his posting to Deep Space Nine. The fact that his father remarried in less than a year troubled him greatly as he felt it somehow dishonored his mother's memory to remarry so soon.
Finally the real Miles was freed by rebel groups who contacted Sisko and warned of the planned replicant. The cloned being actually believed he was Miles O'Brien and had all of his memories that had been transferred from sensors which read the brain waves of the real Miles O'Brien.
In a way, that duplicate Miles was just as real as the William "Thomas" Riker that had been created in a transporter mishap. That alternate Riker (who is now serving as a lieutenant on the USS Ghandi) has none of the memories of Will's future events since that day on the USS Potemkin when one Will beamed back to the ship while the other was forced to accept that he would have to work to catch up with his "twin." In sharp contrast, this Miles had every memory that the real Miles possessed. His death was tragic, to none as much as Miles, who is left with the personal logs "He" made while that other Miles tried to unravel the mystery of what was going on.
Miles and Julian have been paired off on assignments more than once, something that O'Brien was initially against as he found Dr. Bashir annoying. But the two have developed a genuine mutual respect. Miles and Julian's banter is laced with sarcasm on Miles' part, torn between liking Julian as a friend and equating him with a "fresh out of Starfleet Academy" tender-foot. Miles just rolls his eyes as Julian tries to win over Bajoran women with his tales of Starfleet Medical finals. (For instance, a misidentification of pre-gangliatic fiber caused Julian to finish second, "The stuff salutatorians are made of," Julian gushed.)
Miles has two brothers, a wife, Keiko, daughter Molly Worf Ishikawa O'Brien, as well as his father, step-mother and his centurion mother-in-law in Japan.
Coming from an artistic background, Miles father wanted him to be a musician. His father was heartbroken when Miles refused to accept a scholarship to become a musician at the Aldeberan Musical Academy. Miles instead ran away to join Starfleet Academy.
The Dogs of War
When the Federation outpost on Setlik 3 was attacked by a Cardassian raiding party during the Federation's war with the Cardassians, the USS Rutledge was dispatched to help defend the outpost. But when the USS Rutledge arrived at Setlik 3 they were unable to communicate with the outpost on the planet below. O'Brien beamed down with the away team only to find that the outpost of more than one hundred people had been wiped out. The dead included the wife and children of Ben Maxwell.
Poker Face
On a ship so vast, O'Brien gained additional experience. He found his duties putting him at a variety of posts aboard ship, but it wasn't long before he had the permanent assignment as transporter chief, a post he served well.
Under Cover
Disguised as Federation tourist out to try their luck on the notorious gambling world, O'Brien, Riker, Worf and Troi beamed down along with two security guards to cover their backs. The guise of a wealthy group looking to drop a wad in the casinos seemed like a surefire lure for whoever had kidnapped the missing personnel.
Past Prologue
When Ben Maxwell, O'Brien's old commander, suffered a breakdown and began attacking Cardassian vessels because he believed that his former enemies were rearming for war, Captain Picard called on Miles to convince his former captain to surrender his starship, the USS Phoenix. Maxwell was seeking revenge on the Cardassians as a race, blaming them all for the death of his family a few years before. Miles used his transporter skill to beam through a variance in the USS Phoenix's shield, allowing him to get to his former captain and reason with him. Miles used an old drinking song to get Maxwell to remember their old bond.
"The Minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him."
The Far Frontier
When the time came around for promotions, Miles found himself offered the opportunity to transfer to Deep Space Nine, a former mining station in orbit around Bajor. The Cardassians had just abandoned that world and the Bajorans had appealed to the Federation for assistance. Miles was to be posted as Chief Operations officer on the space station, a role that would prove to be grueling and difficult due to the condition the Cardassians had left the station in. O'Brien had wanted deep space assignments, and following 22 years spent on starships he was posted to this solitary site in the Alpha Quadrant, a space well named for its remoteness. Keiko and Molly accompanied him, but his wife wasn't as prepared for what she found as she thought she'd be.
Face to Face
After being on the station for about a year, O'Brien was on a mission to Baradas when he was captured by a government group. They replaced Miles on the station with a replicant, but not even the replicant knew he wasn't the real Miles O'Brien. The government wanted to disrupt the peace conference which was designed to end twelve years of civil war. The alternate Miles realized he was being cut out of the loop of command on the station and began to believe that Sisko, Kira, Keiko, Odo and all the others had been replaced or in some other way changed.
The Odd Couple
Miles once returned to Earth with Keiko to visit her mother in Komomoto, but the next time Keiko visited Earth she went alone. Julian has mentioned gossip implying that the O'Brien's marriage is less than ideal, a suggestion that Miles is quick to take offense at.