Mike Harper

Mike Harper is the owner and captain of the SS Clydesdale. He also served as the ship's navigator.

Mike was born and raised on Earth along with his younger sister, Ronnie Harper, where their parents owned a ranch in Kentucky.

He spent three years commanding the freighter SS Reliable for the Tellarite firm of Gravit & Yurtz. When his employers decided that it was time to decommission it and buy a newer ship. Mike saw his opportunity to strike out on his own, so he bought the Reliable with credits he’d saved up over the years. His first act as owner was to give the ship a new name, SS Clydesdale, which Mike felt embodied grace, power, and the ability to haul large loads. The second was to sign up with Gravit & Yurtz as an independent contractor.

In exchange for repairs to the Clydesdale, Mike was convinced by Commodore Scott Enwright to take on Dr. Janet Corbair, who had recently been release from a Federation rehabilitation colony. Soon after that, the Clydesdale was in need of more repairs, at which point Enwright offered them in exchange for checking up on Khan Noonian Singh on Ceti Alpha Five. Mike refused, but later made a different deal in which he got the repairs and in return the Clydesdale took Dr. John Smith to The Well. Smith was actually from a different universe and used The Well to get back, but not before making sure Mike and the Clydesdale were able to return to their home universe. ("Back to the Well" [TOS])

While docked at Tellar Prime, Mike made a deal with Captain Carter Davenport of the SS Ottoman to deliver a necklace to Antares. Needing a full cargo hold to make the trip worth it, Mike met with Gravit, owner of his former employer, Gravit & Yurtz, and, when she initially didn't have anything for him, he sent Bork to meet with Annar, owner of Annar's Exports. Mike ended up transporting cargo for both as well as Annar's nephew, Duv, to Antares. On the way, the Clydesdale was intercepted by the USS Ventus. ("Antares or Bust" [TOS])

After being imprisoned on the Ventus along with his crew, Mike engineered an escape from the ship's brig and was able to rescue Ronnie, who was possessed by the Light entity at the time. They fled on the Clydesdale, which freed the Ventus' crew from Light's control. Later on, the captain of the Ventus, Harry MacLaren tracked Mike down on Antares to thank him for saving the Ventus from Light. ("Busted" [TOS])

Mike saved the residents of the Lehrer Colony from an attack by a horde of small blue beings native to the planet that were upset that their home had been "invaded." Despite Mike's efforts, the colony administrator and Starfleet blamed him for the loss of the colony. ("Looking Out for the Little Guy" [TOS])

He was prepared to leave Corbair on the planet Dirt, which she had conquered with just her demanding personality, but he was forced to remove her from power while also not causing the planet's civilization to collapse in order to save the Clydesdale from the First Federation ship Yosarius, since Dirt was under their protection. ("Reign of the Clydesdale" [TOS])

When Mike found out that Corbair had accepted the job to check up on Khan behind his back and about the plan to falsify reports, he took the Clydesdale to Ceti Alpha Five and forced Corbair to beam down to take scans of Khan and the other residents. While Corbair was on the surface, a Section 31 ship arrived in order and beamed her off of the planet. Mike and the rest of the crew tried to figure out a way to rescue Corbair, not knowing that she had made a bargain with Agent Talbot: her life in exchange for a method to create super beings out of people with high ESPer ratings. She had determined that Ronnie was one such person and had Section 31 bring her on board for Corbair to use in her experiments, which sent Mike into a near-catatonic panic. Things got worse with an Andorian battlecruiser controlled by The Path of Khan arrived and escalated the situation. As it and the Section 31 ship exchanged fire, Mike tried to make a run for Ceti Alpha Six. Both other ships pursued, but Mike was able to come up with a plan to disable the Section 31 ship, sacrificing the freighter's cargo modules in the process. The plan worked; however, the victory was shortlived. The Path of Khan ship rammed the Section 31 craft, sending both into Ceti Alpha Six's gravity well and plummetting to the surface. Mike desperately tried to rescue Ronnie before the Section 31 ship crashed, but nothing worked. The impact destroyed the planet, the shockwave from which quickly overtook the Clydesdale, which should have been the end of them all. What Mike didn't know, though, was that Corbair had been successful in granting Ronnie near-omnipotence before the Section 31 ship was critically-damaged. Ronnie send Corbair back to the Candelar Acres rehabilitation colony and wiped her mind of everything relating to her experiments. She also saved the Clydesdale from destruction and restored the ship back to normal. Before leaving to explore the galaxy and maybe establish a new civilization, Ronnie talked to Mike one last time and convinced him that he could do so much more with his life and really help people. He took her words to heart, sold the Clydesdale to Wodak, and talked to Commodore Enwright about joining Starfleet. ("The Khan Job" [TOS])