The Breen Blocade

In 2253, after a year's leave with his family, now more accustomed
 with the older son's choice of carrer, Thomas,
 now a Lieutenant Commander, became Chief Security/Intelligence
 officer aboard the USS Warspite of the Galaxy wide
 famous Excelsior class. This time, the ship would cooperate
 with the Andorian government in patrolling this ally's outer rims
 and serving as diplomatic ship for Star Fleet's
 diplomatic corps in the sector.

Most of the missions were engineering wise, consisting on
 repairing damaged outposts of the aging Peripheral
 Range Actuated fire control system, but the mission of August 9th,
 2254 would change Andrews path. On that day, Elkun Mekill,
 Federation Ambassador came aboard with his family
 for a complete inspection of all the fleets in the area
 and the Irish LtCmdr was naturally the main responsible for
 their safety. During that mission, he would eventually fall
 in love with the ambassador's younger daughter Anya Mekill
 to whom he would marry in 2256. To keep his marriage
 safe even while in away missions, the officer served on the
 Warspite as Chief Security officer until, captain Malcolm retired
 and Andrews became the ship's first officer with
 the rank of Commander. It was February 2259.

The period until his promotion to captain was full of events,
 starting in late March, when the ship was crippled by a surprise
 attack of pirates against a convoy but successfully
 drove the marauders away. In May of that same year, another
 attack was carried out, during which the Excelsior suffered
 moderated damage while beating the enemy away. At first,
 a board of inquiry had decided that the damage was not
 acceptable considering the proportion of forces from
 both sides and therefore all the ship's senior crew was
 submitted to an inquiry. Thomas, as the first officer, and captain Raaickar
 as the ship's CO, were the one most furiously
 attacked until they were cleared of all charges since
 it had been found that the Warspite's aging weapons systems
 had not sustained the rate of combat and had given in.
 For such a reason, the ship was dry docked for a refit and
 Commander Andrews at age 31, was given surface duties with
 the obligation of organizing the Federation defense
 machine against pirates, which he fulfilled within expectations.
 Meanwhile, his second daughter Ann Mary was born and
 he was doubly happy, not that the older daughter Lotus Star
 had a younger sister.

With the Warspite's return to duty in October 2260, Andrews
 was acting CO during the ship's test trials since Captain Raaickar
 had fallen ill. Only in January 2261 did the Commander
 assume its rightful position of first officer. Shortly after that,
 his intelligence skills uncovered a underground
 network dedicated to humanoid contraband for prostitution
 purposes thus ending his tour of duty in Andorian territory.
 Andrews had been transferred aboard the USS Southampton
 in March 2262, after which the Excelsior class ship
 served close to Breen territory, in constant patrols against raiders.
 During the period, several battles were fought,
 and Andrews tactical and intelligence skills were essential
 to defeating the adversary. Starting August 2262,
 they had 24 encounters with Breen raiders, destroying 10 ships,
 including 3 D-12 Klingon built BoPs, three piracy outposts,
 and recovered a million tons of stolen cargo.