Trekipedia

U.S.S. Republic NCC-1371

James T. Kirk served aboard the Constitution class Starship Republic^[1] for his first cadet cruise in 2254 while attending Starfleet Academy.^[2] While aboard the vessel, he befriended an older officer, Lieutenant Ben Finney, but that friendship didn’t prevent Kirk from logging an incident in which Finney left a circuit to the vessel’s reactor core open, endangering the ship. The incident report caused Finney to be moved to the bottom of the promotions list, and resulted more than a decade of enmity from the older man.^[1] The Republic later resolved the threat of piracy by Orion raiders in the Volus Corridor, and deterred Klingon border incursions along the Neutral Zone.^[3]