Breandán Howard was the young son of Kevin Howard and Gabrielle Howard in the early 21st century. Born in 1997, Breandán lost his father in the Iraq War in 2003. He struggled to cope with his father's death, and became socially withdrawn, much to the distress of his mother. He coped with his father's death through their mutual love of the television series Star Trek; Breandán had been told by his father, prior to deployment, that Captain Kirk had sent him on a mission, and therefore spent the four months immediately following Kevin's death making believe that Captain Kirk and his loyal officers, Mister Spock and Doctor McCoy, were on a mission to find his father.
Once his mother came to understand the role of Star Trek and make-believe in his attempts to cope with his father's death, Breandán began to recover in a healthier manner. (TOS short story: "Make-Believe")