Human-Vulcan First Contact

Happy First Contact Day!

Three hundred and thirteen years ago today (on April 5, 2063), an old intercontinenal ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched from a site just outside of Bozeman, Montana on Earth. Warp drive pioneer, Zefram Cochrane, had been working to convert the missile into Earth's first faster-than-light starship. He named this vessel, the Phoenix. His first test flight, launched on this day, caught the attention of alien space explorers, and first contact was soon made between Humans and Vulcans. The commander of the Vulcan ship was Solkar, the eventual grandfather of Sarek. Solkar later became the first Vulcan ambassador to Earth.

Declassified Starfleet reports and 2373 eye-witness accounts indicate that Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew of the USS Enterprise-E were also present at those events. Commander William Riker and Lieutenant Commander Georgia LaForge are now known to have accompanied Cochrane during the Phoenix's historic warp flight.

The Borg were also present above Earth during those events, although they played no part in Human-Vulcan first contact. Unknown at the time, debris from a number of inactive Borg drones from the orbital destruction of a 24th Century Borg sphere crashed into the Arctic Circle. Nearly a century later, they were discovered by a Starfleet Arctic Science Team. Unfortunately, the entire science team was assimilated when the frozen Borg drones and their future technology was reactivated.

Later in 2063, after First Contact, the United States of America launched its own NASA-developed warp drive starship. This vessel, similar in design to Cochrane's Phoenix, was known as the Bonaventure (C1-21). Cochrane, however, is credited as first to launch a working vessel using warp technology, and is therefore known to history as the inventor of the warp drive.

-Sam