Departing Earth 2

The Enterprise left orbit of Earth 2 this afternoon, and is moving on to a new assignment. I have not yet been informed of the details behind this assignment, but I am scheduled for a command briefing tomorrow afternoon, and should have more to report at that time. For now, we are traveling at warp, and leaving the mysterious duplicate of Earth’s solar system behind. The scientific studies of Earth 2 now reside with the crew of the USS Bellerophon.

-Lieutenant Sam Archer

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July 29, 2365 -- (Original Devron Timeline)

A Beautiful Command Center

I visited the Bridge today for a briefing with Captain Picard and Commander Riker. On my way out of the Captain’s ready room, I stopped for a minute to view my surroundings. I bet I’m not alone when I say, I think the USS Enterprise-D has one of the most beautiful command centers that I have ever seen.

I took this photo many months ago, but the Bridge hasn’t changed since then. I’m always fascinated by the colors, the lights, and the sounds of this room. Most people don’t get to see a starship’s command Bridge, since they lack the necessary command clearance. I’m not a Bridge officer myself – I have not been assigned to a station here, but I am a department head, and that grants me access for administrative purposes. I’m still awestruck every time I go up there.

-Lieutenant Sam Archer

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July 23, 2365 -- (Original Devron Timeline)

Communication Restored

I apologize for the lack of daily posts these past 42 days. We were experiencing severe spatial disruptions generated by the Sun. Solar flares and other localized phenomena affected many of our ship systems, including communications, transporters, warp drive, deflector operations, and, to a degree, internal power. We had to rely on auxiliary generators to keep the Enterprise functioning, and normal communication into and out of the ship has been near impossible.

In addition to these challenges, we were unable to generate a warp field, or maintain the deflector system at levels strong enough to exit the star system. Our science teams have been stranded on the surface of Earth 2 (until today), since our auxiliary craft were equally affected. The only option remaining, was to wait for the flares and other phenomena to subside, before resuming normal operations.

As a result of this, I was unable to broadcast messages from our Public Affairs Office – except for a short window last month. I am sorry for the frustration or inconvenience this may have caused. We did not go silent by choice.

In other news, the USS Bellerophon (Nebula-class) has arrived nearby. They have orders to relieve us, and are carrying a full complement of personnel better suited to the archaeological work down on Earth 2. They will be taking over as soon as we get everything back online. They also carry the resources necessary to establish a permanent Starfleet outpost on the planet. We were able to warn them, via sensor beacons, to remain outside the system, and have remained in contact through archaic radio signals and Morse Code ever since.

In regards to the nature of this solar phenomena, we do have a theory. Many people have asked if we know where this copy of Earth and its solar system came from. Based on flare, spatial, and gravitational studies, we believe that it was – somehow – transferred here from a parallel universe. We have no access to that theorized universe, and limited test data to confirm our theory, however, it has been determined that this Sun seems to build up energy every decade or so, and then expels that energy through the phenomena we experienced. This likely acts as a magnet to stabilize the system in our universe, instead of returning it to wherever it came from. How and why this system is here, though, remains unknown.

From what we can tell, the Sun, and all of its duplicate planets (and their moons), are here to stay. We also believe that the apocalyptic disease that wiped out the population of Earth 2 (in the mid-1960s), likely took place before this solar system relocated to our universe. We found no supporting evidence of gravitational upheaval in Earth 2’s orbit, and no indication that the recurring phenomena has damaged any of the other planets.

Unfortunately, the mystery of this star system’s existence may never be solved.

-Lieutenant Sam Archer

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July 22, 2365 -- (Original Devron Timeline)