The USS Enterprise is fine. This ship is safe, unharmed, and continues to support exploratory operations on the surface of Earth 2.
Last month, Lieutenant Archer made note of the fact that one of our planetary science teams had discovered “a strange hill, in what would be northern Wisconsin, that may be covering [a] massive crashed starship”. Well, since then, further discoveries have been made, and that hill really is covering a crashed starship – the crashed saucer section of a Galaxy-class starship. In fact, that saucer belongs to the USS Liberty, which was commissioned in 2363, and disappeared a year later, while on an exploratory mission. We have confirmed this to be the actual saucer of that missing ship. The stardrive section was destroyed in orbit.
We have no idea what happened to the crew of the crashed USS Liberty saucer, although, it does look like there were survivors, since there is ample evidence of large-scale triage operations. The ship appears to have crashed here 3-4 years ago, and nature has largely covered over the saucer since then.
Shortly after Christmas, after Lieutenant Archer had returned from his exploratory field mission in the Rocky Mountains, he requested transfer to the team that had just found the USS Liberty saucer. His request was approved, so he, and his civilian runabout, relocated to the Liberty basecamp in “northern Wisconsin”. On December 29, Sam joined one of the task force groups entering the saucer. They searched their assigned part of the ship, and set up camp for the night in one of the crew lounges. When they woke up the next morning, Lieutenant Archer was missing.
Search teams immediately began looking for Lieutenant Archer, but were unable to locate him. Then, nearly two and a half weeks later – on January 18 – a science team found him on one of the lower collapsed decks of the saucer (collapsed from impact). He was severely injured, and unconscious. He was also wearing a gold Starfleet operations uniform, and had a strange triangle tattoo on his right arm (that wasn’t there before). His hair was also lighter, as if it had been bleached blonde. Lieutenant Archer normally has brown hair.
An investigation into his disappearance is ongoing, but he is safe now, and he has undergone medical treatment for his injuries. He has been released from medical care, and is back up on deck two. He is, however, under orders not to discuss his experience, either publicly, or here, on this PAO channel. I will be filling in for him while he remains on leave.
Lieutenant Archer agreed to share the image scan attached to this post. This is how he looks, as of earlier today. He insisted that his newly obtained scars not be removed.
-Lieutenant (JG) Tessa Kensington
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January 24, 2368 – (Devron Timeline w/ Temporal War Reset)