Assignment : Earth

After the discovery of the slingshot method of time travel, Starfleet began a limited program of historical research via time travel. In 2268 the Enterprise travelled back in time to the twentieth century in order to monitor communications and discover how the planet had survived the various crises of the year 1968.

Whilst in orbit, the ship accidentally intercepted an incredibly powerful transporter beam which was originating from more than a thousand light years away. The beam materialized a Human individual who claimed to be working for an advanced alien civilization who had sent him on a mission of great importance to Earth. Captain Kirk ordered the man, named Gary Seven, held on board until the story could be checked out.

Unfortunately, Seven rapidly broke out of detention and escaped from the ship. On the planet he proceeded to the rocket base, where he sabotaged the guidance system of a Saturn V rocket which was about to launch a nuclear weapons platform into Earth orbit. Captain Kirk and his first officer attempted to stop Seven, but where themselves caught by the base personnel.

The Enterprise located Seven on the base and attempted to beam him up to the ship, but his own transporter system managed to pull him back to his home base in New York. Despite being interrupted, Seven had succeeded sufficiently to be able to alter the rockets course and arm the warheads with his computer system. He aimed the weapon at the heart of the Euro-Asian continent, prompting the governments in that area to go onto a major alert.

Kirk and Spock managed to escape from the rocket base and intercept Seven at his home base before he could further tamper with the rocket. Seven claimed that his mission had been to destroy the rocket in space in order to shock the world leaders into abandoning the concept of space based nuclear weapons by demonstrating the dangers inherent in them. Unable to confirm this, Captain Kirk nevertheless chose to allow Seven to complete his work and the weapon was destroyed 104 miles above the surface of the planet.

Subsequent investigation by the Enterprise showed that this was exactly what the ships historical database indicated had happened in the original timeline - essentially, Seven had simply fulfilled the existing history rather than altering anything. Further research showed that both Seven and his twentieth century secretary Roberta Lincoln would go on to perform many more missions of this type for Earth. [1]

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