​Stardate 04172017.9

Since arriving, this is the first opportunity I've had to make a log entry so I'll try to make it as concise as possible.

I have been marooned on Earth of the past (my past) four months. The date today is April 17, 2017 however by my recollection of history, some things seem altered or different. I fear I may not have fallen through time alone but also through dimensions and I may never find my way back to my future I came from. It is possible that there are more temporal refugees like myself, this would account for the changes I'm seeing. I only hope the fundamental events which help to form the United Federation of Planets are still intact. I will do everything I can to make sure the future I know comes to pass, but I must be careful not to involve myself too much either.

The last stardate I recall was 94819.03, Earth time was October 08, 2421. I was midway through a three day journey to Starbase 74 which orbits the planet Tarsus III, when my shuttle experienced a serious blow on the port side which caused many systems to begin malfunctioning. I managed to stabilize her only to discover that the my shuttle's warp core was going critical. It was the kind of problem I couldn't fix unless I could freeze time so I just sort of surrendered to the inevitable outcome; I was going to die.

When the core went critical I heard the containment unit begin to crack and suddenly there was a blinding light. I don't know what happened but instantaneously I found myself laying on the ground underneath a bridge, here in the past and of course I didn't realize that right away.

I was naked and covered in some kind of powdery residue. It was the dead of night and it was very quiet, there was no one around  me. I seemed to be fine physically so I got up and found my way out from underneath the bridge to a path that led up to a main road. I began to realize that I was on earth very quickly as signs were in English and buildings looked all too familiar. When a vehicle, a bus, approached and I noticed straight away that it had wheels, the idea began to settle in and I got some bearings for what could have possibly happened but I held out some kind of false hope that what I was seeing was somehow a dream or an illusion. That in fact, I was recovering on Starbase 74, that somehow I survived an unsurvivable explosion and was in an induced coma so that my body could recover from what must have been extensive burn damage. However nothing felt like a dream. I was very naked, in the middle of the night, roaming through the streets of an Earth city and I was somehow in the past, long before any kind of technology I was used to would be around.

As I roamed along the road, looking for anything that could serve as clothing I nearly stumbled upon a woman living on the streets on the edge of an alley way and her reaction upon seeing me was not pleasant at all. I had to beg her to stop screaming. I managed to calm her and explain my nakedness as a prank my friends played on me, in my story, we were skinny dipping in the lake. She found this plausible. She had a few plastic bags filled with clothing and she reluctantly offered me some.

I asked her if she knew the date, which she thought was weird, but she rationalized my asking by accusing me of drinking too much, I went with it and her answer would confirmed my suspicions and fears. 'December 21st 2016'.

I then asked her where I was, trying to act as drunk as possible and she looked at me with more confusion than before. She was beginning to understand that something was either severely wrong with me or that something was wrong in general but she answered anyhow; 'Seattle'.

I knew Seattle in my time, I visited on many occasions to see my Aunt and her family. I looked around and I could see that there was something familiar about the city after all and it made me a little happy to know that perhaps there were ancestors of mine in the area. I roamed through the streets for a while after my encounter with the homeless woman and finally I saw the Space Needle and was able to orient myself correctly.

That first night I camped out in Seattle Center, there were many homeless people around to keep me company so I felt safe and allowed myself to finally grasp the situation and feel the full breadth of sadness for it. At that moment I could not see any way of getting home. I still cannot but now I hope that somehow a message in a bottle will reach my crew and shipmates in the future.

I lived on the streets for about a month, slowly learning about the present I was trapped in, absorbing information wherever I could. I knew that I would be deemed as crazy if I tried to explain my situation to anyone so I just made up some stories loosely based on my actual life when people asked about me. It worked for the most part.

The public benefits of this era are known to be abysmal but I was able to obtain access to the local library. In order to take books home or use the computers, I needed to obtain identification. I found this surprisingly easy to do. Once I got ID's I was able to obtain a job and a place to live. My place of residence is meager but it is dry and clean, a welcome change from my situation when I first arrived. I work at a coffee shop and don't know if the amount of money I am earning is proportionate to the amount of work I am doing but it will have to do for now.

I feel genuinely sad to see so many struggle for what in my time are considered basic provisions and are granted instead of earned. Food, A home, Transportation, and access to knowledge are not accessible by all in this time and even though I knew this from historic records, it is harrowing to see the suffering many undergo first hand. If I ever make it back to my time, I shall never again take these basic things for granted.

The library is closing so I will have to sign off for now. Captain, if you are reading this through some strange and unexpected twist of fate, I want you to know that I am alive and well, though there is little hope of seeing you and the crew; my friends and my family again, I will take that sliver of hope and use it to drive me forward. I dream of the Enterprise every night and the idea of coming home to her gives me deep comfort.