Broken Bow Incident The Broken Bow Incident was an event in Human - Klingon history that took place in Broken Bow , Oklahoma on Earth and established relations between Human ity and Klingon s , also involving the Suliban . ( ) Prelude . Acting on orders from a mysterious representative from the 28th century , the Suliban Cabal staged numerous assaults within the Klingon Empire , making it seem as if one Klingon House was attacking another . This was because the future - residing authority wanted to change history by disrupting the empire . The Klingon High Council sent a Klingon courier named Klaang to Rigel X , to meet the leader of a Suliban resistance unit called Sarin . Once Klaang ' s scout ship stopped at Rigel X , Sarin gave him vital evidence – proof that the attacks were being staged by the future - commanded Suliban Cabal . This evidence was secretly written into Klaang ' s blood . Delivery of the information would prevent the Klingon Empire from being thrown into chaos . In an effort to ensure that the proof of Suliban culpability for the recent attacks in the Klingon Empire was never delivered , two soldiers allied to the Suliban Cabal – one of whom was a friend of Silik , the cabal ' s leader – pursued Klaang to Earth in that was equipped with a cloaking device . Klaang ' s ship made no stops between leaving Rigel X and arriving at Earth . ( ) The incident . The Broken Bow Incident took place during daylight hours in April 2151 . Klaang ' s vessel crash - landed in a cornfield in Broken Bow . ( ) The pair of Suliban soldiers likewise crash - landed near the town . ( ) Klaang was chased from the wreckage of his craft by the pair of Suliban . They targeted Klaang with pistols , without downing him , while all three ran . A plume of smoke from Klaang ' s crashed ship and the disturbance of the weapons fire drew the attention of a farmer named , on whose land the Klingon and pair of Suliban were trespassing . As Moore fetched a plasma rifle from his farmhouse , Klaang rushed inside a silo which was situated in a nearby clearing . Finding the door to the silo locked , one of the Suliban soldiers used one of his genetic enhancement s to slide under the door . He then opened it , from the other side , for his companion . However , Klaang hurriedly exited the building from another door , near the top of the construction , before racing a few feet away from the silo and firing at it with a disruptor he had with him . This caused the silo to be destroyed in a methane explosion which incinerated the Suliban and created shock wave s that hurtled Klaang to the ground . As Klaang picked himself up , Moore raced into the clearing , then paused to observe the strewn remnants of his silo . Both of them armed , the Klingon and the farmer confronted one another . They were unable to understand each other ' s language , though , leading to Moore finally shooting Klaang with the rifle , sending him flying backwards again – so that his head landed at the edge of the corn – and rendering him unconscious , near death . ( ) Aftermath . Following the incident , Moore gave a statement that included him claiming that he had shot Klaang in self - defense and only vaguely describing the Suliban involved in the event . Additionally owing to the incineration of the Suliban corpses , Starfleet and the Vulcan High Command were initially unable to identify the persons who had been pursuing Klaang , who was treated at Starfleet Medical while remaining unconscious . However , Vulcan sensor log s showed that the chasers had been using stealth technology . Similarly , even though Klaang ' s ship had been destroyed , navigational log s were salvaged from the craft , which informed the Vulcans of Klaang ' s visit to Rigel X . Despite the incident having occurred on Earth , there was considerable dispute over whether it would be the Vulcans or Starfleet which would return Klaang to his homeworld of Qo ' noS . Considering that the Klingons would find Klaang ' s extreme injuries a disgraceful condition , the Vulcans persuaded the Klingon Empire into demanding that the Vulcans expedite his return , disconnecting Klaang from life support , rather than the Klingons dispatching a fleet of warbirds to Earth . Starfleet eventually insisted that " Enterprise " be allowed to return the Klingon alive , however , since Captain Jonathan Archer required a mere three days to ready the newly commissioned and its crew for departure on the journey from Earth to Qo ' noS , which usually took four days . After the starship launched , Silik asked his mysterious benefactor if he could alter the timeline in order to prevent the deaths of the two Suliban , but the future inhabitant refused this request . On his instruction , the Suliban made another attempt to retrieve Klaang once he had regained consciousness , which did succeed . It was only at this juncture that Vulcan Sub - Commander T ' Pol admitted to the Human crew members of " Enterprise " the evidence of Klaang having been on Rigel X . In an effort to recover him from the Suliban , " Enterprise " made a detour to Rigel X , where Archer learned more about the events preceding the Broken Bow Incident from Sarin , although she was killed by members of the Suliban Cabal shortly thereafter . " Enterprise " s crew eventually managed to deliver Klaang to Qo ' noS , where the hidden information he had attempted to courier there was finally revealed to the Klingon High Council . ( ) When T ' Pol advised Captain Archer that a farm on the Akaali homeworld had been chosen as a good landing site for an away team from " Enterprise " to visit that planet , Archer responded that the farm ' s qualities of being remote and sparsely populated – reducing risk of cultural contamination – must be " why aliens are always landing in cornfields , " indirectly referring to the Broken Bow Incident . ( ) As a result of Silik ' s failure to fracture the Klingon Empire , his mysterious time - residing superior punished him by extracting one of his genetic enhancements , ensuring that enhanced vision which Silik had possessed , up until then , was surgically removed by a Suliban medic . ( ) Some details regarding the Broken Bow Incident were uncovered by the Tandaran intelligence agency . While Captain Archer underwent temporary imprisonment in the Tandarans ' Detention Complex 26 in circa 2152 , Colonel Grat reminded Captain Archer of the event . Grat also questioned Archer about the incident , asking the captain to provide insight into why the Suliban had been chasing a Klingon in Broken Bow , but Archer refused to reveal specifics . ( ) It wasn ' t until April 2153 that Captain Archer identified the person who had tried to ignite a civil war in the Klingon Empire ; Archer actually met the individual at that time . ( ) The disastrous first contact between Humans and Klingons led to decades of war between the two races . By 2367 , Starfleet came to regard the incident as a primary reason for making the controversial decision to typically conduct surveillance before initiating contact with a species . ( )