On April 5th, 2063, at approximately 8:36 PM MST, Zefram Cochrane will be honored with first contact by an extra-terrestrial race of humanoids called the Vulcans. Earlier that day, at approximately 11:00 AM MST, Cochrane will launch, and succeed in his first test flight of, a warp drive space ship called the Phoenix. Will inhabitants of the 24th century aide Cochrane in his launch of the Phoenix? Only future history will tell us that.
A Vulcan survey ship, the T'Plana-Hath, will detect the faint warp signature of the Phoenix during it's survey of the Sol system of planets. The Vulcans will set course for the third planet, yet unknown to them, and land near the launch site. The Captain of the T'Plana-Hath will emerge from the ship and greet Cochrane with the traditional Vulcan hand greeting and the phrase "Live long and prosper." Cochrane will try to mimic the Vulcan hand greeting, to no avail. Instead, he offers his hand in friendship, at which time the 2 shake hands in traditional Earth greeting and Cochrane says "Thank you."
The rest will be, history....
