puzzlement.
We have been contacted.
Why have we not replied?
Contacted?
How?
Force fields up full.
Deflectors, now.
Force fields and deflectors
up full, Captain.
Analysis, Mr. Spock.
Alien weapon is a form
of plasma energy, Captain.
Exact composition unknown.
Guidance system unknown.
All decks, brace for impact.
Engineering, status report.
Systems overloading, Captain.
Medic.
Medics are coming.
Engineering to Bridge.
Cannot hold full power
on force fields.
Deflector power
is down 70 percent.
Divert auxiliary power
to deflectors.
Oh, good.
Christine, it's Chekov.
Medic.
I can stop his pain.
Thank you.
Captain.
The intruder has been
attempting to communicate.
Frequency: more than
one million megahertz...
and at such
a high rate of speed...
their entire message
lasts only a millisecond.
I am now programming
our computer...
to transmit lingua code at
their frequency and rate of speed.
Commander.
Spock!
Here it comes.
Engineering, what's happening
to our force field?
Our shields cannot handle
another attack.
Mr. Spock.
Spock.
Fifteen seconds.
Spock, transmit now.
Ten seconds.
Transmitting.
It would seem
our friendship messages...
have been received
and understood, Mr. Spock.
I would say that was
a logical assumption, Captain.
One minute, 30 seconds
to cloud boundary.
Captain...
we are obviously confronted
by a highly advanced mentality.
Yet they cannot understand...
who we are or what we want.
And yet it would seem
that they understood our message.
They broke off the attack.
They may have attacked only
as a warning to us, Captain...
to keep away.
That would presuppose a feeling...
Commander.
Compassion.
I sense no emotion.
Only pure logic.
Mr. Sulu, hold present position.
Holding present position, sir.
Tactical plot on viewer.
Course projection
on tactical, sir.
Opinion, Mr. Spock.
Recommend we proceed, Captain.
- Mr. Decker?
- I advise caution, Captain.
We can't withstand another attack.
That thing is 20 hours
away from Earth.
- We know nothing about it as yet.
- Precisely the point, Captain.
We don't know what it'll do.
Moving into that cloud
at this time...
is an unwarranted gamble.
How do you define ''unwarranted''?
You asked my opinion, sir.
Viewer. Standard ahead.
Navigator, maintain course.
Helmsman...
steady as she goes.
No vessel could generate
a power field of this magnitude.
Spock.
Instruments fluctuating,
Captain.
Patterns unrecognizable.
Transmit image of alien
to Starfleet.
Advise we are attempting
further communication.
Unable to make contact
with Starfleet, Captain.
Any attempt to transmit out of
the cloud is being reflected back.
We are closing on it
rapidly, Captain.
Reduce magnification
factor four, Mr. Sulu.
We are already
two settings below that, sir.
Mr. Sulu...
bring us into
a parallel course...
over the alien...
at 500 meters.
Five hundred meters?
Then take us out
to 100 kilometers distance...
adjusting parallel course.
Aye, sir.This is com station Epsilon 9
calling USS Columbia.
Come in, Columbia.
Respond, please.
This is Scout Columbia, Epsilon 9.
Could you boost your transmission?
This is Epsilon 9, Columbia.
Am boosting output.
How read you this?
Fine, fine. Thank you, Epsilon 9.
Receiving your transmission.
Scout Columbia, NCC-621...
to rendezvous with
Scout Revere, NCC-595...
on stardate 7411.4.
Further orders
will be relayed at that time.
Signed Commodore Prober
to Starfleet.
- End of transmission.
- Received. Thank you.
Our sensor drone is
intercepting this on Quad L-1 4.
That's within Klingon boundaries.
Who are they fighting?
Unknown, sir.
I have an exterior visual.
We've plotted a course
on that cloud, Commander.
It will pass into Federation space
fairly close to us.
Heading?
Sir, it's on
a precise heading for Earth.
Commander Sonak.
You received your appointment
as Enterprise science officer?
Based, I am told, on your
recommendation,