lucky for you that we just
happened to be heading your way?
Bones!
We need him.
L need him.
Then my presence is
to our mutual advantage.
Any thought patterns
you might sense...
whether they appear to
affect you personally or not...
I expect immediately reported.
Of course, Captain.
- Is there anything else?
- No.
Jim?
If this super intelligence...
is as important to him as
he says it is, how do we know...
That he wouldn't put his own
interests ahead of the ship's?
L could never believe that.
How do we know about any of us?
Bridge to Officers' Lounge.
Captain Kirk.
Revised estimate on
cloud visualcontact:3. 7minutes.
On my way.
Order new backup settings there.
Present status.
Give us apriority, Commander.
Bridge Communication to Flight Conn.
Check your subspace alignment.
Standard light, Engineer.
- Full mag on viewer.
- Full mag, sir.
Lingua code?
Continuing friendship messages
on all frequencies, sir.
All decks and divisions confirmed.
Status red.
Captain, we are being scanned.
Do not return scan, Mr. Spock.
It could be misinterpreted
as hostility.
Intruder scans emanating from
the exact center of the cloud.
Energy of a type...
never before encountered.
There's no response to
friendship messages, sir.
- Shall I go to battle stations?
- Negative.
We'll take
no provocative action.
Recommend defensive posture,
Captain. Screens and shields.
No, Mr. Decker, that could also
be misinterpreted as hostile.
Cloud composition, Mr. Spock?
- Twelfth-power energy field.
- Twelfth-power?
We've seen what their weapons can do.
Shouldn't we take every precaution?
- Mr. Decker...
- Captain.
L suspect there's an object
at the heart of that cloud.
L will not provoke an attack.
If that order isn't clear enough...
Captain, as your exec
it's my duty...
to point out alternatives.
Yes, it is.
L stand corrected.
Five minutes to cloud boundary.
Navigator, lay in a conic section
flight path to the cloud center.
Bring us parallel
to whatever we find in there.
Mr. Sulu,
tactical plot on viewer.
Tactical on viewer, sir.
That measures 12th-power energy?
Thousands of starships
couldn't generate that much...
Mr. Spock?
Spock, tell me.
L sense...
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.
L 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.
L 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.
L 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.
L sense no emotion.
Only pure logic.
Mr. Sulu, hold