intruder
on their monitors.
- It's decelerating.
- Confirmed, sir.
Lunar beacons indicate intruder
on a course into Earth orbit.
Sir, air lock 4
has been opened.
A thruster suit
is reported missing.
A thruster suit?
That's Spock.
Damn him.
Bring him back here.
No, wait.
- Get a fix on his position.
- Aye, sir.
I have successfully penetrated...
the next chamber
of the alien's interior...
and I'm witnessing
some sort of dimensional image...
which I believe to be
a representation...
of V'Ger's home planet.
I'm passing through
a connecting tunnel.
Apparently, a kind of
plasma-energy conduit.
Possibly a field coil for
a gigantic imaging system.
Curious.
I'm seeing images
of planets, moons, stars...
whole galaxies
all stored here, recorded.
It could be a representation
of V'Ger's entire journey.
But who or what...
are we dealing with?
The Epsilon 9 station,
stored here with every detail.
Captain, I am now
quite convinced...
that all of this is V'Ger...
that we are inside
a living machine.
Ilia.
The sensor...
must contain
some special meaning.
I must try to mind-meld with it.
Spock.
Spock!
Spock.
Now scanning pons area
at spinal nerve fiber connection.
Indications of some
neurological trauma.
The power pouring through that
mind-meld must have been staggering.
Spock.
Jim.
I should have known.
Were you right...
about V'Ger?
A life-form of its own.
A conscious, living entity.
A living machine?
It considers the Enterprise
a living machine.
That's why the probe
refers to our ship as an entity.
I saw V'Ger's planet.
A planet populated
by living machines.
Unbelievable technology.
V'Ger has knowledge
that spans this universe.
And yet...
with all its pure logic...
V'Ger is barren...
cold.
No mystery.
No beauty.
Should have known.
Known?
Known what? Spock.
What should you have known?
What should you have known?
Jim...
this...
simple feeling...
is beyond V'Ger's comprehension.
No meaning, no hope.
Jim...
no answers.
It's asking questions.
''Is this...
all that I am?
Is there nothing more?''
Bridge to Captain.
Kirk here.
A faint signal
from Starfleet, sir.
Intruder cloud has been located
on their outer monitors...
for the past 27 minutes.
Cloud dissipating rapidly
as it approaches.
Starfleet reports forward velocity
has slowed to sub-warp speed.
We are three minutes
from Earth orbit.
I'll be right there.
I need Spock on the bridge.
Dalaphaline, five cc's.
Captain, Starfleet is sending
this tactical on V'Ger's position.
V'Ger is transmitting a signal.
Jim.
From V'Ger.
V'Ger signals the creator.
Spock?
A simple binary code...
transmitted
by carrier wave signal.
Radio.
Radio?
Jim.
V'Ger expects an answer.
An answer?
I don't know the question.
The creator has not responded.
All planetary defense systems
have just gone inoperative.
Sir, Starfleet computes
the devices are proceeding...
toward equidistant positions
orbiting the planet.
They're the same things
that hit us.
They are hundreds of times
more powerful, Captain.
From those positions...
they could devastate
the entire surface of the planet.
Why?
The creator has not answered.
The carbon unit infestation is to be
removed from the creator's planet.
Why?
You infest Enterprise.
You interfere with the creator
in the same manner.
Carbon units
are not an infestation.
They are...
a natural function
of the creator's planet.
They are living things.
They are not true life-forms.
Only the creator and other
similar life-forms are true.
''Similar life-forms.''
Jim, V'Ger is saying
its creator is a machine.
A machine.
Captain.
V'Ger is a child.
I suggest you treat it as such.
- A child?
- Yes, Captain.
A child...
evolving, learning, searching...
instinctively needing.
- Needing what?
- Spock.
This child is about to wipe out
every living thing on Earth.
Now, what do you suggest we do?
Spank it?
It knows only that it needs,
Commander.