permission to come aboard, sir? commander, if i may? i have been monitoring your starfleet transmissions, captain, your engine design difficulties. i offer my services as science officer. with your permission, i will now discuss these fuel equations with the engineer. reporting as ordered, captain. sir, i would appreciate dr. mccoy absenting himself from this interview. negative, captain. i could sense only what seemed an almost omniscient pattern of perfect logic. i can explain nothing more; i understand nothing more. that inquiry invades my personal life, captain. your deductions do you credit, doctor. if your puerile curiosity does not. i still contain fragments of my human half. is my only hope of accomplishing what the masters could not. i have accepted service here as a starfleet officer. sir. we are being scanned, captain. intruder scans emanate from the exact cloud center. energy of a type entirely un- known to me. twelve power energy field -- captain, i suspect there's an object at the heart of that cloud. they have. they have been communicating with us. i sense . puzzlement. why have we not replied? captain, the intruder has been attempting to communicate! now placing their transmission on the speaker. frequency more than one million megahertz at such high speed their entire message lasts only a millisecond. i suspect our messages were too slow for them to be noticed. programming computer to send linguacode at their rate. it appears that our message has been understood, captain. the 'puzzlement' i sensed was fleeting. minor. . as if carrying a sense of our insignificance, captain. we are obviously confronted by a highly advanced mentality. yet they cannot understand who we are, or what we want. that would presuppose a feeling, commander. compassion. i sensed no emotion, only. . pure logic. recommend we proceede, captain. instruments fluctuating, captain. patterns unrecognizable. that vessel is generating a forcefield measurably greater than the radiation of the earth's sun. a probe from their vessel. a plasma-energy combination. this served the purpose. captain, we have been seized by a tractor beam! we cannot break free, captain. we do not have a fraction of the power necessary. break free to where, commander? any show of resistance would not only be futile, catain. something about us puzzles them. perhaps even concerns them. the tractor beam has released us, captain. commencing sensor scans. captain. all scans are being reflected back, captain. our sensors are useless. i believe the light flares to be energy fields -- undoubtedly part of the vessel's inner mechanism. a technology so incredibly sophisticated that i cannot -- join with the creator. ? how? who is the creator? doctor, a thorough examination of this probe might provide some insight into those who manufactured it, and how to deal with them. interesting. not 'decker-unit'? captain. this probe may be a key a key to the aliens. we have just seen that its body duplicates our navigator in precise detail. suppose that beneath its programming, the real ilia's memory patterns are duplicated with equal precision. they may have followed it too precisely. exactly. and you did have a 'relationship' with lieutenant ilia, commander. i am uneasy with that being our only hope of more information. computer, commence recording. captain kirk -- this message will detail my attempt to contact the aliens. i am seeking answers, captain. captain, i believe there we will find an indication of whoever -- or whatever -- is aboard this vessel. it would appear that the atomic arrays of these crystals store information. a remarkably efficient system. new crystals: they must contain the most recent data obtained -- exact patterns. the energy bolt that hit them wasn't simply a weapon -- it dematerialized them, stored them. but why? captain, i do not believe there is a crew -- or that this is a vessel as such. i am almost certain now that all of this is v'ger -- i believe that we are inside a life form, a living machine. i must attempt mindmeld with it, captain. jim. this simple feeling. . is so far beyond v'ger's comprehension. a life form of its own; a conscious, living entity. i saw v'ger's planet: a planet populated by living machines. unbelievable technology. v'ger has knowledge that spans this universe. and. in all this order. all this magnificence, v'ger feels no awe. no delight. no beauty. i should have known. no meaning. no hope. and, jim, no answers! jim, it's looking for answers itself! 'is this all i am? is there not more?' puzzling! the interference appears to be a rather simple carrier wave code signal. these read as identical composition. . however, captain, they measure several hundred times more powerful! from four equidistant positions, captain, a detonation would blanket the entire surface of the planet. then v'ger believes the creator to be a machine too. captain. treat v'ger as you would. a child. yes, captain, a child: evolving into adulthood -- learning, searching -- instinctively needing. it doesn't know what it needs, comm ander. it does not know. captain, the vessel -- v'ger -- obviously operates from a central brain complex. precisely. a tractor beam. no, captain, not for us. for v'ger. i weep for v'ger, as i would for a brother -- far more knowledgeable than i -- and yet one step behind. as i was -- when i came aboard. so is v'ger now: empty, incomplete. searching. logic and knowledge are not enough. has not, doctor -- and now, because of what we are planning. will not. v'ger has begun to understand the true limits of our universe, thereby realizing the existence of other dimensions. to fulfill itself it must evolve to a higher dimension; v'ger believes this can be achieved only by joining with the creator. each of us, at some time in our life, turns to someone, a father, a brother, a god and asks 'why am i here?' 'what was i meant to be?' v'ger hopes to touch its creator to find its answers. captain, i believe that is our destination. captain, the orbital device will not be triggered for twenty-two minutes. the point is, captain, twenty-two (alt. that transmitter is a vital link between v'ger and the creator. and then to reassemble itself combined with the creator. the most certain way of obtaining all the creator's answers. that seems to be what it has planned -- to have the creator physically present here. jim. he wants it. yes, captain. it needed our mortality, the fear of it, our struggle against it, our fears, our dreams. i prefer your poet dante's phrase -- 'the divine restlessness of the human spirit.' i have no business on vulcan, engineer. a most logical choice, captain.