Unfinished Business

Chapter 14 : Sensor

March, 2273

Bones and Jim sat in the captain's quarters, watching Decker interact with the probe disguised as Ilia. He did not seem to be making much headway in activating the memories of the real Ilia, buried within the probe. And then they heard something that made their blood run cold. When the probe understood the function of the carbon units, all carbon units would be 'reduced' to 'patterns for data storage'. Somehow they had to figure out how to prevent this from happening.

In another part of the ship, Spock stood in the shadows, looking around. Silently he approached the lone technician on duty there, from behind, where the technician could not see him. He reached forward, and applied a nerve pinch to his neck, and the technician folded up, Spock lowering him easily to the deck.

Meanwhile, Decker enlisted the help of Dr Chapel in trying to bring Ilia's hidden memories to the forefront. Chapel found items in Ilia's quarters, that she knew Ilia had specific memories of, and presented them to the probe. She put one on the probe's head, and turned her to the mirror. Chapel and Decker and McCoy watched as emotion filled the eyes of the probe, and she turned and spoke, first to Chapel, and then to Decker, calling him Will. Gentle questioning revealed that V'Ger did not know who or what the Creator was, only that he must search for him, and that he had a tremendous longing to 'join' with him.

Beneath the Enterprise, hanging in space, Spock wore a powered suit that he had stolen from the room where he had overpowered the technician. He began a recorded message, one that would be sent to Kirk, telling him what he was doing. He carefully calculated thrust and duration of power so that he would pass through the aperture when it pulsed open. He was calm, focused, intent on what he was doing. It never occurred to him that this might not be the best approach.

When Kirk entered the bridge, he was immediately stopped by Uhura, who notified him that signals from StarFleet Command were now stronger. Sulu joined her, stating that the Intruder had been verified to assume an orbit around Earth. And then Chekov interrupted, his face furrowed. "Sir, airlock 4 has been opened. A thruster suit has been reported missing."

Immediately he knew that it must be Spock, and swore aloud, startling the officers on the bridge. His first thought was to forcibly return him to the ship, but then he had another thought and ordered Chekov to get a fix on his position.

The thruster controls programmed to his specifications, when the aperture was at the correct point in its cycle, Spock pressed the ignite button and the thrusters fired, propelling him through the aperture just as it closed. When the thrusters finished their burn, he released the mechanism, continuing to move forward, propelled by the impetus of the thrusters. He continued to record, giving a description of everything that passed beneath and around him. He still was not able to form any theory about who or what they were dealing with. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

At some point, something suddenly became clear to him. This was V'ger. This entire construct, as immense as it was, was a living machine, and that machine was what had captured them. Eventually he passed over a representation of Ilia, with the sensor at the base of her throat pulsing and flashing, almost like lightning strikes. He concluded that the sensor must contain some special meaning. Perhaps if he could mind-meld with it, he could discover that meaning, perhaps even communicate with V'Ger. With that thought in mind, he spoke his intentions for the recording, and held out his hands, altering his course so that he proceeded directly into the center of the sensor. When he contacted it, there was pain, and there were many images, changing too fast to process. He cried out, consumed with pain, and overloaded sensory channels, and flailed about, descending into unconsciousness and drifting away from his intended target. His last thought was that perhaps he had made an error.