V'Ger
V'Ger was a powerful machine that featured in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
History
Originally the NASA probe Voyager 6 was sent into space in the 20th century to explore distant galaxies and gather information, which it would then transmit back to Earth. After falling through a black hole, though, Earth lost contact with Voyager 6. It was believed lost forever. In truth, Voyager 6 crashlanded on a planet of sentient machines who mistook the probe for a kindred spirit and repaired it. In the crash, its dedication plaque became damaged, with the letters O, Y and A and the number 6 becoming scraped off, leaving only V, G, E and R visible.
Leaving the machine planet, the probe resumed its mission and absorbed an entire universe's worth of knowledge, constructing a living mechanical body around itself that was many miles in length, armed with powerful weapons and concealed within a gigantic luminescent blue cloud. It eventually absorbed so much knowledge it achieved sentience. Based on what remained legible on its plaque, it dubbed itself "V'Ger," and, curious about its own origins, began returning to Earth. Its journey took several centuries.
In this new, more powerful form, V'Ger would "collect" information by using its weapons to break down physical matter, both living and nonliving, into pure energy for data storage. In this fashion it destroyed three Klingon warships that attacked it as well as the Starfleet outpost Epsilon 9. After these violent acts were made known to Earth, the United Federation of Planets dispatched the Enterprise to intercept and investigate V'Ger (simply known as a gigantic cloud at the time). V'Ger mistook the Enterprise for another living machine and send an energy probe which absorbed and duplicated the Deltan navigator Lieutenant Ilia.
Through the android copy of Ilia, V'Ger made its intentions known to Admiral Kirk: it sought its "Creator" and its function in life beyond simply data gathering. As explained by Spock, V'Ger, for all its raw power and intelligence, was childlike. It was afraid and sought to know its origins and whether it had a purpose beyond its original programming. Dealing with V'Ger was difficult, as it did not see humans and other biological lifeforms as "true lifeforms." In fact, it believed its Creator to be a machine, as well.
Arriving at Earth centuries after the original Voyager 6 had been sent forth, V'Ger attempted to transmit all of its information via radio, but because NASA no longer existed it received no answer. It attempted to kill all of the biological life on Earth because it believed they had somehow suppressed its machine Creator, and took some convincing from Kirk to make V'Ger realize humans, not machines, had designed and built it.
Kirk attempted to dissuade V'Ger but V'Ger would only call off the extinction of all biological lifeforms if the Creator appeared in person. Guided by the Ilia android, Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Commander Decker were taken into the inner sanctum of the V'Ger ship where they met V'Ger itself. The ancient, battered Voyager 6 probe sat wired into everything, awaiting the arrival of the three humans and the Vulcan. After discovering the true identity of V'Ger, Spock realized V'Ger, being a machine, was unable to make the human logical leap beyond its programming to determine its own destiny. It would need to physically merge with a human to accomplish this.
Decker volunteered for this and he, and the Ilia android, combined with V'Ger's data stream. Combining with a human allowed V'Ger to become a new lifeform, apparently a being of pure energy, as the living ship and the cloud subsequently vanished leaving the Enterprise alone in Earth's orbit.
Background
External Link
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