De acordo com a romancização oficial do filme, a sonda tinha (de alguma forma) feito o seu caminho no espaço Klingon. Nenhuma explicação é dada sobre como ele gerenciou essa façanha, embora conheçamos outros objetos pré-warp da Terra que tenham viajado de maneira suspeita grandes distâncias e naves sem capacidade de distorção que ainda conseguiu atingir velocidades de dobra .
THE ANCIENT PROBE hurtled aimlessly through the blackness of uninhabited space. Its designers were long dead, its purpose forgotten; it was now no more than a piece of flotsam, like the millions of bits of celestial debris that had collided with it, scarring its once-smooth surface. Still visible on one side of the probe, etched into the metal, were images: two naked adult humans, a male and a female, hands raised in a gesture of greeting. Beside them were various mathematical and scientific symbols. The probe had obviously been launched by humans who hoped to contact intelligent extraterrestrial life forms.
Ironic, thought First Officer Vixis, that it should encounter them here, centuries later, in the Klingon empire.