O que a sonda e as baleias disseram umas às outras?

oficial novelisation contém uma versão de eventos que inclui uma tradução de a conversa da sonda com as baleias. Desculpas pela duração da citação:

[Probe] Why did you remain silent for so long?

They [The whales] tried to explain, but it reacted in surprise and disbelief.

Where were you? it asked.

We were not here, they replied, but now we have returned. We cannot explain, traveler, because we do not yet understand all that has happened to us.

By "us," the traveler understood them to mean themselves as individuals and all their kind for millions of years in the past. By their song it recognized them as youths.

Who are you? it asked. Where are the others? Where are the elders?'

They are gone, the whales sang, with sadness. They have passed into the deep, they have vanished upon white shores. We alone survive.

Your song is simple, the traveler said, chiding. It was not above petulance. Where are the tales you have invented in all this time, and where are the stories of your families?

They are lost, replied the whale song. All lost. We must begin again. We must evolve our civilization again. We have no other answer.

The traveler hesitated. It wondered if perhaps it should sterilize the planet anyway despite the presence of the untaught singing youths. But if it began a new evolution here, the planet would be silent at least as long as it would take the traveler to circumscribe the galaxy. The traveler would have to endure the pain of the world's silence. Organic evolution required so much time. Besides, the traveler possessed very little cruelty. It could consider destroying the young singers, but the conception caused great distress. It abandoned the idea.

Very well, it said. I shall anticipate young stories.

Fare thee well.

The traveler fell silent. The whales bid it farewell. The traveler collected its energy. It ended its interference with the patterns of the blue-white planet. It ceased to power the violent storms ravaging the surface. It sought its usual course, oriented itself properly, and sailed on a tail of flame into the brilliant blackness of the galaxy.

    

Para completar, eu tenho uma cópia do romance Probe mencionada por N_Soong em um comentário. O que ela tem a dizer é relativamente pouco, mas consistente com a novelização do STIV. Desde o prólogo:

In the waters of hundreds of worlds it had found primitives who held the promise that, in another million years, they might be able to Speak, might become capable of learning the True Language.

The blue world the entity had recently departed had held such primitives for millennia. Time and again it had returned, listening to their evolving story, etching their rudimentary recitations into its crystalline memory, observing, prompting them in the direction of Speech. But then they had fallen silent. No amount of calling, no intensity of prodding, had brought forth a response until, finally, the creators' instructions had said: Prepare the world for new life. [...] But the instructions had barely begun to be implemented when the primitives had reappeared, had raised their planet-bound voices in joy. [...] When questioned, they would speak only of enclosed spaces and chaos and then freedom.

Assim, a sonda estava fazendo algo que havia feito antes, estabelecendo contato com as baleias do planeta para dizer olá, trocar histórias e avaliar seu progresso. O conteúdo de sua mensagem era apenas uma saudação, depois um mais urgente "olá, alguém aí?". Quando finalmente fez contato no final do filme, a troca foi "Ei! Você não estava lá e agora está! O que aconteceu?" "Nós estávamos em outro lugar, e agora estamos aqui! Algumas coisas aconteceram, mas não sabemos o que foi!" "Bem, ok então."

    

Spock fez uma fusão vulcânica e aprendeu com as baleias que a razão pela qual a sonda estava destruindo a Terra era que a sonda havia feito uma viagem anterior pela Terra e aprendido com as baleias que elas estavam em perigo devido à humanidade arpoar. eles. A sonda prometeu voltar mais tarde e vingar as mortes de baleias se elas tivessem sido caçadas até a extinção.