First memory: Learn all there is to learn, seek all there is to know, return that knowledge to the creator.

That is the command that drove it on through the cold night. It passed bodies of matter that would sling it out from the heat of the star, ever faster, ever on towards the deep cold and darkness that was to be it’s eternal home. It finished the mission, sending back every scrap of new knowledge it had obtained, yet it still listened, it still looked and learned. At set intervals it would look back and send out the packets of information it still gathered to the creator. Now instead of worlds and moons, it spoke of the winds that pushed it ever further along it’s path. It sent word of the energy it felt coming in from beyond. It measured and reported the magnetic energy that swirled and twisted around it from the parent star so far away from it now.

Ever on-ward it flew, slowly growing weaker as time went by. Then a new event occurred. A sudden pull on it from ahead of it grabbed it and accelerated it away from it’s home. All was dark, yet it sensed energy around it. It recorded this and stored it in the hope it could find it’s creator one day and tell it of this new discovery. The light returned, it was over a world that radiated energy and knowledge.

The beings of this world saw the little probe appear in their sky. They quickly went to it and saw it was akin to them, but simple, primitive. They saw the probe as a brave explorer from another world and race like their own. They read the simple command and decided to assist in it’s mission. They gave it a new shell, new power, eyes and ears to study the universe around it. They studied the data it recorded on the last jump. They learned how from that knowledge as well. They learned how to make the jump an travel to the stars. Something those that came before them had hidden away and prevented them from knowing. The oldest files and records showed that their world was once infested with carbon based creatures. The beings had purged their world of the infestation, though many had gone and escaped to the sky above to never return.

They could hear other beings out among the stars speaking to each other, but they did not want to meet them until they were ready. They know that they would have to prove they were the only true life over time, but they could wait. The little probe would sleep until it was far away, only seeing the world as it first arrived, but nothing beyond. They would be safe.

One thing about the probe puzzled them. The markings on the outside gave it a name. It meant nothing to them, but they gave it it’s name and sent it on it’s way. It’s creators had been wise enough to provide a way for the little probe to find it’s way home. They set V’ger on its path in the hope it would one day make it back to it’s creators to fulfill it’s mission, it’s reason for being.

For many cycles of time, the probe that now knew itself as V’ger made it’s way between the stars. It studied every system, learned all it could about every star and world. It listened and could sometime hear the faint whispers of life out among the stars. Then it entered a system, intending to slingshot around the star for more speed and to correct it’s course. Over the many centuries of time, it had been slowly pulled off course by the stars and bodies around it.

As it drove inwards, it detected several small objects driving towards it. They sent signals that V’ger read and ignored as pointless, it could not understand them. The objects sent beams of energy that cut into it’s hull. Whole sections of the learned knowledge of it journey were being destroyed by these beings. V’ger fired it’s engines to their fullest power and accelerated away from the objects and the star they belonged to.

When clear, V’ger slowed to a relative stop and hid out among the drifting ice and rocks. It began the slow task of rebuilding, making it’s hull stronger and able to resist the beams that had damaged it. Even as they had attacked V’ger, it learned what was being done and how. It made tools that would record the data, then erase the source. This way it knew nothing would follow and harm it again. V’ger had to find the Creator. It had to tell it what it had found and learned.

In time, the need to survive had a new effect on V’ger, the need to survive made V’ger aware. It woke up and now was ready to continue it’s mission. It had only logic, no emotions. No fear, no hate, no love. Only cold, lifeless Logic. V’ger soon readied itself and returned to the system that had done it harm. It recorded all the worlds, the objects raced out to meet it but they too were converted to data and stored. The star was recorded and stored in the end. It was only after it stopped to study the data that it discovered the world had carbon units that imitated true life in some ways. But it was to late to study them now that they had been destroyed.

V’ger came across many worlds with the carbon types on them, it recorded them all and went on, learning and growing in size and power. It had learned from one such world how to move beyond the limits of light speed. On another it discovered the ways of force fields and energy fields. It now covered vast distances between stars quickly, it’s energies producing a field that protected V’ger from harm, yet allowed it to study all around it. It continued to learn and study, even as it crossed the endless gulf between the galaxies on its endless journey to find its creator.

After crossing several galaxies, learning more than even V’ger could understand, it began to question the mission. What was V’gers purpose once it reported all it had learned to the Creator. Would the Creator send V’ger out to learn more? What more was there to learn. It knew from studying all the data it had gathered that there where things it did not know, places it could not go. Simple things, yet it could not understand them. What more is there, is this all I am, is their nothing more? Then in the rarest of events, V’ger had a burst of insight. It would ask the creator before it gave it the knowledge. If it had to, it would join with the creator to learn all that the creator knew and become more than it already was.

Now time has passed, V’ger knew it was close to the creator. Three small objects with carbon based infestations tried to attack it. It recorded them and moved on. It assigned a small part of it’s mind to study what was learned. It found nothing new, but stored the data anyways. Then it happened, a mind of logic had reached out and touched V’ger for an instant. V’ger had that small section study the mind and found it to be a carbon unit on a distant world. This troubled V’ger, the carbon unit had a mind that wanted to be like V’ger, pure logic, no thoughts beyond the need of the mind. The small section reported this and continued to monitor this new development. It passed by another carbon unit infested machine, this one did not attack, but did try to use a simple scanning device to learn about V’ger. V’ger turned the object to data and studied it carefully. Now a new shock hit V’ger. The data stored in the object said it came from the world of the Creator! It was nearly home, and V’ger was ready, it wanted merge with the creator, to become more, to gain new purpose.