- We cut outside the ship to a shocking sight: a person in a spacesuit. It's Spock. He sends Kirk a message saying that he's going to learn about the alien.
- Timing his thruster with the movements of the door, Spock narrowly squeezes through the undulating opening.
- Meanwhile, the crew is just getting back in contact with Starfleet when they realize that Spock is missing.
- Deeper within V'Ger, Spock approaches a large mechanical planet. He radios back to the Enterprise, saying that he thinks it to be a model of V'Ger's home planet.
- Still floating, he reaches a floating tunnel he describes as "a kind of plasma energy conduit."
- He emerges into another large space, this time filled with planets and stars—what seems to be a record of V'Ger's journeys.
- Then he sees even stranger stuff, like the Epsilon Nine station, which was destroyed earlier in the movie.
- Another tunnel—and it's the trippiest yet. Spock tells the Enterprise that he's now certain they're inside a "living machine."
- Finally, he approaches what looks like Ilia, only much more gigantic and glowing and all of that fun stuff. The red orb that was placed in her neck is there too, and it's glowing brighter and brighter.
- Spock has a plan: mind-meld time. Wrong move. He tries it and gets shocked back into space.
- Some time later, Kirk emerges from the Enterprise in a spacesuit of his own. He pulls Spock's unconscious body back into the ship.