I, Enterprise! is a two-part comic story, part of the ongoing series of alternate reality Star Trek comics released by IDW Publishing. The two issues are the 31st and the 32nd of the IDW series, to be released in March and April of 2014, respectively.
Summary
The Enterprise discovers a featureless sphere composed of unknown materials floating in space. Its geometric perfection suggests an artificial construct, but sensors are unable to gather any readings, so a landing party beams to the surface for a closer investigation. They detect some strange readings, but beam back to the safety of the ship when communications begin to falter. Spock uploads his tricorder data into the main computer, but his scans include an unknown program that infects the ship. This artificial intelligence disrupts various systems, accidentally initiates an emergency saucer separation, and causing the main computer to gain sentience. Finally, it hijacks a surgical chamber to create an android body from synthetic tissues and carbon filaments. This avatar of the Enterprise itself, created to facilitate direct humanoid communication between the computer and the crew, has complete mastery over the Enterprise and all of its systems.
The avatar reveals the history of the unknown planetoid. Millions of years ago, it was a normal world home to an advanced humanoid civilization. To avoid death, the citizens abandoned organic life and uploaded their consciousnesses into their master computer. Over the eons, the many minds became one, and it adapted their world into the artificial sphere it is now—in essence, a sentient planet. However, that intelligence deems the humanoid crew to be an infestation of the Enterprise and it seizes the environmental systems in an effort to eradicate the crew, seeking to “elevate” the starship to its own higher level of existence. The avatar suggests a total wipe of the main computer, erasing its own sentience, to make the sphere lose interest in the ship, thus sparing the crew. The play is successful, and protected backups restore the computer to functionality, allowing the starship to escape and quarantine the system.
Spock takes the now-lifeless avatar and installs a prototype AI of his own design. The new being operates independent of the main computer, but his unique physiology allows him to interface with ship’s systems much faster than any biological crewmember. Kirk accepts his petition to join the crew and he assigns himself an ID number of 0718. Science Officer 0718 now serves as Starfleet’s first and only humanoid mainframe interface.
