Janvar Five

Probe drifting in space.

Janvar Five was an interstellar probe launched from the planet Janvar centuries prior to the 2260s decade.

History and specifics

The probe was metallic, cylindrical, and less than two meters tall, with several retractable appendages. By the 23rd century, its power generator had failed and it was drifting in space.

The USS Enterprise picked up an SOS from the probe in the year 2267. It asked to come aboard, presenting itself as having an advanced artificial intelligence and being on a peaceful mission to seek out intelligent life. Seeing an opportunity for first contact, Captain James T. Kirk agreed to return the probe to Janvar. However, the moment Supreme President Kort saw it on his viewscreen, he panicked and fired a missile barrage at the Enterprise.

The truth was that Janvarians had used identity transference technology to place the personalities of six ruthless criminals within the probe. It was then launched out of their system in exile while their mindless, imprisoned bodies remained on the surface in stasis, a means of avoiding the death penalty.

Now that the probe was near Janvar, the criminals used psychokinesis to paralyze the Enterprise crew. Directing hypersonic transmissions from the communications station on the bridge, the criminals reanimated their bodies on the surface and directed them via a shuttle rocket up to the Enterprise. Spock was able to momentarily distract the criminals, freeing himself from their control, and destroy the shuttle. Bodiless and without a reason to live, the probe shut down. (TOS comic: "The Mindless Ones")