- Bounty receives the Federation's distress signal. Kirk chews scenery like a goat chews on grass as they watch the president's message.
- Spock doesn't think that the probe is intentionally causing damage, but McCoy passionately disagrees.
- Our Vulcan buddy goes even further, arguing that the probe's message might not even be directed at mankind. After all, it's not aimed at land—it's aimed at the ocean.
- Kirk gets an idea. He tells Uhura to modulate the audio "accounting for density and temperature and salinity factors," which is a fancy way of saying "make it sound like it's underwater."
- The sound modulates until settling into a much gentler register. Spock immediately deduces what's going on, but he has bad news—they have no way to respond to this message.
- Spock abruptly leaves the bridge to "test [his] theory." He browses through a computer screen until he finds what he's looking for: a picture of a humpback whale.
- McCoy asks the obvious question: who in the bloody universe wants to chat with whales?
- Humpbacks went extinct in the 21st century, Kirk observes. Could this probe be coming to Earth to find out why it lost contact?
- Since humpbacks are extinct, Earth is in a tough spot. Humans wouldn't know how to replicate a whale song if they tried.
- Kirk suggests blowing up the probe (because of course), but Spock says that this would be futile. He has an alternate suggestion: time travel.
- For real? This is happening?
- Kirk gives the order to prepare for "time warp" because apparently that is a thing you can just do. He tells Scotty to start preparing a makeshift humpback pen as well.
- As usual, McCoy points out the absurdity of all of this. Also, as usual, Kirk laughs off McCoy's concerns.
- Starfleet receives a message from Kirk explaining his plan. The signal cuts out as the weather intensifies, however, sending wind and rain streaming into the building.
- On Bounty, Spock is finishing up the calculations for time travel. In his head. Think about that the next time you're in algebra class.
- Our heroes shoot to land on the Pacific coast of the United States in the 20th century. They'll need to slingshot around the sun to achieve this.
- The ship leaps into warp drive. By the time they reach Warp 5, the ship starts rattling and falling apart. This is going well.
- As they approach Warp 10, which they'll need to hit as they slingshot around the sun, a rupture forms in the side of the ship. Oh, no.
- Somehow, however, they make it. Phew.
- We're treated to a wonderfully '80s sequence of computerized imagery that presumably represents time travel.