| abstract | - Within the Oracle Room, the machine had two chief defensive mechanisms. It could direct electricity sufficient to stun up to at least three Human-sized individuals simultaneously. It could also operate heating elements concealed within certain of the carving panels that could raise the temperature of the room to lethal levels in very short order. Outside of the Oracle Room, the machine enforced its will through the use of the Instrument of Obedience. The Oracle concealed the entrance to the control center of Yonada. Using the Book of the People, Spock discovered that applying pressure to the central crystal of the Oracle for several seconds opened this concealed door - the Oracle itself slid open to reveal a small trapezoidal hatch. The same operation opened a sliding door covering this hatch. On the other side of the hatch was the main control room. During the course of Yonada's voyage, the computer had malfunctioned and diverted the ship's course toward Daran V. Instead of being a world for the population of Yonada, the vessel was on a collision course that would kill all on board and the people of the planet. In 2268, Captain James T. Kirk, Commander Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy successfully disabled the computer and corrected the world ship's course to its originally intended destination. (TOS: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" ) The voice of the Oracle was provided by James Doohan. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 109) ) The Oracle plays a part in the novel Ex Machina, where a group of Yonadans, still believing in the Oracle – as their society have no concept of computers, they assumed that all computers were gods rather than dismissing gods as machines, attempt to use Spock to reactivate and improve the Oracle after his encounter with V'ger, seeing V'ger as evidence of their beliefs.
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