XENOLOGY: BORG

An immensely powerful civilization of enhanced humanoids from the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy. The Borg implant themselves with cybernetic devices, giving them great technological and combat capabilities. Different Borg are equipped with different hardware for specific tasks. Each Borg is tied into a sophisticated subspace communications network, forming the Borg collective, a shared consciousness in which the idea of the individual was nearly a meaningless concept. The Borg exhibit a high degree of intelligence and adaptability in their tactics. Most means of defense or offense against them were found to work only once, almost immediately after which the Borg developed a countermeasure. The Borg operated by conquering entire worlds, assimilating the civilizations and technology thereon. Individual members of assimilated races were implanted with sophisticated cybernetic implants, permitting each individual to perform a specific task as required by the collective. Thousands of worlds across the galaxy were conquered in this fashion. The Borg were responsible for the near-extinction of the El-Aurian people in the late 23rd century. SEE: Guinan. The first known contact between the Borg and the Federation was in 2365, when Q transported the Enterprise-D out of Federation space into the flight path of a Borg vessel heading toward the Alpha Quadrant. Following this first contact, Starfleet began advance planning for a potential Borg offensive against the Federation. Lieutenant Commander Shelby was placed in charge of this project to develop a defense strategy. One of the weapons systems developed to help meet the Borg threat was the new U.S.S. Defiant, a heavily-armed starship prototype. The anticipated Borg attack came in late 2366, when a Borg vessel entered Federation space, heading for Earth. Starfleet tactical planners had expected at least several more months before the Borg arrival, and thus were caught unprepared. Enterprise-D captain Jean-Luc Picard was captured by the Borg at the beginning of this offensive. He was assimilated into the Borg collective consciousness and became known as Locutus of Borg, providing crucial guidance to the Borg in their attack. Starfleet massed an armada of some 40 starships in hopes of stopping the Borg ship at Wolf 359, but the fleet was decimated with the loss of 39 ships and 11,000 lives, including the U.S.S. Saratoga. As Locutus, Picard explained that the Borg purpose was to improve the quality of life in the galaxy by providing other life-forms the benefit of being part of the Borg collective. Following the rescue of Picard from the Borg ship, a last-ditch effort to implant a destructive computer command into the Borg collective consciousness was successful in destroying the Borg ship in Earth orbit. By 2368, at least two more Borg vessels were found to have reached Federation territory when a crashed Borg scout ship was discovered on the surface of a moon in the Argolis Cluster. One surviving Borg, designated Third of Five, was rescued from the crash by Enterprise-D crew personnel. This Borg, named Hugh by the Enterprise-D crew, was nursed back to health. During Hugh's convalescence, Enterprise-D personnel developed what they termed an invasive program, which, when introduced into the Borg collective consciousness, was designed to cause a fatal overload in the entire collective. In the process, Hugh befriended Geordi La Forge, a friendship that provided an argument that this invasive program, effectively a weapon of mass murder, should not be used. Hugh was then returned to the Argolis crash site, where he was rescued by another Borg scout ship. Following the return of Hugh, Hugh's new sense of individuality began to permeate a portion of the collective. The results were dramatic: Deprived of their group identity, individual Borg were unable to function as a unit. The unexpected arrival of the android, Lore, changed this. Lore appointed himself the leader of those Borg, and promised them he would provide them with the means to become completely artificial life-forms, free of dependence on organic bodies. In 2369, Lore led the Borg in launching a major new offensive against the Federation. Utilizing transwarp conduits, they entered Federation space in a ship of an unfamiliar design and attacked a Federation outpost at Ohniaka III. During this offensive, the Borg attacked with uncharacteristic anger, later found to be due to Lore's influence. The offensive was halted when Lore was dismantled by his brother, Data. In 2373, the Borg launched a second attempt to assimilate Earth. Although the Federation Starfleet was successful in stopping the Borg attack, a single Borg sphere escaped into a temporal vortex, to Earth's 21st century. In the past, the Borg attempted to prevent space pioneer Zefram Cochrane from making Earth's first faster-than-light flight in 2063. The crew of the Starship Enterprise-E, following the Borg sphere into the past, ensured that Cochrane was able to make the critical first warp flight. In doing so, the Enterprise-E crew destroyed the Borg queen, the central nexus of the Borg collective.On stardate 50541, the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager discovered a Borg corpse on a planet in the Delta Quadrant while trading with Sakari colonists for the mineral gallicite.A few weeks later, in the Nekrit Expanse, the Starship Voyager discovered a planet of former Borg drones that had somehow broken away from the collective five years ago. Unfortunately, in a free society, the former drones reverted to destructive ethnic warfare. The survivors asked Voyager personnel to help them reactivate a derelict Borg cube ship in order that a new collective could restore harmony to their society. (In an alternate quantum reality visited by Worf in 2370, the crew of the Enterprise-D did not recover Captain Picard from the Borg. In yet another reality, the Borg had taken over most of the Federation, with a heavily damaged Enterprise-D being one of the few ships remaining.