02.11
The Borg
Cmdr. Bradden
Starfleet Intelligence
The Borg are an implacable force. They are, or were, one of the greatest threats the Federation has ever faced.
To call the Borg a race would be inaccurate. To call them a plague upon existence might possibly be understatement. They are cyborgs, biological life “enhanced” with technological advancements. They target and assimilate other races they deem of worth. Sometimes they choose their victims because of a technology they want to get their hands on. Sometimes they target interesting biological traits. Always, they target any race they consider a threat.
Assimilation entails a complete loss of self, of individuality. It destroys entire races. The assimilated become a part of the Borg Collective. Among the Borg, there are no individuals and the Collective rules all. The only possible exception to this is the Borg Queen. It is unclear whether she rules the Borg hive mind, or whether she is merely an instrument of the Collective.
The lack of distinct identities makes the Borg an uncanny opponent. They have no personal fears, no emotional weaknesses. They are also quite willing to sacrifice tremendous numbers of their own, because there is no true loss. Add that to their vast amounts of technology and they become nearly undefeatable. Nearly.
We almost lost the Earth in their first fully fledged attack against us. Since then, we’ve faced them several more times. The starship Voyager in particular came into contact with them repeatedly, thanks to having been stranded in the Delta Quadrant, which we believe to be where the Borg originated.
Thanks to the work Voyager did, we have far more information about Borg technology. It may be that Voyager also damaged the Borg and their transwarp hub severely enough during their last encounter to destroy the Borg. Or, at the very least, set them back several centuries.
Certainly that was the reasoning behind dissolving the Borg Task Force in 2385. I find myself less sanguine about this conclusion than many of my peers. Recent information leads me to believe that the Borg are not so quiescent, and that we may soon have cause to regret our complacency.
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