ProtoAvatar wrote:
DevilEyes wrote:
ProtoAvatar wrote:
In any case, the directives this minicollective follows have significant differences from standard borg imperatives - this was proven by the starfleet ship NOT being assimilated at the end.
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Now that you mention it, it probably was Section 31 who contracted Carson. The Starfleet ship was not assimilated, and note that no Starfleet members were harmed in the operation - only private mercenaries, people that Section 31 probably consider disposable scum. |
You assume that the minicollective follows the directives they were intended to follow by the ones responsible for their creation - S31 or someone else.
However, the end of the story strongly implies that this is not the case - this minicollective seems to be out for revenge against whomever created it (definitely NOT part of S31/someone else's plan or implanted directories). |
Well, it's pretty unclear what 'directives' exactly will drive them. They retain their memories and, it seems, some of their earlier attitudes - which is why Thayer only wanted to kill Carson and didn't want to assimilate her and make her a part of their new mini-collective. But I doubt that they can remain basically the same as they were, psychologically, only united in the mini-collective, without wanting to assimilate anyone further. If that was how the Borg assimilation worked, then it actually wouldn't be as horrible as it is made out to be, and the greatest strength of the story is the sense of horror and dread that was missing in on screen portrayal of the Borg since at least
The First Contact. (I can't say how well the literature has done it, though I guess from what I've heard
Destiny probably did it well.) If they don't have the urge to further assimilate (the
hunger, as the story puts it, in order to try and loosely fit into the theme of the anthology), if they are missing the basic Borg imperatives and urges, then they aren't really Borg, are they? Which would defeat the purpose of the story.