Any ideas as to what the source of Power for Borg vessels are?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

https://borgcollective.fandom.com/wiki/Borg_Probe#Power_Systems
The Borg utilize a unique method of powering almost all their on-board systems, maintaining their highly decentralized interior design they do not rely upon a single warp core or such devices in order to solely generate power for the entire vessel. Each vessel generates its own power via power nodes - each device capable of generating an enormous amount of power. Borg vessels however possess hundreds, thousands perhaps even millions depending upon their size and class. These power nodes are spread throughout the vessel collectively producing a sufficient amount of power which the vessel requires at any given time. Only a fraction are active at any one time with additional redundant power sources located throughout the ship [3] which activate and begin generating power as another power node fails. As their power demands increase as a result of construct additional weapons and alcoves for newly assimilated drones the vessel may construct additional power nodes. Additionally, the method of dispersing their power ouput makes it almost impossible for intruders to sabotage the entire vessels power systems at once, in the event one power node is disabled only the small section which it powers and the devices in that section lose power for 4.8 minutes causing a manipulation effect in the vessels subspace field before another node activates and restores power [3],. The only system which does not rely upon power nodes are the transwarp drives which are powered by the transwarp coils themselves.

So it seems that Borg use "Power Nodes" and many of them in their vessels. They're highly distributed and redundant. But like the term "Warp Core", what is the actual source of power behind it? Since canon doesn't give you anything concrete to work with, what do you folks think it is?

From what I can tell, it's not based on these:
- Nuclear Fission/Fusion
- Matter/Anti-Matter reaction
- Artificial Quantum Singularity
- Tetryon Reactors
- Temporal Reactors
These types of Reactors are already in use by many 24th century species.

So what do you think powers these Borg "Power Nodes"?

 

[Forbin]

They shovel older drones into a fusion furnace.

 

[DonIago]

Collective Will

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

They shovel older drones into a fusion furnace.

That sounds incredibly wasteful, the Borg would recycle parts from older drones and salvage every material they can for reuse.

That doesn't sound like the Borg we all know and FEAR

 

[publiusr]

Zed PMs

 

[Go-Captain]

There's no good speculation, but Collective Will is not as bad as it might seem, given it is the Collective energy which heals Chakotay once he is hooked up to the mini collective, and not the nanoprobes. It also fits with how Star Trek occasionally gets into wacky metaphysics, and it is a play off of the machine power source in The Matrix.

If I were writing a story I suppose I would have it that the characters can't speculate on how they work with just tricorders, which would imply something a lot more exotic than an annihilation-dilithium reaction is going on.

 

[DonIago]

It was kind of tongue-in-cheek. But once you eliminate the non-corporeal races I think there's a good and somewhat chilling argument to be made that the Borg may be the most powerful race shown in Trek, and given their collective consciousness, it could be that they can achieve certain things simply by bending their will toward making it happen.

One thing, at least seems clear: nothing we saw onscreen gave us any hint of what the upper limits of Borg capability might be, with the exception of their difficulties with Species 8472.

 

[Go-Captain]

It was kind of tongue-in-cheek. But once you eliminate the non-corporeal races I think there's a good and somewhat chilling argument to be made that the Borg may be the most powerful race shown in Trek, and given their collective consciousness, it could be that they can achieve certain things simply by bending their will toward making it happen.

One thing, at least seems clear: nothing we saw onscreen gave us any hint of what the upper limits of Borg capability might be, with the exception of their difficulties with Species 8472.

I wouldn't put it past the Borg to have methods to counter low level omnipotent beings. They probably encountered the Q too, and Q impressed on Q Jr. not to antagonize the Borg. I don't believe they were any danger to the Q, but maybe they could get very annoying given they can cross dimensional realms.

What if their power source is a variation on what ever it is omnipotent beings tap for power? What if they can pull off certain omnipotent feats when the whole Collective is focused, and they never put that focus on individual species?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Zed PMs

Could be likely. Every power node is a miniature Zed PM that draws in energy from subspace in an interconnected network that can be quickly rerouted if the ship takes damage.

 

[Forbin]

That sounds incredibly wasteful, the Borg would recycle parts from older drones and salvage every material they can for reuse.

That doesn't sound like the Borg we all know and FEAR

Just their organic bodies, not their spare parts.

 

[valkyrie013]

What's in a power node?
9 volts?

You'd think some species would make an organic reactor.

 

[fireproof78]

Could be likely. Every power node is a miniature Zed PM that draws in energy from subspace in an interconnected network that can be quickly rerouted if the ship takes damage.

I prefer this idea, with different power nodes being different sizes that can draw on more.

 

[Deks]

There's no good speculation, but Collective Will is not as bad as it might seem, given it is the Collective energy which heals Chakotay once he is hooked up to the mini collective, and not the nanoprobes. It also fits with how Star Trek occasionally gets into wacky metaphysics, and it is a play off of the machine power source in The Matrix.

If I were writing a story I suppose I would have it that the characters can't speculate on how they work with just tricorders, which would imply something a lot more exotic than an annihilation-dilithium reaction is going on.

Working off the idea of a Collective will, its possible the decentralized power nodes which are spread throughout a Borg ship also amplify the Collective will into usable energy (and as we've seen, the Federation uses subspace technology to massively amplify destructive effects of its weapons or defensive effects of shields well beyond what you'd get from standard numbers).

Actually, a Borg cube DOES have a Neuroelectric field generator (which is used to amplify the thoughts of people part of a group consciousness).
This is from Voy episode 'Unity':
RILEY: The neurotransponder we've built is only powerful enough to link a small group of people, like the one that healed Chakotay's wounds. In any case, the effect is only temporary. In order to re-connect the entire population permanently we'd need a much bigger neuroelectric field generator.
JANEWAY: I'm afraid we don't have anything like that.
RILEY: But the Borg Cube does.
CHAKOTAY: What they're asking us to do is reactivate that ship's neuroelectric generator and redirect it toward the planet.
JANEWAY: They want us to reactivate a Borg ship?
RILEY: Not the whole ship, just the generator. And it only needs to be operational for a few minutes in order to reactivate the link.

So, its possible the power nodes are the main method of powering the ship, the neuroelectric field generator then amplifies thoughts of Borg onboard which can be used to propel a ship at Warp, Transwarp, scan far ahead, etc.
And I suspect that this generator amplifies the borg thoughts in a similar/same way as subspace technology on Federation ships amplifies M/AM power outputs and allows ships to lower their mass, etc.