Borg Territorial Limitations

[c0rnedfr0g]

The Borg are rumored to have originated in the Delta Quadrant. Is there any hard evidence for this?

Could they be from another galaxy?

Could they be in other galaxies now (post- NEM) ??

 

[Finn]

There's that line in First Contact (the movie).

 

[TheRealNaveed]

The bulk of their territory is in the Delta Quadrant, according to Voyager, and it spanned what was hinted at being about 10 years worth of voyaging for Voyager to get through with normal warp speed. That kind of suggests that the center of Borg territory lies within there.

 

[Timo]

Then again, "Endgame" shows that while our VOY heroes kept running to the Borg a lot, this may have been largely an artifact of theym having Seven of Nine aboard. In that episode, we learn that the Borg are pretty much evenly spread across the galaxy, and can access all of its parts near-instantaneously through their transwarp network, which has a major hub in each quadrant.

Crusher's line in ST:FC about the 21st century Borg "still" being in the Delta Quadrant could be another gross error by our TNG heroes, who have been shown to be badly mistaken about many things regarding the Borg initially.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JNG]

I'll just throw in the following: because of the transwarp technology and criteria for assimilation, I don't expect their "territory" is at all contiguous. That business about "Galactic Cluster 3" and their entry into fluidic space suggests that the Borg explore outside our galaxy and/or outside space as we know it.

 

[Timo]

It could be speculated, though, that the Borg mode of transwarp (at least the fastest variant of it) involves going to the destination by "conventional" means (say, a slower variant of transwarp) and laying a fast conduit on the way there, or even building a hub at the destination. Only then does the fastest travel mode become available for that destination.

Thus, the Borg could be near-instantaneously wherever they have already been, but the speed at which they spread to other galaxies would still be limited. And the speed at which they move across certain "unpaved" stretches of our own galaxy would also be limited, explaining how the E-D can give credible chase in "BoBW" and so forth.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nardpuncher]

Yeah, they're from another galaxy...whatever. Uh huh.

 

[The Wormhole]

The Voyager episode Dragon's Teeth indicated that the Borg were around the Delta Quadrant for the past 900 years.

 

[Timo]

OTOH, that episode could be taken as indication that the Borg had only recently arrived in Delta, as the Vaadwaur those 900 years prior to the episode had not considered the Borg a big menace yet. And since Q and Guinan in "Q Who?" claim that the Borg are ancient, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, one might then deduce that the Borg originated from some other region and only lately have begun terrorizing those parts of the Delta Quadrant that the Vaadwaur had access to.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Excelsior]

The implication is that they originated in the Delta Quadrant, the species numbers tend to be lower there.

 

[Kelthaz]

OTOH, that episode could be taken as indication that the Borg had only recently arrived in Delta, as the Vaadwaur those 900 years prior to the episode had not considered the Borg a big menace yet. And since Q and Guinan in "Q Who?" claim that the Borg are ancient, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, one might then deduce that the Borg originated from some other region and only lately have begun terrorizing those parts of the Delta Quadrant that the Vaadwaur had access to.

Timo Saloniemi

I hadn't thought of that. That's a good way to rationalize Guinan's statement with the Vaadwaur.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

OTOH, that episode could be taken as indication that the Borg had only recently arrived in Delta, as the Vaadwaur those 900 years prior to the episode had not considered the Borg a big menace yet. And since Q and Guinan in "Q Who?" claim that the Borg are ancient, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, one might then deduce that the Borg originated from some other region and only lately have begun terrorizing those parts of the Delta Quadrant that the Vaadwaur had access to.

Timo Saloniemi

I like to entertain the idea that the Borg came from a (possibly) nearby, smaller galaxy where the last few 100 or so stars were dimming. These last 100 worlds (this would explain why Borg species designations begin after 100, as far as we know) had to band together to pool resources and eventually established the means to leave their galaxy. They arrived in the Milky Way (among others, possibly), not yet fully Borg, but in order to survive in foreign space they had to further make themselves more efficient and self-reliant, becoming more mechanized (longer-life) and orderly, eventually evolving into a Borg that was finally able to start expanding (Vaadwaur time) and presto! Resistance is futile!

Feel free to shoot this hypothesis down! Bang Bang!

 

[Timo]

Actually, I like that a lot...

The implication is that they originated in the Delta Quadrant, the species numbers tend to be lower there.

See the parallel thread about "Borg designations". Some of the lowest numbers, such as the Ferengi, are from Alpha. Some of the highest are from Delta. The originating location of most is not known.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Finn]

^Those delta quadrant species with some of the highest designations may not have been warp capable a thousand years ago or even a century ago so the Borg wouldn't even bother noticing them until they had enough advanced technology especially warp drive.

 

[roguephoenix]

sigh the borg. logically, with what they can do, and what they have, they should have the entire galaxy by now. alas, they are stupid, silly, and defective so they're still in their little corner and not as powerful as they should be.

 

[Shintaek]

sigh the borg. logically, with what they can do, and what they have, they should have the entire galaxy by now. alas, they are stupid, silly, and defective so they're still in their little corner and not as powerful as they should be.

Blame the writers of TNG and VOY for changing their concept.

1. Only steals technology.
2. Very smart, and can only be defeated by non-Borg thinking outside the box. Assimilates people too.
3. Very imcompitent and stupid.

 

[TheRealNaveed]

On a side note, I've always liked to think that the Borg were Federation-like in the beginning, only taking their technological aspirations too far, becoming enslaved by their own desire to attain perfection and harmony amongst themselves.

 

[dave_R_treker]

I like to think the Borg came to be by a mistake. Some medical error cause the first person or persons to be borg. And with some recent discoveries today, makes me think even more that this is quite possible. Recently I heard, somewhere, about people being hooked up to computers to be able to control there parlalized legs and other parts of there body.

 

[arch101]

Or, the Borg might be very old and from another galaxy and have only set up shop in the Delta Quadrant because that's where they arrived when they got to this galaxy. In addition, the humanoid Borg we are used to might just be a manifestation of Borg assimilation since they've been in this galaxy. We may not have ever seen a true, original Borg. Actually, because of millennia of assimilation over many galaxies, there may be no trace or original Borg left. And for some of us, Borg and human evolution moved to the next level together as V'ger/Decker.

 

[Peacemaker]

On a side note, I've always liked to think that the Borg were Federation-like in the beginning, only taking their technological aspirations too far, becoming enslaved by their own desire to attain perfection and harmony amongst themselves.

Yeah, I've always thought of them as a metaphor for the dark side of the Federation - what it could become if interspecies harmony went too far.