Question and comment on the Borg

[Cepstrum]

Edit note: as I had the chance to read this, I noticed I commuted numerous typos/errors. As usual, I'm writing from a mobile device, and it's extremely difficult and tedious to use the text editor to make corrections. I ask that you'd please overlook my errors — I just hope they don't end up confusing what I was trying to say. I did try to correct as much as I could. Please accept my apologies. I very much hope to here feedback. Thanks!

I have a question about the Borg, as well as a comment. My comment first:

• Many times it's mentioned as curious why the Borg would only send one cube/sphere at a time in their attempts to assimilate Earth. Clearly, if they sent a few dozen cubes, they could probably assimilate Earth, the UFP, and probably the rest of the nearby Powers (such as the Klingons and Romulans). I think there actually is a good reason why they haven't:

the Borg are unlike most all other species. They are amoral (as oppposed to immoral), and they are uninterested in conquering species in the same sense that say, the Dominion or Klingons are. Their only goal seems to be adding technological and biological advances via assimiliation — not subjugating or annihilating species. They've already assimilated enough Federation citizens,, Klingons, and Romulans to take advantage of those factions' respective tech and biological distinctiveness. Until the UFP and the other nearby Powers become either a threat or neighbor (via Borg expansion), there really isn't a need to completely assimilate/destroy the Alpha and Beta Quadrant Powers when there are already many other unassimilated species residing between Federation and Borg space.

Does anyone agree with that explanation?

Now for my question:

• The Borg seem to be slowly expanding their territory in a contiguous fashion; they continue to slowly grow outwards, consuming/assimilating planets along the way (as well as eliminating threats). Now in Voyager there were several large, advanced, civilizations that controlled/inhabited large areas, such as the Krenim, the Devore, the Malon, the Hirogen (they'd make good drones) and the Vidiians (though the Borg would probably only want to assimilate their technology — not the phage-infested creatures of that last group! That is, unless the phage was really cured by the Think Tank, though I tend to think Kurros was lying.)

So my question is why are these civilizations not either trying to develop a fool-proof method of stopping the Borg (which is likely beyond their abilities) OR making plans to abandon their territory and relocate further from Borg space? They MUST know the Borg will soon be coming their way, so why are they still around?

I'd think, for example, the Devore Imperium would be far better served by making evacuation plans instead of continuing to bother hunting telepaths. Or consider Annorax: he had 200 years to go around eradicating civilizations, yet he never bothered trying to deal with his society's ultimately biggest threat, the ever-advancing Borg. I guess I can see why the producers did not let him destroy the Borg (no more Borg stories), but you'd think each of these species would at least express concern about what to do about the approaching Borg and ask Janeway for tips (after all her successful escapes from the Borg). And evidently word got around about her dealings with them: consider how the short-sighted Arcturus was mad that she stopped the destruction of the entire galaxy by "convincing" Species 8472 to stay in Fluidic Space (and by doing so, saved the Borg too).

So what gives? If I lived in the Delta Quadrant, I'd be moving away as fast as I could. Maybe it's part of Voyager's episodic, alien-of-the-week format that apparently UPN wanted. Perhaps they thought they'd be confusing viewers by bringing such continuity into the show. But *everyone* knows about the Borg, so I find that reason unsatisfactory. It would make sense if Voyager frequently encountered species afraid of or fleeing from the Borg, as well as seeking Janeway's counsel/advice.

Could you please help me with this? I'd love to here your thoughts on both my comment regarding the failed — and inept — Borg Earth invasions as well as why there was a startling lack of concern about the Borg expressed by nearby Powers. I'd also think their would be regular meetings/conferences of the AQ and BQ Powers on developing anti-Borg plans. After all, they ended up setting aside their differences to defeat the Dominion invasion, and there's no reason to believe the Borg won't eventually come after them. They'd best start planning while there's time remaining!

One last thought: given that the Dominion is closer to Borg space than the UFP and its neighbors, AND given the Dominion's military prowess and hatred for all solids (the Borg are solids), I wonder whether the Dominion had plans for dealing with an eventual Borg invasion, or were even considering assaulting the Borg using their near-limitless military, tactical ingenuity, and capacity for making biogenic weapons. Remember, in the Dominion War, we saw only a tiny amount of their power, with most of it stuck in the Gamma Quadrant.

Thank you for your consideration. I very much hope to receive answers and feedback to these things that've been puzzling me!

 

[StarryEyed]

I think the reason the Borg don't send an overwhelming force against the Federation is because they want to threaten it, not destroy. By threatening it, they encourage the development of anti-borg weaponry and defenses - which can than be assimilated. Another words, they're farming the Federation for technology. After what Janeway pulled in Endgame though, they might very well consider the Federation a deadly threat and come in force.

As to why races build empires in the Delta Quadrant, that's a bit harder to explain!

 

[Brolan]

It's because the Borg aren't really a well thought out race. They are just a boogey man the writers like to have jump out of the closet occasionally to scare the Federation.

 

[Cepstrum]

It's because the Borg aren't really a well thought out race. They are just a boogey man the writers like to have jump out of the closet occasionally to scare the Federation.

^ That would be sad but, unfortunately, not unreasonable. I'd hope we can come up with a satisfactory in-universe answer, but perhaps none is possible.

I like the notion that the Borg would let a species develop more tech before assimilation — for apparently the Borg are incapable of invention, except for "adapting" to enemy weapons and tactics, a skill they most likely gained by assimilating a species such as the Zakdorn (at least for adapting to enemy battle tactics).

 

[jgdst]

I think the reason the Borg don't send an overwhelming force against the Federation is because they want to threaten it, not destroy. By threatening it, they encourage the development of anti-borg weaponry and defenses - which can than be assimilated. Another words, they're farming the Federation for technology. After what Janeway pulled in Endgame though, they might very well consider the Federation a deadly threat and come in force.

As to why races build empires in the Delta Quadrant, that's a bit harder to explain!

That's pretty much the explanation I would've used. As we've seen, the Borg have a bit of an odd interest in humanity (or the Federation in general) compared to most races, so it would make sense for them to pop along every now and then and update their intel and tech.

Sending a single cube that will probably be destroyed only sacrifices a couple of thousand drones, but they get to sample and adapt to the Federation's latest weaponry and tactics, and assimilate some new information at the same time. The advantage to this is, it's these confrontations that propel Starfleet into creating new technologies, tactics and weapons.

I think on some level, they probably judge each species on how advanced they are, and how much more advancement they're likely to make versus how much of a threat they pose to the Collective; or how useful their biology would be to the Collective depending on what tasks they need to accomplish. From there, they'll decide to assimilate a sample of the species (and allow advancement to continue for a while) or the entire race and reap instant benefits.

 

[Mjuice]

So my question is why are these civilizations not either trying to develop a fool-proof method of stopping the Borg (which is likely beyond their abilities) OR making plans to abandon their territory and relocate further from Borg space? They MUST know the Borg will soon be coming their way, so why are they still around?

It's easy to say that's what they should be doing, but it's not exactly a simple thing to uproot and relocate an entire civilization. It's like asking why when the Romans were expanding why did the Greeks or whoever stick around and be conquered. Or when the US was expanding west, why did the indians stay.

As for the Borg and the Federation, I think it's simply a matter of priorities. The Borg are concentrating on their expansion in the Delta quadrant. They only know about the Federation because of Q's actions in "Q Who". Based on that contact the collective probably decided it might just be cost-effective to send a cube or two to try and assimilate the Federation and establish a sort of forward base in a different part of the galaxy for future expansion. A sort of low-risk high-reward operation.

 

[Sorak]

A lot of intelligent comments have already been made, I don't feel I can add much to this discussion.

The explanation about writers is the sad truth. We try here to explain things in-universe; the simple thing is that the Borg have been invented as the ultimate foe. This ultimate foe however was given (in order to be ultimate) the power to crush the UFP at any moment. Such power entails that Borg have to be used carefully in the show. They have to be defeated in a legitimate way, not making it appear that the heroes won only cause they're the good and Borgs are the bad guys; and without taking away that sinister aura the Borg have (they have lost it all in Voyager, anyway).
However, let's try to see things in-universe forgetting that the show was written mostly by people in a room eating chicken wings and drinking soda.

The comparison about the Greek not relocating because of the Romans sounds good; the thing about the Borg just "poking" federation and prompting them to develop new technologies to assimilate in the future is really clever, nicely written StarryEyed it makes a ton of sense. I also guess neighboring civilizations, aware of their presence, work double-tides to get ready in case of encounter. But why on Earth didn't Annorax erase them from existence? They needed more season finales, that's why, as Cepstrum said. But also, Annorax was a monomaniac. And he was bent on recovering his race's status and later on his wife's life. That's all, nothing else he could focus on.
Now I will add something of my own to the discussion.

Why don't Borgs assimilate in force the UFP? StarryEyed explanation is really clever. I would add that Borgs don't think like conquerors. They don't think in terms of friend and foe, enemies to vanquish etc. They think in terms of rational, calculated efforts in order to assimilate new technologies and strive to reach perfection. In doing this they have to manage their resources. Would it be wise to send, say, 20 cubes at the other end of the galaxy when there's a lot of interesting species on the way? If you want a hamburger, you go to the Burger King you have on the other side of the street or you take a bus to a McDonald's 30 mins away? Yet, sometimes you REALLY want chicken mcnuggets so you take the pain of a long trip. Same thing with the Borg. It happens that they calculate that at a precise moment of their expansion, lacking perhaps nearby civilizations of interest, a foray in Federation Space would be a "low-risk high-reward operation" as MJuice perfectly put it. You'd assimilate some of the top technologies in the galaxy and you would prompt the UFP to undertake further research, creating new appealing technology for the next time you'll drop by. In the process you may give it a shot at full assimilation - who knows, you can make it, especially through time travel, chances are good. But the main point is: you try to assimilate new technologies, not to entirely destroy a civilization which, progressing, can give you much more. Why eradicating the chance of further development in the future? You assimilate a shielding technology and you can then utilize it in large scale, but it would be unwise to assimilate its creator too. He could come up with something better in the future.