The Borg and the Gamma Quadrant

[Six of Twelve]

The Delta Quadrant was the home territory of the Borg, and they were well known in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants as well. But I've never heard any reference to them in the Gamma Quadrant.

Do you think they'd simply not been there yet, that there was something there that kept them away, such as the Changelings, or that they were there and simply not mentioned?

I think the first two are unlikely considering how long the Borg have been around, and that the Borg are quite aggressive and wouldn't be deterred by a resistant species, if Species 8472 is any example.

So, I think they were in the Gamma Quadrant, as well as the other three, despite no mentions of their presence there. I wish DS9 had done at least one Borg episode where Sisko had to deal with them in the Gamma Quadrant, considering his previous encounter with them on Wolf 359.

And can't you just imagine assimilated Jem Hadar drones? I get the idea that they'd have made ideal drones.

 

[TonyLeung82]

When you look at the Star Trek Chart (atlas) there is no mentioning of the Borg ever been in the Gamma Quadrant.

 

[ItIsGreen]

I think it's more likely that they had been there and just weren't mentioned. Beyond Sisko's backstory the Borg just weren't a storytelling consideration in DS9. As for an in-universe explanation, I don't think that much of the Gamma quadrant had been explored by the Federation, just a relatively small area around the wormhole I reckon. Maybe they just hadn't reached that area yet?

 

[Jedi_Master]

The Borg were an expansionist race, but they had not spread everywhere, primarily focusing their attention on the Delta Quadrant. Over time they would have eventually spread to the Gamma, Beta, and Alpha quadrants but - if the novels are to be believed - at some point in the 24th the Borg have were neutralized as a threat.

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

Regarding the quadrants, am I wrong or their arrangment is not correct?

the greek alphabet is Alpha-beta-gamma-delta, so, in the galaxy map, the quadrant order should be:

gamma-delta
beta-Alpha.

But in the maps is:

gamma-delta
Alpha-beta.

Why this arrangment?

 

[Timo]

No idea - but it's also used in a quartet of keys on the TNG tricorder. Perhaps people in the 24th century decided that the Greek alphabet ought to be reordered? I mean, it's not as if its order as such would have been an old Greek thing or anything carved in stone... (I mean, it most literally is, but perhaps 24th century science has found more convincing original carvings?)

Where the Borg are sounds like a rather meaningless question. There's no evidence they would not be somewhere specific (or at least that they would have failed to be there ever). After all, the two most important things about the Borg are their ancient origins, their desire to remain unseen until the right moment, and their fanatical devotion to the search of perfection. Unless something changed very recently, the Borg would, by the time of Star Trek, have had the means and the motivation to visit all the sights of the Milky Way and quite possibly beyond, missing no spot.

It really takes some asking for our heroes to get evidence of Borg presence in Delta, or Alpha for that matter. And they are the folks who almost uniquely know what to look for. Their computers have (fairly recently) been stored with the telltale patterns and signals of operational or hurt Borg vessels, and they know about the modus operandi of the cyborgs. The general impression is that few live to tell the tale of a direct Borg encounter, as per "Dark Frontier" where the Queen meticulously hunts down the last survivors of Species 10026. All that gets out is Bigfoot-style rumors, as again per "Dark Frontier", and those aren't likely to pop up in the Gamma discussions our DS9 heroes have.

Timo Saloniemi