Transwarp hub/"A crippling blow to the Borg"

[KyleCHaight]

I'm a bit confused. If the Borg had six transwarp hubs in total at various locations throughout the galaxy, why would the destruction of the one Voyager encountered be such a crippling blow to them?

Was it supposed to be implied that the one hub Voyager found was linked to the other five? If so, it wasn't really clear in the episode as to whether or not the entire transwarp system was destroyed, or just the ones that were connected to the hub our crew found.

And furthermore, why would the destruction of the hub be so devestating to the Borg anyway when all Borg ships are equipped with transwarp drive?

 

[exodus]

Because more than anything, the Borg wish to assimilate Earth. With the hub that takes the Borg into the Alpha Quad. destroyed, it will take the Borg much longer to get to Earth.

Transwarp Drive still takes resources to use, doesn't it?

 

[Enrage]

I actually took it as they created a chain reaction which not only destroyed the hub they went through, but the entire transwarp network.

 

[Kitty Worrier]

Plus Janeway infected the Continuum.

BTW, I love you're avatar.

 

[exodus]

Kitty Worrier said:
Plus Janeway infected the Continuum.

BTW, I love you're avatar.

Not all of it.

 

[Kitty Worrier]

Maybe not all, but enough to do some danm good damage.

 

[exodus]

Kitty Worrier said:
Maybe not all, but enough to do some danm good damage.

The Queen was all that mattered.

Infect her and any Borg vessel or complex she links with becomes infected too. However, any Borg vessel or complex she isn't directly linked to survived.

 

[Kitty Worrier]

Isn't she linked all the Borg though? She can have cubes in different quadrants distroyed - since she's connected to them, and gives them the commands.

 

[exodus]

Kitty Worrier said:
Isn't she linked all the Borg though? She can have cubes in different quadrants distroyed - since she's connected to them, and gives them the commands.

No, not all the time.

The Queen just links to Borg ships to give commands and co-ordinate them. That's why you can walk onboard a Borg ship and not be detected until you threaten them. She doesn't know you're there until you draw attention to yourself, she then links to that ship and activates the drones from "auto-pilot".

 

[kitsune]

Kitty Worrier said:
Isn't she linked all the Borg though? She can have cubes in different quadrants distroyed - since she's connected to them, and gives them the commands.

She can't be in real-time contact with every ship, since subspace radio has a finite transmission speed. I recall the Enterprise-D having a transmission delay of several hours on at least one occasion (the episode name escapes me)...they must've been really far from home.

 

[nx1701g]

From what was said in the episode it seemed to imply to me that when they destroyed the inner rings at the key junctions it caused a cascade reaction that destroyed the entire network.

Or at least that was how I interpreted it.

 

[data68]

The queen doesn't matter.

I've never liked the idea of the Borg Queen, because the whole thing about the Borg is that thay have no central entity that controls them. The Borg is one mind, that's what makes them so threatening and so alien. To have a "queen" that controls the collective flys in the face of everything the Borg is/are supposed to be.

The only way I can accept the "queen" is to think of her as serving a similar purpose as Locutus, that is, to comunicate and interface with humanity. I'm guessing the Borg think that what they are: one collective mind with no central control, is impossible for a "chaotic" mind to comprehend. So they present a "queen", in order for humanity to be more receptive.

Remember in FC when the "queen" (really it was the collective talking) said "you think in such 3 dementional terms" in response to Picard's puzzlement at seeing her, thinking she had been destroyed.

In short, the "queen" is essentially Locutus 2.0.

 

[exodus]

data68 said:
The queen doesn't matter.

I've never liked the idea of the Borg Queen, because the whole thing about the Borg is that thay have no central entity that controls them. The Borg is one mind, that's what makes them so threatening and so alien. To have a "queen" that controls the collective flys in the face of everything the Borg is/are supposed to be.

The only way I can accept the "queen" is to think of her as serving a similar purpose as Locutus, that is, to comunicate and interface with humanity. I'm guessing the Borg think that what they are: one collective mind with no central control, is impossible for a "chaotic" mind to comprehend. So they present a "queen", in order for humanity to be more receptive.

Remember in FC when the "queen" (really it was the collective talking) said "you think in such 3 dementional terms" in response to Picard's puzzlement at seeing her, thinking she had been destroyed.

In short, the "queen" is essentially Locutus 2.0.

If the Borg are one mind, then what part of that mind determines what thought is important and what is not? Something within those minds has to determine what adds to perfection and what detracts from it.

Her comment to Picard in "FC" I took as " I am more than just my body". If the Queen is the Borg, then her mind always exists among them. She is them and they are her, so a "collective" mind still exists.

Plus, if Locutus is a Borg that can operate independantly from the Borg, then they all were never of only one mind to begin with. He was still a semi-individual within a collective mind. The Borg Queen didn't mess the idea of one mind, Hugh did. He operated independantly while still linked to the collective.

 

[Ariadne]

Even destroying 1 out of 6 transwarp hubs would do a fair amount of damage - it would make the trip to Earth's neighbourhood much longer.

 

[KyleCHaight]

I don't necessarily agree with that because who is to say that one of the remaining five hubs wouldn't have exit apertures in the Alpha Quadrant?

 

[Ariadne]

^^ They would, presuably, have spread the hubs out - a hub right next to another hub would be somewhat redundant.

So they probably only have one or two hubs in each quadrant. And a quarter of the galaxy is freaking huge - the Federation only occupies part of the Alpha and Beta quadrants.

 

[data68]

bam! just thought this would be a good reference. The Hub map as seen in "endgame". Transwarp Hub map

 

[nx1701g]

^ Something I don't get: Seven wasn't supposed to have known their locations in the episode but they're marked on the Astrometric scans.

It would appear they have a hub IN the Alpha Quadrant from that screenshot.

 

[Timo]

From the dialogue:

Seven: "This hub connects with thousands of transwarp conduits with end points in all four quadrants. It allows the Collective to deploy vessels almost anywhere in the galaxy within minutes."
Tuvok: "Of all the Borg tactical advantages, this could be the most significant."

This hub. Out of the six known to exist. Perhaps we should think that the other hubs are less significant, and that destroying this one would be quite decisive while destroying any or all of the other five would not.

At the conclusion, Seven has this to say:

Seven: "The transwarp network has been obliterated, Captain."

Could be the entire network, or then the specific network they set out to destroy. In either case, "obliterated" from the mouth of the precise Seven would have to mean "absolutely nothing left to work with". But even in the best of cases, this only spells the end of the network, not the Borg species or anything.

It's the classic ending to a major villain: deliberately vague, and allowing for sequels if need be.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Regarding the Queen: I always thought of her as an Avatar of the Borg Hive. She`s not like a bee queen.