The Borg: Part 2
Now this is how I prefer the Borg: in pieces.
-Captain Janeway
Module BI-08T: The Borg: Part 2
Before we can complete the discussion of the Borg Queen’s shenanigans, we have to begin with the adventures of Captain Kathryn Janeway whose numerous interactions with the Borg are well known. Even before Janeway realized who ruled the Delta Quadrant, the icy queen manipulated Voyager’s fate with the dexterity of a cybernetic Machiavellian puppet madam.
Unaware of the queen’s machinations, Captain Janeway had her share of run-ins with disconnected Borg bums here and there but was preparing for a major confrontation on the edge of Borg space. Reading Picard’s narratives regarding his lovelorn Locutus transformation, she was determined to find a way through thousands of light years of cyborg territory. What they really needed were two Borg transwarp coils that would get them through in one rabbit-run.
One fine solar day fifteen Borg ships came flying right at them. Red alert! Then right upon them. Shields! Then like Borg bats straight out of hell flew right on past them. What the heck? No, what the devil. Comparatively minuscule ships like Hive hornets were right on their tail. Wait a minute. Reality check. Borg ships were running from something?
Yep. Not only running but running for their collective lives. Janeway had to see this. She quickly gave the order to turn around and chase the ships that were chasing the Borg. And when they finally caught up there was not much Borg left. Those tiny ships had sliced them up like a Thanksgiving turkey and seemed to be enjoying it just as much.
Janeway and crew were too frightened to be overjoyed. What could do that to an enemy that gave them continuous assimilation nightmares? Soon they got their answer. Poking around the wreckage of a cube, they found one of the bioships still attached to it. Looking much like it was still sucking the life out of its prey.
Then out of nowhere a Borg killer appeared revealing itself to be a predator of nicer species, too. “The weak will perish,” it telepathically whispered. Not as poetic as the Borg’s mantra, but still effective. This thing, with just a swipe of its arm, had Ensign Harry Kim agonizing in pain. That was Voyager’s introduction to the spooky Species 8472. The Borg boogeyman.
Janeway, being the bright captain that she was, realized the boogeyman was their ticket across Borg space. But she would have to make a deal with the bionic devil in order to realize it. You know the Borg. Sheer opportunists. I bet they couldn’t wait to assimilate the Ferengi. Although I’m not sure if they would meet their height requirements.
The Borg tried anxiously to pry the modified nanoprobe technology that would kill their enemy from Janeway’s stubborn mental grip. But, with their neurological threat at her throat, she insisted on an old-fashioned verbal interface for negotiations. They were so desperate they precluded the usual mind-altering form of communication and enlisted Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One. And as the deal was struck, Voyager was dragged along in the Borg’s frantic escape from Species 8472.
But Janeway was injured during the attack and her first officer, Commander Chakotay took control. He didn’t like this Faustian deal and was already mentally abandoning it. When Seven of Nine, along with her Borg compatriots, tried to take over the ship (you had to see that coming), he opened a cargo bay door and promptly spit their Borg matter out into space. But Seven of Nine held on during the cyborg flush and survived. No biggie. Chakotay planned to ditch her treacherous cybernetics on the nearest desolate planet. Very smart man.
Unfortunately, Janeway recovered too soon and resumed the stupid alliance. And, despite their rocky relationship, Voyager, with the Borg’s help, deployed biomolecular torpedoes and sent Species 8472 scurrying back into fluidic space. Ecstatic at seeing their enemy vanquished, the Borg, as expected, broke the deal and once again fell into their attempt-to-assimilate habits. But Janeway wasn’t as foolish as they wanted her to be. When Seven of Nine started smacking machinery around with her assimilation tubules to, once again, take over the ship, Janeway ordered a power surge that lit up her cortical implants like a Christmas tree. But sadly, once again, she survived.
Fast forward two years later. The Voyager crew were judiciously scavenging for useable technology after destroying a Borg cube. Then feeling lucky, Janeway concocted a plan to steal an intact transwarp coil from a fully-functioning undestroyed Borg cube. Seven, now a member of the crew, wanted to go along though she was acting weirderer than usual. But Janeway’s maternal instincts got the better of her when Seven said please. And yes, the weird one promptly betrayed them though they succeeded in stealing good techs.
After staying behind on the Borg ship, she was home. At least, she thought she was until she met the evil Borg Queen stepmother who assured her that her recently acquired uniqueness was all part of her devious plan to eventually assimilate the Voyager crew. Seven didn’t quite care for this plan, but still felt special for five nanoseconds. When during loyalty testing, she declined to help the greedy queen assimilate yet another defenseless world, the queen quickly grew tired of her funky irritating individuality. And when she refused to develop atmospheric nanoprobes to assimilate humans on Earth, though honored with a hologram of a scantily-clad Terran male, that was the last straw. Seven’s stubbornness made her inefficient and irrelevant. Time to assimilate the ungrateful brat. But Captain Janeway, like Picard, crashed this party, too, and rescued her before the queen could shout “Drones!”
But Janeway wasn’t through with her yet. The queen met her twice more before Voyager’s triumphant return to the Alpha Quadrant. On one poignant occasion Janeway freed thousands of her drones with, of all things, a Borg-friendly virus. That’s when the queen began to wonder who truly ruled the Delta Quadrant?
Nevertheless, the Borg Queen was enjoying the fruits of her labors, reigning over thousands of assimilated star systems in a mercifully unaltered timeline. Enter Admiral Janeway who returned from the future still pissed she got old in the twenty-three years it took to get back to planet Earth. She’d get Voyager home while she was still young enough to appreciate it if it killed her. Her plan? Use the Borg Unicomplex with its transwarp conduits to get to the Alpha Quadrant. She even had nifty future tech to protect the ship as it made a run for it through Borg shipping lanes.
But past tense Janeway still resented that the Borg continued to woof down entire civilizations, whole worlds at a time. Admiral Janeway spared little compassion for this minutia but, nevertheless, helped implement her younger self’s fiendishly designed plan. Again, Janeway, as admiral, allowed herself to be captured by the assimilation-addicted Borg Queen.
As queens go, she wasn’t very bright. How many times do you have to beam this captain aboard before you get a clue she likes to play with viruses? Apparently, she had no memory retention in regards to a lifeform called Janeway. Foolishly, she slurped up the admiral’s neuro synapses herself, thinking she’d finally vanquished her human nemesis.
As Voyager shot down the cosmic tunnel en route to the Alpha Quadrant, a sphere chased them following every thought order of the distracted gluttonous queen. But something started happening to her cyber arm. It fell off. “Must have been something you assimilated,” Janeway informed her. Then the queen realized that the admiral infected her with “a neurolytic pathogen” that spread throughout the Collective. “Just enough to bring chaos to order,” Janeway reveled. After hearing this, the queen completely went to pieces. The next thing you know, the entire Central Complex started blowing up. Fire and explosions everywhere. And Admiral Janeway? That’s okay. Two Janeways in one timeline was more than enough.
So what began as a consequence of Q insubordination by Jean-Luc Picard would seemingly find closure with the time-jumping, Temporal-Prime-Directive-defying Kathryn Janeway. And, as long as we keep their escapades firmly rooted within our collective consciousness, we should survive any future encounters with the Borg scourge. But, you’re probably thinking, weren’t the Borg completely eradicated with the third queen’s demise? If I were you I wouldn’t count on it. Always remember this unfortunate fact about this relentless enemy. The one terrifying thing the Federation has in common with the Borg Collective is their ability to adapt.
Resources:
Braga, Brannon. Menosky, Joe. “Scorpion.” Star Trek: Voyager. Paramount Television. 21 May 1997. Television. Retrieved: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Scorpion_(episode)
Braga, Brannon. Menosky, Joe. “Scorpion, Part II.” Star Trek: Voyager. Paramount Television. 3 September 1997. Television. Retrieved: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Scorpion,_Part_II
Braga, Brannon. Menosky, Joe. “Dark Frontier.” Star Trek: Voyager. Paramount Television. 17 February 1999. Television. Retrieved: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Frontier
Braga, Brannon. Berman, Rick. Biller, Kenneth. Doherty, Robert. “Endgame.” Star Trek: Voyager. Paramount Television. 23 May 2001. Television. Retrieved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endgame_(Star_Trek:_Voyager)
