Assimilation

The beginning of the Assimilation process

Assimilation is the process by which the Borg added new members and new technology to the Borg Collective.

Borg assimilation was predatory; every species the Borg encountered was assessed to determine whether its biological and technological distinctiveness was considered "worthy of being added to the Collective's perfection". If found to be so, the species was set upon and forcibly assimilated; the Collective considered the species' will in the matter "irrelevant". As of the 24th century, the only species known to have been considered unworthy of assimilation were the Kazon.

Procedure

The Borg generally did not assimilate individuals, and instead preferred to target larger groups such as the crews of starships and the populations of planets. When in the presence of a small number of individuals, Borg drones would ignore them altogether. This policy would remain in effect until an individual demonstrated some quality found worthy by the Collective, or posed a threat to Borg activities. For example, when the USS Raven was first detected by a Borg vessel it was disregarded. By the time the Raven was detected a second time, its crew had developed technologies to elude Borg sensors, making them a more worthy target.

The Borg made exceptions and assimilated individuals when circumstances required it, as when they chose Jean-Luc Picard to serve as an intermediary, such as Locutus of Borg, in 2366, or to allow a small party of drones to bolster their ranks.

When engaging a starship, a Borg vessel presumed tactical superiority and locked onto it with a Tractor Beam. With the target immobilized, the Borg defeated its Shields and either extracted sections of the ship with a Cutting Beam, transported drones to key areas, or both.

With the crew of a vessel assimilated or otherwise subdued, the Borg stripped the ship down for parts to incorporate into their own technology. If possible the assimilated ship was towed into a hangar aboard the attacking Borg ship. It was rare for the Borg to keep an assimilated vessel intact, except in instances where a Borg crew was forced to abandon their own ship and commandeer their victims'.

Faced with an entire fleet, as in the Battle of Wolf 359, the Borg were willing to destroy individual ships outright, although some might have been spared for assimilation.

Several episodes of Star Trek: Voyager controversially suggested that the Borg cube at Wolf 359 assimilated Starfleet personnel during the battle, and that these new drones were not aboard the cube during its eventual destruction.

The Collective typically did not seek out individuals or starships, assimilating them only as encountered. It was only known to actively target worlds and civilizations, ranging from small colonies, such as the New Providence colony, to the entire realm of Fluidic Space. The tactics of these large-scale assimilation missions varied. An entire fleet was dispatched to assimilate Species 10026, but on two occasions, a single ship was assigned to conquer the entire Federation. If the Borg did not choose to hold an assimilated planet, they removed its populace and any artificial structures from the surface. Alternately, they may have maintained a presence on the planet, Terraforming its environment to meet their needs.

The Borg had a standard set of hails which were sent to those targeted for assimilation. The actual wording varied, but the hails almost always included the following information:

• Self identification ("We are the Borg.")
• Intention to assimilate the target
• The uselessness of attempted resistance by the target ("Resistance is futile")

The following were known Borg hails:

• "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
• "I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."
• "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
• "We are the Borg. Existence, as you know it, is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
• "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Technique

Little is known about the Borg assimilation technique prior to 2368. Observations since that time demonstrated that the Borg assimilated an individual by projecting a pair of Assimilation Tubules into the victim's neck, injecting Nanoprobes into the bloodstream that began connecting the new drone to the Hive Mind. This was accomplished the moment a Borg drone was within arm's reach of the target.

The flashbacks in "Survival Instinct" represent the earliest chronological appearance of assimilation tubules, notwithstanding the temporally-displaced Borg in Star Trek First Contact and Regeneration. They were not seen on screen and it is believed that the Borg did not develop this technology (or assimilate it from someone else) until after 2366. The Borg seen in the TNG episodes "I Borg" and "Descent" show little interest in assimilation, so there is no way to know if they were equipped with tubules.

During initial stages of assimilation, Borg nanoprobes began attaching themselves to the victim's red blood cells, allowing them to circulate throughout the body. Within minutes, the nanoprobes spread visibly through the capillaries of the victim's skin. The victim, at this point, still retained his or her individuality and had virtually none of the Borg's standard array of defenses. Left unchecked, the nanoprobes soon begin self-replicating and producing larger constructs that form the necessary Borg implants. Among the first major structures assembled was the Neural Transceiver, allowing the Collective to tap into the victim's mind and usurp control of his body. By this time, the new drone's skin coloration had changed to a pale gray and some small implants began to emerge inside and outside the body.

The drone was then taken to a Borg facility to have larger implants installed including tools, armor, and mechanical limbs. The assimilation process is extremely painful both emotionally and physically for the victim.

Treatment and defenses

Methods for preventing or overcoming Borg assimilation are of paramount importance to cultures that refuse to abandon members of their society captured by the Collective.

In 2153, Phlox determined that exposing himself to Omicron Radiation could disable the nanoprobes injected into his body by drones using technology originating in 2373. This method was uniquely applicable to Phlox due to his Denobulan physiology, which made him unusually resistant to assimilation and immune to the toxic effects of omicron radiation.

The most basic, and arguably most practical, remedy was to kill the intended victim either prior to or in the early minutes of assimilation, before the nanoprobes could install standard Borg defenses. During the Borg's raid of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), Captain Jean-Luc Picard saw this approach to be the lesser of two evils, believing his assimilated crewmen were irrecoverable under the circumstances and better off dying as individuals than living as drones.

When rescuing Picard himself in 2367, the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) was not under direct attack by the Borg and therefore had the luxury of considering other options. Upon connecting his Neural Net to Picard's Borg implants, Lieutenant Commander Data was able to isolate Picard's individual mind from the Collective. Disconnecting Picard from his implants was considered a risky procedure, but upon the destruction of the cube that assimilated him the Collective lost its hold on him physical recovery was swift, although the psychological trauma was more severe.

In 2368 a Borg cube was disabled in an Electrokinetic Storm in the Nekrit Expanse, causing approximately 80,000 drones to be disconnected from the hive mind. These former drones settled on a nearby planet, where their limited medical resources allowed them to remove most, but not all, of their cybernetic implants. After the population descended into war, they elected to form a new hive mind as the Borg Cooperative.

The crew of the USS Voyager was forced to sever Seven of Nine’s link to the Collective when, through her, the Borg reneged on its alliance with the starship. Using a neural transceiver installed in him by the Borg Cooperative and a Borg Alcove installed aboard Voyager by the Collective, Chakotay tapped into Seven's consciousness in order to distract her while B'Elanna Torres shorted out the console she was attempting to assimilate.

The Brunali genetically engineered Icheb with a pathogen that would infect the Collective after they sent him to be assimilated. After this pathogen killed all of the adult Borg aboard the cube which assimilated Icheb, the ship's Maturation Chambers prematurely released the juvenile drones who were not yet fully connected to the Collective, giving Voyager an opportunity to liberate them in 2376.

A Neural Suppressant developed by Voyager's EMH in 2377 made it possible for Kathryn Janeway, Tuvok, and B'Elanna Torres to be physically assimilated without being connected to the hive mind and losing their individuality. This allowed them to surreptitiously operate within a Borg cube and sabotage its Central Plexus. Following their mission the three officers were returned to Voyager where their implants were safely removed without medical complications. Use of the neural suppressant apparently correlated to the lack of psychological trauma suffered in comparison to Picard's experience.

Following Voyager's sabotage of the central plexus, the Borg Drones that had been connected to Unimatrix Zero were able to regain their individuality and mount a resistance against the Collective. They were not, at least initially, able to remove their Borg implants due to the urgency of the conflict.

Upon arriving in 2378 from an alternate future, Admiral Kathryn Janeway possessed several defenses against the Borg, including a Neurolytic Pathogen that prevented Borg nanoprobes from linking her to the hive mind while infecting the Collective.

Complications

Successful liberation of an assimilated drone depended largely on the relation between the period of time spent as a drone versus time spent as an individual. Adults and children who were assimilated for only a short time were often easily reintegrated back into their old lives following disconnection from the hive mind. However, drones that had spent the majority of their lives within the Collective resisted the very notion that they were better off as individuals, and could retain an admiration for aspects of Borg Philosophy. Such drones could feel small or lonely without the voices of the entire Collective in their thoughts.

In either case, the psychological impact of recovering one's individuality; and thus, the ability to feel the trauma of assimilation and the guilt of one's association with the Borg's atrocities, could be monumental.

From a medical standpoint, there were many risks in leaving the Borg Collective, primarily when the implants ceased to suppress the immune system and the body's organs began rejecting implants that have been given sole dominion over vital functions. The extraction of these implants could be challenging even for a skilled surgeon. One known type of complication occurred when deactivated microscopic implants become lodged against one of the cranial nerves. Even after the successful removal of the cybernetics, the liberated drone might not have had access to medical technology that was sufficiently advanced to replace whatever body parts were amputated during assimilation. Certain implants, such as the Cortical Node, Ocular Implant, and Assimilation Tubules, could not be safely removed by Federation medicine as of 2378.

References

Enterprise

• Regeneration

Movies:

• Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: The Next Generation

• Descent
• Family
• I Borg
• Q Who
• The Best of Both Worlds I & II

Star Trek: Voyager

• Collective
• Dark Frontier
• Endgame
• Imperfection
• Mortal Coil
• Repentance
• Scorpion I & II
• Survival Instinct
• The Gift
• Unimatrix Zero I & II
• Unity