bungakertas | An Exercise In Futility: Chapter Four (Reply)

The Collective was vast. Hundreds of systems. Thousands of ships. Billions of drones. All functioned with one thought. One body with many, many parts.

Each Borg ship was connected to the Collective mind through a central communication node, called the Central Plexus. The Plexus processed through so much information sent and received from the Collective to the individual ships that—in order to improve efficiency—the Borg had stopped keeping track of how much. While there were other pieces of equipment on the ship that were more tactically or mechanically important, this one device, out of the entire ship, was counted the most important. It was heart and soul and brain and oxygen all at once.

On Probe 2879, it had stopped functioning.

This cessation in function had coincided exactly with the activation of the unknown device. Immediately after the device had activated, Probe 2879 had experienced an encounter with two vessels, and had been unable to repair the Plexus. One was under the control of species 5618, designated Voyager. The other, an unknown vessel, also under the control of species 5618, had assisted Voyager in resisting 2879. When forced to retreat, 2879 stored information on the position and designation of these vessels, and flagged it to be communicated to the Collective immediately upon reparation of the Plexus.

The Central Plexus, however, was not regenerating.

Drones Six of Ten and Eight of Ten were activated, and went to the Plexus to identify the problem and repair it. They reached the Plexus in eight-point-six seconds and initiated a diagnostic. The diagnostic revealed Plexus functionality to be 100% of optimum condition.

If the Plexus was not functioning, then the Collective must have ceased communicating for some reason. 2879 activated all drones on board and initiated a ship-wide, full diagnostic on every system and drone.

In five minutes, the results were determined. System functionality at 68% of optimum condition. Drone functionality at 83% of optimum condition. Total functionality within normal parameters. All damage, regenerating. 100% of optimum functionality would be restored in forty-three minutes.

Conclusion: it would be illogical for the Collective to reject a Probe under these conditions. Therefore, something was preventing the Collective from communicating with 2879.

While this was a highly unusual scenario, the Collective had anticipated such a situation. Directive 001 was activated. The minds of the drones on board were scanned and linked together, using the Plexus, to form a collective of a single ship. This collective would be reintegrated into the main Collective upon restoration of communications.

The new collective immediately reviewed the available information.

Fact: the device they had been sent to examine was not Borg, as the Collective had suspected it was not.
Fact: the device’s energy output had been similar to that of the Borg.
Fact: the device had a specific function and was not an attempt to trick the Borg, as the Collective had believed.
Fact: cessation of communication had coincided with activation of the device.

Hypothesis: 2879 had activated the device through incidental means, which had resulted in loss of communication to the Collective.

Conclusion: the device must be assimilated, understood, and used to restore communication to the Collective.

Their mission thus determined, 2879’s collective immediately recognized a problem. The unknown vessel and Voyager, had together resisted the collective’s efforts. The ships would need to be either assimilated or destroyed to ensure the success of the collective’s goal. But they could not, together, be assimilated. Therefore, either the ships must be separated, or superior armaments must be assimilated to allow the collective to restore communications with the main Collective.

While all this was being decided, the collective was also examining the damage caused by the unknown vessel’s weapons, and determining how best it might adapt to them. Scans of the area were also being performed, to locate any other ships. And one of the scans found something.

Throughout the Probe, familiar command pathways were activated, and a command echoed into every corner.

A VESSEL HAS BEEN DETECTED.

The Probe focused all of its considerable sensors on this vessel.

VESSEL UNKNOWN. NO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED.

But it was a ship, and one that obviously possessed great technological capacity. However, it carried no detectable armaments. Instead the ship appeared to be composed of small blocks, all joined together to form the structure, similar in size to the Probe. In the collective’s assessment, 2879 was likely to withstand any hostilities with minimal damage.

ALTER COURSE TO INTERCEPT. PREPARE FOR ASSIMILATION.

2879 intercepted the ship, which scanned them. While most species did not listen, the Collective’s goal was always to accomplish assimilation with as little trauma as possible. Therefore, in the hopes that this ship would comply, the collective addressed it.

WE ARE THE BORG. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR VESSEL. YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

The unknown vessel did not reply. It did, however, attempt to transport several objects on board the Probe.

Although the transport frequency was unusual, 2879 was able to adapt in time to prevent this intrusion. The sensors had determined the shield frequency of the unknown vessel and adjusted the transporters to match. The collective attempted to transport three drones to the other ship.

The transport failed. 2879’s failsafe engaged and the drones were restored to the Probe. The collective scanned the other ship again and began to adapt.

After three attempts, one drone was successfully transported to the other ship. There was no bridge or visible technology of any kind. Merely a single room, containing the ship’s engine, which appeared to be composed of the same blocks of which the ship was made. The collective assessed this information and transmitted instructions to the drone. The drone inserted its assimilation tubules directly into the walls of the ship.

At this point the collective realized it had made an error in determining no life signs to be on board the ship. The unknown vessel was directed by a computer consciousness, not entirely unlike the collective itself. Since the main Collective could not be contacted, to give the species a proper designation, the new life form was given the temporary designation of Species A.

To compound the problem, the successful transport had also allowed several of the objects the other ship had attempted to transport to successfully enter 2879. They were small in size, composed of the little blocks. Each one had a centralized body, six legs, and two plates on its back that appeared to be independently mobile, in order to allow the object to balance more easily, if necessary.

Although assimilation had not yet taken place, the collective had learned enough. Those three little objects were a threat. They would consume the raw materials of the ship, and begin to replicate. Unfortunately, only two of them could be dispatched with the drones. The third had been beamed into a small aperture within the ship’s walls.

The conscious mind of Species A was directly resisting the collective’s attempts to assimilate it. This ship had already been isolated from the main consciousness, to prevent the one ship endangering the whole, and was now attempting to interact with the mind of the collective itself, to prevent assimilation.

2879 could no longer withdraw from this encounter. Failure to assimilate this ship would result in the destruction of this collective.

*~*~*

Author's Notes: Writing from Borg POV is hard.

Several things about the Borg POV are my own creation. Temporary species designations in the event of loss-of-contact with the main collective, for example. And the method by which the Borg “think” about things, which was an interesting challenge to write for. Especially when it comes to assimilation and the idea that the Borg try to minimize the trauma of the event. My thought is that this attitude would be both logical (no point in scaring your soon-to-be-drones to death) and the Borg version of compassionate. They don't see themselves as bad guys, after all. So, for all that they're totally evil, they are that way entirely by accident, which is very interesting of them.

Directive 001 is not precisely mine (though way I've used it may be, I have forgotten). Seven did something like this when she and three other drones were separated from the Collective once. I don't recall if it is a Collective-wide standing order, though.

The Plexus comes from ST:VOY without alteration of any kind.