Star Trek: Borg Cube | Extended Breakdown

first encountered though not reported by magnus and erin hansen in 2355 the borg cube was the primary starship of the borg collective though at the time the hansons did not understand the danger the ship represented it wasn't until 10 years later when the uss enterprise d faced a cube in system j25 thousands of light years from federation space that the federation first officially became aware of the threat these gargantuan cubes were amongst the largest spacecraft the federation ever faced measuring in at over three kilometers per side the main ship of the boar collective was a very unconventional design with no easily discernible outward features such as engines or weaponry instead the cubic vessel's surface was a discordant jumble of pipes panels and machinery in multiple overlapping layers with a sickly green glow emanating from its depths rather than using a conventional deflector shield the borg used a subspace electromagnetic field this was the first layer of the many defenses of the cube and could be adapted to become completely impervious to incoming damage it could even draw power from weapons fire impacting it the second layer of defense was the outer hull which again was extremely resistant to weapons fire and provided adequate protection for the cube to survive an uncontrolled unpowered atmospheric entry to add yet another layer of survivability all vital functions were distributed throughout the entire vessel rather than being concentrated into a few designated areas due to this lieutenant commander shelby aboard the uss enterprise in 2367 estimated that a cube could still function even if 78 of it was rendered inoperable if these formidable defenses were breached and a cube was damaged the drones on board could regenerate the hull of the vessel through an unknown process that left a detectable subspace field the more drones that were available the faster the regeneration process went after the enterprise d inflicted damage to 20 percent of the first cube that it encountered the craft managed to repair itself in only 20 minutes at least one cube named the artifact by the romulan free state had a vast number of automated robots on board that repaired and rebuilt the ship in place of its drones however the extreme durability of the craft did have its limits their defenses could be breached by natural phenomena or sufficiently powerful weaponry that they could not adapt to such as the beam weapons employed by species 8472 disabling the ship through commands sent via a captured drone was also a viable option as was having inside knowledge from previously assimilated individuals as well as being a defensive powerhouse boar cubes had a fearsome array of weaponry after scanning their target to see if it was even worth engaging their attack typically began with the use of an extremely strong tractor beam while borg transporters were capable of sending drones straight through federation shielding this tractor beam also drains the shields of whatever it was locked onto it could even deal significant damage to an unshielded target once the cube had its target held securely in place it used a cutting beam to either excise sections of its prey or more crudely bore through its hull to vital components this beam left magnetic resonance traces around the edges of the curt it inflicted if subtlety was not required the ships had an assortment of beam and projectile weapons for rapidly dispatching targets not even fleeing from a borg cube was a viable option as they had an exceptional warp drive that was easily capable of keeping up with the galaxy class if their target was hiding in a nebula the craft also carried magnetometric guided charges to force them out once that was done the cube could also fire energy draining projectiles capable of draining the shields of a galaxy class in only three hits with one more disabling its warp engines for longer range travel cubes had the capability of opening transwarp conduits this was done using a number of transwarp coils distributed throughout the ship but the dangerous environment required the vessels to project a structural integrity field ahead of themselves to compensate for gravimetric shear as well as protecting against temporal stress with a chronoton field some cubes also contained a borg sphere as an auxiliary craft for long-range scousing or as a self-sufficient escape vessel if the queen was on board the interior of a cube was almost as chaotic as its exterior with the same overtly mechanical appearance the atmospheric conditions inside a cube were maintained at two kilopascals above the starfleet standard at 92 humidity and 39.1 degrees tetrion particles were also present in the atmosphere due to the subspace links between each drone these conditions could be imitated by a bio-dampener carefully tuned to the awareness physiology and allowed them to walk around inside without being seen by the vessel sensors much of the ship was taken up by tens of thousands of regeneration alcoves for its complement of drones each alcove was allocated to a single drone and was where they essentially slept though while in this state they still contributed their mental capacity to the collective one of the more unexpected things aboard a cube were the maturation chambers for assimilated children these younger borg were too physically immature to be fully utilized as drones so were placed into these chambers until they reached adulthood and could fully join the collective the drone's connection to each other was sustained by neuroelectric field generators and the cube's vinculum this device was at the core of every borg vessel emitting a neural interlink frequency to every drone within its range the processing element of the vinculum purged individual thoughts and disseminated information and directives to its connected drones this information when not in use was stored in data nodes throughout the vessel and was transferred through distribution nodes and power waveguide conduits the vinculum also identified errant drones and reintegrated them back into the collective to prevent any tampering it had many safeguards in its design including the ability to adapt and rewire its own circuitry another element on board every borg starship was the central plexus this heavily protected part of the ship was what linked it to every other ship and the collective at large each cube also included a queen cell a chamber hidden behind movable walls for use by the ball queen though every drone had latent knowledge of it and how to access it the queen cells occupant could monitor the status of the cube and every drone on board as well as being able to connect directly with the craft to control it by 2399 the borg had assimilated a number of securians and integrated their spatial trajector technology into the queen cell a transporter with a theoretical 40 000 light-year range that was reserved solely for the queen to use in an emergency the primary purpose of bulk cubes was that of assimilation the act of converting the biological and technological distinctiveness of other species into that of the boar collective in the pursuit of perfection anything considered unworthy of assimilation was either ignored or destroyed if they posed a threat a single cube was fully capable of assimilating entire planetary civilizations by itself and stripping the planet clean of any trace of its prior habitation for single ship assimilation they either held it in place and transported drones over or if the ship was small enough brought the vessel inside into an internal docking bay individuals were then taken to assimilation rooms to await their transformation into a drone or sent to maturation chambers if they were too young while the basic cube design was strong enough to overpower the majority of ships it encountered some species proved intransigent in the face of assimilation for these tougher enemies the collective had the tactical cube at its disposal the most obvious difference was the additional armor plating that covered much of the outer hull of the vessel pushing the defensive capabilities of an already resilient design even further the only vessel of this type ever encountered by the federation was tactical cube 138 when the uss voyager attacked it in 2377 as part of a plan to spread a virus that allowed a small percentage of drones to regain their individuality as voyager engaged 138 captain janeway lieutenant commander tuvok and lieutenant torres used the delta flyers transporter to board the cube just before it was destroyed they were assimilated but due to a short-lived neural inoculation against the effects of the vinculum they managed to upload the virus to the ship's central plexus with the assistance of a borg sphere under the command of rogue drones voyager managed to disable 138 shields and retrieve the away team just before the bulk queen triggered the craft self-destruct the enormous threat of the borg compelled the federation to work on a raft of new ship designs and upgraded armaments these ships along with insider knowledge from the previously assimilated captain picard successfully destroyed a cube at the battle of sector zero zero one but with the borg transwarp network reaching across much of the galaxy and multitudes of cubes forever stalking the distant delta quadrant the collective remained a constant existential threat to the federation and to the entire galaxy [Music] you

Channel: Spacedock

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Keywords: Spacedock, space dock, star trek, trek, borg, cube, borg cube, tactical cube, voyager, wolf 359, first contact, lower decks, discovery, lore, history, analysis, review, collective, breakdown, summary, retrospective, specifications, news

Id: _1-uodY3xoE

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 24 2021