The Borg's Ultimate Goal: Q

[Baffalo]

This is a theory I posted on Reddit's Daystom Institute and wanted some constructive feedback from you guys. Please note this theory uses the canon established in order of appearance, and some has been retconned but still holds valid.

The theory goes like this: On stardate 42761.3, the U.S.S. Enterprise was once more visited by the mysterious, omnipotent being "Q", who stated they [humans] were not ready for the bigger dangers of the galaxy. When Captain Picard assured him they were, he flung the Enterprise 7,000 lightyears away into a region of space occupied by the Borg, a group of aliens united by a hive mind who seek out technological perfection, which is why they had no initial interest in the biological component of humans or other aliens they encountered aboard the Enterprise. After obtaining a sample of the Enterprise, Captain Picard orders the Enterprise to flee, only to be overtaken by the Borg. It was only the timely arrival of Q who enabled the Enterprise to escape, no doubt much to the puzzlement of the Borg.

When the Borg first stepped aboard the Enterprise, they began obtaining information from the computers. Even if material was classified, enough decryption would undoubtedly uncover it eventually. Between the strange energy readings and what could possibly be hints of a strange being known only as "Q", the Borg grew curious. A being, a purely biological being, able to command power at his fingertips to create, change, manipulate and destroy matter and energy? This was something new, and hinted that perfection perhaps included a biological component. If such is the case, then it would become imperative to obtain as much biological information as possible, and that would require a new tactic: assimilation.

And so the Borg began to study the biological component. Species that already knew the Borg were dangerous because of their obsession for technology now feared being assimilated into the collective and made to work against their own kind. Each new drone was another processor, another test bed, something the Borg could use and study. Each mind was another processor, capable of working out solutions and trying to solve the riddle of how to obtain perfection from a being that could do such incredible things. The answer was obvious: Humans, specifically the individual Jean Luc Picard. Something about this individual was what brought a creature like Q to the fore, and so a new experiment was launched: The Queen. An individual, who could process information in ways that no drone could, in order to study the vexing problems from a unique perspective and possibly deal with Q similar to the way Picard had done.

And with these preparations in place, the Borg launched an attack on stardate 43989.1, sending a single Cube in order to threaten Earth and draw out Picard and/or Q for study. The cube lucked out in that Picard was obtained easily from the U.S.S. Enterprise, with the goal now to draw out Q. With his apparent favorite, Picard (Now designated Locutus of Borg), Q would be dealing with the Collective instead. Only it was the timely intervention of the Enterprise that caused the plan to fail, and so fall back plans had to go into effect. This included further study, advancement, adaptation, and allocation of resources to come up with a plan that would beat the Federation. Clearly, they needed something new, and so the plan fell into effect on stardate 50893.5 with the second attack on Earth.

The plan had the following objectives:

1. Destroy Earth's defenses and begin assimilating Earth to draw Q out of hiding.
2. In the event this fails, travel back in time to remove the ability for humans to ally with Vulcans.
3. Calling on reinforcements from the Delta Quadrant, the Borg will use 24th century technology to assimilate the galaxy.
4. With a head start of 4 centuries, they can easily conquer all and hopefully draw out Q.

Again, humans intervened. It was clear that the safe approach wasn't going to cut it when trying to obtain Q. So the third plan went into effect: begin breaching the fabric of the universe to find if Q is in another dimension or, failing to find him, assimilate all beings in alternative universes to obtain further biological perfection. Hence, the Species 8472 came into the picture, a clear threat from another universe that the Borg unleashed. This no doubt put considerable strain on the Borg's ability to look for Q as they now had to deal with a new alien creature that they could not deal with. Hence the need to construct a transwarp hub, a new one, to quickly dispatch a fleet to take out the Alpha Quadrant. If the Humans could be used to lure out Q and bring him over to the Borg's side, or even just study his powers enough to develop an edge, the war could be won and further advancement towards perfection could continue.

While it's entirely possible this was only a joke, Q did utter the line to Q (junior) that he shouldn't provoke the Borg. It's possible, however slim, that the Borg could learn something on accident from one of them, and to leave them alone just to be safe. It also no doubt helps that Q is omnipotent and knows the Borg won't last forever. Still... if the Borg are truly out to get Q, then it would be smart to stay away from them.

[Sidewinder]

An interesting theory. I think it MIGHT be plausible, but I need to watch and re-watch some 'Star Trek' episodes to be certain.

[Iroscato]

That does cast a different light on things, doesn't it? Almost certainly, the Borg are aware of the Q. Your theory seem at least on the surface...eerily plausible. Uber-Trekkies! Descend on this thread and weigh in, please

[Joun_Lord]

I always assumed the Borg had such a hard-on for humanity/Picard just for the dickery Q did to the Enterprise even if they didn't know about Q himself.

Them learning about Q from the computers and being obsessed with what amounts to a purely biological (that they can tell) god. They assimilate not only tech but organic matter and consider some species beneath assimilation. It stands to reason they would consider other races superior for assimilation. A Q would probably be perfect if they could.

I do like the theory assimilation is a new thing even disregarding later canon instances of earlier. When we first really get a good look at the Borg they have borgified babies like they were growing new drones themselves. Assimilation only started cropping up later in the series.

[B5B7]

An ingenious theory, and internally consistent, with just one wee problem - Q isn't biological, no matter how it may appear so at times. The Borg (if they have any smarts; perhaps they don't) should realize this - that the Q are like the Organians (whom probably the Borg are ignorant of, but should know about from Locutus), who are energy beings.

[FaxModem1]

Voyager points out that the Borg have maturation chambers, when an infant or child is assimilated, we see what happens to them. From the episode Mortal Coil:

"Children assimilated by the Borg are placed in maturation chambers for seventeen cycles."
(awkward pause)
"Interesting... well, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to Neelix."
"In these... maturation chambers, the development of conversational skills is, I suppose, a low priority?"
- Seven of Nine, Ensign Wildman and The Doctor, when Seven attempts small talk at the Captain's request

In fact, later on in the show, in Drone, Seven directly states that the Borg do not make children. Riker was after all just giving his conjecture on what he thought was going on with the baby. It's possible that the Borg cube that the Enterprise met in Q Who just assimilated a ship or entire world, and was integrating them into the Collective. Which is rather horrific in retrospect.

[Iroscato]

An ingenious theory, and internally consistent, with just one wee problem - Q isn't biological, no matter how it may appear so at times. The Borg (if they have any smarts; perhaps they don't) should realize this - that the Q are like the Organians (whom probably the Borg are ignorant of, but should know about from Locutus), who are energy beings.

Given their reaction to the Undine - blindly keep attempting to assimilate despite it being for all intents and purposes impossible - I'd say there's a fair chance that they would try nonetheless, likelihood of success be damned. The Q seem to represent a kind of ultimate form of evolution in the ST universe (at least, they themselves seem to think so, the vain bastards), so it makes sense they would be attracted to that and devote at least some effort to assimilation attempts.
This is said giving consideration to Voyager's representation of the Borg as a villain, which compared to TNG was er...not good.

[Prometheus Unbound]

It's possible that the Borg cube that the Enterprise met in Q Who just assimilated a ship or entire world, and was integrating them into the Collective. Which is rather horrific in retrospect.

There was a planet nearby (J25-IV) which had the colony scooped up.

[Tribble]

It's fun trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Here's my theory:

The Borg Queen was lonely. The Borg Queen was horny. And the Borg Queen really wanted a fuckbuddy counterpart. The Borg don't seek out and assimilate other species in the hopes of becoming the ultimate power, they do it because she wants to get laid. All their talk about perfection is really just about her desperate search for a perfect mate.

When she encountered Picard at J-25, she thought he was just the man she was looking for- despite all the odds stacked against him he somehow got away, so he must be someone special. So she sent the Cube to the Federation to go fetch him. The Cube eventually arrived and brought Picard to her, where she made her moves on him. But alas the relationship of her dreams was not to be, and he turned her down. Bitter, she sent the Cube on a direct course to Earth in the vain hopes of finding someone else like him who would be more receptive, but Picard betrayed her again and her Cube was blown up before she had the chance.

She sent a another Cube hoping to accomplish the same thing, though she didn't have better luck the 2nd time around. But she did get to screw Data for a while, so that counts as a win of sorts.

As for Janeway? Well, being the dominant one in every relationship can get boring sometimes. So when the Borg Queen found Janeway, she decided it'd be fun to experiment a bit and switch roles for awhile. "Oh yes! Spank my Cubes harder, I've been a naughty, naughty bitch!"

[Joun_Lord]

Voyager points out that the Borg have maturation chambers, when an infant or child is assimilated, we see what happens to them. From the episode Mortal Coil:

"Children assimilated by the Borg are placed in maturation chambers for seventeen cycles."
(awkward pause)
"Interesting... well, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to Neelix."
"In these... maturation chambers, the development of conversational skills is, I suppose, a low priority?"
- Seven of Nine, Ensign Wildman and The Doctor, when Seven attempts small talk at the Captain's request

In fact, later on in the show, in Drone, Seven directly states that the Borg do not make children. Riker was after all just giving his conjecture on what he thought was going on with the baby. It's possible that the Borg cube that the Enterprise met in Q Who just assimilated a ship or entire world, and was integrating them into the Collective. Which is rather horrific in retrospect.

I was mostly conjecturing from the point of the "original" Borg before they were expanded upon in regards to the consistency with the theory presented here. Later expansions of the Borg were for the poorer with such things like the emotional Queen who didn't act as a mouthpiece but literally ruled the Borg as an individual, Locutus being created because Queeny wanted a sex-toy with vibrator action, the Borg being beaten by Cap'n Crazy, and them apparently having a shitton of cubes but being lazy or "efficient" in sending only 1 cube at a time to assimilate the Feddies. The last bit makes them look like an Austin Power villain.

Borg Queen: All right single Cube, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving invasion.
Drone: Wait, aren't you even going to watch them? They could stop the Cube!
BQ: No no no, I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them being assimilated, I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?
Drone: I have a fleet of Cubes in the dock. You give me 5 quantum nanoseconds, I'll get them. I'll fly over there, BOOM! I'll blow their planet up!
BQ: 15 of 40, you just don't get it, do ya? You don't.

I'm aware of the Borg's later "assimilation only" policy even if I find it foolish. The Borg are like Vampires feeding on people or a celibate cult (like Trek fandom). They cannot grow or expand without taking in new people. There "food source" is finite and over feeding will destroy it. Once their "food source" runs out or is devastated they are fucked in their robot butts.

Growing their own "food" means they don't have to rely on inferior stock, they were noted as finding the Kazon and Talaxians as beneath assimilation.

Assimilation is just a faster method of Borg reproduction over growing new drones from scratch. It also adds more distinct minds to the Collective compared to a mind that would be rather blank if Borg their entire lives.

I wonder what a Borg drone like that would act like unplugged. 7 was bad enough but she still had some humanity from her childhood. A "born" Borg would not even have that.

[Baffalo]

Grown from scratch, I imagine a Borg unplugged from the group would pretty much go feral without any outside guidance. Hell, Seven reverted to a more Borg like state in order to cope with being unplugged, so I imagine it would be similar. However, given a long enough time without contact, they would slowly break down. Without the constant voices for information or guidance, they would just lose it and either destroy themselves or start acting so irrationally it's impossible to predict. Just take a glance over at the Ask Reddit threads sometimes when they ask about prisons... the crazy shit inmates with mental illness do is just scary.

If such a drone were rediscovered, I'd hate to imagine what the Borg would do with it. Would they dissect it for study? Try to bring it back into the collective? Or simply destroy it?

But back to the main bit, I just don't see the Borg as being completely assimilation-dependent. As Joun_Lord pointed out, that would require the Borg to find worthy individuals fast enough to off-set the losses that inevitably occur. How many Borg did it take to start assimilating the resisting members of the Enterprise? How many were lost compared to those gained? The Borg were advancing steadily, sure, but they weren't just overwhelming the crew with more drones faster and faster as more were assimilated. Some crew probably took their lives rather than be assimilated.

Plus, it wasn't until First Contact that we saw the Borg become efficient at assimilation. In Best of Both Worlds, they lost several drones just seizing Picard, and promptly flew away afterwards. I know their ultimate goal was Earth, but dayum. Even assuming a borg cube has in the neighborhood of 130,000 drones, a single cube is going to have difficulty assimilating a planet on its own, even if it's churning out new drones. When you have that many people all focused on a single target, you're going to lose. Some people might get desperate enough to ram the drones with vehicles, while others will try more... shall we say, personal methods of dealing with Borg one on one. Even if the Borg capture several replacements, Earth can still afford to lose 20 people to stop one drone if absolutely necessary. And believe me, even if the Cube is providing support, it would still have a hell of a time fighting that many people. Not without bombarding the planet to dust, which defeats the whole purpose of assimilation in the first place.

[Joun_Lord]

the crazy shit inmates with mental illness do is just scary.

I had a friend who went to jail and didn't handle the experience well. Starting clawing at his arms, trying to chew through his wrists, trying to drown himself in the toilet, and opening up his wounds to bleed until his cell had globs of blood all over. He admitted he was growing worse everyday being in there and was thinking of far worse things to try. He wasn't even in there that long but being in there pretty much made his schizophrenia and other mental problems go into overdrive.

A borg unplugged would be similar, you are quite right aboot that I think. Being so alone would drive them mad. Even if they aren't insane they would probably be highly clingy. The borg is all they ever known, constantly being with thousands or millions of other people, that is what they are used to and would probably seek to find an alternative. It would probably be opposite of Seven was where she was a loner. The ex-borg would have a pathological need to be around people, constantly talking and hearing people talk or would probably start to freak out hard. Being alone and silent, that would be a hell no greater for them.

Thats if they are even able to function. Someone born into the borg would not be socialized at all and scarcely able to do anything. Would it have language? Be able to feed itself assuming it fully unborged like Picard was? Know how to use the bathroom (I never saw any toilets on the cube, of course I don't recall any on the Enterprise either so maybe both beam out excrement)?

It would at best be like an infant, relatively blank minded. Its hard to say if they learn anything while plugged in. Like a person with total amnesia having to relearn literally everything.

[Tribble]

Well, TNG Borg were only really interested in technology... assimilation was the exception and not the rule.

Also, it's not clear if Earth and Picard were the Borg's initial goal. When the Cube first entered Federation space it began attacking colonies and transports rather than making a beeline to Sector 001, even though they probably had knowledge of Earth's location after downloading the contents of the E-D's computer in "Q-Who." And they had no way of knowing in advance that the E-D would be the first major ship to intercept them.

My guess is that the TNG Borg were smart enough to know that plowing into the heart of hostile territory without knowing what to expect was a bad idea, and that they decided to do some recon first. When the E-D intercepted them the Borg quickly realized just what a valuable opportunity they had with Picard. Assimilating him would not only be a morale blow but also provide them with the critical information they needed before launching their attack. In other words, Picard's assimilation was because the circumstances warranted it rather than because Borg wanted to assimilate everyone.

Of course, STFC and Voyager threw all that out the window (along with everything else)

[Adam Reynolds]

One option is that as the Borg switched more heavily to assimilation, they ran into processing limitations given their insistence on using symmetric multi-processing across the entire collective. Thus we would see why over time, queens became more common on ships sent for specific missions outside the main collective. This would explain why the Borg got dumber, they were overloaded by the data to the point that they stopped being able to do anything with it.

A similar explanation could also work for Seperatist battle droids as shown in Clone Wars. In TPM they were cold and professional for the most part, despite the somewhat comic voices. In Clone Wars* the are chatty cowards who have an inability to simply shoot the enemy. This could be explained by the fact that as the the army was forced to expand, the limits of the overall control systems to keep them in line weakened and there was no choice but to let them have more initiative, despite the tactical loss of effectiveness. The cowardice was a consequence of the droids realizing they were built by the lowest bidder.

* While not to the degree of Clone Wars, we also saw this somewhat in ROTS by the regular and even super battle droids on the Invisible Hand. However on the Invisible Hand they weren't really cowards as much as they were generally stupid.

[FedRebel]

I think that the Borg interest in humanity is the fact the Federation is a thing, equal multispecies nations are an extreme rarity. The biological fascination is that (A) humans can readily breed with just about every other humanoid spices and (B) psychologically humans able to coexist with other species.

Picard being assimilated as Locutous was chosen due to his diplomatic acumen, the Borg want an HR department, that psychological quality humans seem to possess could in theory lead to nonviolent assimilation reducing unnecessary loss of drones. The breeding advantage works when in vitro reproduction is required to restore losses.

The sigle Cube thing, that's farming. Fed tech isn't at all remarkable by Borg standards...so sending a ship every now and then forces the Federation to advance technology to eventually achieve a desirable point.

The primary objective of the BoBW Cube was to atempt that 'diplomatic' assimilation using Picard as a mouth piece, the secondary objective was to rattle the Federations cage. Primary failed, secondary succeeded. the STFC cube's primary was to check on that progress, which bore fruit. Of course we got that time travel bull, but time travel isn't a stranger for the Federation, that was likely another element the Borg wanted to test for to better judge the Federation's technological value.

With Voyager, the Borg have plans. "Seven of NIne, TERTIARY adjunct UNIMATRIX 01." I'd go as far to say that the Seven we know is a false personality, the Borg assimilated her as a toddler and essentially wholly raised her, her acceptance of life without that 'family' was extremely easy and the determined rejection of that old life is rather puzzling.

...so the Borg know Voyager is in their space, they plant Seven on a nearby Cube and await for Voyager to open a dialogue. They know humans are curious and would investigate the battle site, they know that they'd likely run into 8472, and that 8472 are a 'shoot first' species. So Seven is gift wrapped for Janeway, knowing that out of sentimentality Starfleet would want to 'free' the human.

Those little talks the Queen had with Seven later on, those were checks on the false personality, making sure it's holding up. So now we have Seven of Nine in Starbase 324 surrounded by transphasic torpedoes, deployable armor and all the latest and greatest tech the Federation has...just waiting to receive a signal that will shutdown that false personality and give the collective a new Queen, a Queen with more astute understanding of human psychology and smack dab in the middle of delicious tech ripe for harvest.

^If anything that explains away the Borg's glass jaw and kid gloves in VOY.

[Baffalo]

I'm not exactly happy with the whole "The Borg farm technology" theory for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that it just feels out of character for the Borg, given what we've seen.

Consider why the Borg would ever even want to farm technology from the Federation. You're assuming that the Borg look at the Federation and see something unique and special, something they can use to further advance themselves. However, we have dialog that basically shows the Queen, telling Seven of Nine, that they're a rather unremarkable species. Honestly, there's nothing special about us, other than we've kicked their asses TWICE, and both times barely. Thousands have died because of the Borg, and we're stuck desperately hoping they don't come back.

And your idea that they're somehow cultivating the Federation.. why? That doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense from any perspective. They encountered us at J25 and promptly gave us an ass whooping, copying our computer files, carving a chunk from the Enterprise D, and generally making it very clear that we're nothing more than a resource to be collected and obtained. To have us snatched away probably threw a curve ball, but it wouldn't immediately make me want to go, "Oh, they can outrun us and will learn from this. Let's teach them some more so they can hand us our ass again."

Your idea of assimilating Picard as a mouthpiece is interesting, and it might have some merit. However, given that the Borg are still fully intent on assimilating people, it's entirely possible they thought they would just experiment with something new: giving the species a chance to come to grips with assimilation to make the process easier. Plus, it's entirely possible that with Picard's knowledge, they would be able to completely bypass the worst of Starfleet's defenses to minimize losses that way.

As far as the assertion that the Borg had a plan towards Voyager... I actually laughed. The Borg were simply seen as a convenient tool, nothing more, and they wanted to give the audience at home a sphincter tightening moment when the Borg, Starfleet's most lethal enemy, wound up destroyed. That plan backfired horribly and we see what happened in the end: they castrated 8472 to such a point it took a complete rewrite in Star Trek Online to turn them into a threat again, and routinely even the mightiest Borg vessel is no match for a single Federation ship (though that's because they tend to turn the players into uber powerful gods by that point).

Now, onto the oh so fun "false personality" thing. That is bullshit. Why? Because while the Borg tend to be smart, I doubt the writers of Voyager could have pulled such a convoluted plot out of their ass on a good day, let alone over the course of several seasons. Seven's story is tragic and yeah, they did some good with her, turning her into a unique person with distinct personality who came to terms with a traumatic event. Given how the Borg just overwrite people to create drones and say to hell with anything underneath, why would they let a drone go free? To what end? To sabotage Voyager and steal technology? That is the height of stupid.

Voyager crippled the Borg as a threat. They went from being a man-eating tiger to a declawed kitten over the course of the show. Had the writers been given more freedom and a chance to pursue long story arcs, I could see them building this massive and complex scenario where Seven realizes she has a Borg control chip in her intended to turn her back into a drone and assimilate Voyager, but it was a wasted opportunity like so many others. So I'm going to say that theory is bogus.

[Tribble]

By Endgame, the Borg were literally so stupid that they had a transwarp portal less than 1 light year from earth, yet the best plan they can come up with is to send out some nanites and hope they do the trick. Instead of, oh I don't know, dropping a bunch of cubes right onto Earth's doorstep?

The only thing which rivals that stupidy is the Queen blowing up ships simply because a couple of drones went silent... though as Chuck points out, it could be the result of having assimilated Janeway.

[Prometheus Unbound]

By Endgame, the Borg were literally so stupid that they had a transwarp portal less than 1 light year from earth, yet the best plan they can come up with is to send out some nanites and hope they do the trick. Instead of, oh I don't know, dropping a bunch of cubes right onto Earth's doorstep?

The only thing which rivals that stupidy is the Queen blowing up ships simply because a couple of drones went silent... though as Chuck points out, it could be the result of having assimilated Janeway.

I don't like a lot of Chuck's reviews but that scene as he desribed it had me laughing out loud.

"Well, it's a 'solution'... and it will kill the drone.... it's just fuckin' stupid."

[WATCH-MAN]

Maybe for the Borg it is all about efficiency.

Mankind has a certain value for the Borg, justifying only the assignment of a certain amount of resources.

Sending a whole fleet means neglecting other, more important objectives.

Maybe the ships that were send to Earth were ships that were coincidentally in the vicinity of Earth, just finished with a operation and with nothing more important to do at this moment.

(Borg Hive to Borg Cube: "If you are there already, maybe you can use the opportunity and look what you can do with Earth. At the moment there is nothing more important to do.")

[Baffalo]

Maybe for the Borg it is all about efficiency.

Mankind has a certain value for the Borg, justifying only the assignment of a certain amount of resources.

Sending a whole fleet means neglecting other, more important objectives.

Maybe the ships that were send to Earth were ships that were coincidentally in the vicinity of Earth, just finished with a operation and with nothing more important to do at this moment.

(Borg Hive to Borg Cube: "If you are there already, maybe you can use the opportunity and look what you can do with Earth. At the moment there is nothing more important to do.")

When working on microprocessors, you have a series of alerts that can go off. These alerts are sort of ranked, with some having precedence over another, like say this input triggering versus a timer going off. How you rank these alerts is important because it sets a sort of priority list even when two things might be equal (say, the timer and trigger are both equally important to the operation). I bring this up because the Borg spend resources like a computer, and thus think like one.

The resources to conquer Earth are, all things considered, irrelevant. One cube, when the Borg were tossing cubes like candy at 8472 to deal with them. The Borg have billions upon billions of drones, all of them equally capable of conducting operations, all of them working towards specific goals as set down by the Unimatrix from on high. The Unimatrix sets the ultimate goals, and calculates the resources necessary to accomplish said goal, spreading resources as necessary to do the most with the least calculated resources. We use the same process today when we automate warehouses and stores with computers, letting the computer calculate the number of items used and how to efficiently order enough to meet demand while avoiding waste.

So when the Borg attack Earth, they compute that based on known Federation specifications and designs, they can reasonably expend one cube to assimilate Earth while still dealing with Earth's defenses. And from what we saw in First Contact, it was only the timely arrival of Picard that this was prevented. Hell, in Best of Both Worlds, they nearly succeeded with almost no losses at all. From a resource perspective, that's pretty efficient management. They know that Earth's defenses can't really handle a cube, and so one should be enough.

But your idea, that the Unimatrix sends a vague, "Just do whatever" command, doesn't really fly. The Borg idea of efficiency is to have vessels moving from place to place, constantly working, constantly obtaining resources, assimilating species, doing everything in a structured list of commands that serves as the default command. When certain events are triggered, like the reaction to Species 8472, the Borg have subroutines that kick in, diverting resources to handle the issue before returning to work. This is exactly how computer hardware works, and that's why it doesn't make sense that the Borg would be so vague about something.

[WATCH-MAN]

If the vague, "Just do whatever" command is all that bothers you, ...

Of course the Borg Hive wouldn't send vague commands. That was not my point.

My point was, that sending a whole fleet may be seen as inefficient by the Borg as mankind simply is not important enough. To assimilate Earth is not their "ultimate goal". It's one of several thousand objectives. It's not the one with the highest priority.

The VOYAGER episode Endgame showed that the Borg had a transwarp portal less than 1 light year from Earth. If they really had wanted, they could have sent more than only one cube any time. That they didn't do it only proves that to them Earth is not important enough to do it.

That does not mean that they were uninterested in Earth.

Even after two attempts to assimilate Earth failed, they were still interested in it. But not enough to justify to withdraw several cubes from other missions. But they were still interested enough to devise a plan to reach their objective with only the amount of resources that can be justified to be assigned to the assimilation of Earth: The nanoprobe virus.

[Baffalo]

Well it bothers me because that's not efficiency. That's the opposite of efficiency. Building a transwarp hub that close to Earth, the center of a pretty big interstellar nation, means they had clear intentions from the start. Earth isn't important from an assimilation standpoint, but rather as a jumping off point for the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. The fact they built one that leads directly to Earth means that Earth is intended as a hub, and with good reason.

Consider why: Earth is the near center of the Federation, both politically and locationally. They're bordered on several sides by powerful but ultimately inconsequential enemies who will fall one by one. There is huge biological divergence, from Humans to Vulcans to Andorians to Tellarites, and it just gets more and more complex. The Alpha Quadrant would be a wonderful staging point, because then, through assimilation, they would learn of the Dominion. A race of beings that can shapeshift? That would certainly catch the Borg's attention.

Earth is semi-important... it's a staging point, but probably a long-term project, hence the low priority.

[Tribble]

The transwarp hubs were rare and implied to be very difficult to produce and maintain even for the Borg (to the point that the Queen needed to have personal control over them).

So... Earth is important enough to construct a transport hub within spitting distance of Earth... but not important enough to actually send anything through it? Even though had they sent just one Cube they would have caught the Federation completely by surprise and would have likely won right then?

The Borg in Voy are f&*king stupid.

[Borgholio]

they would learn of the Dominion

Here is a story that I have always would have loved to hear. What would a fight be like between the Dominion and the Borg? I'd wager a single cube would be easily dealt with through ramming bugships, but if they sent several cubes, would that be enough to defeat the Dominion in their own space?

[FireNexus]

The transwarp hubs were rare and implied to be very difficult to produce and maintain even for the Borg (to the point that the Queen needed to have personal control over them).

So... Earth is important enough to construct a transport hub within spitting distance of Earth... but not important enough to actually send anything through it? Even though had they sent just one Cube they would have caught the Federation completely by surprise and would have likely won right then?

The Borg in Voy are f&*king stupid.

That's true, but you can't be as stupid as they apparently were and control such a huge swatch of the galaxy when large galactic powers like the dominion exist. They are also very different between TNG and First Contact/VOY. Drone design, behavior, even the internal environments of cubes has changed. In Q Who, you'd think somebody would have pointed out the 92% humidity when they beamed over. Cubes looked humid, almost foggy, in Voyager. Drones were slick with moisture rather than dry and pale. The looked pale in TNG, they looked sickly in FC/Voy.

Personally, I think some kind of fungal infection started spreading through the collective between BOBW and Scorpion. There are examples of funguses that infect the nervous systems of species and change their behavior on earth. A fungal infection would explain a lot.

1. Assimilation of living beings could allow the fungus to spread, since whatever it is seems only to infect Borg. This is likely due to a need to suppress the immune reaction of drones to prevent implant rejection.

2. Since the functioning of Borg ships is determined by the hive mind, a fungus which infects the brains of drones might cause them to prefer a temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity level that is most beneficial for the fungus.

3. I may be wrong, but there's not a lot of evidence to indicate the existence of queens prior to TNG. It could well be that the queens started popping up as a result of the infection. The drones who were more susceptible became lower in intelligence and less susceptible drones suddenly started to become more influential. Hell, it could even be that the queens started figuring it out and purposely hid the evidence of infection, not really letting anybody crank the thermostat until it was widespread enough. It would explain why there was apparently a queen in BOBW but the cube seemed dry and the drones didn't look so much like zombies covered in KY Jelly.

I give you the Queen in First Contact:

and in the flashback scene with locutus:


She looks somewhat less sickly there, don't you think? These both came from the same film, so the difference there actually is even stronger evidence than it might otherwise be. I admit it's probably a lighting difference, of course.

In fact, I'll go you one further. The whole point of the events of Q Who were to expose the Borg in the Delta Quadrant to the fungus. Sprinkle a few spores on the Enterprise, fling it into Borg territory and claim you were just messing with old Gene Luck Pickerd and concidentally you introduced a contagion to this potential threat. Why do it that way? Because then Q could plausibly deny realizing what he'd done. Seems like they have their own sort of version of the Prime Directive, even if it's more lax.

Add the 8472 war taxing their resources and suddenly the Borg fall apart. Q displayed a pretty chilling fear of directly riling them too much, "DO NOT PROVOKE THE BORG!" and all.

I completely made this up in the last few minutes, but it very neatly explains the transition of the Borg from chilling post-human conquerors to comicly inept space zombies.