Said Darth Wong:
"Yet they lied about Data's "primitive" nature in "Best of Both Worlds" and postured in front of the Federation, when it became clear in STFC that certain aspects of Federation technology (particularly with regards to Data's brain) are actually beyond them. Why lie and denigrate Data's technology if you don't have any regard for psychological warfare?"
'Tis true, my lord, that Data's neural net was probably more sophisticated
than Locutus admitted. However, it would be a significant leap to conclude
that, because Locutus attempts psycho-warfare, the Borg must therefore
build ships with such a role foremost in mind.
I think the Borg realize that a terrified enemy is, potentially, an easier enemy to destroy or assimilate; thus, to *some* extent, huge cubes
are meant to frighten their quarry.
But, it'd be a false dichotomy to conclude that "either the cube's volume
is entirely functional *or* it must be lots of 'hot air' space to scare
victims," in so many words, because both factors could well play
a role in cube designs.
The huge target profile and massively increased wiring lengths required by the hollow cube design seem like rather heavy penalties to take for these applications.
Yes, my lord : )
Of course, that is the primary function of the standard cube: assimilation.
The only known Borg warship we've seen, the tactical cube, didn't seem
to have as much room for the drones to lumber about in.
Further, these are only heavy penalties in the context of going toe-to-toe
with Star Wars-level capships. Against the Federation, Dominion et al.,
the ability to contain enemy starships obviously outweighs the potential
detriments like huge profiles, lack of maneuverability, etc.
The Borg can haul ships along with them at transwarp speed (as we saw in "Scorpion", when a Borg cube fled the exploding planet with Voyager in tow), so they have no need of a giant internal cavity for captured ships.
Again, with respects, regardless of the need, they do have such a cavity:
we've seen it in the "Borg kids" episode. (What was it, Robert? "Collective"?)
And nitpicking, I don't think the cube was travelling at transwarp
when it escorted VGR. Cacahuate told Janewad, "Tell the Borg we don't
need a leash (tractor beam). We can match their course and speed,"
or words very close to that meaning.
Then again, we HAVE seen Borg ships travelling at mere warp more
often than not.
Sean
Analyst
http://www.babtech-onthe.net/