Between 2376 and 2377, the Borg suffered yet another catastrophe when the Queen learned
about the existence of Unimatrix Zero, an alternate reality within their Collective
Consciousness, allowing those with a recessive genetic mutation to temporarily restore their
former identities.
Affecting only 1 in every million drones, they accessed Unimatrix Zero while regenerating
but were unable to remember these experiences once awoken.
Yet while present within this shared dreamlike state, they were free to live as individuals,
form relationships and alter their appearance however they wished.
Seeking to destroy this Oasis of individuality within the Collective, the Queen began identifying,
interrogating and dissecting those with this specific mutation, in order to extract the
interlink frequency which bound them together.
Seeing their numbers dwindling, and fearing the end of their virtual lives, the drones
within Unimatrix Zero sought help from Seven of Nine, contacting her as she regenerated
aboard the USS Voyager.
Bringing her into Unimatrix Zero, they informed Seven she shared their mutation and was once
a regular visitor to this reality, making her the perfect candidate to provide assistance,
as she was now free from the Hive Mind and would remember their discussions when she
awoke in her alcove.
Agreeing to aid them, Seven and the Voyager Crew, sought to transmit a nanovirus into
the Collective which would mask the identities of mutated Drones.
Working towards the opposite purpose, the Queen killed and examined over 200 Borg to
learn their interlink frequency, but even so found she was unable to terminate the connection.
Therefore she sent her own drones into Unimatrix Zero, where they attacked and identified those
they encountered.
Although their original plan to save this Alternate Reality failed, the Voyager crew
ultimately succeeded in saving many lives and struck a significant blow to the Collective
as a whole, by allowing these mutated drones to remember their experiences and individual
identities in the real world when they awoke from regeneration.
As a result, many of these liberated Borg seized control of their ships and rebelled
against the Queen.
While the events surrounding the discovery of Unimatrix Zero struck a serious blow against
the Collective, an even greater victory came in the year 2378, when the USS Voyager once
again faced off against the Borg, enacting a plan which allowed for the capture and assimilation
of Admiral Janeway, a future version of the captain who travelled back in time to help
her crew return home to the Alpha Quadrant.
Though the original mission underwent several changes, the Voyager ship, upgraded with advanced
tech like ablative armor and transphasic torpedoes provided by the Admiral, were able enter a
Borg transwarp hub, transporting them thousands of light years away into Federation space.
While this occurred, Admiral Janeway allowed herself to be assimilated so she could spread
a neurolitic pathogen disrupting the connection between individual drones and the Hive Mind.
The ensuing chaos and battle with Voyager resulted in the destruction of many Borg ships
and structures as well as the death of the current iteration of the Queen, yet even so,
as her body was failing, she was able to send one last Sphere to chase after Voyager.
Seeking to do even more damage to the Collective, Voyager used their transphasic torpedoes to
collapse the Transwarp Hub as they passed through, thereby damaging the Borg’s ability
to travel quickly throughout the galaxy.
As they left the Transwarp conduit, Voyager was captured by the Borg Sphere which was
immediately confronted and fired upon by an Armada of Starfleet ships, as they detected
the opening of an exit aperture in their space.
Although the Federation Armada did little damage, Voyager fired a transphasic torpedo
from inside the ship, destroying the Sphere.
Having completed their mission, Voyager successfully returned home after 7 years in the Delta Quadrant,
while also leaving their Borg enemies scattered and chaotic, without communication, leadership
or direction.
Although they suffered severe setbacks throughout the 2370s, by the 2380s the Collective were
sufficiently recovered to the point they were once again seeking out distinctive species
and technologies, resulting in the assimilation of a Romulan crew and Vessel by a Borg Cube.
Yet this proved a serious mistake as one of the Romulans on board was a member of a secret
society within the espionage agency Tal Shiar, who’d been driven mad after witnessing an
apocalyptic vision of the past in 2385.
This vision, granted to all operatives selected for the Zhat Vash, was originally meant to
be seen by artificial lifeforms, as the imagery was so powerful and appalling, it did lasting
damage to mind of most organic beings.
Therefore, when this Romulan agent was assimilated, her traumatic experiences were transferred
into the Borg’s collective consciousness, triggering a submatrix collapse in the cube
ship where she was located, cutting them off from the rest of the hive mind.
Left alone and abandoned, the cube was claimed by the Romulan Free State, which succeeded
the Romulan Star Empire after its collapse following the destruction of their homeworld
in 2387.
Renamed the Artifact, the Cube ship provided the Romulans a great deal of advanced technology
they could use for their own purposes or sell for profit.
While also giving them a great deal of prestige and political influence by hosting the Borg
Reclamation Project, an independent organization, protected by a treaty between the Free State
and Federation, allowing scientists to study the ship and help drones recover and reclaim
their individuality.
By 2399, the Reclamation Project was led by Hugh, the former drone liberated by the Enterprise
D, who was now a Federation citizen with most of his implants removed.
When Jean-luc Picard came out of retirement to investigate the creation of a new Android
species, Hugh helped his old friend locate one of these Androids working aboard the Artifact,
and in doing so incurred the wrath of the Tal Shiar.
After helping Picard escape the ship, Hugh and many of the former drones, now called
XBs, were murdered by a particularly merciless Romulan Agent pursuing the Androids.
In order to protect the remaining XBs aboard the Artifact, Seven of Nine, now working as
an independent Ranger and associate of Picard, took control of the Borg Cube, travelled to
the Android homeworld of Ghulion IV and landed on the planet’s surface.
During her years as a Ranger, seeking to impose law and order in regions where larger powers
held no influence, she discovered that criminal elements were capturing former Borg in order
to extract their cybernetic components for sale on the black market.
Traumatized by all she saw and experienced since leaving Voyager, including the death
of Icheb, who was captured and tortured for his implants, Seven lost all faith in the
Federation and larger organizations, preferring to remain independent, in order to administer
justice as she saw fit.
This eventually led her to help Picard in his mission, as he too was acting without
Starfleet approval, and after reuniting with him on the Android homeworld, joined his crew
aboard the ship La Sirena.