Hello All! Ric again, you can’t get rid of me that easily, resistance is futile. It’s been a
request for a while from a viewer to cover the assimilation process of the Borg, so eventually
I got around to it. Obviously, elements of body horror ahead, which if you know the Borg, you
probably expected, but I won’t be too graphic. Before we touch on the actual process,
let’s quickly examine the decisions that the Borg make that leads them to assimilation. At its core,
it’s a gain vs cost calculation, where a Borg vessel will use drones and sensors to examine
a target, before taking samples for analysis to evaluate if there is anything worth taking.
In most cases, there is, even if it’s just the addition of new drones to the hive-mind.
Sometimes however, there is literally nothing to be gained, such as with most Kazon technology,
because the Borg have already outclassed it in every field and it’s not worth the hassle of
assimilating them most of the time. In this case, they will often literally ignore it.
But if a target is evaluated and found to possess unique qualities, or something that the Borg
can use to add to their own advancement, they will most probably strike with assimilation in mind, or
at least, mark it for interest. If a target is too troublesome to ignore, then the Borg may result to
destruction instead. And if you really tick them off, they’ll apparently resort to time travel.
So, let’s say that have marked their quarry, now they are taking their spoils, which is something
they do while they attempt to defeat it, because for every soldier they assimilate,
the scales tip in their favour, and if they can get their invasive technology inside a ship,
then the crew of that ship will be wrestling with their vessel’s control too. Fortunately,
to begin assimilation, the Borg need to beam over drones and get to this in person.
Unfortunately, the Borg are pretty effective at circumnavigating shields, or
just downright pummelling a ship into submission. Let’s look to the biological side of assimilation
first. Nanoprobes are produced within a Borg drone’s body, as blood cells are in a human,
they’re just a part of them and they act to repair and assist in the operation and
survival of a drone. The drones however can inject these micro-machines into another living being,
where they begin to replicate and spread throughout the bloodstream. For this reason,
Drones will target an area of high blood flow such as the neck to optimise the speed of distribution.
From here, the nanoprobes will cause obvious physical distress in the assimilated person,
and I honestly can’t imagine what it feels like to have these microscopic
shards of self-propelling mettle surf your circulatory system and convert it as they
go. Nasty, and no wonder that the individual often convulses, collapses or passes out.
The first priority target for the nanoprobes, is to reconfigure the victim’s brain patterns to
intercept the hive mind, and link the individual to it, supressing their individuality. This
enables the hive mind to override the victim, and also read the mind of the assimilated,
often discerning tactics, plans and anything else of relevance. By now, the victim is a drone,
but as Captain Picard can attest, conscious of everything happening to them, but now a prisoner
in their own body with an infinitude of voices pressing in. Once the connection to the Borg
Collective is established, a process that takes minutes at most, the nanoprobes then begin to
form technological attachments and alteration to the body, readying it for the next stages.
Metal planets, tubes, sockets and implants begin to form from the nanoprobes, which themselves are
probably made from the repurposed matter of the victim’s own body. These implants
are centred around the head it seems, but woven throughout the body. At this stage,
the drone is operational and will already have begun acting on direction of the collective.
Unless there is some vital task for that drone to complete, it will work its way towards the hive
where it will report for further augmentation. It is from here, that drones will work on the
new drone, modifying the body as needed. There are a myriad of different functions that a drone can
be adapted for, repair, maintenance, frontline fodder and so on, but there are some universal
additions. Frequently, an arm will be removed and replaced with a tool for that Borg, again,
based on its function. One hand is usually left unaltered to interact with the various
technologies designed around the humanoid form that they will doubtlessly encounter, but also,
because it’s “handy”. Levity in a dark topic, yay. An eye is removed and replaced with the Borg
attachment which acts as a scanner of sorts, and armoured plating is installed over the body
and usually clothing. All the while, the nanoprobes continue to rewrite the body
internally into a drone creating a multitude of alterations to meet up with the external add-ons.
These included installing their adaptive shielding, bolstering the link’s connection,
creating cortical implants and reinforcing the skeletal structure with metal. LEDs optional.
With the multitude of alterations done to the body, down to the fact that their
very brainwaves are changed, they no longer register on scans as any species other than
Borg. At this stage, the drone’s mind (a part of the collective) is practically completely
overridden, and eventually the mind of the assimilated makes contact with the Queen,
(even the Borg have lag it seems). The drone is then usually sent to regenerate for a time,
where it charges up before being put to work. In terms of assimilating a ship, things
sort of progress in a remarkably similar way. The first thing that the Borg tend to do,
is inject their assimilation tendrils into a computer interface and upload a virulent code to
corrupt a ship’s systems. This upsets a vessels operations and begins to reroute control to an
area that the Borg control, in much the same way the nanoprobes first seek to connect a mind to the
collective. Once they have a foothold, they begin to repurpose the systems that have access to,
to better suit the Borg, such as increasing environmental heat. They then set to work
salvaging the vessel for its unique technology, or converting it by altering it with Borg upgrades.
Presumably they salvage what they want then leave the remainder of the vessel as a wreck. There
are examples of them adapting entire starships through the repeated alteration of its technology
to fit Borg standards, such as the Enterprise E in 2063, and the Arctic Transport ship of 2153.
However in these instances, there was no Borg vessel available to the drones,
but it does show that the Borg are capable of repurposing and assimilating an entire vessel.
Again, I imagine it’s a cost vs gain calculation. We do see that the Borg’s nanoprobes are capable
of altering technology too, so it’s probable that they utilise these in the modification
of a ship’s systems and I like the idea that eventually, they would completely alter a vessel,
breaking it apart and reforming it into a cube, sphere or other iconic Borg ship.
Overall, Borg assimilation is a painful process that inflicts great trauma,
both physical and psychological, but it has led to some opportunities for Starfleet.
The versatility of Borg nanoprobes means that they can be simply reprogrammed to perform a
variety of other duties, not just assimilate. Borg technology itself often incorporates
thousands of species’ advancements, so even the most simple salvage could provide a treasure of
valuable information. And finally, Borg implants can mostly be extracted again
with little permanent damage, providing they are seen to quickly, and even extensive alterations
can be undone. However, the longer the implants are present for, the more reliant
on them the drone becomes, and the harder to untangle they are form the original biology.
Thanks for watching this video on the assimilation process of the Borg, a nightmarish scenario to
be sure, and one I can completely believe still haunts people like Picard to this day. I’ll see
you next time for another lore, theory, gameplay or discussion video, I’ve been Ric, goodbye!