Borg Queen
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- For the mirror universe counterpart, see Borg King.
- "I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg." - Borg Queen to Commander Data.
The Borg Queen is the apparent leader of the Borg Collective. Throughout the history of the Borg there have been a number of queens who seem to take on the same character, perhaps indicating the Queen is a persona within the collective which could, in theory, occupy any drone.
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[edit] Creation
There are a number of theories as to how the Borg Queen came into being:
[edit] Destiny
A species known as the Caeliar lived on the planet Erigol, having long ago harnessed claytronic atoms, programmable matter able to be controlled via a hive mentality. The Caeliar dedicated their lives to a Great Work, hoping to find the next evolutionary step for them. However, a deliberately malicious feedback pulse destabilized their Work and their solar system, forcing the evacuation of their cities. One of the cities, Mantilis was thrown through a subspace tunnel into the far past. The few Earth Starfleet officers who survived decided to make their living separate from the Caeliar, but were eventually forced to return. One Caeliar remained alive, Sedín, who merged with the three remaining humans, one of whom was Kiona Thayer who became the precursor to the first Borg Queen. (ST - Destiny novels: Gods of Night, Lost Souls)
[edit] The Beginning
The Borg Queen was subject of a world which had been struck down by a deadly disease which was slowly killing much of the population. The scientists on the planet developed bio-organic regenerators, a nanotechnology which would be injected into a subject's circulatory system, eradicate the disease and rebuild the patients crippled body. The Queen to be, in very ill health, was selected to be the subject of the first experiment. It was successful in eliminating the disease but also began to change her, making her stronger than ever before, replacing her broken body with technology and giving her drive and determination to share her gift with others and make them as perfect as her superior self had become. The establishment attempted to resist but the Queen was not willing to let herself be destroyed and instinctively used the nanoprobes to assimilate others. She quickly lead her drones in assimilating the entire planet and set to work to spread her gift to the rest of the galaxy. (Strange New Worlds VI short story: "The Beginning")
[edit] Side Effects
Alternatively: The Borg Queen was originally a woman named Danzek, (or Asil*), who was the daughter of a scientist named Mynzek. Mynzek, with the aim of finding a cure for a terrible disease established a research base near the event horizon of a black hole. He sent ships out via a series of wormholes to capture subjects and run experiments on them in the search for a cure. Using the gravitational time dilation effect of the black hole he could coordinate centuries of research being conducted on the ships which for those on the base took only days. Danzek was the guinea pig for these experiments on one ship, integrated with technology and biological components from numerous races she became powerful and returned to the station controlling a group of drone like test subjects. After a brief confrontation the station was destroyed, Danzek, queen of her subjects escaped through a wormhole, which thanks to the temporal distortion generated by the exploding station could have sent here anywhere in space and time. (TOS comic: "Side Effects")
- The short story "Forgotten Light" offers another version of the Borg's creation but not one in which the queen was the catalyst for change, it is possible that Sivdar, the leader of the technologists, a group who pushed for the technology which created the Borg in this story could have taken on the role of Borg Queen. Asil was her unofficial name, according to Star Trek: Voyager Companion.
[edit] Legacy
Another origin: The Vulcan Commander T'Uerell engaged in a mind meld with the Borg and discovered that the Collective was created by the probe V'Ger to serve as its heralds. During the Collective's development, it was discovered that females of certain species possessed a mental prowess and were capable of siftng through the endless amounts of information. These would become the first Borg Queens. However, the development of the Queen resulted in an entity that sought its own objectives and eventually abandoned the goals set forth by V'Ger. (ST video game: Legacy)
[edit] Purpose
The Queen appears to lead the Borg, having total control over the entire collective, however it is possible she acts as a figure head, a voice for the Collective much like Locutus. When it appears she is ordering the collective she may simply be enacting the collective's will. As the Queen is also part of the collective it may be possible she stands in the mid ground, part of collective decision but filtering out the best ideas herself, bringing "order to chaos". (TNG movie & novelization: Star Trek: First Contact, et al.)
- "The Beginning" and "Side Effects" would seem to indict the Queen is purely a leader, however "Forgotten Light" shows the Collective developing with equality, and the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy depicted a driving force behind the Queen.
[edit] History
By 2375 the Borg Queen was a member of Species 125. (VOY episode: "Dark Frontier")
- Assuming the Borg designated their progenitor race Species 0 or 1 this would seem to indicate by this time the Queen had been replaced at least once.
The 2380's would see two different Queens. The first was created aboard a Borg Cube in Sector 10. The creation process was, however, halted by the crew of the USS Enterprise-E a short time after coming online. (TNG novel: Resistance) Later, the Borg would capture and assimilate Admiral Kathryn Janeway - making her into a replacement Queen. She would be destroyed after being infected by Project: Endgame. (TNG novel: Before Dishonor)
A new Borg Queen was created, and as soon as she emerged from her chrysalis, she had two objectives - destroy Earth and crush the Federation. Since the Borg believed that they could no longer gain anything by assimilating Earth, they would instead destroy it; thus, the Collective launched their invasion in 2381, and the new Borg Queen utilized the connection to the former drone Locutus to taunt him. She also oversaw the invasion forces, moving between vessels and not allowing former drone Seven of Nine to lock onto her position. Due to the former Earth Starfleet Captain Erika Hernandez being infused with Caeliar catoms, she was able to listen in on the Borg Collective and locate the Queen as she led an armada to attack the planet Deneva. Noting the similarities between the voice of the collective and the Caeliar gestalt, Hernandez and the USS Aventine attacked and boarded a Borg scout craft to secure its vinculum to control the Collective via Hernandez. Although Hernandez was able to cause the collective to turn on itself for a short period, the Queen transferred her presence to that ship and assaulted the remaining crew, and regained control of her forces, causing them to sleep and regenerate quickly. After the Caeliar city ship of Axion came to the Azure Nebula to lure the invading Borg Collective there with its Omega molecule generator, the Queen overrode all other objectives and had the entire fleet move to the nebula. Once there, Hernandez presented herself for assimilation to act as a link between the Caeliar and the Queen, allowing them to reach past and find the remains of Sedín, which they dissolved along with the Collective. (ST - Destiny novels: Gods of Night, Mere Mortals, Lost Souls)
[edit] Connections
- Borg Queen article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
