The Borg (short of "cyborg") should not be viewed as a race, in my opinion. These humanoid forms exist as half organic and half cybernetic creatures. They are "linked" through implants to the "hive mind" and use their link to communicate with their Queen and each other. She coordinates all activities of "The Collective" and she can hear (and distinguish) all of the Borg.
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The main goal of the Borg is to achieve PERFECTION. A noble goal, one would say, but the way the Borg is executing their thrive for perfection is far from humane: they "assimilate" new races through brute force and any resistance will be dealt with quickly and painfully.
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The Borg was founded about 15th C BC of our time in Delta Quadrant (Earth belongs to Alpha Quadrant). Their leader is the Queen, coming form the species 125, who is immediately "reborn" after her predecessor dies. The Collective travels mostly in Delta Quadrant assimilating new races: enhances existing biological structure through cybernetic implants without which the newly "born" creature cannot exist anymore. The implants are unique as unique the subjected individual is. The infamous announcement: " We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile" or "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and power down your weapons. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." means only one thing, within a few minutes you too will become a "drone".
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Chronilogically, the human race meets the Borg in 2063 when they travelled back from the 24th C to assimilate Earth before humans make the first contact with Extraterrestials (Vulcans). However, their attempt is stopped by the crew of the Starfleet's Enterprise and their captain, Jean-Luc Picard.
An official Starfleet file on Borg was opened sometime after El-Aurian refugees were encountered and delivered their story, around 2293. However, the Borg was able to continue their trips into the Alpha unnoticed and even assimilated Seven's parents and herself in 2356 (probably the first Terrans). In 2364 the Collective came into direct contact with the Starfleet and desroyed Romulan and Federation outposts.
With the Borg aware of humanity, the first attack on Earth and attempt to assimilate the whole race came in 2366 when the Hive kidnapped and assimilated Captain Picard (The Best of Both Worlds Part I and II). Second attack on Earth occured in 2373 (First Contact) when one single Borg cube with Queen aboard travelled back in time to 2063 to prevent Vulcans from noticing the first Earth's warp trip and thus preventing the creation of the Federation. They were unsuccessful thanks to Captain Picard again, who was able to hear and stop the Borg (his link to the Hive was still partially working after he was returned from the Collective).
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The Borg's activity is the Alpha Quadrant was then minimized, however they were still powerful in the Delta Quadrant. A major blow to the Borg occured in 2378 when the Collective had the last of many enounters with Voyager's Captain Janeway on her way home to Federation space. Since then there was no known attack on Starfleet or any Alpha Quadrant species (no new series, of course :)
Here is the list of species mentioned by Borg as assimilated:
- Species 116
- Species 125
- Species 149
- Species 180: Ferengi
- Species 218: Talaxians
- Species 259
- Species 262
- Species 263
- Species 312
- Species 329: Kazon
- Species 521: Shivolians
- Species 571
- Species 689: Norcadians
- Species 2461: Brunali
- Species 3259: Vulcans
- Species 4228: Hazari
- Species 5174
- Species 5618: Humans
- Species 5973
- Species 6291: Yridians
- Species 6339
- Species 6961: Ktarians
- Species 8472 Fluidic Space Race
- Species 10026
| When Borg meets a planet/starship/colony that they think is worth assimilating (means the people can actually bring something new into the Collective, so they can quicker achieve the perfection), the victims hear the Hive's motto and soon after that they get assimilated. How does it work? Well, each Borg drone is equipped with assimilation tubules (at the tip of their fingers) which extend and inject victim's body with nanoprobes: |  |
| The nanoprobes are injected into the victim's body and start working right away. Here is the picture of the nanoprobes assimilating the blood cells. | |
Victim's cells get assimilated thus hijacking most of internal systems. Once the victim is assimilated enough, nanoprobes start constructing internal implants which will be virtually impossible to remove past that stage. To achieve quick assimilation, nanoprobes replicate themselves after sufficient change of DNA and bone marrow. When the skin of a victim turnes grey (from the amount of nanoprobes in the bloodstream), he/she is taken to the assimilation pod to be worked on by drones. The victim is sedated at this point, and drones usually remove one arm to replace it witha robotic one, and also one eye is replaced with an ocular implant (and another pic). Other implants include and are not limited to neural processors, exo-plating, neural transceiver (planted in the upper spinal column, makes it possible for the future Borg drone to communicate with the rest of Collective). The effect of the neural transceiver is so overwhelming to the person's psychic that we can consider him/her as almost fully assimilated and unrecoverable. Once these implants are in place, nanoprobes alter the neural pathways of the victim and a new drone is born.
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If you want to see Borg regenerating in their alcoves, then it is here and here. |
A drone does not need nutrition as they recharge their bodies in so called "alcoves", which are subject to direct power conversion.
There are quite a few Borg that do come back in episodes of Star Trek, and movies: Borg Queen, Hugh (Third of Five), Icheb, Locutus (since Picard was recovered, Locutus does not exist as such anymore, but is referenced often), and Seven of Nine.
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