We Will be Assimilated

On the rare ocassion that I get socially concious, I try to make some form of social comment in the context of my Trek game.

I'm thinking of running a game commenting on religious cults and I have this "evil" idea that there is a group out there who believes that assimilation by the Borg is the road to nirvana (don't ask me why...cults do not come with rationale explanations). Anyhow, these cultists have hijacked an experimental transwarp capable ship and want to use her to reach the Delta Quadrant and be assimilated by the Borg. The PCs of course have to get the ship back and figure out how to deal with these cultists...does the Federation's guarantees of religious freedoms extend to them...do we let them commit suicide...or do we stop them...how do you do it without creating a constitutional fracas?

Comments?

Sounds like a pretty good episode, actually. Here you have a group of idiots determined to commit suicide, and you have to stop them without huting them or getting killed yourself. Not bad.

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Originally posted by Aedh Rua
Sounds like a pretty good episode, actually. Here you have a group of idiots determined to commit suicide, and you have to stop them without huting them or getting killed yourself. Not bad.

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But suppose they're not idiots?

Consider:
A small group of very powerful psionicists, already linked together
by prolonged telepathic contact. They're hungry for even more
power, and supremely confident of their abilities. Sure, they're
going to throw themselves at the Borg -- but only so they can
turn the entire Borg Collective into a mighty mental amplifier,
to boost their existing powers and do their bidding.

Why stop these people?
Because if they're not stopped, either (a) their plan will succeed,
and they will use the Borg to wield godlike powers, (b) their plan
will fail, and creating powerful psionic Borg, capable of initiating
the assimilation process without any direct physical contact,
via telepathy! Yikes!

So...
The scenario could begin as a case of "saving the idiots from
themselves," until the player characters figure out what is really
going on, and then full horror of the situation dawns upon them...

That is a pretty cool wrinkle, actually. Right, you go into it thinking that you are going to be dealing with a group of flakes, harmless to everyone but themselves, and discover the Psionic Cabal. Heck of a surprise.

I can see it now...our telepathic Betazoid counselor gets sucked into the group mind and becomes part of the cult...WE WILL BE ASSIMILATED...eerie...

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Originally posted by ghosty
I can see it now...our telepathic Betazoid counselor gets sucked into the group mind and becomes part of the cult...WE WILL BE ASSIMILATED...eerie...

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Let's raise the stakes a little bit:
The psionicists haven't stolen an experimental starship with a
transwarp drive, they've hijacked a passenger liner, or perhaps a
colonization vessel. A big, slow, unarmed ship, with lots and lots
of innocent bystanders aboard. The Borg aren't, however, that
far away. There's a Borg outpost of some kind fairly nearby, or
the end of a transwarp conduit. Run the scenario as a mystery,
rather than as a chase. Since the player characters can intercept
the psionicists fairly easily (their ship is neither fast, nor stealthy),
the fun will be in figuring out who they are, what they want, and
how they intend to go about getting it.

A few plot-twists:
The psionicists are very powerful. Grabbing their ship with a
tractor beam, knocking down its puny shields, and beaming over
a boarding party just will irritate them (the unfortunate red-shirts
involved will end up being telepathically dominated or simply
hurled against the bulkheads with psychokinesis until they
resemble chunky salsa). At least some of the innocent bystanders
may be suffering from a telepathically-induced version of the
"Stockholm Syndrome," and will resist being "rescued." The
psionicists have, furthermore, no intention of allowing the Borg
to assimilate the innocent bystanders -- they're not that
evil, and (from a purely pragmatic point of view) once they have
taken control of the Borg Collective from within, a few hundred
more drones won't have a significant impact upon their power.
Of course, if the player characters see the psionicists as "deluded
cultists," they may not believe them, when they say that
they have no intention of harming the passengers...

There was an early Trek novel something along these lines...I think it might have been Triangle, but I'm not sure. It was about these cultists who were into a "group mind" thing and weren't above "assimilating" others into their cult.

What if ...

... our 'cultists' only embarked upon their quest after the Borg assimilated a colony/ship/planet with one of their members aboard/resident. Although the assimilation process destroys much of the concept of identity, they found they could nonetheless access the collective and seemingly influence it.

But it's an illusion. The expanded sensory perceptions are only because the Borg allow that data to be filtered through to the 'cultists'. Selective targeting? Who cares - we are the Borg. You will be assimilated. If a telepath wants to volunteer a hapless colony, that's fine by the Borg.

So you could be faced with the cultists thinking they can direct the Borg, that they will attain great power - even planting some of their members on the selected targets to introduce them into the collective.

Everything seems to be going as planned ...

... and then the cultists discover they CAN'T direct the Collective, that their 'expanded perceptions' were a sham, that the members they've introduced into the Collective are truly and totally lost.

Do they come clean to the Captain? Do they try to fix it on their own? Do they hug their knees and kiss their backsides goodbye?



Bob

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Originally posted by Robert Lai
What if ...

... our 'cultists' only embarked upon their quest after the Borg assimilated a colony/ship/planet with one of their members aboard/resident. Although the assimilation process destroys much of the concept of identity, they found they could nonetheless access the collective and seemingly influence it.

But it's an illusion. The expanded sensory perceptions are only because the Borg allow that data to be filtered through to the 'cultists'. Selective targeting? Who cares - we are the Borg. You will be assimilated. If a telepath wants to volunteer a hapless colony, that's fine by the Borg.

So you could be faced with the cultists thinking they can direct the Borg, that they will attain great power - even planting some of their members on the selected targets to introduce them into the collective.

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So is it a new Borg strategy for expansion? Instead of forcibly assimilating worlds, they influence the world so that they want to be assimilated. The extend the psionic powers of the psyhic "drone" and sets him loose to recruit others into his Borg cult with promises of great powers to come if they are assimilated. I like it...

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Everything seems to be going as planned ...

... and then the cultists discover they CAN'T direct the Collective, that their 'expanded perceptions' were a sham, that the members they've introduced into the Collective are truly and totally lost.

Do they come clean to the Captain? Do they try to fix it on their own? Do they hug their knees and kiss their backsides goodbye?

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Given that this is Star Trek, it'll probably be one of the technoweenies on the crew who figures it out, maybe even the telepathic counselor who had joined the Cult as an undercover operative. The climax is when the Captain has a tell all confrontation with the cult leader who finally realises his mistake and cuts off contact with the Borg except that the Borg aren't happy about this obviously and come to claim their prize...how's this for a Borg adventure...no more direct confrontations with the Federation which they seem to have a tendency to loose so why not try a more subtle for of assimilation. The Borg can appear to the an unstoppable force of nautre but you can hardly say that they do not lack subtlety on some level when it is called for. The Borg Queen shows amazing abilities to change tactics so why not this one. I think the PCs are in for an interesting time.

Since we're discussing the sinister new Borg strategy of making droneism appealing, I highly reccomend this comic:
http://angryflower.com/borg27.gif

This is a rather good story idea, I may use it as an episode of my own. How about this; the cultists do succeed in getting to the Borg, however they reach the Borg rebels. Now some of the cult members are taken in by these insurgents while others refuse to go and actually join the real collective.

This way the PC's have an extra difficulty, some of the cultists actually do full-heartedly believe that they have taken the right choice. Maybe some decide to be "freedom fighters" for the Borg rebels.

One qc: How would this episode end ?; are the cultists exercising their political freedoms OR are they fruity and completely nuts?

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Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
One qc: How would this episode end ?; are the cultists exercising their political freedoms OR are they fruity and completely nuts?

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Isn't this where we came in?

The problem with the Federation is that if they believe in freedom and self determination as Picard declared in Best of Both Worlds, then if these fruitcakes want to be assimilated by the Borg that's their problem.

But obviously as Starfleet officers the PCs can't let Federation citizens commit suicide so they'll have to find some way to talk them out of giving themselves to the Borg...usually a proud and noble speech about the evil of the Borg and how in exercising hteir freedom they are giving it up to the collective...you know a Captain Picard moment...will probably do it. If not, all I can say is PHASERS ON DISINTERGRATE:)

Hmm.
I had just finished watching first contact (for the uknownth time) awhile before reading this and there is something that people havent brought up yet.
These cultists want to freely give themselves to the borg, Isn't there a dialog between the queen and picard about giving yourself freely to the borg.

She wanted Picard to freely give himself to the borg so she could have a counter part, someone who could bridge the gap between humanity and the borg (If I'm remembering this right).

So if you give yourself freely do you really loose all your identity
or maybe just a little bit of it.

( OR is all this a bunch of hooey at 4:22 am)

There is no morality speech here:

"You give yourself to the Borg, you become a drone, in every sense of the word. You loose your individualtiy, and you become the enemy. Phasers!!" ;)

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Originally posted by wolfe
Hmm.
I had just finished watching first contact (for the uknownth time) awhile before reading this and there is something that people havent brought up yet.
These cultists want to freely give themselves to the borg, Isn't there a dialog between the queen and picard about giving yourself freely to the borg.

She wanted Picard to freely give himself to the borg so she could have a counter part, someone who could bridge the gap between humanity and the borg (If I'm remembering this right).

So if you give yourself freely do you really loose all your identity
or maybe just a little bit of it.

( OR is all this a bunch of hooey at 4:22 am)

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Yes it is a bunch of hooey at 4.22 am...sleep deprevation and exhaustion can do that to you.

IMHO the Borg Queen's offer to Picard in First Contact was a unique one-time offer. She wanted an equal, a mate so to speak to rule the Collective mind in which she is the only individual and the person (a Borg King for want of a better term) she chose was Picard (Locutus). I don't think a random group of screwballs will be accorded such preferential treatment.

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The problem with the Federation is that if they believe in freedom and self determination as Picard declared in Best of Both Worlds, then if these fruitcakes want to be assimilated by the Borg that's their problem.

But obviously as Starfleet officers the PCs can't let Federation citizens commit suicide

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That's not the Federation's problem, it's the Federation's STRENGTH. As Starfleet officers, the PCs are bound to let Federation citizens make their own choices about their lives. If they are tibetean monks self-immolating themselves to show the depths of their desire for peace, or are fruitcakes who want to escape their troubles by joining the Borg, Starfleet officers should in theory let them. The only argument preventing the latter might be that as Borg drones, they'd endanger others, and that has to be prevented. But if the argument is phrased as preventing someone from comitting suicide, there's nothing obvious about it. Naturally it is undesirable to have people commit suicide, and the Federation would offer (but not force) councellors, help of all sorts, and all the super-science social tools (remember, Trek's most useful advances is not things like warp drive and transporters so much as to social tools required to have a near-utopian society). That's a good adventure right there.

When I say problem I don't mean it in a negative sense. I'm just saying that its one of the moral dilemnas that the PCs will face when they confront this scenairo. They must respect the rights of Federation citizens but they have to balance it with their own moral code...do "rights" give people the right to kill themselves or virtually doing it anyway...by being assimilated, the personality is completely subsumed and hence the person is "dead".

Suicide is illegal in most nations although suicides are rarely prosecuted because they are usually mentally unstable anyway...and counselling is mandatory not voluntary.

Anyway the point is that the PCs have to make the cultists see the error of their ways without a blatant violation of a citizen's fundamental rights.

Might not the cultists defection be seen as treason? Perhaps not if they're all civies, but if any of them have Starfleet tactical plans or are high ranking psionicists with various orgs, the PC's might be tasked with stopping their attempt to align with the enemy.

Furthermore, if the Borg had any use (or application) of psionics would we have not seen something of that sort before? (I'm almost certain they'd have assimilated a psionic species before the Enterprise encountered them). The cultists most certainly could be attracted to the "one-mind" ideal, but I doubt the Borg would have a use for them. They'd probably chuck out the organ responsible for psionics as useless or something...

Do the Borg have any use for psionics? Who knows...probably not.

But on the other hand, who's to say that the hive mind isn't based on some form of machine driven telepathy or began as some form of telepathy. It could be that the original race that spawned the Borg (lets not start) were telepathic and the group mind was responsible for them becoming the Borg. Don't ask how...its just one of those things in Trek that defy all attempts to rationalize coherently.

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Suicide is illegal in most nations although suicides are rarely prosecuted

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...beceause they're _dead_.

A century ago it was not legal in most nations for women to vote, but that didn't mean that's how the Federation is. The legal status of things in early 21st century Earth isn't the 24th Century Federation.

If it's one thing we've seen time and time again is the the Federation allows personal choice. I agree with you- becoming a drone would make one effectively dead (although it is possible to be rescued. Wether one is dead in the eyes of the Law might be a suitable court episode in itself. But me personally, I agree with that part). But in the Federation, it seems logical to what we've seen so far that rights (don't put them in quotes) and civil liberties in the Federation would allow people to kill themselves, even though we vehlmently disagree with that choice.

How about the terminally ill - does Federation law require Kirk to have to turn McCoy in for what McCoy revealed in the flashback in STV (that is, respecting his father's wishes to end his pain by turning off the life support - and tragically a cure for his condition was found too late) ? And remember we're dealing with the Federation here. All their laws have to apply to aliens across the galaxy. If there's a race which dies as a result of reproducing, are Federation laws going to require them to stop because it's suicide for them to have sex? Obviously not.

The episode still stands well - clearly the characters will want to convince the crackpots not to comitt suicide. But they can't just say, "it's against the law to comitt suicide.", stun them, and end the confrontation. That would violate the crackpot's civil rights. Now, you *might* be able to do so under the argument, "that would be aiding and abeting the Borg Collective."

The Federation is lucky in it's near-utopian position, in that it's a lot easier to maintain near-utopia than to create it. They've solved the problems that drive people to suicide - it must be almost unheard of. So there would be no reason to make it illegal.

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Originally posted by Pope
Might not the cultists defection be seen as treason? Perhaps not if they're all civies, but if any of them have Starfleet tactical plans or are high ranking psionicists with various orgs, the PC's might be tasked with stopping their attempt to align with the enemy.

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Civilians can commit treason just as easily as uniformed personnel... my personal example is Jane Fonda.

In any case, giving aid, comfort, or material assistance to the enemy... or acts in furtherance of those goals... would constitute treason in the US.

A treason investigation would likely give a starfleet officer wider latitude for action. There is clearly at least the _possibility_ of treason, so even if a starfleet officer didn't think he could make the treason charges stick, he could use that as an excuse to disrupt the attempt long enough for it to fail.

I once ran a similar adventure called Virus which was about some Bynars who had been separated from their network because they got insane. Since their mental disorder was able to infect others over the network their connection had been cut off.
The four infected Bynars had no possibility to re-establish their link to the rest of their species they developed a plan to join an other network; guess which one.
They hired some Nausicaans to steal some intact debris from Wolf 359 to find a way to contact the Borg.
Fortunately the players arrived just in time to prevent them from sending their message.

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Originally posted by ghosty
Do the Borg have any use for psionics? Who knows...probably not.

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The Borg are always eager for new knowledge and technology.
They haven't, thus far, taken psionic power particularly seriously,
because they've been able to solve most of their problems
through engineering and pure brute force (techniques that
they've already spent a lot of time and energy developing). On
the other hand, they're also a pragmatic bunch, and if a powerful
tool, fully developed and ready for use, falls into their hands,
they'd be sure to use it.

"Borg-plus-Psionics" could be very scary.
Infiltration and subversion. "Covert quasi-drones," linked to the
Collective by telepathy, rather than implanted subspace radio
transceivers. The rather Faustian "Borg-augmented sorcerer,"
a "semi-assimilated" psionicist, who retains enough individuality
to operate in normal humanoid society, but whose mental powers
are greatly "boosted" (via a telepathic link) by a "hidden chorus"
of fully-assimilated "psi-drones" ("pay no attention to the
cyborgs behind that curtain").

At the risk of sounding dreadfully heretical, the "Chaos" and
"Genestealer" cults of G. D. W.'s "Warhammer 40,000" universe
might be inspirational.

The "Borg-plus-Psionics" would be a nightmare for the happy,
freedom-loving, utopian Federation.

Cue music from Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I:
"The Inquisition, what a show... the Inquisition, here we go...
I know you're wishing that we'd go away... But the Inquisition's
here and it's here to stay!"

I just thought of a possibility for the PC's. Now the cultists want to join the collective which they say is exercising their Rights and Freedoms. Now the PC's cannot in good conscious let them commit suicide, and it would also be a breach of security.

The Federation must have an overruling section which suspends your right to promote 'peace, order and good gov't' or somethin' along those lines. Now a charter of Rights And Freedoms must state that no part of the charter may be used to suspend or take away a right or freedom from within the charter. The PC's therefore are allowed to overrule their right basing their decision on the cultists willingness to commit suicide. This constitutes a crime as mentioned in a previous post, meaning, that their right to self-determination/freedom of choice is overruled by their right to life.

This is a purely a legal understanding of the problem and some PC's may just decide that the Phaser is mightier than the Pen.

I'm definitely going to run this by my players and see what they do. Great Thread:D

Interesting constitutional point. I doubt that officers can just suspend the rights and freedoms written into the Articles of Federation without a Court order of some sort. If you allow that sort of thing, it'll be a short road to a police state.

Although they could justify their act of violating the rights of Federation citizens, they'll still have to answer for it before a court marital.

To clarify, suicide is a crime (so anyone who attempts suicide can be prosecuted) and anyone who aids and abets a suicide is also liable for prosecution. No matter how utopian a society somethings will remain crimes. Murder is still murder and well suicide is nothing less than murder of oneself. On the McCoy issue, relatives of persons on life support machines can ask that they be turned off and McCoy is a doctor who is legally enitled to do so.

The cultists could have seen or read some of the reports about Seven, the borg-kids, or Hugh, or other ex-Borg (there have to be more than just those we've seen)... and figure they had something wonderful. People can be pretty odd about what they consider "better" than their current state: imagine how being a part of the collective might look to people who never managed to succeed at anything - washed out of Starfleet Academy, failed the Merchant Marine test - the Borg Collective is a place where everyone knows everything, and everyone is competant...

The Doc

Sorry MB, the cultists aren't attracted to the independent Borg but the collective "evil Borg" that has terrorised the Federation since the 2nd Season of TNG.

Further I'd think that much of the info about Seven, Hugh and other independent Borg are classified so high that only select individual admirals and the President of the UFP would have sight of them. The "normal" collective Borg would be public information because of incidents like Wolf 359 and the 2nd Borg incursion from First Contact.

As a real twist:

During the pursuit of the cultists, something goes wrong with their transwarp drive and plunges them tens of thousands of years into the past, where they start the Borg Collective! Now do the PCs interfere, knowing what a vast alteration it would make to the timeline?

BTW: What's the deal on Jane Fonda being a traitor? I've never heard anything about her that could be construed as such (though those aerobics videos should be a hanging offence...). :)

Please no more time travel twists. I like time travel twists but they just throw far too many spanners into the works making the scenario unplayable.

On the issue of Jane Fonda I think Cal is referring to incidents during the Vietnam War when Jane Fonda gave aid and comfort to North Vietnam as an anti-war protest. I don't recall her being tried for treason but there was an incredible backlash at the time.

Looking at the suicide issue firstly if the particular culture condones suicide (Klingons for an example), then the Federation or Starfleet cannot intefere (Prime Directive) but then if asked they will not actively participate.

Remember Riker's objections to Worf's request to participate in Worf's suicide after he was paralyzed.