Borg Sourcebook

[Tzeentch]

Well they don't get ALL of their members through assimilation. They probably use the females "off screen" as breeding stock except for those exceptional ones (or mutants not suited for breeding use).

After all, come on, Jerri Ryan was just too CUTE to be a good borg breeder.

[Cochrane]

Maybe the Borg are sexist and alter most of their drones ever so slightly?

[SIR SIG]

With propagation the Borg assimilate kids and even month old babies. They then chuck'em into maturation chambers and presto! you've got a Borg adult (mileage can vary).
Thats not to say they dont breed but I would think that as inefficient against assimilating kids.
And then the fact that can assimilated extreme age and bypass the effects with tech!

Need I say more

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Owen E Oulton]

Actually, we've seen a lot of female Borg. The costume tends to hide the breasts, and of course the face is heavily covered in makeup.

The first female Borg is seen in the original TNG Borg episode. When Riker et alia beam aboard the cube, a Borg steps around them. Look closely and you'll see she has breasts. Any scene which shows "de-assimilated" Borg usually is 50/50 male-female.

[calguard66]

Originally posted by SIR SIG:
With propagation the Borg assimilate kids and even month old babies. They then chuck'em into maturation chambers and presto! you've got a Borg adult (mileage can vary).
Thats not to say they dont breed but I would think that as inefficient against assimilating kids.
And then the fact that can assimilated extreme age and bypass the effects with tech!

Need I say more

The risk of resource loss during a forced assimilation would make using forced assimilation "inefficient". I assume the Borge would use this method on "targets of opportunity" (ie: lone starships), on members of species recently conquered, or on beings who had specialized knowlege or skills the Borg needed (ie: Picard).

Remember the infant Borg Picard found? A single human female has several thousand eggs... and of course males produce millions of sperm in a lifetime. Assuming that a large number of the galaxy's species are similar, the most efficient method for the Borg to reproduce would be in-vitro <test-tube babies>.

Incubation could go either way. If we assume the Borg have some sort of early-maturity technology (no evidence of this, btw) then mechanical wombs might exist. However, why waste the resources when you have thousands <millions?> of perfectly suitable organic wombs walking around? The period of time when a pregnant female is physically unable to perform any useful function is quite low... a few days on either side... with Borg "enhancements" probably only a few hours.

Feeding these infants wouldn't pose a problem either... for every organic womb, you have two organic infant-formula synthesizers. With Borg nano-technology production could be increased signifigantly over the natural level of output... (that would explain Seven's... physique )...
and with hormone therapy every female could produce, not just the recently pregnant ones.

Hmmm... breastmilk is also highly concentrated, nutritious... is easy for a less-than-fully-developed digestive tract to handle (or a digestive tract that has been surgically simplified)... the perfect source of organic nutrients for the organic portions of Borg bodies. It can be mechanicly harvested and stored for a reasonable period of time.

Wouldn't it be funny to learn that the Collective's primary source or organic nutrition was breastmilk?

Based on the above, I would assume Seven (and other Borg female drones) is sterile (all her eggs having been removed), that her mammary glands are functional... if not overly-functional (perhaps the Doctor reversed that for her)... that she has likely served as reproductive "host" on several occasions (I would assume implant of a fetus once every 12 months since the age of 16 or so)... and that she has several (perhaps hundreds) of "children" (genetic relatives) within the Borg Collective.

The above isn't very PC... but perhaps figuring out how an organization like the Borg Collective would REALLY work (as opposed to how such things are ignored or glossed over for the viewing public) makes them even more inhuman... and perhaps truely "evil".

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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[Anomaly]

Originally posted by mactavish:
Why do the Borg assimilate new drones rather than reproduce in a seuxal manner? It's faster, less time consuming, and most of all it's scary.

Less messy, too!

[Cmdr Powers]

Originally posted by calguard66:

Feeding these infants wouldn't pose a problem either... for every organic womb, you have two organic infant-formula synthesizers. With Borg nano-technology production could be increased signifigantly over the natural level of output... (that would explain Seven's... physique )...
and with hormone therapy every female could produce, not just the recently pregnant ones.

Hmmm... breastmilk is also highly concentrated, nutritious... is easy for a less-than-fully-developed digestive tract to handle (or a digestive tract that has been surgically simplified)... the perfect source of organic nutrients for the organic portions of Borg bodies. It can be mechanicly harvested and stored for a reasonable period of time.

Wouldn't it be funny to learn that the Collective's primary source or organic nutrition was breastmilk?

Based on the above, I would assume Seven (and other Borg female drones) is sterile (all her eggs having been removed), that her mammary glands are functional... if not overly-functional (perhaps the Doctor reversed that for her)... that she has likely served as reproductive "host" on several occasions (I would assume implant of a fetus once every 12 months since the age of 16 or so)... and that she has several (perhaps hundreds) of "children" (genetic relatives) within the Borg Collective.

The above isn't very PC... but perhaps figuring out how an organization like the Borg Collective would REALLY work (as opposed to how such things are ignored or glossed over for the viewing public) makes them even more inhuman... and perhaps truely "evil".

Out of all the ideas that I've seen concerning the Borg, the above is perhaps the most ... autre, bizarre, strange ... you get my drift. It's almost certainly not the way the Borg operate- but it would make for a heck of an interesting hook for an adventure. Perhaps this idea could be used for another- heretofore unknown race?

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"The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank" -Montgomery Scott

[Karg]

Actually Mactavich, they are forced grown. The episode with the borg children was on the other night, and 7 of 9 stated "I was placed into a maturation chamber for 5 years until i was fully matured."

Karg

[mactavish]

Are you sure about that? On another, older episode, Seven of Nine claimed that she was placed in a maturation chamber until age 18. I can't remember the exact episode, but I am pretty certain of this fact.

Besides which, the S.S. Raven set out to study the Borg before the Enterprise ever encountered it, and that was certainly more than five years before Voyager encountered Seven of Nine. More like about 12 years... and considering that Annika was taken at approximately age 6, this calculation makes more sense.

Icheb was assmiliated as a boy and was found years (?) later (after time in a maturation chamber) still not fully developed. I believe that, upon his return home, Icheb's parents claimed that he'd been gone for some time (though I don't know how specific they were).

Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong.

mactavish out.

[SIR SIG]

I think the Borg kids were actually assimilated at young ages. Thus they don't need 18 years worth of growth.
And your right, I was taking my primary source from 'One' which had 29th Century tech. Sorry!

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Cochrane]

What's the point of those maturation tanks if they don't speed up maturation? Why would one think that when Seven showed up she was 18 and fresh from the tanks? It seems to me that the tanks double growth speed.

It would be weird to see a pregnant Borg running around a cube, but if there are pregnant Borg, all the breeding takes place on assimilated planets.

And what's this talk of "forced" assimilation? Is there any other kind?

[mactavish]

I'm not sure who here used the term "forced assimilation" first, but I liked it so I stole... er... borrowed it.

I guess that you could consider voluntary assimilation as the antithesis of forced assimilation, but I just can't picture an entire race lining up to become one with the Borg on their own.

The reason that the Borg use the maturation chamber is NOT to speed up the maturation of a young drone; it is merely to keep it out of the way and immobile while the body grows to full maturity at which point the assimilation is essentially complete. I'd think that a.) the Collective doesn't want drones that are permanently stunted in childlike bodies, and b.) if the young drones are allowed to grow naturally, their bodies might conceivably reject the implants, outgrow them, or whatever.

Finally, when the neo-natal drones are in the maturation chambers, they are continually programmed with Borg dogma so that when they emerge, they, like Seven of Nine, belong wholly to the Collective.

Remember the various episodes with drones released from the hive? All of the ones that I can remember were assimilated as adults and when they are severed from the Collective, their original personalities begin to reassert themselves. Drones raised in maturation chambers by the Borg know of no other life and are more likely to voluntarily return to the COllective.

So, because of these "facts," I say that (in my Series) the Borg maturation chambers are "real time" in their aging of drones and that they are used to fully integrate youngsters into the ways of the Collective, to make sure that they remain Borg drones as they develop, and keep them out from under foot while keeping them firmly under the hive's collective thumb (no pun intended).

If you want to have Borg wet nurses and surrogate breeders, by all means... that's some pretty dark stuff. If you want to have your Collective hyperaccelerate the aging of their drones, please do so. I prefer to use the Collective as a mindless juggernaut just doing what the programming tells it to do: assimilate biological and technological stuff to make the Collective bigger and better. My Borg have no time for such things as sexual reproduction; it's beneath them.

Hey, that's their loss!

mactavish out.

[Cochrane]

so how about if Borg do not mature at all outside of the chambers?

[SIR SIG]

Do drones actually age once fully assimilated?
And I think 18 yrs is a bit long. I would accelerate growth but no where near the speed of 'One's'.

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[calguard66]

Originally posted by mactavish:
It has been noted on multiple occasions that the Borg do not reproduce in this fashion. Seven of Nine has said as much in at least one episode.

<SNIP>

These technologies are unavailable to the Collective. They do not procreate sexually; they do not lay eggs; they do not implant embryos in hosts. They assimilate using advanced nanotechnologies and surgical procedures.

Why do the Borg assimilate new drones rather than reproduce in a seuxal manner? It's faster, less time consuming, and most of all it's scary.

Is this canon material? Mainly. Is it all absolutely 100% certified Star Trek information? No. Take it for what it's worth.

mactavish out.

Well... Seven said something to the effect that Borg don't have sex... she didn't actually say that assimilation was the only way they "reproduce"... tho I admit that's what was implied.

If the Borg used both techniques they would aquire drones that much faster.

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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[This message has been edited by calguard66 (edited 12-21-2000).]