That time the Rozies met the Borg
Jan. 28th, 2019 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
general_radixWelp, wanting to grab more old Trek figures eventually reminded me of that crossover idea I had between (part of) Trek and Marathon. Old musings on the subject can be found here, here, and here (old art alert); the following involves the same basic premise after I spent about half an hour mentally rewriting the smaller details.
About ten years prior to this scenario, Yrro comes across a bizarre cuboid ship and tries to investigate. Cube has defenses far stronger than what his '99 Toyota Corolla-equivalent ship can handle, and by the time he maneuvers into a safer position, the cube has split. Yrro is rather concerned, but he doesn't see or hear of it for months, and eventually puts it out of mind.
Present day: Durandal notices an odd signal and wants to check it out, thinking it originates from Jjaro tech; as soon as the Rozinante gets within range, a bunch of pale, greebly, half-mechanical guys teleport into the bridge and introduce themselves as the Borg. The Rozie is full of technology and other things they aren't familiar with and they want a look around.
Even without knowing what the Borg are, Vince is more than a little put off by the idea of these techno-zombies roaming the ship, but unlike Durandal and Cortana who immediately go into high alert, he figures that if they give the Borg their desired tour, they'll leave without incident and the Rozies can get the hell away from that mystery signal.
Commence tour. The Borg seem slightly annoyed that they can't actually take anything and have to make do with scans, but everything goes well...right up until one of them tells Vince, "Hey, it seems like whoever augmented you didn't complete the job, because our readings indicate that you're still XX% organic; we can fix that for you." [Not in that exact tone, obviously.]
It dawns on Vince that maybe Durandal and Cortana were right to be alarmed. "Uh, no thanks, I'm fine the way I am."
"No, really. We insist." The Borg grab him by the arms and beam out.
The source of the signal vanishes, and Durandal and Cortana don't see Vince again for a week. They can't track down the Borg, there's no communications from Vince, Durandal is teetering on the edge of a breakdown--
And then Vince teleports back out of the blue, but is so distraught that he rushes to his quarters without saying a word to either sibling.
That night, Durandal works up the courage to knock on Vince's door, and is let in; he finally sees what's happened and tears up.
Vince put up a good fight, but ultimately left without his right arm; his original augmentations were integrated into the replacement the Borg gave him to minimize the chance of rejection, but that's of little comfort.
If there's any upside to this, it's that Vince was able to swipe a decent amount of data in his efforts to evade or talk down the Borg; from this, the Rozies are able to determine that the Borg operate on a hive mind, among various other details like sector maps and the like. Vince doesn't really care; he just wants to ram the Cube so full of missiles that it stops existing on the physical plane.
Realizing how outmatched the Rozinante is against the Borg, Durandal opts to call Yrro for assistance. Yrro isn't enthused to be dealing with the Borg again, but his complaints peter off when Vince reveals what's been done to him.
Eventually, Yrro determines that the nexus of the hive mind lies in the Cube's on-board AI, which from the readings appears to be completely and utterly alien; he wants this AI extracted for study, after which point he assures Vince that he can destroy the Cube if he still wants to.
--
After a long, drawn-out battle, a new complication arises in that the Borg AI is not only capable of infesting any systems it's transferred to (as Yrro discovers the hard way and has to frantically reverse), but it's willing to shoot down the Rozinante with most of Vince's loved ones still on board. For this, the Borg AI eats rocket.
Problem solved, time to teleport back out and blow the whole thing to kingdom come...except without their hive mind, every Borg on the Cube is now an individual. Surrounded by thousands of horrified, confused, and remorseful former drones, Vince's fury dissipates.
The engineers who mutilated him come forth, now understanding the gravity of their actions. Under the hive mind, they believed they were helping him attain perfection, as was the ultimate goal of the Borg Collective--not realizing how badly Vince wanted to hang onto what humanity MIDA didn't already rob him of.
Not quite knowing how to respond, Vince simply places his hands on the lead engineer's shoulders and asks them not to worry about it too much.
After some more discussion, it comes to light that the Borg aren't even from this universe, but this group is now hesitant to return, lest they be assimilated back into the Collective. There's bound to be a proper place for them somewhere in this universe; for now, they would like to stay by the Rozinante and work on a proper exchange of technologies and other knowledge.
While things ended as well as they could have, as Vince admits to Durandal, he's now rather troubled in hindsight by how close he was to committing mass murder. And there's still the issue of his prosthetic arm, though Durandal vows to help him adjust the best he can.
--
--
Now, I'm not sure what actually happens if you shank the Borg Queen (or equivalent AI, in this case), but basically I wanted two things: MAXIMUM ANGST, and Vince showing the Borg empathy and compassion (what their drive for knowledge and improvement of self and others isn't tempered by).
Also, back in those original musings, Juzo-kun mentioned the possibility of Yrro creating the Borg in this scenario. Would make for a heck of an "oops" on his part, but currently I'm not sure how he could do that without either looking incredibly short-sighted or breaking the bio-engineer rule of "don't be an absentee parent"...
And finally, loads of hurt/comfort between Vince and Durandal. You know, after the "I'm gonna blow these sons of binches to Kingdom Co--oh shit they became people again" is over with.
About ten years prior to this scenario, Yrro comes across a bizarre cuboid ship and tries to investigate. Cube has defenses far stronger than what his '99 Toyota Corolla-equivalent ship can handle, and by the time he maneuvers into a safer position, the cube has split. Yrro is rather concerned, but he doesn't see or hear of it for months, and eventually puts it out of mind.
Present day: Durandal notices an odd signal and wants to check it out, thinking it originates from Jjaro tech; as soon as the Rozinante gets within range, a bunch of pale, greebly, half-mechanical guys teleport into the bridge and introduce themselves as the Borg. The Rozie is full of technology and other things they aren't familiar with and they want a look around.
Even without knowing what the Borg are, Vince is more than a little put off by the idea of these techno-zombies roaming the ship, but unlike Durandal and Cortana who immediately go into high alert, he figures that if they give the Borg their desired tour, they'll leave without incident and the Rozies can get the hell away from that mystery signal.
Commence tour. The Borg seem slightly annoyed that they can't actually take anything and have to make do with scans, but everything goes well...right up until one of them tells Vince, "Hey, it seems like whoever augmented you didn't complete the job, because our readings indicate that you're still XX% organic; we can fix that for you." [Not in that exact tone, obviously.]
It dawns on Vince that maybe Durandal and Cortana were right to be alarmed. "Uh, no thanks, I'm fine the way I am."
"No, really. We insist." The Borg grab him by the arms and beam out.
The source of the signal vanishes, and Durandal and Cortana don't see Vince again for a week. They can't track down the Borg, there's no communications from Vince, Durandal is teetering on the edge of a breakdown--
And then Vince teleports back out of the blue, but is so distraught that he rushes to his quarters without saying a word to either sibling.
That night, Durandal works up the courage to knock on Vince's door, and is let in; he finally sees what's happened and tears up.
Vince put up a good fight, but ultimately left without his right arm; his original augmentations were integrated into the replacement the Borg gave him to minimize the chance of rejection, but that's of little comfort.
If there's any upside to this, it's that Vince was able to swipe a decent amount of data in his efforts to evade or talk down the Borg; from this, the Rozies are able to determine that the Borg operate on a hive mind, among various other details like sector maps and the like. Vince doesn't really care; he just wants to ram the Cube so full of missiles that it stops existing on the physical plane.
Realizing how outmatched the Rozinante is against the Borg, Durandal opts to call Yrro for assistance. Yrro isn't enthused to be dealing with the Borg again, but his complaints peter off when Vince reveals what's been done to him.
Eventually, Yrro determines that the nexus of the hive mind lies in the Cube's on-board AI, which from the readings appears to be completely and utterly alien; he wants this AI extracted for study, after which point he assures Vince that he can destroy the Cube if he still wants to.
--
After a long, drawn-out battle, a new complication arises in that the Borg AI is not only capable of infesting any systems it's transferred to (as Yrro discovers the hard way and has to frantically reverse), but it's willing to shoot down the Rozinante with most of Vince's loved ones still on board. For this, the Borg AI eats rocket.
Problem solved, time to teleport back out and blow the whole thing to kingdom come...except without their hive mind, every Borg on the Cube is now an individual. Surrounded by thousands of horrified, confused, and remorseful former drones, Vince's fury dissipates.
The engineers who mutilated him come forth, now understanding the gravity of their actions. Under the hive mind, they believed they were helping him attain perfection, as was the ultimate goal of the Borg Collective--not realizing how badly Vince wanted to hang onto what humanity MIDA didn't already rob him of.
Not quite knowing how to respond, Vince simply places his hands on the lead engineer's shoulders and asks them not to worry about it too much.
After some more discussion, it comes to light that the Borg aren't even from this universe, but this group is now hesitant to return, lest they be assimilated back into the Collective. There's bound to be a proper place for them somewhere in this universe; for now, they would like to stay by the Rozinante and work on a proper exchange of technologies and other knowledge.
While things ended as well as they could have, as Vince admits to Durandal, he's now rather troubled in hindsight by how close he was to committing mass murder. And there's still the issue of his prosthetic arm, though Durandal vows to help him adjust the best he can.
--
--
Now, I'm not sure what actually happens if you shank the Borg Queen (or equivalent AI, in this case), but basically I wanted two things: MAXIMUM ANGST, and Vince showing the Borg empathy and compassion (what their drive for knowledge and improvement of self and others isn't tempered by).
Also, back in those original musings, Juzo-kun mentioned the possibility of Yrro creating the Borg in this scenario. Would make for a heck of an "oops" on his part, but currently I'm not sure how he could do that without either looking incredibly short-sighted or breaking the bio-engineer rule of "don't be an absentee parent"...
And finally, loads of hurt/comfort between Vince and Durandal. You know, after the "I'm gonna blow these sons of binches to Kingdom Co--oh shit they became people again" is over with.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 03:14 am (UTC)ICON NOT MEANT LITERALLY, IT'S JUST THE ONLY TNG ICON I HAVE.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 11:11 am (UTC)(I'll bet that icon is what Vince was thinking right up until destroying the AI. XD)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 10:54 pm (UTC)(TRUE. XD )
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-31 08:08 am (UTC)(A tumblr/twitter which main theme is exactly what it says on the tin... sometimes my humor is like that!)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 01:25 pm (UTC)I really like Borg as a concept and aesthetic (fun fact: I roleplay as an ex-Borg in one of the RPG campaigns I follow with my friends) and I also like "I, Borg" very much, it's one of the moments where the main philosophy behind Star Trek shines. if only Voyager's scripwriters were able to follow </bitter> *ahem*
If I recall correctly, Pharos is the one that's unscrupolous enough to create something like the Borg and letting them roam free.
I'm wondering if this is a particular Unimatrix that got prey of an alien, ancient AI
the Dark Onewho become somewhat corrupted, and Yrro trying but ultimately failing to save them? In a "sometimes, you can't save everything" message to add to the other ones.no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 02:01 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, Pharos could definitely have some explaining to do here. Although, he does still have enough of a conscience that he basically only left the Borg to their own devices because he didn't realize they'd start assimilating other species... (Maybe they were also a failed attempt at resurrection? Which didn't work as Pharos intended, but hey, the results are still technically "alive", so progress)
Quite possibly! Leading to one of those rare instances where Vince is advising Yrro (albeit loudly).
no subject
Date: 2019-01-31 08:06 am (UTC)I still think at the Borg more as a virus, same with Aliens, a weapon then got out of control and free in the universe (multiverse). And then sent in another dimension of the multiverse to hide a failure, or something like that.
Being nearly immortal and god-like doesn't exempt to have to learn some lesson!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 01:44 pm (UTC)I admit I was less than thrilled by the concept of the Borg Queen (I liked more the Borg as the equivalent of an unstoppable force of nature, and the queen concept as appeared in First Contact went against that particular meaning) but it's still an interesting add because with this the Borg became something you have to defeat with intellect and reason rather than just brute force or tricks.
ehm, I did look in dictionaries but I didn't understand the meaning of "shank" in this context ^^;
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 02:07 pm (UTC)("Shank" in this context is just a euphemism for "kill". XD)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-31 07:45 am (UTC)(Now one of the meanings I've read makes sense!) And it happened, in Voyager 'Endgame'... what happened after, is left unsaid, as far as I know. I think even if that was the main node of the Collective, probably something was still left to get back as the Collective, even if fragmented and greatly weakened.
Given the nature of the transwarp, maybe the Borg the Rozies met are from after Endgame?
no subject
Date: 2019-01-31 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 05:32 am (UTC)Poor Vince must really have some PTSD after being captured by the Borg like that. I'm glad he managed to get out on his own power but that really must be traumatic!
And yeah, overcoming that trauma and emotions to help the now freed Borg drones... Vince deserves lots of comfort and loving after that. (Sends Vince blankets and hot chocolate.)
As far as I know, killing the Borg Queen doesn't kill the Borg collective. Apparently there are a lot of Queens in a lot of different sectors of space in different quadrants.
From what I could figure out, they relay information from their hive mind to the others and vice a versa. But killing one will probably just shut down the Borg cube that she is standing on.
The other cubes within the vicinity will probably make a new Queen once the hive mind realize they can no longer communicate efficiently.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 01:42 pm (UTC)I see! Given that there are no other Borg Cubes in this scenario, it's very unlikely that the hive mind will be restored after the source is taken out (at least, one hopes that the Borg don't normally have access to interdimensional travel...).