|
Borg
Breen
Cardassians
Changelings
Dominion
Borg
Borg are humanoids that are enhanced with cybernetic implants, giving
them improved mental and physical abilities. The minds of all Borg are
connected via implants to a hive, a collective mind, orchestrated by the
Borg Queen. According to themselves, the Borg only seek to "improve the
quality of life in the universe" and add to their own perfection. To
this end, they travel the galaxy, improving their numbers and advancing
by "assimilating" other species and technologies, and forcing captured
individuals under the control of the Hive mind by injecting them with
nanoprobes. They harbor no ill will to anyone, they merely fulfill their
biological or programmatic imperative to assimilate. As they say, "You
will be assimilated -- resistance is futile." They make good on that
threat by their ability to quickly adapt to any attack to render it
harmless. Thus, any successful defense depends on the ingenuity of the
opponent to find a method to stop the Borg completely before they can
neutralize it.
The first formal contact of Starfleet with the Borg occurs by
interference from Q with the mission of the USS Enterprise's crew. Q
transported the Enterprise D into the Delta Quadrant just long enough to
expose them to the Borg. The Enterprise was hopelessly overpowered, and
Q brought them home after their confrontation. Q says something to the
effect of "Now that they know about you, they will never stop until they
find you."
The second contact occurred a few years later. In that incident, Captain
Picard was captured and assimilated by the Borg to become Locutus of
Borg. With his knowledge, the Borg destroy a Federation fleet at Wolf
359 and proceed to Earth. In the process, however, the Enterprise uses
an emergency transporter to rescue and capture Locutus. Data, with the
help of Counsellor Troi and Dr. Crusher managed to tap into the computer
network of which Picard/Locutus was a part of. Their actions managed to
give Picard enough force of will to tell Data to give the command for
the Borg to "sleep", that is, enter their regenerative mode. This
created a excess of energy which created a fatal feedback that destroyed
the Cube.
The Borg Change Over Time
The Borg have changed significantly over the years. Initially, they were
a mysterious group of marauders that snatched entire starship crews or
took over planets, and rather crudely and frighteningly assimilated the
people by surgically altering them for joining the collective. As time
went on however, this was replaced with the more efficient method of
injecting nanites into the individuals. The nanites would grow
electrical input pathways to facilitate the later insertion of the
Borg's notable brain uplink to the collective, holographic eye
replacement and forearm control unit.
Borg Nanoprobes are injected into the bloodstream by tubules that spring
forth from the hand of a Borg drone. The Nanoprobes are about the size
of a red blood cell and travel through the victim's bloodstream to
various tissues and locations throughout the body. The purpose of the
Borg Nanoprobes is to prepare the body for assimilation. They do this by
attaching to cells and re-writing their DNA to alter the victim's
biochemistry as well as form higher structures such as electrical
pathways, processing and data storage nodes, and ultimately Borg
implants that spring forth from the skin like spiders.
It is probable that the Nanoprobes utilize iron from blood cells to
replicate and create higher structures. Breaking down red blood cells
would cause asphyxia or suffocation in the victim, also aiding in the
submission to forces taking the body away for full implantation. This
also alters the appearance of veins and capillaries large enough for
Nanoprobes and creates dark veins that appear to snake across the
surface of the skin as the cyber-infection spreads. Based on the size of
a single Nanoprobe and the volume that could be injected in the short
time of a drone attack, it is estimated a single injection carries at
least 5 million Nanoprobes.
In another incident of Borg encounters, the Enterprise crew captured a
single borg who appeared to be detached from the collective with his
whereabouts unknown. Seeing an opportunity to study their enemy, he is
taken aboard the ship. Eventually, due to separation from the Borg
collective, the Borg (given the nickname "Hugh" by the crewmembers)
begins to develop an individual personality. Events lead to him
eventually returning to the collective. He seemed to lose his
individuality, but the introduction of his experiences into the
collective had far reaching consequences. Some eventually broke away.
They later joined with Lore, Data's prototype brother who helped them
express their newfound freedom through hatred.
The purely collective nature of the Borg was later undermined when the
Borg managed to get close enough to earth to attack it. Having to go
back into Earth's past to save the present from the Borg, the Enterprise
discovered the Borg Queen as the driving force behind them. The queen is
only a representation of the collective consciousness because some
decision making process requires fast-response and a consistent style.
The collective will elect one elite drone in the collective and give her
the decision power. When the one dies, the collective will elect another
one to avoid a single-point weakness. As a result, the Borg Queen never
dies.
Origin of the Borg
It has also been speculated that there could be a connection between the
Borg and Vger, the vessel encountered during Captain Kirk's time.
In fact, there are similarities between the Borg and V'ger. V'ger is
originally a machine, but it wanted to see and touch its creator in
order to proceed to the next level of life. The final form of V'ger is
the machine somehow "melted" with the two persons. With reasonable
conjecture, the Borg, a cybernetic organism, a mixture between man and
the machine, is born.
Despite these commonalities between the Borg and V'Ger, this does not
seem likely after the Enterprise had to go back into the past to prevent
the Borg's attack on earth. The Borg attempt to use the Enterprise's
deflector dish as a subspace transmitter to contact the Borg existing in
their time. Voyagers 3-6 have not been launched as of 2003. Assuming
V'Ger (Voyager 6) was launched in 2004, by 2063 a spacecraft traveling
at Warp .99 would be no more than a short trip from Earth at maximum
warp, hardly a distance which would require a subspace transmitter to
contact anybody. Then again, since the Borg were obviously able to
travel back into time, it's conceivable that they travelled back at
another point to establish a hive in the 21st Century.
Breen
The Breen wear suits,
supposedly to protect themselves from heat, and have never been seen on
the show outside their suits. They established the isolated Breen
Confederacy in the Alpha Quadrant and became a powerful ally of the
Dominion of the Gamma Quadrant.
Not only is their appearance mysterious, but their behaviour perplex
others as well. The Romulan have a saying, "Never turn your back on a
Breen". This is shown when a Breen sacrificed himself or herself
willingly during an escape attempt of several others from a Jem'Hadar-guarded
asteroid prison.
The Breen have established mining facilities consisting of Breen guards
and kidnapped workers (from spaceships), such as Tora Ziyal, Gul Dukat's
daughter.
The Breen suit is usually thought of as refrigeration suits, but some
speculate that the Confederacy is comfortable environment (from the
Cardassian point of view). The helmet of the suit consist of a glowing
green visual piece.
Even though their language is entirely electronically coded and then
broadcasted outside of the suit, they still can be translated with ease
by the Dominion. The leading representative of the Confederacy to the
Dominion is the Thot (similar in rank to a General).
Although the Breen appear almostly exclusively in the Alpha Quadrant,
one Breen appeared as a hologram enhanced by the Hirogen on the USS
Voyager in the Delta Quadrant.
Cardassians
Cardassians were once a
peaceful, spiritual people who collected works of art from all over the
Alpha Quadrant, but their planet - Cardassia - lacked natural resources.
The entire planet was stricken by famine and disease until the military
took control of the government and expanded Cardassian borders, building
fleets of warships and invading nearby worlds. Bajor - for one - was
occupied for fifty years. Sometime before 2347 the Cardassians attempted
to expand into Federation territory and war broke out, lasting around
twenty years.
Shortly after the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor, a Federation presence
was established aboard Terok Nor - renamed Deep Space Nine - to assist
the Bajoran Provisional Government in rebuilding Bajor. However, the
Federation officers discover a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. Roughly
four months later, the Federation-Cardassian borders were redefined,
with the two sides buffered by a demilitarized zone. However, the
Cardassians harassed the Federation colonists in the DMZ who then
retaliated by forming a resistance movement known as The Maquis.
Around the same time, the Obsidian Order - the Cardassian intelligence
agency - began to gain power. However, it was destroyed when it allied
with the Tal Shiar - the Romulan version - in a preemptive strike
against the Dominion, a new threat from the Gamma Quadrant.
In January of 2372 (Stardate 49011), the Klingon Empire attacked the
Cardassians believing the Detapa Council of Cardassia had been
infiltrated by the Dominion. The attack was led by General Martok who,
it turned out, had been himself replaced by a shapeshifter - the leaders
of the Dominion.
Then, sometime between October 2373 and February 2374, with a Dominion
attack on Deep Space Nine imminent, Gul Dukat announced the Cardassian
Union's entry into the Dominion, shocking not only the Federation but
most Cardassians as well. At the same time, Gul Dukat announced his
ascension as leader of the Cardassian Union. Five days later, the Maquis
were all slaughtered by the Dominion. (All but those on the Starship
Voyager, that was lost in the Delta Quadrant at the time.)
The Cardassians (as members of the Dominion) captured DS9, but the
Federation managed to plant the Bajoran wormhole with self-replicating
mines, preventing the Dominion from sending in reinforcements.
Unfortunately for the Federation, Gul Damar discovered a way to disable
the self-replication of the mines and completed the procedure and fired
on the minefield seconds before operations chief Miles OBrien and his
assistant Nog disabled the weapons in hopes to prevent just that. The
USS Defiant attacked DS9 and managed to take it back when the Bajoran
Prophets destroyed an entire Dominion fleet on its way through the
wormhole. Gul Dukat was captured after his daughter Ziyal was killed by
Gul Damar, who was then promoted to Legate.
Under the leadership of Damar, the Cardassian Union, along with the
Dominion, continued to gain ground over the Klingon-Federation alliance,
and even after Benjamin Sisko and Garak tricked the Romulans into
breaking their nonaggression treaty with the Dominion and joining the
alliance they still managed to keep the upper hand.
Damar, however, was not happy. While he had hoped that Cardassia joining
The Dominion would strengthen their power, he felt that they were no
longer in control of even their own planet, having to report to the
Dominion flunky Weyoun and the Founders, and Cardassian troops were
being sacrificed seemingly meaninglessly without his permission. Shortly
after the Breen joined the Dominion - almost guaranteeing the Dominion's
victory - Damar organised a revolt. A Cardassian named Broca became
Legate and puppet ruler of Cardassia.
The revolt started out just as a small legion of troops headed by Damar,
but during the final assault on The Dominion by the Federation-Klingon-Romulan
alliance, Damar managed to get an open revolt started on Cardassia
itself with the civilians joining in and the Cardassian fleet turned
during battle and assisted the alliance. The Female Shapeshifter ordered
every Cardassian on the planet killed.
With the Cardassian fleet helping the alliance and the rebel's attack on
the Dominion headquarters on Cardassia, the Dominion surrendered, ending
the Dominion War, but leaving Cardassia all but destroyed and with over
700 million dead on Cardassia alone.
Changelings
Changelings, also known
as The Founders, are an alien race from the Gamma Quadrant. They are
called Changelings because of their ability to shape-shift. Their
natural state is a liquid "protoplasm." Changelings have the ability to
melt together to share information and emotions in a very intimate
manner. The Changeling homeworld is covered in a sea of Changelings
known as the Great Link. Changelings can turn themselves into almost
anything and can flow through any gap in their liquid state. They have
even been known to turn into convincing imitations of particular human
beings. However, if a part of a changeling is separated from the whole,
it reverts to the liquid state. In addition, a Changeling must
regenerate, returning to its liquid form once every several hours.
The Changelings are the rulers of the Dominion. They seek power because
they were once persecuted by non-shape-shifters, whom they call
"Solids." After the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole and the subsequent
war between the Dominion and the United Federation of Planets, the
covert Federation group Section 31 created a disease that prevented the
Changelings from shape-shifting. When the Dominion was defeated, the
Changelings were cured.
The Dominion
The Dominion is a Gamma
Quadrant state, consisting of many different races. They are commanded
by The Founders, who are shape-shifters. The main fighting force of the
Dominion are the Jem'Hadar, genetically engineered super-soldiers who
require no sleep or food, but who are kept bound to their Dominion
masters by an addiction to the drug ketracel white. The Vorta act as
administrators and liasons to other races. The Dominion waged war on the
United Federation of Planets and its allies in the 24th century.
First Contact and the Growth of Hostilities
The Dominion were an unknown race to the Alpha Quadrant powers until the
discovery of the Bajoran wormhole in 2369, which facilitated exploration
of the Gamma Quadrant. In 2370 Jem'Hadar troops annihilated a Bajoran
colony in the Gamma Quadrant and captured Commander Sisko of the
starbase Deep Space Nine. The lead Federation rescue ship, USS Odyssey,
was destroyed by a kamikaze attack, as the Dominion dramatically
demanded that Federation explorers stay out of their end of the galaxy.
A Federation mission the next year to find and make peace with the
Founders ended disastrously. Founders began infiltrating the Alpha
Quadrant, even wreaking havoc on Earth itself. The quadrant was plunged
into conflict when the Klingon Empire accused the Cardassian Union of
being under the control of the Founders. The Federation and Cardassians
fought months of armed combat against the Klingons. It was later
revealed that it was the Klingons themselves who unknowingly had a
Changeling in their midst.
The Dominion War (2373-2375)
The Dominion gained a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant when Gul Dukat
announced that the Cardassian Union was joining the Dominion in 2373.
Open hostilites began a few months later when the Dominion attacked and
occupied Deep Space Nine, at the mouth of the Bajoran wormhole, while
Federation and Klingon allied forces invaded and destroyed a Dominion
shipyard. The Allies suffered brutal losses for over four months, until
Captain Sisko organized a task force to retake Deep Space Nine. A
Dominion fleet intercepted the task force just outside of Bajoran space,
but it was flanked in a spectacular battle, one of the largest in the
Federation's history. After the major upset of the Allied victory at
Bajor, along with the destruction of a force of 2800 Dominion ships due
to the intervention of the wormhole aliens known as the Prophets of
Bajor, the war ground on for over a year with neither side gaining a
clear advantage. The Romulan Star Empire entered the war on the side of
the Allies in 2374.
Late in the war, the mysterious race known as the Breen joined forces
with the Dominion, and launched a devastating attack against Starfleet
Headquarters on Earth.
A Cardassian rebellion against Dominion rule formed shortly thereafter
under the leadership of Legate Damar, Dukat's successor. The Dominion
was finally defeated when, during a final Allied onslaught on Dominion
forces in orbit around Cardassia, the Cardassian ships switched sides
and aided the Allied fleet. The Dominion, before surrendering, launched
a genocidal assault on the Cardassian people in retaliation, killing
over 800 million Cardassians.
The Founders themselves were nearly wiped out by a plague, which was
revealed to be a biological weapon engineered by agents of the
clandestine Federation agency Section 31.
For info on other
species go to
http://www.ditl.org/
|