The Borg Cube is the most common ship design used by the Collective. They are the mighty gigantic dreadnoughts of the Borg fleet. With a volume of 27 cubic kilometers and spanning more than 3,000 meters on every side, Cubes are the perfect embodiment of Borg mentality and efficiency. Housing enough Borg drones to assimilate a planet with enough weapons and defensive capability to face most enemy fleets unharmed, its primary function in the Collective is to destroy or assimilate all vessels and stations it encounters.
Vessel Design[]
Construction[]
Borg Cubes are constructed similarly to drone implants, armor plating, and other Borg technologies, however on a much larger scale. A vessel deemed worthy of assimilation that is sufficiently well-powered and can sustain drones for an adequate amount of time is the initial catalyst for cube construction (ENT: "Regeneration"). Nanoprobes reconfigure computer-controlled systems and begin modifying software and hardware to create standardized Borg technology like shield emitters, regeneration alcoves, or weapons arrays (VOY: "One","Raven"). Meanwhile, drones begin harvesting raw resources from the vessel's structure and construct the basic framework of the cube. Some Borg Cubes begin as smaller Borg vessels and are constructed from materials recovered during assimilation, or through salvage operations of destroyed or disabled Borg vessels. Because all Cubes conform to a standard template, a precise determination of resources required reveals if a particular vessel or spatial phenomenon warrants investigation. If the sufficient number of resources are present, the crew of the Borg vessel may be directed to begin conversion of their vessel to a Cube.
Alternatively, facilities similar to the Unicomplex may also include provisions to construct new Cubes and other vessels (VOY: "Dark Frontier"). Salvaged components and resources are delivered to the complex, sorted, and repurposed based on the needs of the Collective. A Unicomplex would then serve as a Borg shipyard, distributing drones and materials to active Borg vessels, and creating new ones as more systems are assimiliated.
General Operation[]
Borg cubes are in fact closer to traveling city ships than starships. Despite their enormous size, 50% of the internal volume is unoccupied and empty space, and a miniscule 0.2% of its internal mass are actual walls and floors with the rest being alcoves, corridoors, on-board facilities, hangar bays and various other vital systems[1]. Forgoing such irrelevancies as cantinas, personal quarters (sonic showers, food replicators, personal computers), holodecks, turbo-lifts, stairs, internal com system and an interactive voice-activated computer system[2], the vessel saves a great deal of power which is re-routed in-to other more vital systems such as weapons and shields, significantly increasing their effectiveness. The internal temperature of Borg vessels is 39.1°C with a humidity of 93% [3]. When drones run low on power or are simply no longer required for any task, they return to their regeneration alcoves. Due to the massive crew compliment, drones are not typically required to leave their assigned deck; however, they may do so using the ship's transporters. The interior of a Cube consists of thousands of catwalks, walkways, hangar bays, pipes and conduits lined with Borg alcoves. Cubes possess a generalised interior design: there are no specific bridge, living, or engineering sections[2]. Because all drones possess equal technical knowledge and maintenance capabilities, the nearest drones are assigned to repair any malfunctioning system. Unlike the design of all other known races, Borg vessels typically possess no particular exit or entry hatches from the exterior to the interior of the vessel, as the entire ship is essentially open to the vacuum of space. The interior pressure of the Cube is however maintained by high energy forcefields and structural integrity fields with multiple redundancies. ya
Combat[]
The very appearance of the cube is designed to be cold and intimidating, its colossal size dwarfing even the mightiest of battleships. Despite the unusual design of using symmetrical geometric shapes, there is also a great deal of logic and many advantages in doing so. Each side is identically armed and armored, denying enemy species the luxury of any directional weaknesses in defenses and blind spots in firing arcs. Each Borg vessel's weapons systems are located differently, which also denies enemy races the capability of immediately identifying and destroying firing ports. Suicide attacks against the Cube are also impractical, due to its colossal size. An additional benefit of the generalised interior design is the aspect of presenting no particularly beneficial and specifically vulnerable targets on which enemy vessels may focus attacks. The vessel's highly decentralized design and endless redundancies, allow vital functions to be run from any part of the ship. As a result, a Borg Cube is capable of remaining operative even when up to 78% of the vessel is destroyed[4].
| For more detailed information see Borg Combat Tactics |
Interior Architecture[]
Generic Interior[]
Transwarp Chamber[]
Shield Matrix[]
Hangar Bay[]
Internal view of a hangar bay within a Cube [5].
onboard facilities maturation chamber, assimilation chamber,
Power Systems[]
The Borg utilize a unique method of powering almost all their on-board systems, maintaining their highly decentralized interior design they do not rely upon a single warp core or such devices in order to solely generate power for the entire vessel. Each vessel generates its own power via power nodes - each device capable of generating an enormous amount of power. Borg vessels however possess hundreds, thousands perhaps even millions depending upon their size and class. These power nodes are spread throughout the vessel collectively producing a sufficient amount of power which the vessel requires at any given time. Only a fraction are active at any one time with additional redundant power sources located throughout the ship[4] which activate and begin generating power as another power node fails. As their power demands increase as a result of construct additional weapons and alcoves for newly assimilated drones the vessel may construct additional power nodes. Additionally, the method of dispersing their power ouput makes it almost impossible for intruders to sabotage the entire vessels power systems at once, in the event one power node is disabled only the small section which it powers and the devices in that section lose power for 4.8 minutes causing a manipulation effect in the vessels subspace field before another node activates and restores power[4]. The only system which does not rely upon power nodes are the transwarp drives which are powered by the transwarp coils themselves[4].
Power Requirements[]
Power Nodes[]
179,000 Borg alcoves costing 30 Megawatts each: 5,370,000 Megawatts (5.37 TeraJoules/s).
Six 7,500,000 TeraWatts Weapons Systems: (7,500,000 TeraJoules/s).
Adaptive shield matrix: 5,850,000,000,000,000 Megawatts (5,850,900 TeraJoules/s).
Six Transwarp Coils 180 Teradynes
Total Power Requirement: 18,721,080 TeraJoules/s
Weapon Systems[]
Disimilar to that of all other races, the Borg's weapon systems do not vary from ship class to ship class, all using identical weapons systems utilizing the latest and most efficient weapons from newly assimilated species.
High Energy Disruptor Beams[]
High-Yield Gravimetric Torpedos[]
High-Yield Gravimetric Torpedo
High-Yield Gravemetric Torpedoes, are specially designed and used by the Borg. The weapon emits an advanced graviton inversion field, with a complex phase variance of gravitons to create a gravimetric distortion, causing gravimetric shear in its target causing severe structural damage. The complex phase varience allows the torpedo to pass through shields uninterrupted.
Cutting Beam[]
A Cutting Beam is a weapon outfitted primarily to Borg scout vessels, it is an intensely powerful laser capable of instantaniously penetrating double-layers of high density duranium, tritanium armors (TNG - Best of Both Worlds). Used in conjunction with a standard tractor beam the Borg have used this beam to extract segments from ships and even planets, abducting entire cities at once. The beam is however unable to penetrate newly developed armor designed to disperse particle weapons such as Ablative Armor.
High Energy Tractor Pulse[]
Borg vessels utilize a High Energy Tractor Pulse (Tractor Beam) which places extreme gravitational stresses on all sides of the enemy vessel simultaniously. The magnitude of the force is tuned precisely to each ship class and vessel, once perfectly tuned the forces are insufficient to crush the vessel however sufficient to completely overwhelm the vessels impulse engines and maneuvering thrusters even if they are set to full-power they will be unable to compete against such forces. The beam also disrupts the vessels warp field, preventing it from escaping using a warp jump.
Polaron Beam[]
Whilst not conforming to an offensive weapon in the conventional sense, Borg vessels possess a device capable of emitting an extremely focused Polaron Beam upon targeted enemy vessels, the beam is very narrow, roughly an inch in width and causes no damage, sweeping enemy vessels from starboard to port. The Polaron beam penetrates all surfaces, midly exciting the molecular particles of the surfaces it is projected upon and polarizing it at a distinct polarization frequency, which is combined with a specially calibrated sensor tied in-to the beam which detects polarization at this particular frequency. The combination of these two devices within a single scanning beam allows Borg vessel to collect information such as hull alloy density, conposition, interior vessel layout and a lifeform count.
Defense Systems[]
Internal Defense Systems[]
Crew[]
- One of the Cubes greatest defensive features is its enormous crew compliment, responding immediatly to malfunctioning systems or ship damage of any kind, subsiquently healing and repairing any damaged drones essentially allowing the vessel to always operate at 100% efficiency even during pro-longed battles. Whilst Borg drones are capable of responding immediately to enemy boarding parties, they do not typically do so unless specifically instructed to, deeming enemy boarding parties to be of no threat to the vessel whilst sorrounded by hundreds of thousands of drones and prevented from escaping by means of transporters as a result of the Borg's multi-adaptive shield matrix.
Automated Regeneration Units[]
- Another relatively small however extremely effective defensive feature of a Borg vessel are small spherical droids named Automated Regeneration Units, these droids speedily roam the sub-sections, shafts and conduits of Borg vessels, repairing all technology and imperfections in the tritanium infastructure within the ship adding additional response time and causing the ship to quite essentially maintain itself and its own systems.
Multi-Regenerative Security Fields[]
- These fields are emplaced within Borg vessels to protect the most vital technology from harm, preventing all forms of transporter attacks and preventing biological and technological matter from passing through however they are typically not activated until a threat has already been detected on-board. Borg drones may however walk freely through these fields.
Auto-Destruct Sequence[]
- All Borg vessels are equipped with an auto-destruct sequence which intentionally overloads the primary power systems and detonates all on-board torpedo warheads resulting in the instant destruction of the vessel. The auto-destruct sequence also intentionally sabotages all of the vital Borg technology on-boards such as the transwarp coils (VOY - Dark Frontier).
Chroniton Projection Conduits[]
- For the purposes of overcoming the extreme temporal stresses within a transwarp conduit Borg vessels possess internal conduits through which a chroniton field is projected throughout the ship, keeping the entire ship in temporal synchronisation during its transwarp flight.
External Defense Systems[]
- External Borg ship design follows a pattern of foregoing shields as a primary defensive measure in favor of relying upon extremely strong, resistant and regenerative hull armour.
Regenerative Hull Armour[]
- The exterior hull armor of all Borg vessels and stations have the capability of regenerating quickly and constantly, granting an enormous boost to survivability in pro-longed battles. The exterior of the Cube's hull is covered in all pipes and conduits which act like blood vessels and capillaries transporting automated regeneration units to the damaged areas, healing much like a biological body would. The creation and distribution of the automated regeneration units are goverened by the Automatic Regeneration Matrix.
Tritanium Shape Memory Alloy Hull[]
- Borg vessels are constructed entirely out of tritanium shape memory alloy which when the regeneration process engages, re-aligns itself to its original configuration, playing a significant role in the regeneration process.
Ablative Hull Armour[]
- As Borg vessels rely upon their hull armor to survive, the entire outer hull layer is comprised of Ablative Armor, which possesses the capability of dispersing particle weapons fire, granting extraordinary protection and resistance to even the most powerful energy weapons.
Adaptive Shield System[]
- Whilst the Borg do not use shielding as a primary means of defense, Borg vessels do possess shielding for the purposes of propulsion, internal security and as a second line of defense. Adaptive Shielding casts an extremely low power force-field around the exterior of the Borg vessel which samples each particle beam which passes through. This data is recorded by the Adaptive Shield Matrix which records and remodulates the vessels primary shield grid to the counter-frequency of the opponents weapons, allowing Borg vessels and stations to become immune to that particular weapon frequency.
Shielding[]
- Unlike the majority of the other species in the Galaxy, the Borg do not shield their entire vessel inside of a single bubble extended around the vessels exterior, Instead, they cast their shielding across their hull, re-enforcing it. This is done by dividing the external surface area in-to grids, each grid possesses its own shielding known as shield grids (VOY - Unimarix Zero). This method possesses several benefits, firstly due to the shielding covering a much smaller area, its strength is far greater, this method also allows the drones in each grid to focus upon maintaining and repairing their own grid with greater efficiency than repairing the shielding across an entire vessel. When the shielding of one section is offline, the rest of the vessel may remain shielded and the drones within the damaged grid focus upon repairing their own shield grid as quickly as possible.
High Level Structural Integrity Field[]
- The high level structural integrity field further increases the durability and damage resistance throughout Borg vessels hull and bulkheads which add a further overall increase to the robustness of the vessel itself.
Propulsion Systems[]
Borg Cubes are capable of rotating between their many faces, allowing them to use all of their weapons to their full capacity when needed, allowing for a rapid rate of fire of torpedos and disruptors.
Thrusters[]
Thrusters are positioned upon both corners on all vertical faces of the Cube, movment is achieved by firing which-ever happens to be the "aft" thrusters in this particular engagement and rotation is achieved by firing one aft side thruster and one frontal thruster.
Warp Drive[]
The standard warp drive is capable of a maximum speed of 9.98, meaning newly developed Starfleet ship classes such as: Sovereign, Intrepid and Prometheus are able to slightly outmatch the vessel at warp speed.
Transwarp Drive[]
Structural integrity field allowing the Cube to withstand Transwarp stresses.
Within unison with the Transwarp Hub network maintaining the stability of the Transwarp conduit network, Borg vessels may engage their Transwarp Drive and accelerate to unimaginable speeds, approximated to be twenty times the speed of standard Federation warp speeds, this grants Borg vessels high maneuverabily and quick deployability across the galaxy.
Due to the aero-dynamicly unsound design of a cube the Borg compensate by projecting their structural integrity field several meters ahead of the vessel to act as an arrow-head designed to shear the extreme gravametric forces past the vessel.
Theoretical Clarification[]
Grid 9-2, subjunction 12 is apparently near the center of the cube.
Grid and Subjunction Theoretical Layout[]
"Grid nine-two, subjunction 12. Our very own workplace, it's near the centre of the cube." - Janeway, "Scorpion". I managed to extrapolate a rough map showing where the grids and subjunctions of the cube should be from Janeway's statement. The only thing missing is the third dimension.
"You have entered grid 9-2, subjunction 12. Proceed." - The Borg, Scorpion.
Internal Volume and size[]
The statistics regarding internal volume were all speculation stated on ditl.org by its author Graham Kennedy of which I completely agree with using the Borg interior shots as a reference the entire inside of the vessel seems to be a huge void, which begs the question of where the technology like vinculums and the cone shaped core we see on First Contact are?
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Gravamatric Torpedos[]
"Gravimetric torpedoes are torpedoes used by the Borg Collective, the construction of each torpedo demanding astounding amounts of resources which makes their construction far too costly and unviable to any other race without the advantages of the vast resources of the Borg. The weapon emits an advanced graviton inversion field with a complex phase variance of gravitons to create a gravimetric distortion causing gravimetric shear in its target which causes severe structural damage" This information as taken from non-canon sources however the theory of the torpedoes being too costly to build was the only plausible reason to explain why other races dont copy borg weaponry if its so powerful.
Randomized Weapon Locations[]
"Each Borg vessels weapons systems are located in differently from vessel to vessel which also denies enemy races the capability of immediately identifying and destroying firing ports" This was the only way I could explain why each and every Cube seems to fire from different places when they are encountered, also fits perfectly with the Borg's idea or generalization but conflicts slightly with their ideals of symmetry on their vessels.
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Power Systems[]
"A manipulation effect in the Borg's ships subspace field, a definite pattern at 4.8 minute intervals during the first confrontation.
Might indicate high output auxiliary generators kicking in
one theory is that their systems are decentralized with redundant power sources located throughout the ship
that is a reasonable conclusion, borg technology is given each member of their society the ability to interface and function collectively it is likely they have constructed their ship with the same philosophy
you knock out one generator and another one takes over without interruption" Power systems description section is no longer theoretical and has been confirmed by the statements above featured in Best of Both Worlds.
This was all theoretical information based upon the power output numbers of borg systems by ditl.org. After having the shield and weapons I calculated the other systems using a power current calculator and added them all together for a total power output.
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Power Usage[]
"the vessel saves a great deal of power which is re-routed in-to other more vital systems such as weapons and shields"Speculation based on observation, never seen a turbo lift or staircase in a borg ship so they obviously save power which allows them to put it in-to every other system and it's more efficient anyway which the Borg are all for however as the power source for a Borg vessel is a complete mystery the need to save power is questionable.
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Cutting Beam[]
"The beam is however unable to penetrate newly developed armor designed to disperse particle weapons such as Ablative Armor."
It was the most logical assumption and is also well-based, ablative armour can resist phasers, then lasers will be useless against it. It was also the only reason I could think of why we've never seen the cutting beam after DS9, the Borg probably realized it's quicker to assimilate the entire ship than chop it up and assimilate the pieces.
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Holding Beam[]
"force is tuned precisely"
Logical deduction because otherwise if they used the same force for all vessels every shuttle would have been crushed like a tin can when they used it.
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Polaron Beam[]
The entire description of the Polaron beam was an assumption attained from reading about polaron particles on wikipedia which I wasn't really able to keep up with, the particles slow down and hold others together from what I read so made the best guess I could how that translates in-to some kind of flash scanner.
Exterior conduits and pipes[]
" conduits which act like blood vessels and capillaries"
Assumption and speculation based upon the well-founded establishment that the Borg use elements of organic design in everything they do, makes perfect sense and explains why the strange conduits should be covering the outer surface instead of a smooth chrome armor like other races do.
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Thrusters[]
The way I explaned thrusters is once again not strictly proven or stated anywhere but it's the best guess to show why a cube can both move forward and rotate simultaniously, imagine a cube floating on water, which way it rotates depends on the corners you push.
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