The Borg were once successful in assimilating an alien species believed to be immune to their powers in the Star Trek universe.
Space may be the final frontier, but it most certainly still has plenty of stories to tell. In 2008, Star Trek: Alien Spotlight: Borg was released as part of an anthology miniseries that put a spotlight on the various alien races of the Star Trek universe. In this Borg story by Andrew Steven Harris, Sean Murphy, Leonard O’Grady and Chris Mowry, the Borg threaten the universe with a seemingly perfect plan and have even managed to assimilate a species once thought impervious to their powers, Species 8472.
Since they made their debut on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg as a species have had one primary desire: to assimilate all into the Borg Collective, a hive mind connecting all Borg to a single consciousness. Through assimilation, the Borg strive to achieve perfection and attain all of the knowledge in the universe. The Borg’s unwavering and unstoppable mission has led them to become viewed as one of, if not the, most dangerous force within the universe in the TNG era.
In this comic, the Borg began their chronal assault without warning in a massive Hypercube, seemingly echoing their Star Trek: First Contact plan. Subspace distortions and other similar disturbances across space were followed by a powerful time wave. Federation ships were destroyed in instants, their distress signals received by vessels doomed to destruction as well. Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard rescues Commander La Forge from total assimilation into the Borg Collective. Through Commander Laforge, Picard learns of the Borg’s plans to rewrite history to ensure the alien’s success in the assimilation of the universe.
As Picard and the crew of the Enterprise race to find a means of stopping the Borg they are struck with a horrible turn of events: creatures are transporting directly through the Enterprise’s force fields and onto the ship itself. The crew of the Enterprise is helpless to stop the invading beings. and it’s with disbelief that a crewman informs Captain Picard that the creatures are members of the alien race called Species 8472.
Originally introduced in Star Trek: Voyager, Species 8472 is an enigmatic and thoroughly dangerous species of alien life that exists within a dimension known as fluidic space. This dimension is only accessible through quantum singularities and it was within this dimension that the Borg first encountered Species 8472. The Borg admitted that Species 8472 was superior to the Borg and were found to be immune to the Borg’s attempts at assimilation.
It was never explained how the Borg were able to assimilate Species 8472 in the story presented within the comic. As the Enterprise traveled at light speed through the fractured timestream through chronal eruptions caused by the Borg’s backward advance from the future, the crew seemed to assume that the Borg had constructed a method of assimilating Species 8472 somewhere in their future. To have a species as advanced and dangerous as Species 8472 within their ranks, it seemed as if the Borg had become invincible.
Picard is able to reason the Borg out of their mission by proving their wants are wholly illogical. He explains that the past, history itself, will always be written previous to whatever alterations the Borg may inflict upon it. The Borg must adapt, he continues, and not simply alter the universe around itself. With these words, Picard convinces the Borg to cease their assault and to return to their proper time period.
The laws of linear time have little meaning to a species capable of bending and manipulating the very threads of reality. But even in the grips of such a universal cataclysm, it is with reason and logic that Picard is able to turn back the cold, calculating aliens who once tormented him. While Species 8472 might seem to be an insurmountable obstacle, the Borg proved that, given enough time, they can evolve and assimilate the knowledge to counter any obstacle except the cold truths of logic.
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