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Liberated (Borg)

General Data

*Home System: [None

*Home Planet: None

*First Contact: 2368

*First Contact By: Captain Jean Luc Picard, USS Enterprise-D

*Faction: Liberated

*Government: Individuality

*Violence: Varies

*Primary Language: Federation Common, Species Specific

Biological Information

*Scientific Name: Liberated Borg

*Scientific Family: Humanoid

*Scientific Order: Bi-Pedal

*Skin: Varies

*Hair: None

*Eyes: Silver

*Auditive: Auditory communication

*Emphatic: No

*Telepatic: Tno

*Intelligence: Hi

*Genders: Unknown

Other Information

None

Summary:

In 2368, Enterprise-D encountered a crashed Borg scout ship and recovered a single drone. The drone, later named Hugh was completely cut off from the Borg Collective, and began to develop a sense of individuality. Although the Enterprise crew originally intended to infect Hugh with a virus designed to destroy the Collective, Captain Picard decided that it was wrong to use an individual as a Trojan horse. Instead, he believed that Hugh's newfound individuality would spread through the Collective as a different, yet effective, sort of virus.

After Hugh was recovered by the Borg, his individuality spread quickly through his cube, causing the Collective to cut the entire drone population of the cube off from the rest of the Collective. The cube, being populated with incubated drones who had no prior experience as individuals, was lost and confused, and easily manipulated when they encountered Lore soon after. The android convinced a large number of drones to follow him in a campaign against the Federation, luring them with the promise of becoming fully synthetic. Hugh, along with a small number of drones, set up a resistance movement, and slowly began to undermine Lore's power. With the assistance of Enterprise, Hugh and his drones managed to defeat Lore's forces.

Culture:

After the defeat of Lore, the USS Enterprise left the former drones with various supplies to help them recover, including a sociological database. They chose a rather appropriate name for themselves — the Liberated — and began to build a new society. Instead of directly adopting the culture any of the races in the database, the Liberated began to create new traditions for themselves, including sharing communal meals and a Speaking of the Names, a gathering where the Liberated explained the names they chose for themselves.

Despite the unity of many of these independent Borg under Hugh's leadership, there were a number of their kind who were dissatisfied with their individuality. Quickly flocking under the leadership of Enab, these Borg became renegades in from their fellow Liberated in 2371 and sought a means to return to the hive mind. Capturing the Klingon vessel Taj, they began to attack the Tholian Assembly in order to study the Tholians' natural hive mind. Their actions led to increasing hostilities between the Federation, Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly which nearly erupted in war. However, the crew of the Enterprise-D managed to learn of Enab's actions and stopped him from his continuing his campaign.

Technology:

The Liberated still had access to Borg technology salvaged from their cube, as well as several ships, including the Liberator. They began to explore the area around their new homeworld, and made contact with several species. Most of their neighbors were frightened at first, and the Liberated decided to begin removing those implants they could in order to lessen their connections with the Borg. In time, the Liberated managed to begin trading with some of their neighbors, while abiding by other races' requests that the Liberated not contact them again.

History

In 2380, the Borg assimilated the Starfleet vessel USS Einstein, which set course for the Delta Quadrant. Einstein eventually came across the USS Rhea, exploring the star cluster NGC 6281 entity, which was later discovered to be one single entity spanning several light-years. The entity could not bear to see a loss of life, and so it froze the half-assimilated Rhea in time while sending Einstein to the closest Borg world it could locate via quantum slipstream - the Liberated homeworld. The Liberated were able to fight off the Borg vessel, and though they were in no way connected with these Borg, they could sense that Einstein planned to return to the entity and assimilate its knowledge. Hugh and Gradowski immediately set out on the Liberator to beat Einstein to the cluster.

Once Liberator arrived at the cluster, it made contact with a new Enterprise, commanded by Captain Picard, the same man who had allowed Hugh to spread his individuality to the Borg twelve years earlier. The Liberator offered assistance in defeating Einstein, and also requested Enterprise's assistance in giving the Liberated the ability to reproduce. Although the ensuing battle resulted in Hugh's self-sacrifice to destroy Einstein, enough of his genetic material was saved to allow Grabowski to bear their child, giving the Liberated the opportunity to become a true race unto themselves.

Sources:

• Memory Beta
• TNG novel: Greater Than the Sum