Star Trek: The Next Generation : How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg Do?

How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg Do?

Picards idea in I, Borg where he wanted to infect Hugh with a Virus to use him to wreck havoc on The Borg and their Hive Mind, how much damage would that have potentially done to The Borg and their ships if Picard had ordered it anyway and not cancelled his plans to infect them using Hugh?

Seemed like a pretty good plan, immoral as hell but practical in theory, would have made the rogue Borg even useless to Lore when he found them later on, just unable to do anything or be even used as pawns, or maybe they would adapt and emerge stronger.

Either way most captains would have done it and not backed down, Jellico would have ordered it to happen ASAP.

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

I think little to none, but there's info either way.

It depends on how collective the Collective is. That is, is the cube a domain unto itself or is it a permanent part of the universal whole?

This is science fiction and as such physics breaking devices are to be expected, but I'm not sure a cube could be expected to have a high bandwidth uplink to the rest of the collective over the course of hundreds of light years, if for no other reason than latency alone.

As such, there's the likelihood that if a cube was infected, it may not be able to reconnect with the collective to infect the rest, or the rest of the collective may kick the infected cube out of the link.

Course, there was the matter of Locutus - he was actively in the hands of the enemy, with no assimilation nanoprobes yet conceived in the writer's room - why keep him? Even when Data started hacking into the Collective, they didn't kick Locutus out. I can't believe Picard was their sole repository of Starfleet information, wouldn't that information be distributed to the rest of the hive for consideration and insurance against loss of the drone?

Crusher theorized that they COULDN'T get rid of him, which while consistent with "All are equal" mentality and as such wouldn't want the mind to turn against itself by evicting dissenting voices, is not good information security.

And the cube would need to be able to tolerate a connection loss with the rest of the collective, to combat jamming techniques or the worst case scenario being that they are the lone remnant of the Borg Collective. Hugh was able to function without a connection, just couldn't receive new orders.

Perhaps it was arrogance.

Still, Locutus was within a much much shorter proximity to Sector 001 than the cube was to the rest of the Borg, may have been any latency was within a tolerable level as opposed to galactic latency.

So, I don't think the impossible image virus would have worked - at best it would have disabled a single, local hive (which may or may not span multiple cubes if in close proximity) but not the universal collective. To some degree, I think Hugh was actually more effective.

In that, his individuality disabled the Borg Cube, but the upload virus is still in reserve for the next attack. Course, then there's the question of "why didn't they try the virus during First Contact" but I suppose the needs of the plot and perhaps the presence of the Queen could be used to explain that.

Jake Meridius Conhale, at your service!
"Old Man" of the BSG (RDM) boards.

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

Actually done in Voyager by a species in the Delta Quadrant. It works, but not quite as good as hoped.

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D


It works, but not quite as good as hoped.


That almost sums up Voyager!

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

I'm convinced it would not have worked at all.

A element like the Borg would not have gotten to where they were if a logic bomb could kill them. This is essentially the same nonsense that Kirk used to defeat Nomad, Landru, and Mudd's Androids. In light of that it worked with Kirk, the question now goes to whether or not to use it anyway.

As I've said repeatedly, Picard surely would've had standing orders on what to do in case they capture Borg drones, and likely that would be to secure, safeguard, and swiftly send them to the nearest starbase or particular starbase where they've prepared for such a prisoner. However, using the logic bomb would've been in keeping with the spirit of his duties as a Starfleet Officer to defend the Federation, regardless of whether it worked or not, but if it didn't work, it should've been his French ass French-roasted over a French-fire! Officers are encouraged to use Initiative, but hey, when they fail, they're accountable.

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

I wish Picard would've went with the plan. It would've been awesome. Damn Guinan and Crusher.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Robert Vaughn. RIP Carrie Fisher. RIP William Christopher. 2016 is the worst!

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

Really would depend on where the writers wanted to go with it as well as if the Borg had the latest AV software updates and definitions.

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

Missed opportunity, for sure.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Robert Vaughn. RIP Carrie Fisher. RIP William Christopher. 2016 is the worst!

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

A weakening of the Borg could have gone some distance in explaining how they were so easily beaten in every episode of the dramedy Voyager!

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

Lol. Excellent point.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Robert Vaughn. RIP Carrie Fisher. RIP William Christopher. 2016 is the worst!

Re: How much damage would putting a Virus into Hugh to infect The Borg D

It's a pity the Borg don't have sex(at least not that we know of,or is there a weekly gangbang with Borg Queen?)Otherwise would could have tried HIV.
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