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Why don't the Borg check assimilation subjects for viruses?
tilarta
Member Posts: 1,798 Arc User
I'm starting to think the Borg should have a prescreening process before assimilating someone.
1. The Ocanti created a synthetic pathogen that induces insanity in Borg and used assimilation as the delivery method by sending volunteers to be captured by the Borg.
2. Icheb was genetically modified to produce a Borg killing pathogen and was sent to the Borg to be assimilated.
3. Janeway, Torres and Tuvok get captured by the Borg, only they've taken anti-assimilation medication before arriving and brought the Unimatrix Zero computer virus with them.
4. Admiral Janeway from the future has infected herself with a Borg killing virus and lets the Borg Queen assimilate her.
You'd think after all of this, they'd start doing medical tests and checking for viruses, either software or biological before assimilating someone.
And then don't do assimilation.
Icheb's situation was completely foolish of the Borg to disregard, the surviving drones contacted the Collective and they didn't think to investigate how 4994 drones were killed without the Cube being attacked?
1. The Ocanti created a synthetic pathogen that induces insanity in Borg and used assimilation as the delivery method by sending volunteers to be captured by the Borg.
2. Icheb was genetically modified to produce a Borg killing pathogen and was sent to the Borg to be assimilated.
3. Janeway, Torres and Tuvok get captured by the Borg, only they've taken anti-assimilation medication before arriving and brought the Unimatrix Zero computer virus with them.
4. Admiral Janeway from the future has infected herself with a Borg killing virus and lets the Borg Queen assimilate her.
You'd think after all of this, they'd start doing medical tests and checking for viruses, either software or biological before assimilating someone.
And then don't do assimilation.
Icheb's situation was completely foolish of the Borg to disregard, the surviving drones contacted the Collective and they didn't think to investigate how 4994 drones were killed without the Cube being attacked?
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
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Also we must remember that the Borg don't see assimilation as a bad thing, so it might not seem logical to them that someone would go to the lengths of developing a pathogen tailor made to target the Borg, I also suspect that assimilation process takes take of most known pathogens, have you ever seen a borg drone with a flu after all and no cosplayers don't count for this, making it less logical that there was need for any aditional screening for pathogens.
The very nature of the Borg is adaptation. No need to scan for pathogens (or, rather, those scans are done pas part of the assimilation process, where contaminants are weeded out automagically). Higher level effects, such as insanity, may be difficult to predict -- and, if they weren't, we'd run out of cool new Borg 'Trojan horse' story.
-War of the Worlds: defeated by natural micro-organisms, and in the Spielberg version, unfamiliar with the wheel
-DC's Martians: Oreos, they just freaking love them
-DC's Green Lanterns: the color yellow
-Independence Day: mothership one-fifth the size of the moon defeated by a 90s computer virus and a nuke
-Signs: defeated by wood, doors and freaking water, unfamiliar with EV suits and clothing
-Mars Attacks!: defeated by yodeling
-Evolution: defeated by shampoo
-Dr Who: Cybermen vs gold, Slitheen vs vinegar, sonic screwdriver vs wood
-StarCraft: Zerglings vs lemon juice
...wat?
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Aside from the 'Assimilation Vaccine', the other three were weapons specifically meant to kill Borg. Making them easy to find and purge would make them completely worthless.
Drones are completely expendable resources to them.
Because plot.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
And there is their whole speech about how resisting is futile, so they must know that nobody would choose to be assimilated.
The Borg Queen has referenced resistance twice, so she definitely has experience with targeted worlds fighting back.
I don't think the conversion process does screen pathogens.
Seven of Nine said the only place in a Borg vessel with pathogen filtration is the maturation chambers, which is why the younger Borg from Icheb's cube survived, because they were in the chambers when the virus took effect.
It's unusual that the Borg don't think to check for that, as the assimilation process shuts down the immune system to allow the nanoprobes to infect the subject.
So they'd be more vulnerable to disease, not more resistant.
My theory is that the nanoprobes replace the immune response antibodies.
But being Borg technology, they'd be just as vulnerable to a virus specifically designed to target Borg.
And we've never seen Borg adapt to viruses, they just die.
Probably the Hivemind connection is severed in the process, so the data can't be passed to the rest of the Collective.
All they know is drones were terminated.
In the case of the Ocanti virus, 5000 Borg screaming nonsensically wouldn't be giving any useful information.
The Borg are definitely aware that pathogens can be used as a weapon, because they're working on developing weaponised viruses
The first one was intended for airborne dispersal in "highly resistant worlds", to assimilate the population slowly as to avoid detection. Borg simulations suggest that this would take 1 year to assimilate 50% of a targeted world.
The second one was improvised, the Borg Queen redesigned the Unimatrix Zero virus to kill every Borg connected to that system.
And she was aware the Unimatrix Borg were fighting back, because when the original virus took affect, those drones severed their link to the Hivemind.
She kept talking about how "she couldn't hear drones on this vessel or that vessel".
Not to mention Janeway keeps snarking at the Borg Queen every chance she gets.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad