What Do Borg Cubes Use For Power?

[Alie...@gmail.com]

I've looked through all my dead-tree references and checked Memory Alpha and Beta, but can find no canon mention of what the Borg use to power their cubes. They have "nodes" and "matrices" but no generators or reactors AFAICT.

They've accessed the technologies of thousands of races, and likely decided to use the most efficient they could find, and standardized it across all their cubes. They do not use Starfleet or Klingon style M-AM reactors, Romulan "forced singularities" or anything else known in the Alpha or Beta quadrants. Obviously they can generate on demand more power than forty Fed ships as seen at Wolf 359.

So what *do* they use?


Mark L. Fergerson

[Jack Bohn]

I'd thought the Ex Astris Scientia site had more technical musings than I can find now. I find it hard to believe the secondary sources -online in particular- haven't combed through the primary sources (the episodes) pretty thoroughly, but this might be the case.

As for what they *might* use, I can offer suggestions: quantum energy tapped from another universe, a conduit connecting between a nova and the core of the ship siphoning off plasma as needed, The Secret Hidden Powers of the Human (or whatever) Mind, a part of Trek since "Where No Man Has Gone Before". A variation of that last is how I figured the Borg repaired their cube in "Q Who".


--
-Jack

[Alie...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 11, 2014 6:22:55 AM UTC-7, Jack Bohn wrote:
> I'd thought the Ex Astris Scientia site had more technical musings than I can
> find now. I find it hard to believe the secondary sources -online in
> particular- haven't combed through the primary sources (the episodes) pretty
> thoroughly, but this might be the case.

I agree. I forgot to mention I'd checked EAS and the DITL as well as Memory A and B- none have anything specific on what the Borg do *or don't* use to generate power. (When I said they don't use MAMRs etc., what I meant was that there are no canon mentions [that I can find] of them using anything specific.)

They have been shown to be obsessed with the Omega molecule as "the ultimate power source" even though they haven't had any more success stabilizing it than anyone else has.

> As for what they *might* use, I can offer suggestions: quantum energy tapped
> from another universe, a conduit connecting between a nova and the core of
> the ship siphoning off plasma as needed, The Secret Hidden Powers of the
> Human (or whatever) Mind, a part of Trek since "Where No Man Has Gone
> Before". A variation of that last is how I figured the Borg repaired their
> cube in "Q Who".

The DITL says that canonically, the cubes use nanotech to self-repair (presumably directed by the Collective).

http://www.ditl.org/ship-page.php?ClassID=brgcube

I don't see a cube having *a* power core in keeping with their habit if decentralizing all systems. I'm fairly sure they wouldn't trust a remote power source since the connection might be disrupted by nature or by hostile action.

Canonically, they can use whatever's handy, like an EPS tap:

http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/223.txt

...but that gives no hint what the EPS's form(s) of power must be adapted *to*.


Mark L. Fergerson

[Alie...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 11, 2014 6:22:55 AM UTC-7, Jack Bohn wrote:

(snip)

> As for what they *might* use, I can offer suggestions: quantum energy tapped
> from another universe, a conduit connecting between a nova and the core of
>the ship siphoning off plasma as needed, The Secret Hidden Powers of the Human
>(or whatever) Mind, a part of Trek since "Where No Man Has Gone Before". A
>variation of that last is how I figured the Borg repaired their cube in "Q
> Who".

If you're still checking this thread, I've concluded that they use whatever they consider appropriate for a given task. They would, as mentioned, decentralize everything as much as possible and they're canonically known to incorporate many warp field conduits around a cube to avoid being forced to have a "front" and "back" to a cube.

Hence they'll have multiple matter-antimatter reactors and every other kind of energy-generating tech they've ever assimilated aboard a cube, depending on the supply requirements of whatever energy-consuming tech (warp/transwarp/sublight drives, tractors, shield-drainer-torpedo launchers, "sampling laser", various types of shields, subspace radio, whatever) they want to deploy at a given time.

Plus of course shielding, fuel tankage, cooling equipment, and so forth for each installation and whatever converters might be required to crosslink them as needed. It's not like there isn't room for all of that and more in a 3+ km cube.

Hell, there are probably emergency diesels tucked away somewhere. ;>)


Mark L. Fergerson

[1 below GPG (G=1d10)]

In the TNG Backstage notes, the Borg Cube WAS suggested as tapping into the Matter/Antimatter Barrier between the two Universes, and two people; - maybe more incorporated this into gaming Statistics, even.

[alie...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, November 19, 2017 at 9:21:05 PM UTC-8, 1 below GPG (G=1d10) wrote:
> In the TNG Backstage notes

Are those online somewhere? My Google Fu is weak today.

> the Borg Cube WAS suggested as tapping into the Matter/Antimatter Barrier
> between the two Universes,

The "real" universe and the Alternate "Imperial Earth" universe?

> and two people; - maybe more incorporated this into gaming Statistics, even.

I don't do games, so I missed that.


Mark L. Fergerson