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Is there any evidence the Borg Queen was the one who agreed to the alliance between Voyager and the Borg against Species 8472?

The Borg were acting their usual selves when Janeway approached them with the idea of working together, then suddenly changed their minds and agreed.

Was this due to the Queen countermanding the Collective’s judgment on the situation, like she did later in Endgame, Part 1 when Voyager enters the transwarp hub nebula and the Collective feels the need to assimilate them?

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  • No. The Queen is the Borg and the Borg are the queen.
    – Valorum
    Jan 21, 2016 at 10:51
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    There's evidence of the queen counter comanding the collectives judgement when voyager enters the transwarp hub nebula and the collective fells the need to assimilate is warranted the queen commanded the collective to let them continue , endgame part 1
    – Darren
    Jan 21, 2016 at 10:54
  • There is a possibility... the Borg Queen did admit to 7of9 in Dark Frontier that she masterminded her release to Janeway and her crew. No reason to presume she was not involved with the idea of an alliance to further her 7of9 infiltration goals.
    – Jared
    Feb 28, 2017 at 22:32

2 Answers 2

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Janeway approached The Borg with a game plan from the beginning. There's no mention of the Borg Queen influencing any decision making here. I think the decision was pretty obvious, The Doctor had found a way to reprogram Borg to avoid detection by Species 8472, essentially giving them a way to survive.

Once the alliance was over, the Borg failed in attempting to assimilate the crew of the Voyager. So it seems this was a collective decision based on their needs of survival, which makes sense, since that's really what the Borg is all about.

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  • You would think an Alarm would go off in her unicomplex chambers alerting her of the situation the minute they were made aware of potential technology to beat species 8472 then she took over the situation, an alarm went off when the tactical cube was under attack by voyager then she took controle of the cube. Unimatrix zero part1
    – Darren
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:19
  • Well, you'd think so. But what canonically happened, and what we can say happened are two completely different things.
    – John Bell
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:32
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It wasn't a sudden change of mind. The Borg demanded the technology without guaranteeing safe passage before finally relenting. Also, the Queen and the Collective are indistinguishable.

Here is the exact dialogue from the episode "Scorpion":

JANEWAY: Open a channel.

BORG: We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

TUVOK: They've locked onto us with a tractor beam.

JANEWAY: Borg vessel, this is Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager. I have tactical information about Species 8472. I want to negotiate.

BORG: Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated.

JANEWAY: Borg vessel. What you're receiving is a sample of the knowledge we possess. If you don't disengage your tractor beam immediately, I will have that data destroyed. You have ten seconds to comply. We know you're in danger of being defeated. you can't afford to risk losing this information. Disengage your tractor (Janeway is beamed away.)

[Borg Cube]

BORG: State your demands.

JANEWAY: I want safe passage through your space. Once my ship is beyond Borg territory, I'll give you our research.

BORG [OC]: Unacceptable. Our space is vast. Your passage would require too much time. We need the technology now.

JANEWAY: If I give it to you now, you'll assimilate us.

BORG: Species 8472 must be stopped. Our survival is your survival. Give us the technology.

JANEWAY: No. Safe passage first or no deal.

From this, I would not describe it as a "sudden change" of mind on the Borg's part. Janeway knew she would be able to negotiate with the Borg because she had something they desperately needed. Even then, the Borg tried to "have their cake and eat it too" by demanding the technology without guaranteeing safe passage, but Janeway refused and the Borg relented.

As for the Queen, recall from First Contact that she and the Collective cannot be distinguished. She is simply an avatar for the entire Collective.

BORG QUEEN: I am the beginning. The end. The one who is many. I am the Borg.

Her decisions and influence cannot be thought of as separate from those of the Collective.

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  • They can be distinguished since we have seen the queen counter command the collectives judgement before
    – Darren
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:28
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    @Darren : That could simply be an outward representation of a decision process made by the Collective. Part of the role of the Queen is to create the illusion of an individual when dealing with high-profile assimilation candidates like Picard, Data, or Seven.
    – Praxis
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:32
  • Could've been a WHILE loop that eventually fell on the correct answer ;)
    – John Bell
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:34
  • @JohnBell : Hehe, indeed.
    – Praxis
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:35
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    @Darren : I suspect there are a lot of Bayesian statistical processes that run in tandem when the Borg try to make a "decision". There is probably a baseline course of action dictated by experience, such as assimilation of a new species, but new information acquired about a particular encounter can override the baseline action with a "better" one. It could be that the Queen always vocalizes these shifts in the statistics, whether an audience is present or not. But I suspect these processes run even if she is dismantled and tucked away somewhere.
    – Praxis
    Jan 21, 2016 at 15:43

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