Hadn't encounters with the Borg already occurred in the Neutral Zone prior to Q Who?

Question

In the episode Q Who, at the end, Guinan says that the encounter with the Borg happened before it should have. Picard says "they will be coming" in response to Guinan saying that they are now aware of The Federation's (or humanity's) existence implying this was the Borg's first contact with them as well.

However, earlier in the episode, after Q first sends the enterprise light years away, when scanning a Class M Planet Worf comments that the suspected industrialized civilization that had been there there appeared to have been ripped away from the planet identical to what happened to the outposts along the Neutral Zone in the episode The Neutral Zone.

This made me think that in both cases the perpetrators were the Borg and that the Federation and the Romulans have encountered the Borg already.....just that no one's survived to report back.

If that is the case then didn't the Borg already know about the Federation? If Guinan was expecting the Federation to encounter the Borg much later, was she not aware that the encounter had already happened and they are already seen as they are just raw material for the Borg?

Answer 1

YES

Borg encounters were known to Starfleet but the information was not generally known throughout the Federation.

From the Memory Alpha page on the Borg

As of "Q Who" and "The Best of Both Worlds", it appeared that Starfleet had never heard of the Borg. Subsequently, Star Trek: Enterprise's "Regeneration" and Star Trek: Voyager's "Dark Frontier" showed that not only was Starfleet previously aware of the existence of the Borg, Federation scientists actually pursued them – even if they were considered mere rumor. Further, although Guinan indicates in "Q Who" that her people were attacked by the Borg, it is implied that Starfleet was not aware of the threat. However, it was later revealed in Star Trek Generations that Starfleet, in fact, rescued the El-Aurian survivors of the Borg attack including Guinan, and it seems unlikely that Starfleet would not inquire as to the cause of their plight.

Answer 2

The Borg would have learned about humanity and the Federation when they assimilated Seven of Nine's parents in 2356.

Answer 3

If no one has survived to report the encounter then no one in the federation would know about the encounter and Guinan is in the federation.

If I remember correctly though the Borg do not rip planets apart they assimilate so if the Borg had attacked the M class planet they would still be present and assimilating biological and technological matter.

Answer 4

Actually, It depends on if you include the books, all the television series and the movies. Just based on the television series, in Star Trek Enterpise, borg are found on Earth frozen and they assimilate the researchers. Technically, that would be the first contact and the Borg drones would have found out about the federation then and they did transmit a signal. However, I believe, the person that wrote they were not interested in us due to our level of technology and the low threat level we posed to them was correct. Remember, the borg did not attack Capt. Archer's crew or Capt. Picard's crew until they deemed them a threat. If you include the books and movies, then in Shatner's series of books that take place after the movie Star Trek Generations, Kirk, Picard and Spock agree that the "Machine Beings" that repaired the Voyager space probe in sent it back to Earth in Star Trek I were the Borg. Of course, they sent it back before the Federation was created and the Voyager probe never called them by name. However, it had collected so much data and transmitted to Earth and the Enterpise so I am sure that there was some mention of them in that data to. This of course took place after Capt. Archer's Enterprise encountered them and chased them. The crew of Archer's Enterprise may have met them before that during the episode when the Enterprise needed major repairs and found the automated repair hanger that had the beings attached to a central computer that could repair itself and modify itself as needed. Let us think about the similarities, an artificially intelligent computer that abducts intelligent beings and connects them to itself (assimilation), can modify (adapt) itself to complete this, can repair (regenerate) itself, refuses to answer questions not relevent to the task at hand and refuses to discontinue operations when told to do so or threatened (resistance is futile). Anyone else notice any similarities. As for Guinan and her fellow survivors, the Federation did not get involved with them until after the attack and the Borg had left. Not sure if any of Guinan's people that were assimilated knew about the status of the Federation and its tech, but she did already know about Earth and about Picard since they had time traveled and stopped the alien beings from attacking and killing humans where the Enterprise crew met Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) and the younger version of Guinan. During the STNG series she mentions that her people are listeners and watchers so her people might have continued to visit Earth and thereby seen the development of the tech and the Federation and that knowledge could have been assimilated by the Borg in the attack mentioned in Star Trek Generations.

Answer 5

The Borg were in a different quadrant heading in the opposite direction from the federation in search mode the encounter with the enterprise. Q put the enterprise back in alpha quadrant which is why the federation was able to "prepare" for the Borg.