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In the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, we hear Lt. Barclay mention that there's a transwarp aperture forming about a light year from Earth. This was from the Borg's transwarp hub in the Delta Quadrant, and the Federation looked to be prepping for the Borg vessels that would come through.

My question is, if the Borg had the ability to do this all along, why didn't they do this much earlier, destroy the Federation, and be done with it?

From The Next Generation we do know that they destroyed the majority of the Federation fleet during the battle of Wolf 359. So doing something like that again wouldn't be a difficult task for the Borg.

It just doesn't seem very realistic that they would never use such an advantage against their foe, then again it's a TV show :).

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    they did attack the federation more then once. After wolf 359, they again send a cube that decimates a fleet in StarTrek First contact. however during voyager the borg are distracted by the fluidic space specied 8472
    – Himarm
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 13:34
  • True, there was First Contact but they'd only sent one cube then (and technically a sphere within the cube). What I'm saying is, why not send a huge fleet of cubes to just wipe them out? They clearly had the ability to do so. But like you say, Species 8472 were a nuisance for the Borg and were keeping them occupied.
    – Him_Jalpert
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 13:58
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    also the federation possed no real threat, both attacks were simply forays into federation space. they are still primarily clustered over in the delta quadrant.
    – Himarm
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 13:59
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    When you're farming, do you pick the tomatoes when they're just little green golf balls? No, you wait till they're worth picking / assimilating.
    – Gorchestopher H
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 16:34
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    “then again it's a TV show :)” — you stop that heretical talk right now. Here we prefer the term “future documentary”.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Oct 8, 2016 at 13:01

5 Answers 5

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No Reason

Quite simply, the Federation wasn't a threat. In "First Contact" an entire Federation fleet (including the Enterprise) could barely defeat a single Borg Cube. This demonstrated to the Borg the inability if the Federation to resist them. In the Star Trek: Voyager finale, the Borg were only defeated with technology that was a) from the future, and b) advanced for the future (classified material). Even this barely defeated a few small Borg ships; the hub itself did not defend itself when Voyager was in it. All this points toward the Federation being below the Borg's notice, as the Borg cannot get new technology from the Federation; they have passed the Federation there. It had nothing to offer the Borg other than extending the Hive Mind, and that can happen anywhere there's life.

So, all in all, the Federation is just too small and too technologically backward compared to them. Resistance really is futile.

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  • "Even this barely defeated a few small Borg ships" Umm, didn't Voyager blow up a few Cubes with only a few shots, with the Queen then pulling other ships backs? I think this line undersells the threat Voyager became in the finale. Also, if the Borg had any sense, they'd re-prioritize the Federation before they propagate the future armor/torpedo tech to additional ships.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 17:49
  • Every single time the Federation have resisted the Borg, they've been 100% successful. Resistance might be hard work, but it ain't futile.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 17:55
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Because they're scared of us. And no, I'm not kidding.

In Voyager: Dark Frontier, the Borg Queen has a tête–à–tête with her new gal pal, Seven of Nine. She describes how the Borg's prior attempts to assimilate humanity via direct assaults have proven to be abject failures.

Since each attempt has resulted in the transfer of technology to humanity (making each subsequent attempt that much harder), the Queen's next step is to try something rather more subtle.

QUEEN: Your knowledge for the target species is invaluable. Species five six one eight. Human. Warp capable. Origin, grid three two five. Physiology inefficient, below average cranial capacity, minimal redundant systems, limited regenerative abilities. Our previous attempts to assimilate them were all direct assaults. They failed, so we've created a more surreptitious strategy.

SEVEN: You intend to detonate a biogenic charge in Earth's atmosphere.

QUEEN: It would infect all lifeforms with nanoprobe viruses. Assimilation would be gradual. By the time they realised what was happening, half their population would be drones.

SEVEN: Inefficient. The virus would take years to proliferate.

QUEEN: We've waited this long

Based on the results of the prior attempts (Cubes being repeatedly infiltrated, the Borg Resistance being created, Borg ships being taken over by an android, etc) the fear is presumably that a strategy that involves sending a fleet of Borg Cubes to attack Earth could easily end up with a fleet of freshly-liberated Borg Cubes turning around and attacking the Borg.

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    This is true, that also jogs my memory about the Borg trying to use Jean-Luc Picard as a go-between by assimilating him as Locutus of Borg. Their thinking for that was he could negotiate a surrender for humanity to the Borg and thus limit the loss of life on both sides. But of course, this didn't work either.
    – Him_Jalpert
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 17:00
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    @RyanJ - Yup. And the attempt after that involves a time-travel device. The Borg Queen is anticipating that the Cube will fail.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 29, 2016 at 0:13
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    With Janeway safely delivering a ship equipped with tech from the future (mobile holo emitter, future-Janeway-armor, future-Janeway-torpedos), the Borg better get to assimilating the Federation sooner rather than later or it's going to be much more difficult.
    – Ellesedil
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 17:53
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The Borg want to assimilate Federation's technology and by giving the federation time to develop new technolgy means that when the borg try and assimilate the federation again the technology they obtain will be improved.

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The borg probably werent all that interested in us..until q blasted the enterprise 7000 light years into their territory out of nowhere. Just as they were about to destroy them, BANG the ship mysteriously gets hurled 7000 light years away, as if by magic. Now they want to know how such a primitive species with tech theyve seen a thousand times before could manage such an incredible feat. Now they are coming.

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  • I think this was the original intent. The Borg were too far to care until Q provoked them
    – Andrey
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 19:02
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Well, besides the fact that the aperture only appeared 1 light year from Earth I was kind of surprised Starfleet finally had ships near Earth. In all the other movies there was never a fleet near Earth. Only in DS9 in "Operation Return" Earth was defended by the 7th fleet.

I think the Borg had enough other species to assimilate besides the Federation. Maybe they weren't that interest in the Alpha Quadrant since non on of the Alpha powers ever engaged the Borg. Al though in someone's vision (don't know whoes) we see Klingons engaging the Borg. Otherwise, Cardassians, Romulans, Ferengies, Tholians, Sheliaks, Breen, Talarians en maybe more species never seemed to have any dealings with the Borg.

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