Lucky wrote:First, you are ignoring the fact that those grudges must be taught, and what we see of the Federation says they will do their best not to teach such things.
I'm simply pointing out that bad blood exists between members, that they historically don't get along. And while they may believe in nonviolence and peaceful resolution of their problems now thanks to the Federation I very much doubt Andorians believe they were wrong two hundred years ago.
Secondly, most federation races have never been in conflict with each other. The UFP is not going to fall apart because one member does not like one other. There are over 150 members remember, and breaking up the UFP would be worse then having to make nice with someone you don't like a little.
Actually total breakdown would be worst case scenario, gravy for the Collective, with mere arguing and bickering among the members with some break aways being sufficient to meet the Collective expectations.
And if the population wasn't growing for at least humans then there would not be new colonies being founded.
You claimed their were colonies with Earth's population. Are you retracting this claim?
Culture matters. You act like a tiny space rock is actually important once the culture of it's inhabitants has spread to other specks of dust.
Yes culture matters but so do numbers and institutions. The latter would be destroyed by the Borg the former likely fragmented, scattered across the galaxy and outnumbered by the other 149 races. It is very optimistic to assume humanity can step up and perform the same role it did two hundred years ago.
Which runs counter to what we see the Borg do, what is known about the Federation. Taking the Earth will only piss off the Federation, and make them into an even more unified force like Pearl Harbor, and we see this in DS9.
Doubtful. The Borg are more glacerial in their actions than the Dominon. They'll likely spend Lord knows how long assimilating Earth and turning it into a beachead instead of sending ships to attack the breadth of the Federation. Granted Andoria might want to launch a massive effort to reclaim the world and Vulcan might want a more sedate pace to study and understand the problem but a goober alien three thousand light years away who joined the Federation for starfleet's protection against space pirates isn't going to be happy that protection is now pulled Earthward nor that an adhoc government is demanding higher taxes to pay for a superfleet which won't benefit the alien world in question.
I expect immediately after the event an upsurge in solidarity but I don't expect it to last.
On top of that it leaves the Federation command structure nearly untouched
It leaves starfleet chain of command mostly untouched and the individual planetary governments. The Federation "command structure" such as it is will be gone.
leaves R&D nearly untouched
Beyond resources and time shifted to stabilize the region yes I would agree.
ship production untouched
I highly doubt Utopia Planitia Fleet Yard will be left in operation. However so what? The Federation is not a military threat to the Borg Collective all they can do is ramp up their ship production, at the expense of resources that might have gone into R&D for instances, and launch a mammoth battlegroup to retake Earth suffering thousands of ships losses in the process squandering resources all at the expense of a single Borg cube, I'd call that a victory for the Collective.
The UFP has plans for this contingency as it is something all militaries and governments plan for.
If you have evidence they have a contingency I'd be happy to see and reconsider my theory accordingly.
A "surgical strike" doesn't make sense because two cubes or even a cube and a sphere would be a certain victory, and still be a "surgical strike".
I don't see the merit of this argument. Yes two cubes can be a "surgical strike" as much as one but so what? Are you arguing one cube can't be a surgical strike?
It's only logical to send a larger force then you think you need because unexpected things go wrong, and one more ship is not going to cause any problems for the Borg.
As I said in my theory the Borg, always one for efficiency, are going with minimal investment. Removing a possible down the line threat on the cheap, and as I have stated the cubes had a high chance of success. Defeated the first time by a pure deus machina they couldn't have predicted so there would have been no reason from the Collective view to pull a second cube from duties, preventing it from doing Borg things it otherwise could have, to tag along.
The fact that only one cube is always sent means the Borg is not honestly trying.
That is a possible solution, through not one I personally would advocate, admittedly. It is however not the only solution.
More like saying that the USA could handle having congress, the president, and a few high ranking officials killed, and recover easily.
No we're talking about the whole enchilada here. The Federation Government is on Earth same as the Federal government is concentrated in D.C. "Nuking" them removes that layer of goverment and while I do think the US would survive it would not be painless or easy recovery. As well the various states have more in common/shared history than the remaining aliens races do so in the strictest sense assimilating Earth could be argued to be more akin to nuking Brussels for the European Union.
7of9 says the Borg cares about efficiency, but we know things like Cubes are not effect shapes for ships.
You get more volume per dimensions with a cube shape then say the standard Starfleet hullshape. I don't see anything inherently inefficient about it.
The Borg say it wants to assimilate Earth and the Federation, but it refuses to do something as simple as use a whopping 2 cubes.
I'd argued it was because of that hide bound efficiency and refusing to send wasteful amounts of resources a second cube would have been.
That is merely an assimilated baby taken from its maturation chamber. Not evidence of cloning.
The Borg has the technology to make artificial wombs.
We know they have Maturation Chambers to accelerate children's development but as far as I know we do not have knowledge they can support developing fetuses, to use such a cold phrase, as opposed to already developed life.
The Federation has this technology
That the Federation has it doesn't mean the Borg understood it, technologically or conceptually, through I don't recall any artificial womb being exhibited in the Federation. Where was this?
Riker was cloned in an episode.
In Up the long ladder (TNG season2) it was a previously isolated human colony which did it. In Second chances (TNG season 6) it was due to a transporter malfuction. Not common in other words.
The Borg has the technology to clone life forms.
Where is this stated?
The Federation has this technology.
The Federation doesn't appear to, discounting the transporter but that was an accident.
The Borg has the technology to engineer life forms.
Evidence?
Again the Federation has this technology.
Possibly but that doesn't mean the Borg assimilated and understood it even if they did have that capability.
Therefore there is nothing from stopping the Borg from growing custom drones even if it has to assimilate the clone at a point after the clones creation.
There is also nothing permitting the Borg from growing custom drones. We have no evidence on that segment of Borg technology beyond the fact they don't do it.
If 7 of 9 say X does not make it true anyway. It simply means she believes X to be true. She is human, and fallible, and therefore can be wrong, and is wrong in verifiable ways about the Borg.
She is the nearest we have to a Borg expert, being former Borg, and merely being human doesn't make her wrong by default. You have provided nothing to contradict Seven of nine, mere idle speculation, and your reasoning that she should be ignored are debatable at best.
The Borg are treading lightly in the Alpha and Beta quadrant. The question is why?
That would seem to be the question of this thread yes.
The Husnock were erased from history because it wasn't simply the actions of an individual, but a species wide mentality, and you are forgetting there is only one Borg.
The Husnock were creatures of "hideous intelligence who knew only aggression and destruction" however:
The Survivors TNG season 3 wrote:KEVIN: Yes. I saw her broken body. I went insane. My hatred exploded, and in an instant of grief I destroyed the Husnock.
It was the sight of his wife's broken body which caused his murderous rage. 1 Borg drone, one Husnock or one human with a phaser could have done the same thing and risked the same price.
Last time I checked 8472's bodies and ships were made without any infrastructure
8472 are an organic creature presumably evolved from something in their home of fluidic space, they presumably didn't spawn themselves from the ether. Their ships are also organic and culled from something, we saw no signs they could make matter out of thin air like Gary Mitchell.
I'll have to disagree, and say Kes was possibly beyond Gary in capability.
One this is predominatly from the Gift season 4 of voyager which occurs after scorpion part 1 and 2 which was the time period I refered too and second
Gary Mitchell more or less displayed every power Kes did and beyond. When Kes can manufacture a gravestone with a wave of her hand or make a barren wasteland sprout trees from a planet lightyears away she will be at Gary's level. Third even granting that Kes was better than Gary in the Gift what does that have to do with her being mind raped in Scorpion by species 8472? They were telepathic, she was telepathic, it doesn't mean they also could suddenly start tearing fabric of reality apart with their minds.
