An Intriguing Proposal

Posted on Thu Jan 11th, 2024 @ 8:56am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant N'vok Holv

Mission: Season 6: Episode 4: Memory Lane
Location: Arcadia Lounge
Timeline: MD 5
1489 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

After a full day of training under Naxea in the holodeck, prepping for the upcoming mission, Rin was more than ready for dinner. She also would be more than happy to have something to think about other than how to quietly murder slavers, which had been most of the afternoon's work.

"N'olv, you had mentioned wanting to speak to me that day in Science with the... artifact. Would you like to discuss over dinner?"

"I would be delighted to do so, Lieutenant," said N'vok, his even tone indicating no such delight. "There is still much to learn about the Borg and how they function. I would be fascinated to gain your insight,"

Rin wondered how many people understood how impersonal "I want to learn how you function" sounded. Although, considering N'vok was Vulcan, she supposed just about everything he said would probably have the same tone.

The two headed down to the Arcadia Lounge, where Rin ordered some pasta and a glass of wine. "So, where would you like to start?"

N'vok took a salad and a mug of tea. "Before we begin, feel free to stop me if any of my questions cause you distress, it is not my intention to make you uneasy or unhappy. My main curiosity is in how the Collective communicates within itself. From outside, the system appears purely technological but the Collective must have added members of telepathic species over time. Does it take advantage of that fact? If it does not, how does it deal with telelpathic or empathic bleed from species with such talents?"

"The Collective is about uniformity. We all react the same way to similar stimuli. Anything that pulls a drone outside of that uniformity is eliminated. Indeed, anything considered unnecessary can be sacrificed in the name of improvement. There's a lot of modification to our brains: barriers to memory and emotion, removal of sections to make room for computing hardware, rewiring to make the whole system more efficient. Telepathic and empathic abilities come from distinct areas of the brain. They can simply be removed. An ex-Betazoid drone is no different than an ex-Human one. They are all simply Borg."

Rin sat back, sipping her drink. She seemed perfectly relaxed with the conversation. Almost casual. "Now, the effects of telepathic ability get more complicated. You can't simply remove all the places that might be affected. But you have to remember drones don't have distinct minds. You try mind melding with a drone and you'll end up with the entire Collective in your head. And if you want to affect a drone, you essentially have to overcome the resilience of the entire Collective."

"If that is so, being severed from the Collective must be extremely traumatic," said N'vok. "Did it seem as though you were losing an entire world?"

"Absolutely. Most drones just go insane. I don't know why some of us don't. Never particularly mattered to me. People imagine disconnecting from the Collective is like waking up from a nightmare. It's actually the opposite, it's like falling *into* a nightmare. In the Collective you have purpose and order. Out here is all chaos, where ultimately all decisions are your own, and you have *no* idea how to make them. I had other xBs with me when I escaped. We existed as individuals but kept certain links. We called it the Free Collective. It's what got me through those early years."

"Fascinating," said N'vok taking a sip of tea. "How did the Free Collective function? Did you simply keep in touch via comm calls and messages or did you build something more elaborate?"

"No, no something infinitely more complex, something I don't think I've ever been able to convey to a non-xB. We could know what each other were doing, even what we were thinking. But we were not forced to share such information. We could act in absolute sync. We could make decisions as one, if we chose to. It was very much a Collective, but a voluntary one. And we worked for the good of the Collective, while we figured out how to operate more individually, while we figured out what that even meant."

Rin's gaze unfocused for a long moment as she remembered those years. She didn't regret them. She couldn't quite say they were happy memories, because she had still be trying to figure out what that felt like. They were...comfortable memories.

"It's been a long time since I've thought back to then," Rin added. "It was a different time."

"Intriguing," said N'vok. "What did you use for a communication protocol? Was it reliable? What sort of range?"

"I still have my neural interface. If there was another xB on board, we could, if we both agreed, know each other's thoughts, what the other was doing, where they were." Rin turned her attention downward to the wine glass in her hand. "There was another xB on board when we hit the filament. I felt the moment he died."

"I am so sorry, Lieutenant," said N'vok offering his hand, in case she wished physical contact for reassurance. "That must have been mind-bogglingly traumatic."

Rin looked up, first at the offered hand, and then to N'vok himself. A slight smile oddly crept across her face. "I'm fairly certain that's the first time I've heard a Vulcan use the word "mind-bogglingly." Also, surprisingly empathetic. Non-traditional upbringing? If I may ask."

"I have spent considerable time among other Federation races and cultures," said N'vok with a faint smile. "There are some . . . limitations with standard Vulcan response in times of distress. Especially with non-Vulcan. It was not my intention to reawaken past trauma, Lieutenant."

"No, no, obviously not," Rin assured him. "It's alright. I just don't want to go there tonight." She awkwardly gave the offered a hand a squeeze, perhaps to assure N'vok of her words. "What else did you want to ask?"

N'vok took another bite of salad and pondered. "Well, this was not part of my original discussion goal, but, do you think we could mimic that neural network for short-range communication? Something that exotic could make a useful backup on our current mission. For emergency use only but the Slavers almost certainly have ways to jam a Federation communicator but Borg technology may be beyond them."

Rin opened her mouth to involuntarily object, then closed it. Her eyes darted back and forth as she debated a number of things, her brow ridge lifting in seeming surprise at whatever conclusions had run through her head.

"Ok....yes, an external link could theoretically be created. It could attach to the scalp rather than be implanted. Yes, we could limit it to share surface thoughts. Yes, we have at least one person on board with experience with my neural interface. That's Dr McEntyre." Rin was counting the points out on her fingers as she went.

"Drawbacks..." Again, Rin started counting on her fingers. "First, available time to develop. I have no idea how fast you and Dr. McEntyre could work. Second, we might need to have me as a central node for relaying communications, which would be fine. My processors could easily handle it. So, I suppose not really a drawback. Just a thing to consider. And three....."

She wiggled that third finger. "I have no idea how hard it would be for people to keep their minds on task. They're not going to have a lot of time to practice, and my impression has always been that many people's thoughts are quite chaotic. Not mine, and I suspect not yours. But, for example...have you met Myne Redal?"

N'vok tapped his fingers on the table in some sort of pattern as he organized his thoughts. "Rydal, yes, not someone I would wish to share thoughts with . . ." he said after a moment.

"It is a viable idea but not, I think, in the timeframe we have before the mission," said N'vok. "Still worth working on I think as we may have to deal with the slavers again and having a secure form of communication would be valuable."

"So if you are willing to work with Dr McEntyre and I, it may prove to be a worthwhile addition to our tools."

Rin nods. "I will contribute what I can."

"I think we could possibly manage a prototype for communications just between the two of us for this mission and then expand from what were learn from there. Does that seem viable to you, Lieutenant?" asked N'vok.

Rin nodded. "You would probably be easier than some of the others... and you're clearly interested. I'm not sure how many others would be eager to test the technology."

N'vok nodded and took a sip of tea only to notice his cup was empty. "I will contact Dr McEntyre directly and we can meet tomorrow to work on a preliminary design and possibly even a test run if it can be assembled quickly enough."