Star Trek: What The Romulans Are Doing With Borg Tech In Picard Revealed
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard episode 2
The Romulans control a Borg Cube in Star Trek: Picard, and here's what they're doing with the cybernetic technology they've acquired. While Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is front and center in his titular series, the Romulans have taken on new prominence as antagonists threatening the Alpha Quadrant. Not only is a sinister Romulan cabal that's even more dangerous than the Tal Shiar operating on Earth and targeting twins Dahj and Soji Asha (Isa Briones), the synthetic daughters of the late Commander Data (Brent Spiner), but Star Trek: Picard's premiere revealed the pointy-eared villains possess a derelict Borg Cube, one of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowCaptain Picard beat the Borg several times on Star Trek: The Next Generation and the TNG movies. However, the Romulans don't have the history with the Borg that Picard has so it comes as a shock that they have somehow acquired an entire Borg Cube - which they've designated as a Romulan Reclamation Site - and all of the drones and technology it contains. Indeed, based on a sign inside the Romulan controlled facility that says, "This facility has gone 5843 days without an assimilation", the Romulans have owned the Borg Cube for over 16 years, which predates the Mars attack by rogue androids in 2385 that led to synthetic beings being banned by the United Federation of Planets. The Romulans must have also captured the Borg Cube during the Romulan supernova crisis, another pivotal event that leads into the main story of Star Trek: Picard. The closing moments of Star Trek: Picard's first episode also revealed that Dr. Soji Asha works at the Romulan Reclamation Site and a Romulan named Narek (Harry Treadaway) arrives specifically to meet her and see her work, which he described as "fixing broken people".
In Star Trek: Picard episode 2, "Maps and Legends", Soji revealed exactly what the Romulans are doing with the Borg's technology: they're selling it for profit. In fact, Soji's work with the Romulan Reclamation Project directly helps the Romulans harvest the Borg's cybernetics. Soji and the other technicians systematically remove the Borg's cybernetic components from the countless dormant drones in the Cube. The drones are designated as XBs (for ex-Borg), although the Romulans prefer to call them by another term, "the Nameless". Soji also doesn't refer to the massive facility as a 'Borg Cube'; rather, the synthetic scientist (who is currently unaware of her true nature) refers to the vessel as "the Artifact". In Dr. Asha's words, "A Borg Cube is mighty and omnipotent, the Artifact is... lost... broken, vulnerable."
After 16 years, the Romulans are confident in their control over their so-called Artifact because the entire starship and all of the drones it contains are cut off from the Borg Collective - and once the Borg sever their connection with a Cube, they don't reinstate it so the Cube is permanently abandoned and deactivated. The Romulan Reclamation Project is focused on "reclaiming" the XBs, which means taking their technology but not necessarily reviving the organic species that the Borg assimilated.
While profiting from Borg tech sounds more like a Ferengi plan, the Romulans' cousin race, the Vulcans, would probably consider their selling it to be logical. After all, the Romulan Empire was likely shattered by the supernova and indeed, it's unclear whether the Romulans still have a Praetor and a Senate, even though the Remans' coup in Star Trek: Nemesis that overthrew the Romulan government and installed Shinzon (Tom Hardy) as Praetor happened 20 years before Star Trek: Picard. In fact, the Reclamation Project is run by the Romulan Free State, which might be the new incarnation of the former Romulan Star Empire. By profiting from the sale of coveted Borg technology, the Romulans can recoup at least some of the funds they lost from the cataclysm of the supernova.
However, a big question is whether the Federation is even aware that the Romulans possess a Borg Cube. The Romulans live in the Beta Quadrant and their domain was separated from the Federation by the Neutral Zone for centuries, but it's not clear whether that no man's land is still active in 2399. Plus, after 16 years, it's hard to believe Starfleet wouldn't have heard of Borg technology being peddled by the Romulans. But it's safe to say Jean-Luc Picard will eventually learn of the Romulan Reclamation Site during his quest to save Soji Asha so Star Trek: Picard will eventually deliver the answers Trekkers crave.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: screenrant.com