Star Trek Unveils the Ultimate Anti-Borg Weapon

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek: The Last Starship #10!

Star Trek just unveiled the ultimate anti-Borg weapon. Few villains in the Star Trek franchise are as scary as the Borg. Half-organic and half-machine, the Borg seek to assimilate species, adding their biological and technological distinctiveness to the Collective. By adding knowledge and experiences to the Collective, the Borg have become nigh unstoppable.

That is, until the Borg first met the Federation. In season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q formally introduced Starfleet to the Borg when he hurled the Enterprise to the then-distant Delta Quadrant. The Enterprise barely survived this first contact. Within a year, the Borg had returned, this time mounting an invasion of the Federation. Their opening salvo: kidnapping and assimilating Captain Picard, which led to the massacre at Wolf 359, one of the biggest losses in Starfleet history. Once again, the Enterprise barely squeaked out a victory.

In the years since the Borg’s first invasion, Starfleet has refined its weaponry even more, resulting in innovations such as the quantum torpedo and the Defiant class starships. Voyager’s hazardous trek through the heart of Borg space gave the Federation even more information and insight into the species, climaxing in the Collective’s defeat at Jupiter in the early 25th century. However, a breakaway faction, led by Agnes Jurati, survived until the 30th century, just in time for Starfleet to unveil its best anti-Borg weapon yet.

Starfleet Needed An Anti-Borg Weapon: Enter the Nanite-Disruption Field

Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and artist Adrian Bonilla bring the ultimate anti-Borg weapon in Star Trek: The Last Starship #10, from IDW Publishing. Set during the chaos that followed “The Burn,” an event that caused galactic civilization to crumble, The Last Starship follows the exploits of Captain Kirk, revived hundreds of years after his death. The Jurati-Borg brought Kirk back as a way to rally the galaxy and restore faith in the Federation.

However, matters have not played out as Jurati intended, and in a desperate “Hail Mary” attempt to save herself and the Borg, assimilates Captain Kirk. Now, Kirk is set on destroying the nascent Emerald Chain, a criminal organization that arose after the Burn. If Kirk follows through with his threat, then it would mean the Chain would retaliate even more. Admiral Sato is dispatched to reign Kirk in.

As his ship engages the Borg-Kirk aboard the Omega, Sato deploys an “anti-nanite” field. The field disrupts Borg technology, which is heavily rooted in nanotech, especially the probes they use to assimilate other species. It works like a charm, and forces Kirk to stand down. The issue ends with Kirk and Sato meeting, presumably for the last time.

The Borg Inspired the Federation to Develop Better Technology

The Nanite-Disruption Field Is the Pinnacle of Centuries of Research

The Federation has squeaked by every time it has fought the Borg. The Borg managed to assimilate several colonies and ships at the beginning of their first invasion, and then were responsible for killing and assimilating tens of thousands at Wolf 359. The Borg took the Federation, who had humbled nearly every other species they fought, down to the wire, and forced Starfleet to begin thinking more proactively about how they would deal with the Collective in the future, resulting in the aforementioned quantum torpedoes.

Starfleet’s attempts to counter the Borg’s awesome technology have climaxed in the nanite-disruption field. So much of Borg technology relies on nanites, and it appears Starfleet finally wizened up to this. How exactly the disruption field works is left to the reader’s imaginations, as is the case for most Star Trek technology. The field is the pinnacle of these efforts, and as seen in The Last Starship #10, it did the trick, neutralizing Kirk and Jurati, and forcing them to come to the negotiating table.

Is the Nanite-Disruption Field Available to Picard?

It is unfortunate that it seemingly took Starfleet hundreds of years to create the nanite-disruption field. By the time the events of The Last Starship take place, the Collective’s defeat at Jupiter was centuries in the rear-view mirror, and the Jurati-Borg were in isolation, showing no desire to conquer the Federation. It raises the question as to why Starfleet was still investing in anti-Borg weapons. Star Trek: The Last Starship leaves these questions unanswered, but there is no denying it works very well.

Star Trek: The Last Starship #10 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!