Changeling Assimilation?

[NeXXtea]

I'm sure the nanobots could simply fix the morphogenic matrix of the changling into what ever it wanted just like the founders did to Oto that one time, then the borg could do what ever they wanted to the changeling after that, however he would no longer be considered a changeling.

 

Besides that tho, what kinda changeling would ever be captured by the borg? Changelings are gods remember they would just turn into a nanobot and crawl into those stupid borg types and kick ass on their internal cuircutry...booo yaazzz

[MrDad]

If all the cells of a founder were assimilated then it wouldn't be anything like species 8472 - except insofar as the fact they didn't become drones.

 

Granted, a puddle of assimilated Founder cells may not be the most useful thing ever but who knows, give it time. Maybe it could become a ripoff of human form replicators.

That's assuming they have a recognizable cellular structure even. Without control of the mind, they are not in any useful way assimilated. That would make them worthless to the collective.

[motoxjesse]

wat about the fact that some have to return to a liquid state at diffrent times, i think it would be hard to follow into a liquid state

[maverick]

changelings seem not to have a physiology in any way comparable with humanoids. they simply simulate whatever shape they take on. this probably includes not simulating internal organs.

 

borg implants are used to regulate brain function and physiology. the changelings seem to have no brain which could be compared to the humanoid brain so i think that at the moment they could not be assimilated.

 

they are essentially the perfect weapon against the borg. they cannot be held in any form for too long or they risk dying quickly so therefore making them useless to the borg. the borg would be forced to kill them.

 

perhaps it could be speculated that there are no borg in the gamma quadrant because they got their arses kicked off the changelings. i doubt it has any basis in trek fact but it can be speculated:D

[Tenebrae]

We really don't know enough about Founder physiology... but it is very different from "solid" physiology, which the Borg are geared toward assimilating. Based on the assumption they couldn't assimilate Founders - effectively or otherwise - it would seem reasonable to assume that without outside help the Borg would be unable to assimilate them - ala 8472.

 

Of course, that wouldn't stop the Borg just killing them.

[MrDad]

Yes, they don't have any special resistance to dying.

[Steveo]

Yes, I doubt the Dominion/Founders would be any more effective against the Borg than any other race.

 

It's not as if they can just imitate a drone like they would a human in DS9, what with the whole collective conciousness. Their strategy to date would seem to be ineffectual against the collective.

[MrDad]

Yes, I doubt the Dominion/Founders would be any more effective against the Borg than any other race.

 

It's not as if they can just imitate a drone like they would a human in DS9, what with the whole collective conciousness. Their strategy to date would seem to be ineffectual against the collective.

They could imitate objects and easily conceal themselves anywhere, even on a cube. I also suspect a drone would be rather vulnerabe while attempting to assimilate a Founder.

[Tenebrae]

A Founder could just go T-1000 on a drone.

 

Despite their claims to adapt, the Borg strategy seems to be pretty much unchanged since day one. Zombie march toward target - try and assimilate. Not just that but beyond drones, we've seen precious little in the way of defences on the Cube, in spite of the number of times cubes have been destroyed because something or someone was beamed onboard.

 

And as is observed several times in DS9, if a Founder changes into something like a rock or a shoe or a rock/shoe - they'll scan and act like one until they revert to liquid form. I can see a hardcore Founder being able to power through a bunch of drones just by forming a number of simple stabbing objects - because the drones are so slow... and I think outside of TNG's "Descent" they never actually shoot anyone.

 

Ship to ship... well, if you'd asked back before Voyager - I'd like have said, no contest... but Voyager showed that a mid-range ship - with appropriate character/plot shields - could take on the Borg pretty regularly.

[TFMF]

I suppose the Borg could just confine a Founder in force fields and find someway of incopassitating it before they could even get near it to assimilate it...

[Mav]

While I don't think their liquid state could work along side the cybernetic components the Borg use, I do think the Borg could introduce assimilation into them.

 

The Changlings have a genetic structure, different than others but still they break down into Part A, Part B etc Borg use nanoprobes which infect a users bloodstream (if I remember correctly). So the Borg "adapt" and have their nanoprobes altered to take over the key structure of the Changling genetic makeup.

 

Now what they do with them is the key. Obviously they can't just turn them into drones, the whole liquid state thing kills that idea rather fast. However the Great Link is their greatest weapon. Alone the Changlings only really posses the advantage of shapeshifting. In the Great Link, the entire Changling population can share ideas, speak as one, think as one, almost like a Collective of Borg.

 

So the Borg assimilate them, then simply keep them in a liquid state and use their raw processing power as a huge well, liquid hive mind, to help do stuff. Imagine the load taken off a single Cube by this, more Drones and stuff could be diverted to other means instead of menial tasks like repairs or whatnot. Now take that idea and implement the liquid hive mind onto a Borg planet or system, they could do alot more. Even in the future, a humonoid mind (including Changlings) can store much more information than a computer can.

[Guest c4evap]

I don't think any of that would work. The Borg attach "things" to the nervous system, the brain, spinal cord, etc. The "liquids" have none of those things. I think they'd be a problem like species 8472 was (assimilation wise).

 

c4

[TetsuoShima]

Well, I don't know if it would work or not, but once the nano-bots are introduced, the Borg can do with the subject whatever they want really (unless they have a DNA-code that is too complex, see 8472), they can alter the very being of a species should they feel its necessary. I have some serious doubts as to whether the changelings can 'reject' the nanobots. That is the real question, can the Borg get nanobots inside the changelings and are the changelings able to get rid of the nanobots. All the adding of technology to the body is of less importance, the nanobots are the key.

[Mav]

you forget the Borg can communicate via subspace. Granted most of the Drones use the reciever built into them to do it, it connects them to the Hive mind. However again streth it some. The Borg adapt their nanoprobes, to be able to communicate with the Hive Mind. So assimilate the Changlings, with the Hive mind connected they won't need "attachments". They'll have control over the Changlings then it's just a matter of keeping the connection intake, keeping the Changlings in some form to contain them and finally process their minds into the Hive as raw processing power.

[TFMF]

Well' date=' I don't know if it would work or not, but once the nano-bots are introduced, the Borg can do with the subject whatever they want really (unless they have a DNA-code that is too complex, see 8472), they can alter the very being of a species should they feel its necessary. I have some serious doubts as to whether the changelings can 'reject' the nanobots. That is the real question, can the Borg get nanobots inside the changelings and are the changelings able to get rid of the nanobots. All the adding of technology to the body is of less importance, the nanobots are the key.[/quote']

 

As to if the changelings could reject nanobots - well i'd say yes - i mean they are just little machines - so if the changelings morphed somewhere else - wouldn't the nanobots just.....fall out :p

[TetsuoShima]

Well' date=' I don't know if it would work or not, but once the nano-bots are introduced, the Borg can do with the subject whatever they want really (unless they have a DNA-code that is too complex, see 8472), they can alter the very being of a species should they feel its necessary. I have some serious doubts as to whether the changelings can 'reject' the nanobots. That is the real question, can the Borg get nanobots inside the changelings and are the changelings able to get rid of the nanobots. All the adding of technology to the body is of less importance, the nanobots are the key.[/quote']

 

As to if the changelings could reject nanobots - well i'd say yes - i mean they are just little machines - so if the changelings morphed somewhere else - wouldn't the nanobots just.....fall out :p

 

I'm not confident in what makes a changeling 'tick' (who is... :D ), but if they function even remotely like other organic lifeforms, meaning they consist of cells and such, than that would not necessarily be true. Nanobots are formed on such a small scale that they could infiltrate the cells of a species and as such, no amount of morphing would remove them, unless they can morph their cell too, but that doesn't sound like it's physically possible, then again, it is Star Trek... :D

[TFMF]

Another thing you have to consider is that if these cells can morph - couldn't they morph into a rock? Rocks can't be assimilated

[TetsuoShima]

yeah, the more I think about it, the less actual sense it makes. Once a changeling changes into a rock, he essentially becomes a rock and can't see, hear, feel or interact with his environment. He also registers as a rock on all sensors. That would indeed indicate that his cells change.

 

But another problem that arises, once a changeling becomes a rock, he really is one, how on earth can he then change back into something else, since rocks aren't sentient afaik. :D

 

Physically and logically it doesn't make sense. Though the idea is pretty cool... Anyway, I don't have a clue on wehter they can be assimilated. Maybe they could be, but indirectly, through some sort of virus that reduces their ability to morph. But really, since it is so 'un-real', anything goes... :D

[TFMF]

Yeah i have often wondered how changelings do what they do

 

although if you remember - Changelings can turn into Humans - and yet if you were to cut them - the blood would revert back... Could the same be said if you were to break the rock in half...

[TetsuoShima]

hmm, you got me thinking there. But as allways, wikipedia holds all the answers (well almost all and only for as far they dare speculate).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling_(Star_Trek)

 

So it would appear that they can take matter and energy and changed them into each other and interact with subspace or something weird like that.

 

They also bring up the matter of the Cardassian anti-changeling-transformation machine. I would dare bet that if the Borg got their hands on that, that they could assimilate a changeling, at least for as long as the machine is stopping it from transforming.