With a twinkle, a new star shines in the sky above Samaria as Starship Bridget exits warp nearby. Long range scans unveiled signs of advanced technology, even weapons, in this region of space, prompting the visit. Up close... the region is oddly barren. Except for one planet.
The starship approaches, settling into orbit around the planet.
"The Amalien Alliance legal code exists more as a commitment to the values we share than anything else - hurting anyone is con-sidered bad under those values, no matter the circumstances. But in pra-ctice we have to make choices where someone is going to get hurt no matter what but we wanted to re-member that... just because the Borg won't stop attacking us doesn't mean they hurt less? If it would make the world better to be the sort of people who would surr-ender to the Borg we would want to be that sort of people."
"I can't think of many cases where this came up? There was a case where an engineer proposed using lasers on a lower setting than was typically, even though it probably would kill Borg more painfully, because it would allow ships to conserve power. Our legal system says that sort of thing is illegal and uh, 'because we wanted enough power to make desserts with our food synthesizer' would not be enough to prevent us from taking actions to stop that sort of thing."
"Mm.
"Do you have a plan in mind for arranging for me, or whoever the ambassador ultimately is, to meet a Borg safely?"
"We might be able to corner some Borg in a situation where they won't risk attacking us and can't leave to get reinforcements. Possibly we could sneak you on to a planet that's being assimilated under circumstances where it's possible to blend in, though we'd have to figure out a reliable way of getting you out afterwards. There're also a few prisoners I believe."
"Yes, though I believe there are a few they are exceptionally expensive to keep and don't seem to strongly prefer it to death."
"Um, we have tried figuring out ways to scale making them harmless and have not figured out anything that's remotely possible yet."
"Also, related to the Borg in general - are you sure you are willing and able to deal with seeing fairly intensely horrifying things?"
"Well, I've seen people who were - dying? Of various things? I don't have any way to be sure I'm robust against more intense things."
"Hm, do you have any guess as to what sort of failure modes might come up or whether there would be other potential ambassadors significantly more likely to be robust than you?"
His best guess is she'd probably hold up well, but he doesn't have much evidence for this.
"I guess you could go with someone older? I'm honestly not sure what I should be imagining here to project my possible reactions."
"Uh, I can give you examples of the sorts of things if you'd be comfortable with that?"
"Certainly better than being confronted with the actuality without having ever heard a description!"
He actually has a video about Borg assimilation that would be appropriate for this (with skippable graphics if necessary). It's used to explain things like why Amaliens allow attacks with significant collateral damage if the alternative is the assimilation of a planet, or why it's a standard feature of battleships to have self-destruct mechanisms. Some planets also use it for recruitment though the Amalien Alliance has no official policy on that.
CW: Horrifying things including body horror and such. It really is quite bad.
The video is a mini-documentary about Borg assimilation.
The process is a fairly automated form of extremely invasive full body surgery, with absolutely no attention paid to anesthetics or comfort. One portion towards the end of it seems to include the opposite - when Borg test out the host's nervous systems after coming online various nerves have the full spectrum of their pain receptors tested. The video includes some diagrams, and also realistic CGI reconstructions of the process that Lucien can play if Isabella would be okay seeing. There's a small amount of actual footage as well that she can see.
Mostly the life of the host isn't as physically agonizing as those first few days. Until brain death (typically occurring within a year due the fact that the Borg put minimal effort into keeping host's brain alive) they will be conscious of their body being puppeted as they act as a Borg. It's believed by Amaliens that the psychological harm during this period is comparable to the physical. The Borg have a habit of using hosts as foot soldiers against the communities they originate from, likely because the Borg noticed the efficiency improvements brought about by the demoralizing effect this has on defenders. There's footage of this but Lucien does not think Isabella needs to see it and it's ... something he feels bad about showing.
It's believed that most of the decisions made around assimilation are driven by the fact that they are cheaper and more effective than alternatives as well as the benefits to continued future Borg endeavors due to demoralized non-Borg.
The process is sometimes reversible if an assimilated is captured before brain death, though there have only been a handful of successes. This bit of the video is very clear on how this isn't a thing people should count on happening - it's way too expensive to scale and doesn't always work and no survivor is really okay afterwards.
Lucien will back off and pause things if Isabella seems to be having an acutely bad time with any of the video.
Well, surely it would be worse if she were somehow managing to have a good time with it. (She's actually pretty distracted by the concept of video footage at first.)
Lucien would .... probably prefer she have a good time with it absent the potentially horrifying implications doing so would entail!
He can rewind so she can rewatch the beginning part if she missed it being distracted by video footage existing.
Sure uh. If she wants to see something not horrifying uh. The most recent non-war related video he was watching on this datapad turns out to be a relaxing playthrough of a civilization building game?
Well, that's very differently impressive than real life recordings, but still cool.
He agrees and hopefully it also serves as a good breather after the rather terrible video!
"I imagine if I'm ever in a position to get a closer look at events like that I'll have more immediate problems than my psychological health," she says after a few minutes, "but when that rises to the top of the prioritization I think I'll be able to manage it."
"Okay."
He thinks he will trust her assessment of her ability to deal with this sort of thing.
Another other questions he should ask her...
"Oh uh. A substantial amount of the Amalien Alliance's leadership is my species - the amaliens. The alliance initially started as a coalition of us and the species we'd provided technology too. My species looks rather young by the stand-ards of most places. I'm guessing this won't be a problem for you? Uh, amaliens also can act in ways people read as young like how we speak, but this doesn't impact our competence."
"Oh, I wasn't sure if that was just you, you could have just been - small, or a prodigy - I suppose I can get used to it. Why do you act young in addition to looking it, if you aren't?"
"I'm not entirely certain. My species doesn't age physically, and while we're emotionally mature it's often in ways distinct from most cultures - we're far more likely to cry in public than adults of most species but far less likely to have... a destructive emotional outburst. We tend to ignore or suppress our emotions less than other species but are able to function and make decisions we endorse in states of extreme distress."
"My first officer is actually a Nradian, a species that has an additional developmental stage that builds further upon the developmental changes of their first adolescence. They seem to view most humanoids similar to how most humanoids view my species."
"Oh, how interesting. Have you met our - civilizational cousins, descendants of the neighbors of the original Samarian settlers? I've always wondered if they eventually wiped themselves out or not."
"Your region of space doesn't contain any other civilizations, though it does contain signs of the use of advanced weaponry that would be consistent with them having wiped themselves out."
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