First Contact with the Borg

In 2365 the omnipotent entity Q, rebuffed when he asked to join the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, decided to show Captain Picard how unprepared humanity was for what lay ahead. With a snap of his fingers he hurled the ship some seven thousand light-years away, into System J-25.

There the crew found a planet whose cities had been torn from the surface, and soon met the force responsible: a huge cube-shaped vessel crewed by the Borg, a collective of cybernetic beings linked into a single mind. The Borg showed no interest in diplomacy. They cut a section out of the Enterprise's hull, killing eighteen crew members, and their ship repaired itself as fast as it was damaged. Guinan, whose people had been scattered by the Borg, warned that they would never stop.

With the Enterprise unable to escape, Picard admitted to Q that he needed help, and Q returned the ship home. The encounter revealed the Borg to the Federation and made clear they would eventually come, a warning fulfilled at Wolf 359 a little over a year later.