In the area of the multiverse where the cybernetic civilization known as the Borg exist, most people who have survived the Borg believe that this race exists as a collective consciousness. While this is true, it is not the whole truth about the Borg. Collective consciousnesses have tremendous powers as seen in the Borg's uncanny ability to adapt themselves to any external threat. However, just by itself a collective consciousness is a lot like the mind of an animal that acts on instinct.
This is where the royal drone comes in. The royal drone acts as the focus point of the Borg's collective consciousness. Alone out of all the drones in the collective the royal drone retains a sense of self. If one were to compare the collective consciousness/royal drone relationship in the Borg one to a structural model of the psyche the collective consciousness is the Id while the royal drone is the ego and super-ego. Now this isn't exactly how the relationship between the collective consciousness and the royal drone is, but it's close enough for people who aren't part of the collective to understand.
While there is only one active royal drone in the Borg Collective at any time, there are usually thousands of 'tagged' drones whose pre-assimilated personalities are considered by the current royal drone as being suitable to replace the royal drone should something happen to the current royal drone. Now the current royal drone of the Borg, the "Borg Queen" that the Federation in the 24th Century was familiar with, attempted something that had never occurred among the Borg before. She had the Borg create a human child using the best DNA enhancement techniques that the Borg had available.
This child was intended by the Borg Queen to be an independent mind that would be her companion, adviser, and eventually her successor. Because of this the Borg Queen had strictly ordered that the child not be assimilated into the Collective. Instead, the infant was given a special set of nanoprobes that heal the child and allow the child to interface with the Collective. This was so the new "Borg Prince" would be able to develop his own mind.
Luckily for the Federation, the Cube that the infant "Borg Prince" was on had been flung out of the Star Trek universe because of Voyager destroying one of the Borg transwarp hubs. By chance, this cube was flung into the "Ranma-verse" at the edge of the Solar System. Due to damage the Cube had sustained because of its unexpected inter-dimensional trip there was no way the Cube could try to return to its native universe.
Cut off from the rest of the Collective and the Queen, the drones on this cube almost self-destructed because of the loss of leadership. Luckily for the drones, and maybe not so lucky for everyone else in this universe, the Borg prince was on board and even in his infant state was able to bring some semblance of order to the Collective. Since the Borg Prince needed to mature more physically and mentally, he was sent off to the only habitable planet in the system where he was found by Genma Saotome and named Ranma. The Collective also had every drone on the Cube go into long term hibernation to await the day when Ranma could take his place as the new Borg King.
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(Posted Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:09)
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