The Borg

[Gul Khold]

In Star Trek: First Contact, there was a brief moment which you could see an assimilated Cardassian in the background. It prompted me to think no one would be better to ask than other fellow Cardassians:

What you guys think happened? The Cardassian Union is too far away from the general Borg turf. The Cardassians do not really exploit faraway areas of space (specially since the Dominion War), so how did they manage to meet the Borg?

And, more importantly, what you folks think they would do if confronted with that threat?

[Gul Khold]

A space anomoly that transported this Cardassian to the vicinity of Borg Territory? Or the vicinity of a Borg Cube? Perhaps something that happened during Wolf 359?

If confronted with the Borg, there is harldy anything you can do, but they would fight and try to gain technology to defeat them.

I thought that an anomaly could work. I know the Cardassians likely are aware of the existence of the Borg (if the Obsidian Order was as good as they claim, it is obvious they would eventually learn one or another thing of the Federation's enemies).

It would put the Cardassian Union in a dilema if they ended up fighting the Borg: They would not want to be fully wiped out, so fighting to the end would be off the table. But at the same time, the best way to stand a chance would be to compromise and ask aid to the Federation, which also would be bad.

[Shada Dukal]

Well, Wolf 359 is 7.78 light years from Earth’s solar system. The Borg cube must have traversed a huge area from the Alpha quadrant before aiming for the Earth. During the Border Wars, the Cardassian taskforces were densely situated along the Federation-Cardassian border, so it is possible that this cube encountered a Cardassian Galor or a small outpost and attacked it. I don’t think that the Cardassians had any chance and they made a nice addition to the Borg collection.

Even if the Obsidian order knew about the Borg and had some countermeasures developed, I guess the Borg attack took place too quickly so the hapless Galor or outpost did not have time to receive updates from the Central Command about the possible way of action.

The Borg threat was one of the reasons for the Federation to look for a diplomatic solution of the Border Wars and to start negotiating a truce. They needed all their ships to fight the Borg.

[Gul Khold]

Shada has a point there.

I think that, after the Dominion War, any attempt by the Borg to take on an Alpha or Beta Quadrant major power would be succesful. Even the Federation came out of the conflict in relatively bad shape. I think it is an interesting opportunity to exploit and muse what the Cardies would be doing, since the Feddies likely would not move a finger to help them.

[Gazomg]

In Star Trek: First Contact, there was a brief moment which you could see an assimilated Cardassian in the background. It prompted me to think no one would be better to ask than other fellow Cardassians:

What you guys think happened? The Cardassian Union is too far away from the general Borg turf. The Cardassians do not really exploit faraway areas of space (specially since the Dominion War), so how did they manage to meet the Borg?

And, more importantly, what you folks think they would do if confronted with that threat?

Cardassi9ans would attack first and worry about the repercussions later.

As to when they could have been assimilated, well if the borg could make it to earth from both the delta and beta quadrants via the transwarp hub then cardassian is hardly out of bounds.
Or else the cardassians were on a deep space mission, cannot believe that cardassian would not be like the romulans, klingons and federation and not explore after all cardassia is suppose to depend on outside due to its lack of natural minerals etc, hence the occupation of major.

[Gazomg]

a cardassian borg alliance ????

That gives me an idea...........................

[Shada Dukal]

In fact, Memory Beta states that the Federation has a huge problem with the Borg in 2381 and manages to convince Cardassia to join the anti-Borg coalition. They give Cardassia 3 star systems, Garak negotiates it. Finally, the Borg are defeated but the Federation loses about 40% of Starfleet.

[Gul Khold]

Hahaha, only three star systems? Knowing Garak, he would have been capable of securing about everything Cardassian the Federation took, the exit of Federation personel from the Cardassian Union and a bit more.

[Shada Dukal]

Well, three systems can contain several M-class planets, think of the symbolic meaning, the Federation recognizing that not everyone can be pressed into cooperation by altruistic gibberish but they require something more tangible in return. As for Garak, he negotiates the withdrawal of the Starfleet occupational forces from Cardassia in 2385. Having in mind the Starfleet loses during the Borg invasion, they were likely to relocate their personnel to domestic defense. He even made friends with Picard. I adore Garak’s political maneuvering.

[Gul Khold]

Garak would diserve to be in power much more than Ghemor. Though for a guy like him, it is never good to be the big guy, only the "second-best" who actually runs the show behind someone else.

When it comes to their patriotism, I wonder if the Cardassians would actually do something that really damages an average Borg Cube: Ram their ships into it.