TIME TRAVEL and BORG TEMPORAL TRANSMITTER

The Borg have developed precision time travel. The following events are portrayed in the film 'Star Trek: First Contact': in 2373 a Borg sphere carrying the Borg Queen travelled into Earth's past, to 6th April AD 2063, the day before Zefram Cochrane of Earth made historic first contact with the Vulcans and thereby with the space-travelling galactic community. The USS Enterprise NCC-1701E thwarted the Borg's attempt to contact Borg of that time period and their attempt to prevent first contact. The Enterprise's sensors detected the Borg vessel's start into a time conduit: high concentrations of tachyons and chronometric particles emanating from the Borg sphere. The Enterprise was able to follow in the temporal wake.

In an alternative timeline, portrayed in [#100 Timeless], a Borg vessel had been destroyed in the Beta Quadrant and Starfleet had salvaged a Borg temporal transmitter. Such transmitters are designed to allow Borg to communicate with Borg in different time periods. Kim and Chakotay used it to send a message (phase variations) to USS Voyager 15 years in the past to prevent a crash that had killed all the crew.

The Borg temporal transmitter is (or was!) a piece of equipment which may have been integrated within the Borg ship's systems or other interface, but this is not stated on tv. The two narrower sides of the temporal transmitter have a series of five metallic pins which can be connected to compatible Starfleet data and power ribbon connectors as installed on the Delta Flyer. It may be that the Delta Flyer's systems had been modified to receive the Borg connectors sometime in the period since USS Voyager's crash onto its tomb, an ice-planet on the border of the Alpha Quadrant on stardate 52164.3 (Borg time index 9.43852). Components on the upper side of the temporal transmitter are small, and are connected to each other by such delicate, copper-coloured wires that an isoprobe is necessary to make adjustments to the unit without damaging the circuitry. A continual high power supply is required for the transmitter to function properly, which can be initialised by manipulating a connection on the bottom right hand corner of the suporting laminated base.

Source: TOSTFF

The Borg temporal transmitter is (or was!) a delicate piece of equipment and was stored within a stout protective case (shown below). The Starfleet storage case is for "salvage component 36698", and the label reads "STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE", "CLASSIFIED" and "Security code" with various numbers. Inside the case is a large amount of protective material surrounding the component (shown below).

Once the temporal transmitter is activated, a weak electronic sound indicated that the unit is operational. Ths is accompanied by two sequentialy flashing orange diodes on the top left and bottom right upper circuits. If power drops below its required level, the lights immediately stop and the unit powers down with a concomitant audible alert. It can be re-activated by routing additional energy back into it. The transmitter requires the following data for a transmission to be successful: firstly, the recipient's translink frequency (in [Timeless], we learn that Seven's interlink frequency is 108.4423600), a unique frequency which is tuned to a cranial implant receiver called an interplexing beacon; secondly, the Borg time index so that the message can be sent to exactly the correct time.

Source: TOSTFF