| abstract | - An interplexing beacon was a type of subspace transmitter utilized by the Borg that allowed long-distance communication between drones. Each drone had an implanted interplexing beacon with a unique translink frequency. In 2063, after having traveled back in time from the year 2373, a group of Borg drones attempted to construct a large interplexing beacon on the USS Enterprise-E's navigational deflector in an attempt to contact the Borg of that time period in the Delta Quadrant. The beacon was destroyed by Captain Picard and Lieutenant Commander Worf, however, before the Borg had a chance to activate it. (Star Trek: First Contact) The energy packs used by the Borg to build this beacon were made out of bird feeders. The same bird feeders were seen throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, mostly as organic sample containers. (Penny Juday, TNG Season 2 DVD special feature "Inside Starfleet Archives - Penny Juday, Star Trek Coordinator) Later in 2375, while using the Delta Flyer in an attempt to rescue Seven of Nine, who was being held aboard the Borg Unicomplex, Captain Janeway managed to send Seven a covert message via Seven's interplexing beacon. Janeway's transmission was eventually detected by the Borg Queen, however, who was able to trace it back to the Flyer's location. (VOY: "Dark Frontier") In an alternate 2390, Harry Kim and Chakotay used a stolen Borg temporal transmitter to send a message back in time to Seven of Nine's interplexing beacon, in the year 2375, in order to save the USS Voyager, which had been destroyed in the Takara sector while attempting to utilize quantum slipstream drive to return to the Alpha Quadrant. By sending a new set of phase corrections to Seven, they were able to successfully change history by causing the slipstream to collapse, returning Voyager to normal space before the crash. (VOY: "Timeless")
- Upon assimilating a starship it is not unusual for the Borg to construct an interplexing beacon to establish contact with the collective. The Borg have done so on the USS Monitor in 2377 and the USS Enterprise-E in 2063 when Borg from the 24th century attempted to establish contact with the collective of that era. (TNG video game: Away Team and TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact) In at least one alternate timeline, the Borg also used interplexing beacons which could transmit through time. Starfleet located one such device in the wreckage of a Borg Cube in the Beta Quadrant. This particular beacon was stolen in 2390 by Chakotay and Harry Kim in an attempt to communicate with Seven of Nine in 2375 to prevent the destruction of the USS Voyager that had created that timeline. (VOY episode: "Timeless") Given the recent point of divergence, it doesn't seem too improbable that temporal interplexing beacons exist in the regular timeline as well.
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