Borg

 Bearing a fleeting societal resemblance only to the Binars of the Federation, the Borg have risen overnight to become perhaps the greatest single threat not only to the Federation, but to every galactic culture.

Possessing a hive computer mind, The Borg is a race of mechanically enchanced cybernetic beings that act and think as one. Perhaps millions in number, they exist only to absorb the technologies of those unfortunate civilizations they come into contact with. Emotion and personal considerations mean nothing to the relentless Borg, Who will pursue their goals of conquest until they achieve them- ot are distroyed trying.

Individual Borg drones begin life as normal humaniod infants, but are quickly "adapted" to their assigned life-long duties by the implantation of bionic components. This addition of technological parts continues until adulthood, when the individual is finally ready to be placed into its assigned place in the whole. Theory suggests that the Borg may have developed a method for accelerating the humaniod growth process, perhaps taking each Borg drone unit from infancy to adulthood in mere months.

The Borg vessels are of a design dictated purely by function with no consideration for aesthetics, are immense cube-shaped structures capable of incredible firepower and speed greater than can be accounted for by any stretch of conventional Federation scientific imagination.

The Borg appear to be centered in an area of space beyond the far side of the Romulan Empire. An intervention into Starfleet procedures by the "Q" has made the Borg aware of the Federation's existence long before such an encounter would have occurred naturally, opening the constant theat that further Borg intrusions into Federation space may occur.