- This article is about Hugh in the prime timeline. You may be looking for Hugh in the First Splinter timeline.
Hugh was a Borg drone who lived in the mid-24th century.
Biography[]
Designated "Third of Five", he was a member of the Borg Collective and dispatched in a Borg scout vessel which crashed on a unnamed planetoid. He was the only survivor of the crash whereupon he was discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D in 2368. They began to study him and with an attempt by Starfleet to use the drone to spread a virus into the Collective in the hopes that it would destroy Borg. However, the drone began to reassert its individuality after it had been cut off from the Collective whereupon Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge gave him the name Hugh. Ultimately, Captain Jean-Luc Picard allowed Hugh to return to the Borg with his newfound individuality rather than use him as a weapon. (TNG episode: "I, Borg")
However, rather than be reincorporated into the Borg Collective, Hugh's sense of individuality spread to his fellow drones. Sensing that his individuality had infected the vessel that had retrieved him, the Borg cut off their link to the vessel leaving it directionless and in a chaotic state. Rather than die from their newly-acquired status as individuals, Hugh and his fellow Borg were saved by the Android Lore who discovered their ship and saved them whereupon he established himself as their leader.
Despite what he had done, Hugh and a number of like-minded, liberated drones opposed Lore's leadership and separated from the main group. In 2370, his group lived in secret on a planet that the rogue Borg had made as their homeworld. At the same time, Lore had managed to capture and brainwash his "brother" Data and when the crew of the Enterprise came to the world looking for him, Hugh encountered a member of their away team. At first angry at their actions, he decided to work with the away team once he learnt that his friend Geordi La Forge had been captured by Lore and was being experimented on. Taking his faction, Hugh and the Starfleet team stormed Lore's fortress and helped in ending the mad android's plans. (TNG episode: "Descent")
When Hugh was recognized as a leader to the independent Borg, there were some such as Enab who split off from their fellow liberated drones and attempted to find a means to recover the unity of the hive mind. Enab's group began to attack Tholian in worlds in 2371 in an attempt to research the secret of their natural hive mind but he was stopped by the crew of Enterprise-D before his actions brought a war in the quadrant. (TNG comic: "Cry Havoc")
Hugh and a tribe of his comrades later established a homeworld on a planet belonging to the Borg Collective which served as a dumping ground for damaged drones. He along with a member of his faction, a female former drone called Miko, saved what drones they could. Helping them renounce their implants and nanoprobes, he helped give them a new reason for living. In 2373, after the destruction of the Borg Central Node by James T. Kirk, Hugh and his clan encountered a near dying Kirk. He helped teach Kirk several techniques designed to heal him after which he helped Hugh recover those Borg that survived the Node's destruction as well as freed them. (TOS novel: Avenger)
The Artifact[]
By 2399, Hugh had become a Federation citizen and head of the Borg Artifact Research Institute's reclamation project. (PIC episodes: "The End is the Beginning", "The Impossible Box")
Hugh was murdered by the Romulan Narissa, a member of the secret cabal called Zhat Vash, when he refused to give up the location of Jean-Luc Picard. (PIC episode: "Nepenthe")
25th century[]
By 2410, he returned to the Delta Quadrant and joined the Borg Cooperative, with the goal of freeing other Borg drones from the Collective. (STO - Delta Quadrant mission: "Jarleth System Patrol")
Alternate timelines[]
A major tangent of the prime timeline was created in 2373. Called the First Splinter timeline, this alternate reality's Hugh became the leader of the Independent Nation of Borg and eventually died in 2380. (TNG novel: Greater Than the Sum)
In another alternate timeline, Hugh and Seven negotiated a treaty between the Borg and the Federation in 2390 to fight the Bajoran Ascendancy and the Grigari during the War of the Prophets. (DS9 - Millennium novel: The War of the Prophets)
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Appearances and references[]
External links[]
- Hugh article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Hugh article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki.