Chapter Text
The borg of the Artifact are infiltrators, bending their collective adaptation to circumvent Romulan quarantine protocols and introduce sleeper charges into the quarantine fleet. The XBs make use of Borg viniculum to retrieve cultural data on their organic components and emulate their unassimilated counterparts.
This infiltration initiative is referred to by the Borg as the Scorpion Protocol. When borg nanoprobes flag Soji as a synthetic, Hugh elevates her access levels to draw her in for assimilation and analysis. Hugh remembers the events of Descent, and has learned of the events of First Contact from LaForge. Thus the collective takes another crack at assimilating a soong-style android. When Picard's merry band of Chaos arrives, and Soji goes full terminator, he uses the matter trajector to send Picard, Soji, and a dozen borg infiltrators to Rura Penthe. Seven arrives at the Artifact aboard a klingon warlord crewed by XBs, and beams aboard. The romulans are assimilated wholesale. Transport inhibitors, holographic projectors and forcefields trap and confuse them, while aeresolized nanoprobes incapacitate them. The romulan fleet desperately trues to flee, but much of it succumbs to borg remote control thanks to integrating salvaged tech. The borg cube then warps to the Synthetic homeworld and assimilates the colony. Picard and company arrive to find signs that the colony was eliminated by Romulans, and commodore oh informs the zhat vash that all is well. Seven augments Elnor and sends him out with an assimilated Tal shiar to be an awesome swashbuckler.
Picard "dies" of his brain condition, but it is revealed that the Picard we've been following is actually a clone, and the true Picard is actually Locutus, and has been in Borg hands since he had a flashback on the Artifact. Locutus has had his brain defect corrected, and is now subsumed into the hive mind. Seven observes his regenerating form before returning to starfleet, where she has-been made captain and one of the LaForge sisters is her first officer. The other is working for captain shaw. Rios and Soji join Elnor in their hunt for Mudd's legacy.