Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Borg Cube You Need To Know

As stated earlier, owing to the Borg's mysterious nature, much of the in-universe technical information about the Borg cube remains unknown, despite Borg cubes appearing in a total of 28 episodes, one theatrical adventure, and the opening titles of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

During its very first appearance in "Q Who", the Borg cube was described by Data as having no specific bridge, no command center, no engineering section, and no identifiable living quarters.

However, for the Borg's debut in Star Trek: Voyager's third season, production illustrator Rick Sternbach sent a memo to producer Jeri Taylor proposing some explanations for the cube's tremendous power. In his memo, dated November 4, 1996, Sternbach wrote:

The Borg ship itself hasn't been given its canon propulsion system, but Mike Okuda and I fiddled around with a few concepts. In "Q Who", Data read no centralized propulsion system on the cube. Okay, the engines could be small and in great numbers. The power sources could also be decentralized, but we hit on the idea that perhaps the cube itself contained no actual power plant for distant travel. It could utilize some subspace energy potential of the entire galaxy as its power source, essentially tapping the Milky Way like a giant battery.

Unfortunately Sternbach's specs never made it on screen, but his suggestion that the Borg leach energy from the galaxy itself is as good an explanation as any and consistent with the Borg's MO of, as Q put it, being the "ultimate user".