25,000 years ago
Somewhere deep in the Delta Quadrant.
When the final Gathering took place, it was on the second planet of the solar system, which had only recently begun to be explored and settled by Lehcar's people in the last century. It made sense; long had it been said that when the last Gathering of the Immortals occured, it would be a far off place to which the last of them were drawn to fight. Only two Immortals were left now, and the Game that had gone on for twenty thousand years was near to its conclusion.
Panting fiercely and eagerly, Lehcar grasped her sword in both hands and locked eyes with her opponent as they faced each other across the field of snow beneath the sun. Eight hundred years...that was how long it had been since she had first discovered her immunity to death, and how she was a player in a great contest. The man who taught her of her nature had been well over a thousand years old when they met. Having become his lover as well as his pupil, it had been easy for Lehcar to take his head and her first Quickening as they made love together. Few of those after had been as easy, but she had kept her head all the same.
Just one stood in her way now. Then, in a fluid movement, her blade whispered through her rival's neck, and his head and body parted ways in her wake. Looking down at his sightless eyes staring up from the frosty ground, Lehcar laughed aloud. A laugh of amazement, of satisfaction that she had won. "There can be only one!" she cried out in ecstacy as the ultimate Quickening ripped through her and through the surrounding area, simultaneously caressing and smashing into her. The Prize, which all of her kind had fought for across the aeons...it was HERS!
Delight seized her later on when she discovered precisely what it was she had won: The power to hear the innermost thoughts of every single member of her species, to know literally everything that they knew. And so Lehcar used the Prize she had won to gain power and prestige such as she had never before known. She reigned as a queen. But despite her newfound glory, she shortly became aware of something less welcome: After so many centuries, she was mortal. Apparently, winning the Game had been at the cost of becoming prone to the same ageing and eventual dying as others. Lehcar had always prided herself on her youth and physical strength; the thought of withering away to infirmity was enough to drive her insane with rage. It wasn't fair. She would not die...she couldn't! She had won this world and its people; they would be hers forever!
Years went by. As Lehcar's youth and vitality faded, so too did her ability to read others' minds. But her mind still contained every scrap of information she had drawn from the world so far, and she sifted through the knowledge to find the means to cheat the death which was now inevitable and to retain the minds of her people. To be strong, to be forever, to make all souls one with her own...that was her driving ambition. Then it came to her: Technology, married to flesh and blood. Entire organs could be replaced by machines that would never weaken, would actually do the job better than before! The first to be upgraded was her failing heart...then her eyes when her vision dimmed...and then her arms and legs when they were crippled by arthritis. By making technology part of herself, she did indeed live longer than she should have...but one day death still ultimately claimed her, with none knowing how old she truly was.
But the Prize had left her one other gift: That of being able to have children. And her daughter swore to herself that she would continue what her mother had started, merging flesh and machine even closer, perfecting life for all. Not only that, she would perfect people's minds by linking them all together into one vast, wonderful collective.
A collective that the galaxy would one day come to know and fear as the Borg.