In light of the new mission coming out next month for PC, and in March for people like myself who play on Console, I thought I'd make a small update to my theory about the Aetherians.

The Aetherians are most likely going to betray us, we're all expecting it. They're throwing up so many red flags, not only could you chart a path home for the SDF-3 but also have it pick up Voyager on the way back. At this point it'll be a real twist if they don't. We last saw Empress Leeta, our Mirror Counterpart, and Marshal Janeway looking at a Borg Cube, and I'm guessing it was a Borg Kingdom vessel. While the logs indicate that the Borg tried to negotiate with the Terrans, and failed, we might have better luck if it comes down to it as we know that our counterpart wants a rematch. Maybe we can goad them into allying with us so they can try to destroy us later or something. We also know that the Aetherians appear to have some ability to manipulate and mind control people, and that they already seem to be playing the part of the Cylons or Haydonites by giving the rest of the Fleet upgrades to various systems, with targeting and weapons being specified by Ezri, supposedly to combat the Borg Kingdom. If/when they betray us, I can see them using those upgrades to control or disable the rest of the Alliance Fleet.

One theory I've heard is that the Borg Kingdoms nanoprobes are the best defence against their mind control, and because the Player Character has been assimilated we'll be immune, or at least resistant, when the other shoe drops. Yes, the physical nanoprobes and implants were removed, but in the case of people like Picard we've seen that the Borg tend to leave more permanent biological and psychological marks nonetheless. Perhaps our Captains can resist simply due to sheer willpower, or the Borg Kingdom installed some additional safeguards we haven't detected yet.

But whatever the case, because most of the rest of the Alliance has been compromised, we have to seek help from our Mirror Counterpart, Empress Leeta, and Marshal Janeway. We know the Marshal uses Kingdom Nanoprobes to control her ship and crew, as well as to act like a Borg Queen given her actions when Tilly and the Inquisitor betray her. The fight between her and our Mirror Counterpart is very similar to our fight with the Borg King. We've also got contacts with the alternate Sela, the Undine, and the Tholians as a setup for faction contacts when things go pear-shaped.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they’ve adapted the Borg Kingdoms nanoprobes for their own use and are therefore immune, or at least resistant, to the Aetherians mind control. If they are some sort of new variant of the Borg, specializing in the organic form as well as energy manipulation and psychic powers instead of being purely technological, then it's possible that at some point they diverged from the others enough for their control signals to be incompatible, which is why they aren't just openly assimilating the other variants. They have to do it in a far more covert matter, as is likely the case with the last two missions where we killed the King and Queen of both versions., leaving them with the perfect opportunity to quietly assume command of the Kingdom and Control Borg, as may be the case with that one Aetherian seemingly "sacrificing" himself for our sake.

They said there was a Borg Kingdom incursion into that universe, but all we saw were the local Control Borg vessels and Drones. The only extradimensional forces there were us. They sent us there on false pretenses. Now, their motivations for sending us to that particular universe are still unclear, but given various new articles, their interest in the alternate Iconian World Heart, and minor leaks I believe it has something to do with the aforementioned Heart. A common theory I've seen on here is that the Aetherians are an alternate version of either the Borg or the Iconians, or even both. If so, it would explain their interest in the World Heart given what we know about it and the fact that it's a repository of knowledge, something which would be of great interest to either group for obvious reasons as we saw in the mission.

We also know that they established a beachhead in Fluidic Space after saying they couldn't enter it at all at the beginning of the mission due to it being lethal to Aetherian physiology. If they are a new variant of the Borg, than we just handed that breach, which leads across the entire multiverse, from one version to another. The Undine also noted that it was now practically impenetrable. Obviously, as the player we'll most likely find some way around that, but for the time being it's just another ace in the hole for the Aetherians. A big one.

The Aetherians have some sort of crazy psychic/energy manipulation abilities on the ground, and their vessels are a basic shape. All of their talk about Unity and Harmony also sounds very similar to the Borg Collective, something which just continues to stand out the more I think about it.

In one of the recent news blogs, Kings & Queens - The Onslaught, they were giving out devices to be installed on our ships and expressed confusion when the Lukari chose not to have one installed on the Reskava. Guess Kuumarke is finally becoming as paranoid as we are, it only took her eight Story Arcs. From the summary of the new mission coming out, Star Trek Online: Unveiled - Live February 11th, the flagship of the Aetherians is damaged and seemingly abandoned. We also make contact with the Cooperative again for the first time in over ten Story Arcs, this time through Hugh. Even the name, Unveiled, seems to imply the removal of the mask and the Aetherians, or someone else, attacking us.

From one of the new patrols introduced during the Typhoon Event, Out Of Control in the Sitor System, we know that the Iconians seem to have had a run in of some kind with our "friends" as their distress call was talking about the Aetherians, not the Control Borg who show up out of nowhere. Perhaps they were remotely testing one of those devices and the Iconians got wind of it, but they either couldn't release the full details with the Harmony right next to us or they were still trying to figure it out. Whatever the case, the contrast between their distress signal and when we reestablish contact, with the Aetherians help, I might add, just seems odd to me.

What do you guys think?