Collectors

Beta Quadrant species that, as their name implies, collect items from worlds they encounter. A Collector Vault-Ship, which is a massive vessel made up of a line of five large black spheres, will enter orbit above a world and send in smaller ships and foot soldiers. Many of the soldiers are actually members of other species that have been collected and fitted with mind-control helmets. The Federation first encountered the Collectors on the planet of Falinor. The Collectors had swarmed in, assessed the planet's property, collected what was of value to them, and then was in the process of liquidating the rest in a massive sale when the USS Wayward intervened. The Wayward crew were able to run off the Collectors. (Everything Must Go! [WAY])

The first Multek exploratory ship sent out of the Multek Enclave in many years ran into the Collectors, and both ship and crew were collected as were Commander Walter Morales, Dr. Amedon Nelson, and Frequoq Wuddle. Since Nelson's symbiont interfered with the functioning of the Collectors' mind-control helmet, they removed the Midon symbiont and left it floating in a box in space, where it was found by Captain Lisa Beck and the USS Wayward. Beck mounted a rescue effort with the help of the Federation Marines, and rescued the collected Multeks and Starfleet Officers, freeing most of the Collectors' mind-controlled crew in the process. (Collectibles - Part One, Collectibles - Part Two [WAY])

After learning of the Multeks, the Collectors made their way into the Multek Enclave and, after attacking a outlying Multek world, moved on to Multos. Beck was able to draw the Collectors' Vault-Ship to Waystation by broadcasting false information about the unique weapon and other treasures housed on the station. (Free For All [WAY]). Waystation, the USS Wayward, two runabouts, and the USS Aerostar-A commanded by Captain David Conway, made a stand against the Collectors in a battle waged both inside and outside of the station. Although heavily damaged, Waystation was victorious, the mind-controlled members of the Collectors' crew were freed, and the Chief Assessor and the Vault-Ship were captured. (Disintegration [WAY])

Captain Beck traveled to the Collectors homeworld, where she learned their history from Grenana, an ancient woman the Collectors all revered. Grenana was the queen of their now barren planet, and, starting as a child, she collected figurines. As she grew up and had her own kids, they would compete to see who could get her the best figurine on her birthday. And then it escalated. They were arguing and pitting the provinces they ruled against each other. The gifts went from figurines to whatever their best artisans could devise. Grenana's birthday became more about one-upmanship than anything else. Her children constructed huge warehouses around her palace to hold their gifts to her. Then the arguing became actual fighting, which was passed down to her grandchildren. By this time that happened, Grenana was looking forward to her death, but then her planet's scientists developed a stasis technology that allowed her to be awake and aware but not age as long as she was inside the stasis field. Her grandchildren built the bunker in which she now lives for her and locked her inside while they continued fighting to give her the best additions to her collection. She just wanted it to stop, but her grandchildren wouldn't listen. Gifts for Nana became gifts for Great Nana and so on until they just started calling her Grenana. The ones in charge of the Collectors currently didn't even know what the name meant.

Generations of continued fighting went by, and the Collectors reached out into space. About twenty years earlier, the leaders of the factions, which by then numbered just over one hundred, met and devised a new plan. They called a truce and stopped the fighting before there was no planet left to fight on. Instead, each faction got a ship, a massive ship able to hold tons and tons of their 'acquisitions.' They planned to use these Vault-Ships to strip other planets, ones without the technological might to resist them, clean and then bring their stolen goods back to gigantic orbital warehouses, one for each faction. The only problem they had was that decades upon decades of war had reduced their planet's population to almost nothing. That's when the mind-control helmets were invented. They started raiding other worlds and taking their people away, fitting them with helmets, and using them to build the fleet of Vault-Ships. Then, when the ships were done, they kept the stolen people to use as Collectors when they swarmed across a new planet. One hundred and nine ships were launched five years earlier, and gradually they were picked off one by one. Most often it was because the Chief Assessor, the head of the faction and the Vault-Ship, underestimated the ability of a species to fight back. Only thirteen remained.

Beck took a grateful Grenana out of her apartment prison, so that she could live out the rest of her life enjoying herself in a Federation retirement community. With Grenana gone, the Collectors had to find new purposes for their lives. One Chief Assessor decided to open a pastry shop. (Collect Call)