Wolf 359

The Battle of Wolf 359 was a fictional battle that took place in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Best of Both Worlds. In the Star Trek fictional universe, the it was the Federation's first major battle against the Borg. In 2367, a contingent of forty Starfleet starships assembled near the star Wolf 359 under the command of Admiral J. P. Hanson of Starbase 324 to intercept a Borg cube ship travelling to Earth. The known ships that fought the Borg were:


 * USS Ahwahanee (NCC-73620)          Cheyenne class
 * USS Bellerophon (NCC-62048)        Nebula class
 * USS Bonestell (NCC-31600)          Oberth class
 * USS Buran (NCC-57580)              Challenger class
 * USS Chekov (NCC-53702)             ''Springfield class
 * USS Firebrand (NCC-68723)          Freedom class
 * USS Gage (NCC-11672)               Apollo class
 * USS Kyushu (NCC-65491)             New Orleans class
 * USS Liberator (NCC-67016)          (unknown)
 * USS Melbourne (NCC-62043)          Excelsior class
 * USS Princeton (NCC-59804)          Niagara class
 * USS Roosevelt (NCC-2573)           Excelsior class
 * USS Saratoga (NCC-31911)           Miranda class
 * USS Tolstoy (NCC-62095)            Rigel class starship
 * USS Yamaguchi (NCC-26510)          Ambassador class
 * USS Endeavour (NCC-71805)          Nebula class
 * Twenty-four other unnamed vessels. (Though not considered canonical, Peter David's novel Vendetta mentions that a Galaxy Class ship was among the destroyed vessels. However, it should be noted that Admiral J.P.Hanson lead the battle in an unnamed Galaxy Class starship, this may be the ship mentioned.)

During the battle, nearly 11,000 lives and thirty-nine ships were lost. The USS Endeavour may have been the sole surviving ship of the battle, since her captain described a Borg encounter, but there is no canon evidence of this. Another notable survivor was Benjamin Sisko, first officer of the Saratoga and later the commander of Deep Space Nine as well his son Jake Sisko, though his wife Jennifer was killed in the battle. A number of other people were able to escape from the destroyed ships via escape pods.

This overwhelming victory for the Borg was likely due in part to the then-assimilated Locutus' (prior to assimilation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D) knowledge of Starfleet tactics and technology being available to the Borg. Following Picard's rescue from the Borg, he experienced feelings of intense guilt because of the many thousands whom the Borg killed or injured by using his knowledge.

The battle was incredibly one-sided: the Borg cube itself suffered negligible damage in combat with the forty assembled Starfleet vessels. Following its victory, the Borg ship continued on its course to Earth.

The two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Emissary" chronicled the battle.