Arctic One Arctic One was the designation for an United Earth transport that was in service in the mid - 22nd century . In 2153 , this starship was assigned to the A - 6 excavation team , an Arctic Archaeology Team , a branch of the Earth Sciences Institute , for an exploration of Earth ' s Arctic Circle . During their exploration of the Arctic Circle , the A - 6 team discovered a craft of unknown origin . As they investigated the crash ed vehicle and its crew , later identified as Borg drones , the members of the team were assimilated , along with their ship , into the Borg Collective . The new drones then attempted a journey in " Arctic One " to the Collective ' s territory in the distant Delta Quadrant . While not normally armed with weapons , the Borg assimilated the " Arctic One " had developed cutting beams and proton bursts . En route , the ship attacked a Tarkalean freighter , which sent out a distress call asking for assistance . The United Earth starship , captained by Jonathan Archer , arrived to help the Tarkaleans . Archer ordered the assimilated transport to stop its attack or be fired upon , to which the transport fired proton bursts at the starship . " Enterprise " returned fire , disabling the transports weapons . The " Arctic One " then takes off at warp while " Enterprise " sends an away team to help the survivors . " Arctic One " was later intercepted by " Enterprise " , which dropped out of warp before sending an activation sequence which disabled " Enterprise " s weapons and warp drive . The transport closed in and attacked " Enterprise " , critically damaging her hull before sending six drones onto the starship . Captain Archer and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed , the armory officer , then beam aboard the transport and eventually destroyed the EPS manifold disabling the transport ' s systems . When Archer determined there was no way to help the assimilated crew members , he decided to destroy the transport . " Arctic One " tried to lock weapons again but was destroyed by " Enterprise " , using four spatial torpedo es and a phase cannon blast ; however , before the ship ' s destruction , the drones successfully transmitted a subspace message to the Delta Quadrant , alerting them to Earth ' s location . ( ) Background information . " Arctic One " as it appeared in the beginning and Borgified was illustrated by John Eaves . Eaves recalled " " My job on this one was to create an Arctic exploration vessel that makes the discovery and later becomes Borgified . The first sketch is high profile vessel that I thought when Borged could form a cube . This idea was passed on and the second sketch got the approval . The ship is lightly based on a stylized snow mobile . Once Borged , it goes thru a variety of changes and this second sketch try ’ s to convey on of the stages of coverage . Pierre over at Eden modeled this one ( . . . ) " " Views of the model and design sketches of the ship can be found and . In the writer ' s commentary for " Regeneration " on the ENT Season 2 DVD , the episode ' s writers revealed that the reason the ship ' s mass kept growing was that the ship would have eventually evolved into a Borg sphere , implying that the Borg don ' t have traditional shipyards , but instead take ships they attack and assimilate them . This information wasn ' t conveyed in the episode , however . The " Arctic One " is featured as January cover of the " " calendar , titled " Things From Another World " by John Teska .