Built by the Son'a for the singular purpose of harvesting metaphasic radiation from the ring system of the Ba'ku homeworld. The Collector was built in a Son'a system and then towed to the Ba'ku system in 2374. It was intended to be used as part of a conspiracy by the Son'a and the Federation Council which involved the forced relocation of the Ba'ku settlement to another planet followed by the "strip mining" of the rings. The collector would deploy a giant pair of folding panels and launch a small module into the rings to begin the collection process.
The plot was discovered by Captain Jean Luc Picard and ultimately defeated by the crew of the Enterprise-D. Captain Picard succeeded in destroying the collector.