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Seven kept looking around at the crewmembers she passed as she walked through the corridors of Voyager, some of them nodded at her with something that could be considered kindness but most exhibited obvious signs of fear and some couldn’t even keep the hatred and anger from their faces.
This last group of people reminded her of Lieutenant Torres, and she quickly increased her pace to reach the Bridge.
Commander Chakotay looked up as the door of the turbolift opened up and his face was filled with a same kind of suspicion. He was clearly another crewmember who did not trust her.
“Seven of Nine.” He acknowledged her presence roughly as he stood up from his chair. She noted that he was not using the shortened designation that the Captain had given her. “What are you doing here?”
She wanted to tell him that it was not relevant information for him, that he should continue with the task that was appointed to him and that she would do the same.
But she knew that that was not how Voyager’s crew functioned. One look around the Bridge told her that all the officers there wanted to know exactly what she was doing there, like they wanted to know all the time what the others were doing. They were being highly inefficient.
“The Captain asked me to come to her Ready Room.” She told them all in a clear voice.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Lieutenant Tuvok relax as he focused his attention back on the screens in front of him. He seemed to be the most efficient of them all but of course that was no surprise to Seven as he was a Vulcan.
Commander Chakotay did not relax. She could see the muscles around his mouth tighten and she tried to remember the meaning of this act. Annoyance? Anger? Jealousy? They were all possible answers, but she didn’t really care what was troubling the Commander.
Without waiting for him to finally formalize an answer for her, she walked past Tuvok and towards the door of the Captain’s Ready Room. She quickly pushed the button next to it and after hearing the Captain’s voice call out for her to come in, she walked through the door without looking back.
The Captain’s Ready Room had become a familiar environment to her. They had worked together here to find the reason behind the thorium leak. Seven found it quite a pleasant workspace.
“Ah, Seven.” The Captain greeted her with her shortened designation as she set down a cup that undoubtedly contained coffee. Seven had quickly learned that coffee was particularly important to the Captain. A rather foolish addiction but harmless enough. “Thank you for coming to see me.”
“Of course, Captain.”
“Would you like to sit down?” The Captain asked her, getting up from behind her desk and moving over to the part of the room where a long couch lined the wall with the windows that looked out into space.
Seven hesitated. She was still uncomfortable sitting down, but she also wanted to prove to the Captain that she was in fact adapting, that she was willing to learn how to join this new collective.
When she still hadn’t moved nor said anything, the Captain quickly looked at her. “I’m sorry, I keep forgetting. Sitting makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”
“There is no need to apologize.” Seven noted slightly irritated and then promptly moved to the couch and sat down. “It is I who has to adjust to the way things are done on Voyager.”
The Captain looked down at her for a while with a smile on her face. Seven wondered if she was going to sit down as well, otherwise the whole effort on her part seemed rather irrelevant.
Then the Captain let out a small barely audible sigh and moved over to the replicator. “Do you mind if I drink another cup of coffee?”
Seven wondered why she should have an opinion on that at all. The truth was that she did not care if the Captain wanted to ingest more fluids that would alter her brain function. But apparently an answer was required. “No, I do not mind.”
“I won’t offer you a cup.” The Captain smiled again. “And I want you to know that it is okay to refuse to sit down or do anything else that makes you uncomfortable. No one will blame you for that.”
Seven frowned and didn’t watch the Captain sit down next to her. Instead, she stared off into the distance, hoping to find some answers there. When she didn’t find them, she decided to speak her mind to see if her companion could enlighten her. “It is… confusing to me. What things I can do and what sets of an emotional reaction of the crew.”
“I can understand how that can be difficult.”
Seven turned her head and only then noticed how close the Captain was sitting next to her. It didn’t bother her at all. “It seems like every being on this ship has its own parameters. It is hard to produce a unified response that will work on all of them.”
That small smile was back on the Captain’s face and Seven’s eyes moved down to her mouth, to study the movement of the muscles of her lips. Somehow, she found them quite fascinating.
“I’m afraid you won’t find a unified response that will go well with everyone. That is the nature of a society with individuals. Everyone is different and therefore everyone’s experiences, their past, is different, which causes them to have different reactions to… confrontations.”
Seven’s eyes moved back to the Captain’s gray ones, they had a bit of blue in them as well, close to the pupils. It wasn’t interesting enough to distract her from the sense of dread and slight despair that filled her after hearing the Captain’s words. “Then… How should I navigate my social interactions with the crew?”
The Captain’s hand, the one not holding the cup of coffee, twitched in her lap. Almost as if she had wanted to reach out and touch Seven’s leg. But she didn’t. “The best method I use when I am uncertain of someone’s reaction is to keep an open mind, to consider as many possibilities as possible and to try and see things from their perspective.”
“You have had problems navigating the social structure of this crew as well?” Seven asked her hopeful. “Was it with Lieutenant Torres?”
Somehow the Captain started laughing at that. Another unexpected response. “No, that is not what I meant. Although Lieutenant Torres can be a challenge for anyone sometimes. I actually meant all the times I met new aliens, new civilizations that were unfamiliar to me. It is very difficult to predict a reaction of someone who you know absolutely nothing about.”
“So, what do you do at times like that?”
“I keep an open attitude and I… try to stay true to myself, I guess.” The Captain looked up at the ceiling as she formulated her response. As if she was reading the answers from there. “Because that is important too. As long as you are being honest about where you are coming from yourself, people will find it easier to connect with you.”
Seven looked down at her hands, suddenly feeling uncomfortable and it was not because she was sitting down. “I’m afraid that option is not open to me.”
“Why do you say that?”
Seven looked up again, the Captain’s expression was open… even curious. It invited her to keep talking. “Staying true to myself… I am unsure what that would mean at the moment. I am Borg. Staying true to that, will only scare people away and make them angry.”
“I don’t think it will.” The Captain’s voice had turned rather soft, and her hand suddenly did move. It landed on Seven’s leg, and she could feel the warmth radiating from it, through the biosuit to her skin. “I think your uniqueness helped us a lot today.”
“Clarify.” Seven said, eager now to learn more.
“It was you who found the reason behind the thorium leak.” The Captain’s hand moved up into the air and she held out a finger which was soon joined by another one. “It was also you who got our warp core back. Your knowledge of the Caatati’s technology brokered the deal. You made their lives a lot easier. You might have even saved some of their lives.”
Seven turned her head slightly to the side as she thought that over. “That… wasn’t my intention. I simply wanted to help get Voyager’s warp core back. I did not consider the eventual consequences my actions would have for the Caatati. They seemed… irrelevant to me.”
“Well, I am sure those consequences are not irrelevant to them.” The Captain lowered her hand back to her own lap. “Your actions had a big impact on them and on us. You really helped us today and that is why I actually asked you to come in here. I wanted to thank you, Seven.”
A sudden increase of warm entered Seven’s face and she knew that an excessive amount of blood had just flooded to the skin of her cheeks. It was an uncomfortable sensation. “You’re… welcome, Captain Janeway.”
“You see, Seven?” The Captain leaned in even closer with a somewhat desperate tone to her voice. “You see how much an act of kindness can do? Even when you are not even aware of all the consequences, by keeping an open mind, and by thinking creatively, you can accomplish a lot. That won’t mean that you won’t have any more fights with some of the members of this crew but as long as you keep trying… you’ll get there.”
Seven raised her ocular implant after hearing that rather vague conclusion. “I heard Lieutenants Torres and Paris were safely brought back to the ship. I could practice what you have told me with them. They have showed me two quite deviating responses to my previous behavior. It would be good to experiment with them.”
Before she could get up, the Captain’s hand reached out again and this time closed around her upper arm, keeping her down. “I think they are rather… busy, at the moment.”
“Are they being debriefed on destroying the shuttle Cochrane?” Seven asked her with some confusion.
“Not quite.” The Captain’s smile broadened now. “They needed some time alone.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s alright.” The Captain laughed again and then got up herself. “Maybe you want to come to the Mess Hall with me instead? I am going to have some dinner and, even though you do not yet eat, you can try out some of your new knowledge about social interactions there.”
“And you will be there to oversee my experiment and assist me in case I misjudge the situation?” Seven asked while getting up as well, feeling relieved to be able to stand again.
“Yes, Seven.” The Captain said in that soft voice. “I will watch over you.”