17 September 1997

Day of Honor

Seven begins her life on Voyager with a subdued request. She asks Chakotay for a duty assignment in engineering in a low, soft, almost meek voice. Chakotay agrees, and B'Elanna Torres, the chief Engineer is not happy about it. Thus begins their rocky relationship.
Janeway asks Seven of Nine how she would like to be addressed, offering her her given name, Annika Hansen. Seven of Nine responds with a modicum of concern, saying that she has been Seven of Nine for as long as she can remember. Janeway concedes by offering to call her just "Seven" which, as you can see, I have already begun doing, and it was likely an unnecessary scene to add, as it would seem like a natural transition. Seven deems the designation "imprecise but acceptable." She seems to be getting some of her Borg arrogance back.

B'Elanna makes no secret that she does like Seven from the very beginning. As they are working together in Engineering, Voyager encounters a ship that needs their assistance. Most of their resources and people were destroyed by the Borg. B'Elanna asks Seven in a hostile tone whether she feels any guilt for the billions of lives she helped destroy. Seven evaluates the question and responds with a decisive "no." She senses the friction, however, and excuses herself to go wait in her alcove until she is needed.

Later in the episode she shows herself to be practically immune to the way others treat her, with disdain, disgust, anger, and even fear: she still perceives the world like a Borg drone, although she does admit to Janeway she is finding it difficult to integrate into Voyager's crew. She even offers to give herself up to the aliens when they become hostile and are holding Voyagers warp core hostage, but Janeway begins her long crusade of trying to integrate Seven into the family by refusing to let her go. Later, Seven single handedly saves the day by using her knowledge to help make the damaged alien ship self-sufficient, and Janeway very cheesily lauds her for her first "unexpected act of kindness."

*Costume Update* In this episode, Seven of Nine wears a shiny silver suit with raglan-type sleeves and a mock-turtle neck.

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