Seven's New Collective
By: Crusher1701
Summary: Seven of Nine has been on Voyager for about a year, and she is beginning to see Voyager as her new collective.
After living on Voyager for about a year, Seven of Nine had adapted to the way things worked, the way things were done, and how each crew member played a crucial role in the running of Voyager. It hadn't really taken her a year, Borg were all quick to adapt. She began to notice that though there were noticable differences, there were still similarities between Voyager and the Borg Collective.
The crew were all individuals, but certain levels of conformity were expected from each of them. Starfleet personnel wore their uniforms and followed the duty roster. They were expected to all work together as a team whether they were on the bridge, in engineering, sickbay, or working a security detail. One thing she was surprised to learn was that individuality and conformity did not have to be secular from one another. Each crew member was uniquely individual, yet they conformed to Starfleet regulations. She still struggled with being an individual since she was so used to conformity, but learning what she did about individuality made her find the concept individuality interesting.
Even though it sounded strange, Seven had always thought that the Borg Collective was like a family to her, and she was growing to see the crew of Voyager as her new family. The two family types were also similar in that they were not a biological family, but had the dynamics of a family. They worked together for common goals, faced hardships together, and they cared about the other people on the ship (though this was not true of the collective).
The collective had not been loving as the Voyager crew were, but the Borg weren't known for being loving. Even without the love aspect, the collective had been her family; but Voyager was her new family.
She researched things about families, and discovered the term "sibling rivalry", which she assumed was the closest family term to describe the relationship she shared with Lieutenant Torres. She found it fascinating that there were several different types of families, and that not all families were the same. In the Borg Collective, everything and everyone was the same.
The longer Seven was on Voyager, the less she missed the Collective, and the more she learned that she preferred the Voyager family to her old one. She grew a stronger sense of duty to the crew of Voyager, and in time came to feel emotions one might describe as love for them.
Initially, she hadn't been comfortable telling her new family that they were, in a way, her new collective, but as she grew closer to the crew and they adapted to having her on board, she began to feel more comfortable, and ultimately declared that Voyager was her collective now.
They were honoured.
finis.