Chapter 2 – Introductions
"Seven," Chakotay said, repeating the name for which she claimed he called her in many of the alternative realities.
"Yes," Seven replied.
"I think we need to talk." He motioned to the other chair beside him on the shuttlecraft and Seven stepped forward and sat down. She swiveled the chair to face him. Chakotay shook his head and exhaled. "This all sounds like an incredible tale," he began.
"Indeed," Seven interrupted. "I must admit, I was as incredulous to the idea as you are now. But here we are."
"Yes, here we are."
"The veracity of the information seems somewhat confirmed given I found you exactly where I was expecting to find you based on it," Seven concluded.
He couldn't argue with that. He had thought the same thing just a little while ago. "Can I see this information?" Chakotay asked.
"Unfortunately, I only have my memory of it from when I was connected to the Hive Mind. During the assimilation of a Brunali colony world thirty two point six light years from here and eighteen days ago, a single individual was assimilated who inexplicably possessed all of this knowledge. He referred to himself as a Steward. The knowledge of the past, present and future of thousands of different realities. Different universes."
"Was he Brunali?"
"By all appearances, yes, although he did not survive the assimilation process, and so his mind could not be probed any further."
Chakotay couldn't help but feel repulsed by the casualness of her description of the destruction of an entire world and Seven immediately picked up on it. "I apologize for my directness Chakotay," she said. "I'm not used to talking to others about these sorts of events. If I think about it too much, I…" Her explanation trailed off, not knowing what to say.
Chakotay could only imagine what horrors she had witnessed, even participated in during her lifetime. He felt a sudden desire to comfort her in some way, but then suppressed expressing it. Was her fantastic story already getting to him? "I'm sorry, go on," he said instead.
"The Hive Mind immediately gained access to all of the knowledge, and with it, certain hidden truths. One such truth was the existence of a subset of drones within the Collective with a genetic trait that connected them separately while regenerating. In essence, they formed a consciousness separate from the Hive Mind where they retained their individuality, at least while inside this construct. The drones called it Unimatrix Zero." She paused and looked at the floor for a moment then back up to meet Chakotay's eyes. "I was part of this construct. I grew up there, in a sense."
"You remember your existence in this Unimatrix Zero?"
"Now I do," Seven replied. "Friends, companions, even a romantic interest." She appeared oddly embarrassed by this last admission.
Chakotay also sensed sadness in Seven's voice. "What happened to Unimatrix Zero?" he asked.
"It was destroyed by the Hive Mind, of course," Seven replied. "In isolating and destroying it, those drones who were part of Unimatrix Zero were cut off from the rest of the Collective. That was ten days ago. At first, the quietness was almost unbearable. I was alone, small, without purpose. Haunted by so many memories. Only one in a million drones possessed the genetic trait, and I had no idea how to locate any of them. I had no way of contacting any of the people I remembered from Unimatrix Zero. But then, I remembered you."
"You have never met me," Chakotay said.
"That is true, but I remembered what you and I would become. In all those other universes, at least from the knowledge obtained from that individual Brunali. In nearly all universes, the two of us find each other. We fall in love. We become husband and wife."
Chakotay shook his head, still finding it difficult to believe.
"I will not always look like this," Seven said suddenly. "Although it is also true that there are some realities where we fall in love despite my present appearance, and even are married before any of my Borg components are removed, I do not require all of the Borg technology to survive."
"Tell me," Chakotay said, finding himself oddly curious. "Describe to me a specific universe."
"A few months from now, you will be isolated on a planet with Captain Janeway because of a particular pathogen that requires you to remain on the planet's surface."
"A few months from now," Chakotay said incredulously.
"In several closely related realities, Voyager contacts the Vidiian in an attempt to obtain a cure, but are instead captured by the Vidiians and taken as slaves. You and Captain Janeway are stuck on that planet for years. On the same planet, a Borg cube crashed and the drones were abandoned by the Hive Mind. I was one of the drone survivors. The two of us met and fell in love. The drones, Captain Janeway and you and me ended up rescuing the Voyager survivors, and ironically, we returned and raised our family on that same planet we called New Earth."
"You speak as if these events have already happened, but they occur in the future, at least from the perspective of this universe's timeline."
"I agree. It is confusing. I don't understand how this information from the other universes was obtained, I only know of what was assimilated. I am uncertain what tense to use when relaying the information to you."
"And you retained all your Borg armor and components in these particular realities?" Chakotay asked.
Seven shook her head and this time definitely cracked a smile. "Of course not. But we fell in love and were married all the same, just before the operation by a Vidiian doctor who was able to remove all of my Borg components in those realities. In the majority of realities, however, Voyager's Doctor is only able to remove seventy five to ninety percent of my Borg components, and that is usually how it remains for the rest of my life."
Chakotay rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And so that's what you're proposing. We return to Voyager and have the Doctor do just that."
Seven nodded. "That is my desire. And for the two of us to be together."
"I want to know more about these other universes," Chakotay said.
"And I want to share it all with you," Seven immediately replied. "It is inevitable."
Chakotay narrowed his eyes. He didn't like the idea of predestination. He had free will. Inevitability didn't sit well with him, but he had to admit he was intrigued. "If we met on New Earth only in some realities, what are, or were, the circumstances where we usually meet? Would have met in this reality if you had not come looking for me." It was difficult figuring out what tense to use.
"There are a wide variety of circumstances," Seven replied. "Even one where the Borg cube I was on crashed on your homeworld years ago while you were still there."
"Yes, but what about in most of the cases?"
"We wouldn't have met in this universe in that way either," Seven observed. "The Borg has changed their course of action given the knowledge gained such that the events as they would have transpired can no longer take place."
"Indulge me," Chakotay persisted.
Seven nodded and gathered her thoughts. "In the vast majority of realities, about two years from now Captain Janeway forms an alliance with the Borg to combat a threat to the Galaxy from a species from Fluidic Space. Species Eight Four Seven Two. The Borg initiated the conflict with this species in these other universes, although in this universe the Borg is taking steps to preemptively eliminate the threat. In these other universes, however, I was the Borg liaison aboard Voyager. When the alliance inevitably collapsed, I was severed from the Hive Mind and brought aboard as a new and reluctant crew member."
"Reluctant?" Chakotay remarked.
Seven nodded. "In many, if not most of these realities, I retained a certain affinity to the Borg, even attempting to rejoin the Collective in some of them."
"It doesn't sound like Captain Janeway to form an alliance with the Borg," Chakotay observed.
"She was unaware the Borg initiated the conflict with Species Eight Four Seven Two."
"But still…"
"You were typically opposed to the idea in nearly all of the realities. About the alliance and even about my joining the crew."
Chakotay now raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And yet we…"
Seven nodded again. "Yes. In a wide variety of circumstances within the ensuing years, we would fall in love and eventually marry and have children."
"Inevitable," Chakotay mused.
Seven sensed he was unhappy with that term. "Highly probable," she corrected. "In one subset of realities I was taking socialization lessons from Voyager's Doctor and I asked you out as a test subject for my first date. There were a few bumps along the way, but as you can imagine, but we eventually married and enjoyed a long life together."
"Give me some other examples?"
Seven paused as she considered. "There's a common theme for some of the realities where we are isolated and trapped together and grow romantically involved due to our forced closeness. In some instances we were trapped inside a graviton ellipse recovering the remains of the Ares Four probe when it subsumes back into subspace only to discover the ellipse is generated by an ancient spacecraft of the Progenitors. In another instance, we are trapped inside an energy barrier protecting a pre-warp culture and learn to live beside them and in the ensuing time we fall in love and start a family."
"Are we rescued?"
"In many of those cases, but not all."
"But again, these are events that would happen in the future for this universe," Chakotay observed.
"With my appearance now, I have pre-empted most of those possibilities," Seven countered. "Our very knowledge of them would allow us to avoid many of the circumstances that will occur in these alternate realities. In fact, the course of events in this universe will transpire quite differently now that I've contacted you and divulged some of what I know to you at this time and place."
"There are no other alternate universes where the Borg assimilated this knowledge of these other realities as they've done in this universe and led you here?"
Seven sat up straighter, as if startled. "No," she said realizing the implications. "This universe is now unique. At least, in the examples I am privy to." She became alarmed. "It's possible my knowledge of the alternative realities has jeopardized our future together. I'm sorry Chakotay. I… I didn't realize."
Chakotay reached over and touched Seven's forearm to get her attention. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said. "We'll take this one step at a time and see what happens. Our future is what we make of it. It is not predetermined or predestined."
Seven stared at his hand on her arm for a long time and then looked up and met his eyes. There was both confusion and longing in those eyes. "That is satisfactory," she finally said.
Chakotay withdrew his hand and broke eye contact. He swiveled his chair to face forward. "Let's figure out where we are and how to get back to Voyager," he said. He closed his eyes and his mind returned to her expectant look from just a moment before. He was surprised to realize how easily he could fall in love with this woman he just met. In fact, it was a bit disconcerting. Were all these revelations about alternative universes and realities actually true?
Focus, Chakotay, focus, he thought to himself. One step at a time.
