To say Seven was surprised was an understatement. An energy field around a person? Moreover it was an energy field that a Borg couldn't penetrate. Seven tried to modify her own protective field, but she wasn't able to penetrate the shield surrounding the young woman.
"Calm down, I'll tell the Engineering right away, we'll get you out of this energy field!" she was reaching for her comm badge when Zim's voice stopped her.
"There's no need..."
"But an energy field surrounds you. We have to get you out of it!"
"It is not an unfamiliar phenomenon."
"What do you mean? Please, specify!"
But Zimt refused to answer, she just looked at Seven, strangely, defiantly. Maybe a little angry. Unfortunately, Seven was not able to identify the complex emotion on the girl.
"Are you mad at me?" she finally asked.
"Yes."
"Mind you tell me, why?"
"Do you not know?" asked the young woman in surprise.
Seven shook her head. Zimt scanned the other woman's face with sharp eyes, but the Commander's face showed no emotions at all. The young doctor was completely bewildered.
"I will never understand you!" she finally sighed.
"I don't want to hurt you" Seven looked at her with sad eyes.
Zimt knew immediately that she had offended the Commander. She was aware that the Borg were practically unapproachable emotionally as a result of what had happened to her. Zimt understood that. She created a force field around her heart that was almost impossible to break, as an answer. Still, it seems that Zimt somehow managed to get behind the force field. She herself did not understand how, but she was there. She got a chance to save the Commander, and she had to be very cautions there, despite her own whirling emotions.
"I know," she finally answered cautiously.
She touched the bracelet's small green stone on her wrist and the force field around her vanished.
"It is a personal force field generator," she explained to the frozen Commander.
"Where did you get it?"
"Everyone got one."
Seven's eyebrows run up to her hairline. She didn't know about this fact at all. Nobody told her this information.
"As you know, we'll soon be passing through the Wulandari wormhole."
"On the Wulandari wormhole?" asked the Commander in surprise. She also was not aware this fact. "Right there? It has a very bad effect on people! Has Starfleet gone mad or what?"
"This is the shortest way to the Delta Quadrant, so that's why where we're going. The Wulandari wormhole, on the other hand, has radiations that drive people crazy. That's why everyone got a personal force field generator, to avoid the damage. Plus, everyone will get a hypospray with some medicine in case of the force field doesn't last," Zimt smiled, then sighed. "You didn't pay too much attention during the briefing either..."
Seven nervously pulled out as much as a crouching human could.
"I was not informed about it."
"You don't need it anyway," the young woman raised her wrist and shook the jewel-like generator on it. "You have your own shield."
The Commander looked offended as Zimt hinted at the Borg's origins.
"By the way, mine is a modified shield generator," continued Zim lightly. "I got it when I started treating Amelia Janeway."
Zimt watched the Commander's reactions constantly, but the mention of the new Borg drone did not elicit any emotion from the older woman.
"Then that's why I couldn't penetrate it!"
"That's the reason" the young doctor nodded. "It is designed against Borg."
Silence fell on the two women. They were both silent for a while. They digested the new information and their own feelings about it.
"Why she?" asked Zim finally the question, which had bothered her for a long time.
"Who are you thinking of?" Seven asked back confused.
"Why Amelia Janeway?"
Zimt looked angrily at Seven, who in turn shook her head in complete incomprehension.
"I do not understand."
The young doctor sighed in helplessness. Why can't the Commander answer a simple question?
"There was a reason you assimilated her!" she exclaimed angrily.
"It just happened..."
"Did it simply happen? Did it just happen? Just like that, by itself?" Zimt fumed.
"I was very upset," Seven tried to explain.
She too felt the young woman's powerful emotional reactions. She could almost identify them, in fact! She has already experienced most of them. She just couldn't do anything with them.
"So if they upset you, you breed the Borg?" she laughed hysterically.
Seven just stared at her in silence. She didn't say that she'd rather kill then. She didn't want to scare the kind doctor who had taken so much care of her.
"What does it take to be upset? Um?" Zimt tried to provoke Seven.
"I will not assimilate you!" she stated seriously, when she had finally understood Zimt's thoughts.
"Why?" screamed Zim. "Why not me? You were assimilated a total stranger, just because you were upset!"
"Because you are important to me."
"Important?"
"Important" Seven nodded. "I do not want you to get hurt. If I were to assimilate you, I would send you to certain death."
Zimt stared at the Commander in shock.
"So you know..." she finally moaned.
"I know Starfleet wants to destroy ALL Borg."
The young woman looked at the Commander in disbelief. Is she really aware that she is going to be killed too after having her own people slaughtered by her?
"Then why do you do it?" Zim whined in protest. "Why do you still following orders from Starfleet?"
"I'm already tired, Zimt. I'm very tired. You know what I went through. I just wish it was over."
"I don't want you to die!" cried the young woman in protest as she grasped the deeper meaning of the Commander's words.
"I'm going to die anyway," Seven stated simply, without any particular emotional overtones. It was as if she was just chatting about the evening's replicated dinner.
Zimt grabbed her uniform, as if she could save her from death. Seven understood her reaction, and she touched Zim's face with her fingers. She caressed it a little, then smoothed her palm over it. "But until then, if you want, I'll stay with you."
Turning her head to the side, Seven leaned towards Zimt.