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Seven of Nine programs Holodeck 2
to be a rustic cabin where she practices the piano to the steady
beat of a metronome, with her hair down and her Borg implants
gone. Later, she attends a simulation of B'Elanna Torres' baby
shower, where she again appears fully human and interacts with
holo-crewmembers more freely than usual. She even makes a toast
to the new baby. Just then the real crew on the Bridge detects
mysterious energy discharges ahead, and Seven gets called to
Astrometrics. Captain Janeway, Tuvok and Tom Paris meet her
there, but Seven cannot find the source of the discharges.
Opting not to alter course, Janeway turns her attention to the
actual baby shower the crew will surprise Torres with later that
day. Janeway asks Seven to be there, but she makes an excuse not
to.
Instead, Seven returns to the
holodeck where she creates new quarters for herself, and a
holo-Neelix gives her advice on how to decorate the empty space.
A holo-Chakotay arrives with a housewarming gift, a Native
American dreamcatcher. Seven invites him back the following
night for dinner.
At Seven's weekly physical in Sickbay, the Doctor tells her that
Tom and B'Elanna missed her at the baby shower. Noting that her
shoulder implant is out of alignment and her electrolyte levels
are down, the Doctor learns that Seven missed her regeneration
cycle. She claims it was because she was conducting "research"
that had something to do with her personal life, which surprises
the Doctor. Just then Voyager is rocked by another energy
discharge, which produces a shockwave that then hits the ship
violently and damages its warp drive. In Astrometrics, Seven
discovers the explosion came from a subspace warhead that
destroyed an unmanned probe. Since warp drive is down until
repairs are complete, Janeway asks Seven to find a way to detect
the warheads before they emerge from subspace, to give the crew
a few seconds' warning.
 Later, Icheb comes to Astrometrics to relieve Seven, because the
Doctor wants her to spend more time regenerating. But instead of
going into her alcove, she takes a belated baby shower gift to
Torres in Engineering, and tries awkwardly to engage in
small-talk. Then she modifies her holodeck program to fully
decorate her quarters and put herself in an alluring dress for
her date with holo-Chakotay. They prepare dinner together, and
the mood gets increasingly romantic until they kiss. Suddenly
Seven is distracted by a shrill noise, but she ignores it as she
embraces her new simulated boyfriend.
The next morning Seven has disturbing dreams where she sees
herself as a drone and her metronome appears as Borg technology.
She wakes up when the real Chakotay summons her, which is odd
because she's next to the holo-Chakotay. She arrives in
Astrometrics where Icheb has picked up a warning beacon
revealing that Voyager has entered a munitions testing ground.
Chakotay is concerned that Seven was late for her duty shift,
but she denies being distracted.
Later Seven is back in Holodeck 2 playing the piano for
holo-Chakotay to the beat of the metronome. He's impressed by
her flawless technique, but then he stops the metronome and
tells her to play with more feeling. She's frustrated and
anxious at first, but gradually she's able to play more from the
heart, without needing to be perfect. Just then three alien
missiles emerge from subspace and destroy a target probe,
sending out shockwaves that rock Voyager. The real Chakotay
calls on Seven for her sensor calibrations, but she needs a
moment to return to her station. While the ship shakes hard,
Seven gives Paris coordinates for other warheads about to
emerge, but they turn out to be wrong. She corrects herself, and
Paris is able to re-orient the ship to withstand the next
shockwave.
In her Ready Room, Janeway chides Seven for being late with her
sensor calibrations and for being away from her post, and asks
why she's logged so much time in Holodeck 2. Seven tells a
direct lie — that she's been running a simulation to improve
ship systems — and apologizes for dividing her time while the
ship is on alert. Janeway accepts her story and her apology, and
looks forward to seeing her simulations. Seven returns to
Astrometrics, where Icheb detects a strange attitude from her.
Admitting she's been negligent, Seven leaves again to go
"correct an error."
 In the holodeck, Seven activates the Chakotay simulation again
to end her relationship with him. Holo-Chakotay argues that
every time she moves closer to her emotions, she backs away
again, afraid that embracing her humanity will make her weak.
She argues back that the ship needs her, but then she hears the
mysterious high-pitched noise again, this time piercing through
her head. She summons Sickbay and faints. The Doctor arrives and
finds her going into neural shock. Seven wakes up in Sickbay,
where the Doctor reveals that her cortical node began to shut
down, but he managed to stabilize it. He asks what she was doing
before she collapsed. She admits that she's been conducting
simulations to explore different aspects of her humanity, such
as social activities and intimate relations. She reveals that
since Unimatrix Zero was destroyed, she's been trying to
re-create some of the experiences she had there and feel some of
those emotions again. But she plans to delete her holodeck
programs because her "personal life" has distracted her from
performing her duties efficiently.
Torres succeeds in getting engines back on-line, and Voyager
jumps to warp. But then a subspace warhead locks onto the warp
signature and targets the ship. The missile neutralizes a spread
of photon torpedoes and continues closing in. Seven scans the
warhead's detonator in an attempt to disarm it, but is unable
to. Then she believes she can extract the detonator by
transporting it out, but only at very close range. With no time
to spare, she accomplishes the transport and the missile breaks
apart harmlessly.
Later, the Doctor approaches Seven with bad news: Her cortical
node did not malfunction, but in fact was designed to shut down
her higher brain functions when she achieves a certain level of
emotional stimulation — not surprising for a Borg implant. The
Doctor believes he can reconfigure the node so she can continue
her simulations, but it would be a difficult and lengthy
process. Seven declines the procedure, saying that she's
experienced enough "humanity" for the time being and the
"failsafe" device will ensure that she's no longer distracted.
The next day Chakotay invites Seven to a get-together in the
Mess Hall, but she turns him down. He suggests that a little
more socializing might do her good. |
