A Dream that sets you free By Shelly Someone was in her area, that was the first thought that struck Seven of Nine as her blue eyes popped open and she stepped strongly out of her Borg Matrix. She stood there for a moment, taking in the sights of the now familiar room. The mix of Borg and Human technology was more then evident in this room.....and becoming less apparent in Seven of Nine by the day. "Ensign Kim, How may I help you." She said flatly, knowing he was there without seeing him. She had been working with Ensign Harry Kim for as many months as she had been apart of this crew. She knew the sound of his footsteps falling agest the metal of deckplates, knew the smell of him when he entered the room....and it pleased her. Pleasure is irrelevant, Seven told herself as she turned and looked at the young Ensign in the yellow federations uniform that stood before her. "Goodmorning Seven. Sorry I'm early I thought we could get a early start on those plasma conductors." Harry said as he gave Seven a warm smile. She didn't understand the Human need to express themselves with facial gestures, it seemed a ineffective way to communicate the thoughts and idea's......but she did like Harry's smile. "That would be expectable." Seven said and walked quickly to the turbolift. As Harry entered the turbolift she noticed that he was holding something she had not noticed at first glance. My humanity must be manifesting itself again, Seven thought as she tried to understand how she could have missed something so obvious. "Ensign, What are you caring?" She asked as her blue eyes fastened on the package in his hands, It was cubic shape and it was covered in a shinny paper of all colors. Seven recalled seeing something like this......once, long ago. Harry blushed and looked surprised as he turned to her and looked into her blue eyes. "You don't know?" Harry asked as he looked questionly at her. "I can assure you I do not." Seven said as she started to feel a strange emotion building in her, a vague long forgotten feeling.... Seven was curious. "Seven it's your birthday. You mean you didn't know that?" Harry asked in surprise. He had taken it for granted that she would remember the day of her birth. "Oh yes.....That." Seven said as she looked straight ahead not feeling anything one way or the other. Harry didn't understand, he had always charished birthdays....His mother used to tell him it was the celebration of being given the gift of one more year of life. Then he remembered that she had been Borg for all but six years of her life and there was very little chance of a Borg birthday party. "I take it you did not celebrate your birthday with the Borg?" Harry asked as he stood next to her. "That would be correct. It would be inefficient and wasteful to celebrate the individual days of birth. Once you are assimilated you are part of the collective and the collective is a part of you.....their is no birthdays there," Seven said as she starred at the wall for a moment then turned to look at the Ensign. "But I have regained my memories of a few of my human birthdays." Seven said as she watched a smile spread over the Ensigns face. "Is that for me Ensign?" Seven asked motioning to the colorful package in his hands. "OH Yes, I thought.......I don't know.......I mean....." Harry stammered his way, unable to think of the right words that he wanted to say. But Seven saved him by taking the package from his hands. She starred at it, remembering a faint foggy memory of how this worked. She carefully removed the paper and was meet with a big white box. When she opened the lid she saw something that nearly shocked her. "Alister." She whispered as she lifted a fuzzy, brown furred teddy bear from the box, letting the box hit the floor. Flashing memories of the little girl she had been, sitting in her chair on the Raven, holding the selfsame bear close to her filled her mind. "I.....Saw a holo of your family, you had one just like it when you where small." Harry said. He watched her reaction and wasn't sure weather he had done the right thing by getting her that bear, or if he had just made a total fool of himself. "Thank you Ensign, it is....most appropriate." Seven whispered as she fought to keep tears back. Tears are inappropriate, she thought. It wasn't anything of any importance, only a bear...only a bear. "Please, Call me Harry." Harry said as he smiled that warm smile at her again. Seven could not find the words to tell him what she was thinking at that moment, she just didn't remember how. It would be so much easier if we where in the collective, Seven thought as she held the bear at her side. If they where the thoughts would simply be their thoughts, totally understood, and complete unto themselves. "I was wondering, I know that the Captain wants to meet with you tonight, but I was wondering if you'd come to a picnic with me tomorrow?" There, he had said it. He had wanted to ask her that for so so long and now all that was left to do was wait for her answer. Seven thought for a moment. It really would be efficient to meal with Ensign Kim, they could discuss the plasma mater matrix she had designed for the engineering section. "Very well Ens...Harry. I will accompany you." Seven said as she watched his face brighten. "Great, I'll pick you up at five hundred hours tomorrow." Harry said with a smile of relief. He couldn't believe she had said yes, that she would go with him, and he promised himself she wouldn't regret the dissuasion. "Acceptable." Seven said as the door opened. And as they walked to the plasma conduits no one could tell that, inside Seven was smiling too..... I came slowly out of hiding you came swiftly into view It was time for eyes to open it was time for finding you.... Seven of Nine walked into her alcove that night, her mind and body exhausted for the days work. She and Harry had managed to get the Plasma conductor Matrix she had made installed and operational right around the same time that the Captain had called her to her office. She didn't understand the need for the meeting. There was no real objective to the meeting. It mearly consisted of Captain Janeway asking her some rather unimportant questions......Like how she was liking living on the ship. "That is irrelevant. I am here. I do not like nor dislike this environment." Seven had replied as she stood before Janeway, show sat at her desk and leaned her head in top of her hands. Seven still could not seem to understand the human need to sit, it seemed to her to be a very wasteful use of time. "Has everyone been helpful with your adjustment?" Captain Janeway asked as she smiled up at Seven. Seven had come to the conclusion that she ....like Captain Janeways smile as well. It reminded her human part of her faint memories of her own mothers, in the time before the Borg. "Ensign Kim has been most helpful." Seven said flatly as she looked at her captain, who's smile changed for warm to slightly amused. "I'm glad to here it. I believe that young Ensign Kim has a fondness for you." Captain Janeway said as she rose and stood next to Seven. "Weather he if fond of me or not is Irrelevant. He is qualified to asset me in my works, and as such is to be tolerated." Seven said calmly as she and the captain walked to the door. "Ahhhhh Me thinks the Lady doesth protest to much." Captain Janeway said as she dismissed Seven with a slight silly smile. As Seven walked down to her Alcove she tried to decide what it was that the captain had ment by her closing comment. But it seemed to be a wasteful use of flowery language that ment little to nothing to Seven.....at lest that's what she told herself as she climbed into her regeneration matrix. She closed her eyes and waited for the shut down to happen as it did every time she climbed into her matrix. Shadowy images flashed throw Seven's mind as the shut down begin. The little girl was sitting in a big bed, the fluffy teddy bear clutched in her arms as the man and his wife, her parents tucked her little body into her bed. The Man was singing then, something she had known had been soothing and comforting to the girl who she had been in those days so long ago. I can not remember the words, Seven thought sadly as she she tried desperately to clam the words to the song from those long ago coves of her mind, yet they where gone, lost and forgotten. It seemed odd to her that she never forgot anything when she had been a Borg, when it had been unimportant yet now, when it was so important the words had locked themselves away in a closet in her mind. The imagine changed then to the today, when she had finished the Plasma conduits. She had worked for forty eight hours to prefect the matrix units. They now nearly rivaled the perfection she had grown so used to in the collective. And that lead to her back to Ensign Kim and the warmth of his smile, and the promise that tomorrow would bring him back to her. And that thought lead her into that quiet emptiness of Shut down, as she held her bear loosely in her right hand. There are dreams that come from sorrow There are dreams that come from pride There are dreams that by tomorrow You'll forget or set aside so don't be afraid of dreaming or believing what you see for when life bears down apone you it's a dream that sets you free. "Are you ready Seven?" Harry asked when he came into the Borg alcove early the next morning. He looked around and saw the bear sitting precisely in the center of Sevens regeneration matrix. Harry had to smile at this, knowing that it had spent the night with her. He hoped that it had given her sweet dreams, and wished that he would have the courage to find out someday. "I am ready Harry." Seven said as she steeped out from around a corner. She was not in her usual silvery uniform today but rather a dark wine colored outfit that showed her curves and softness to a almost distracting end. "Come on I have the holodeck all ready." Harry said as he motioned toward the turbolift. Seven felt something strange inside of her. Her stomach was quivering in a most unusually way. Perhaps I should stop at sickbay? Seven thought and then brushed the thought off simply. A stomachache was not a serious ailment and she was not about to go bothering the doctor with something so trivial, beside then she could be unable to accompany Harry on his picnic, and she must keep her word after all. The turbolift stopped on deck five and Harry lead her to Holodeck one. When he opened the door, she saw that the room was a simple cube-like graph of yellow metallic lines, crossing and intersecting eachother at different points on the wall. "Computer, start program Kim alpha nine." Harry said. Seven jumped in shock as the room changed from the black and yellow grid to a dark dark forest, covered in a cloak of night. "Where are we Harry?" Seven asked as she stared around the forest taking in the sight and smell and sound of it all. Harry looked at her and smiled gently as he lead her to a path that was just visible in the moonlight. "We're still on the holodeck, this is all a illusion." Harry said as he stood there watching her take in the room in a wary sort of wonder. "I realize that Ensign. The Borg have much knowledge of your holographic technology. I have just never experienced it before today." Seven said as she looked around, as a strange emotion creep into her as she studied the path carefully. "The illumination on this path is insufficient. The lack of lighting could lead to damage." Seven said as she looked into Harry's face, only to see him give her a gentle smile. "It is set so that the sunrise will begin as we reach the top of the path. It is magical." Harry said as he took her hand and lead her to the beginning of the path. "But it would be wiser to have the computer adjust the light levels to asset us." Seven said covering her own feeling from her voice. She did not like this feel, this quivery shaky feeling that caused her stomach to turn inside of her. She could withstand any damage to herself, Had withstood it many times over, but Harry was mearly a human and more easily damaged. "Trust in me. I will not let eather of us be damaged." Harry whispered as he placed a hand agest Sevens check and stroked it lightly. Seven felt a sharp and sudden excitement from the skin he had touched. She looked into his face and saw.....something there. In that moment she made her decision. Once you said the sunrise was the sweetest time of all I replied it seemed unwise we could stumble we could fall "Very well." She said and they started throw the path. They walked in silence for a long long time, just taking in the quiet of it all. The quiet plagued Seven, making her want to fill it with noise, with sound. "Harry Do you dream?" Seven asked as she carefully moved a branch from her path. "Sure, everyone does sometimes. Why?" He asked as he walked beside her in the darkness. "What do you dream of?" Seven asked as she stopped and turned to look at him. Harry felt the breath catch in his chest. How was he suppost to answer that. How was he suppose to tell her that, more often then not she had been the man focus of his dreams as of late "I dream about alot of things. My Family back home, my friends sometimes, things I'd like to do." Harry said as he picked up a branch and carefully pulled off a leave and rolled it in his hands. "Do you every dream of unpleasant thing?" Seven asked as she looked at him with those wide open eyes. Harry felt those eyes, and it warmed his body to the core. She was such a strange mix of innocence and knowledge, steel and satin that it shook him up so much he didn't know what to do. "Yes, It's callethe nightmare. Have you been having Nightmares Seven?" Harry asked with concern as he watched a cloud roll over those blue blue eyes. "I have not, But I have been remembering things and I feel differently about them then I did before." Seven said softly as she looked up and watched the twinkling of the stars above them. "Seven, you have nothing to be ashamed of, everyone has things in there past that are not as they would have liked. It is part of what makes us who we are." Harry said as she moved a lock of her blond hair from her face. He felt so sorry for her sometimes. He knew that her humanity was becoming more powerful by the day and with it would come the regrets for the things she had done as a Borg, he only hoped that somehow she would find something to help balance the feelings for her. "Do these past actions make you a less worthy individual?" Seven asked as she started slowly up the path once more. "No, no....It is just part of who we are. We do good, but most of us have done bad as well. The bad and good must be a part of who we are or we are not complete." Harry said as he cought up to her. "Then the actions one has done stay with them for as long as they remember them?" Seven asked as she stopped again and looked into Harry's young eyes. "That's right. You will find that most people who care for you will take the good and the bad together and care for the whole person that you have become." Harry said as he smiled a half smile at her. "Do you care for me Harry?" Seven asked looking deep into his rich dark eyes and stood there quietly for a moment. Harry didn't know what to say for a moment as he stood there looking at her, her innocent eyes that had seen so much looking up at him expectantly. "Yes, I do care about you Seven." Harry whispered as he scanned her face for any sight of emotion. But she didn't say anything as all but mearly started to walk the path once more. But you took the time to show me that together or alone we must share alittle darkness if we care to see the dawn..... In a moment They where there, at the top of a great ridge looking out at the world. At that moment, just as Harry had programmed it, the sky erupted into a dazzling light show as the twin suns rose slowly into the sky, making rainbows with it's rays. Seven watched this in a wonder that she could not have imagined when she had been a part of the collective. She felt her world dance around her as the all the colors, every hue fell over her, washing her in the birth of a new day. "Ensign Kim. Please report to the bridge." Tuvok's voice said as it came from the commbag that he was wearing as always on his uniform. "On my way." Harry said as took one last anguished look at Seven, awash in the dawns light. He wished he could stay there and look at her like this all day, but he also knew where his duty lie. "Computer end program." Harry said sadly, and in a moment the two of them stood there, in the black and yellow grid of the holodeck once more. They walked in a comfortable silence to the turbolift both lost in there own thoughts. Seven thought of all that had happened that day, and in all the days senise she had been taken from the Borg. She had found out her past, the past that she had all but forgotten. She had found a perpose where she thought there where none. She had found a dream.... There are dreams that come from sorrow There are dreams that come from pride There are dreams that by tomorrow you'll forget or set aside. She keep thinking of all this as they rode the turbolift back down to her alcove, and realized that there was one thing she had still been hiding from herself, the dream that she had been afraid to faces.....Her feeling for Harry and what they could mean. As he opened the door for her, she looked up into his face and realized for the first time, she did not want to go back to the collective, did not want to loss herself to it again.....she wanted what he could give her. So don't be afraid of dreaming or believing what you........ She watched his face and saw something that surprised and pleased her, she saw a look she remembered from long ago and in another time, a look she had once seen her father give to her mother as a child. As she looked in his face she knew what it was......she saw love there. See.......... In that moment she could think of nothing, could no nothing but what she did. Carefully she placed her hands at the side of his face and held it there as she brushed her lips oh so softly across the soft skin of his. It's a dream that sets you free........