family anymore, and her old ship’s crew had been the closest thing to it. It gave her some measure of comfort, having them with her, even if it was just images of them.
Seven steered the car out onto the main road. She hadn’t done a lot of driving. She’d spent most of the last year in San Francisco at Starfleet Academy and had more or less walked everywhere she’d wanted to go or, for longer distances, had used convenient transporters. Before that, of course, had been the starship. Not much call for vehicles there. Nevertheless the grav car was easy enough to maneuver and within minutes she was heading down the road at a brisk clip. She slowed down where she needed to in order to let pedestrians pass in front of her, and she would nod to them in greeting while they tipped their hats to her. Most people wore hats on Tendara since the sun could be exceptionally bright and warm.
The buildings were unassuming. Simple curved one-and, at the most, two-story structures that were designed far more for function than style. She supposed that, were Tendara to remain around long enough, the spartan buildings would eventually give way to something more elaborate and festive. Seven placed little store in such things, but she knew plenty of other people did. She hoped that someday she would be one of those people. She desperately wanted to be. Wanted it so much, in fact, that it was more than a little embarrassing. Part of her remembered fondly when such overwhelming things as emotions were something that she observed from a comfortable distance. It was much easier to exist on a day-to-day basis that way. Yet now that they were available to her, she was eager to embrace them as well. Eager, but filled with trepidation. What was it called again?
Ah, yes. Mixed emotions. How appropriate.
She reached an intersection and knew that her true destination lay to the right. She had made certain of the address and was perfectly aware of which way to go, even if the on-board locator hadn’t been already providing her guidance. Ultimately, however, she decided to keep going straight. Seven wasn’t quite sure why she was doing so. After all, she’d come all the way out to this colony for a purpose, and there was no reason for delaying it.
Then again, wasn’t the definition of being human doing something without any good reason?
She continued down the road, and soon the buildings began to thin out until they appeared only sporadically. It told her that she was getting farther into the farming community. There was a fairly obvious division in the colony between the scientists and the farmers, and both groups tended to regard each other with a sort of haughty disdain. The scientists saw the farmers as a necessary evil, using hydroponics and other techniques to make the colony self-sustaining so that they, the scientists, could tend to the truly important, even groundbreaking work that would ideally serve the overall betterment of mankind. The farmers, by contrast, saw the scientists as wholly unnecessary, not understanding why the farming couldn’t simply be a means to its own end. They didn’t need the scientists, whereas the scientists most definitely needed them. On the other hand, it was the presence of the scientists that had prompted the development of the colony in the first place, and so the two groups were stuck with each other whether they liked it or not.
None of it seemed familiar to her. She was reasonably sure that her parents had never brought her to this area of Tendara. Then again, she had only been a few years old when she last lived there, so it would be understandable if none of it…
She slowed the car and then stopped it. Seven sat atop the car as it bounced up and down slightly, responding to the shifts in her weight.
The smell of wheat wafted to her, tickled her nostrils and stroked parts of her memory that she had just assumed were long forgotten; memories she never even knew she had.
She disembarked from the car and simply stood there, taking it all in. Her nostrils flared, the aroma working its way into her, and suddenly she was four years old again. (It was shortly before the time that her parents became preoccupied with studying the Borg, an obsession that would put them on a small vessel called the Raven, which would become a second home to Seven.) Her