Once she was Annika Hansen, an innocent child assimilated by the fearsome, all-conquering Borg. Now she is Seven of Nine, a unique mixture of human biology and Borg technology.
Cut off from the collective that has been her only reality for most of her existence, and forced to join the crew of the Starship Voyager, she must come to grips with her surprising new environment — and her own lost individuality.
Seven of Nine has already captured the imagination of fans all over the world. Now the most sensational new character of the twenty-fourth century stars in her first full-length novel.
Resistance is futile.
We’re counting down to the January 2020 return of Jean-Luc Picard by revisiting some of the pivotal stories about the beloved Starfleet captain from across the last three decades of Star Trek published fiction — and those joining him when we return to the 24th Century.
Welcome to the next entry in our retro review series Prelude to Picard!
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Star Trek: Picard may be primarily about the character of Jean-Luc Picard, but he is not the only beloved character making a return appearance in the new show.
Fans were surprised, and delighted, when Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine showed up in the Picard trailer that premiered at San Diego Comic Con. “What the hell are you doing here, Picard?” she asked, sounding very different from the last time we saw her at the end of Star Trek: Voyager.
Seven of Nine is a fascinating character; a Borg drone rescued from the Collective by Captain Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager on their journey through the Delta Quadrant. Through four seasons of Voyager, Seven struggled with reconciling her history with the Borg where her individuality was repressed, and her burgeoning humanity.
From her cold and standoffish demeanor in her early appearances, by the end of Voyager’s run, Seven had began to embark in romantic relationships.
Star Trek: Voyager — Seven of Nine, by Christie Golden, was released in September 1998, just as Voyager’s fifth season was premiering in the United States. The first book that featured the character, Seven of Nine is a good character study that holds up very well given the character had only had one season of development by the point Golden was writing this book, with three more still to go.
Set late in Voyager’s fourth season, the book involves an encounter between the Voyager crew and the Lhiaarian Empire, who occupy a large portion of space that Voyager must pass through. While attempting to navigate the Empire’s space, Voyager takes on board a group of refugees from a race called the Skedans.
Unbeknownst to the Voyager crew, the Skedans are a race of powerful telepaths with a grudge against the Lhiarrian Empire. Formerly a member, their world was assimilated by the Borg with no attempt at defense from the Lhiarrians and no aid in the aftermath.
The Skedans are using Voyager, without their knowledge, to get to the Lhiarrian homeworld and detonate some kind of weapon.
The only member of the crew with the ability to interfere with the Skedans’ plans however, is Seven of Nine, who knows about their telepathic prowess and ability to manipulate minds. In order to neutralize her, the Skedans force her to relive the memories of many of the people that she assimilated during her time as a Borg drone, including members of the Skedan race.
Seven must learn to overcome her guilt about her actions as a Borg, with a little help from her childhood persona Annika Hansen, in order to help the crew as they are drawn deeper into a revenge mission with interstellar ramifications.
In the New York Comic Con trailer for Star Trek: Picard, Seven says that she “helps people who have no one else to help them.” We don’t have a great sense yet about who she is referring to, but she may be referring to former Borg drones like herself — since we know that Hugh also appears to no longer be a member of the Borg Collective.
Her attentiveness and sense of responsibility to those who the Borg have wronged is on stark display in Seven of Nine. Ultimately, Seven is partially responsible for the Skedans succeeding at their mission, and forcing the Emperor of the Lhiaarian people — who was indirectly responsible for the destruction of the planet and the near extinction of the race — to experience the pain and suffering of an entire race, rendering him a vegetable.
In order to get there, she also reconciles herself with the memories and personalities of people embedded within her from her time as a Borg drone. Though the memories have only surfaced because the Skedans are using them to distract her, this is a first step for Seven in getting comfortable with both her human and Borg halves – which appears to culminate in the very human persona seen in the Picard trailers.
Seven of Nine is a fun book, and Chirstie Golden is second only to Kirsten Beyer in having a confident command of the Voyager characterization and voices. For the book to work so well given we knew only a little about the character as a whole is a huge credit to Golden.