Star Trek Voyager: The Gift

Star Trek Voyager: The Gift 5. Lessons in Compassion...and Swimming

Chakotay groaned in agitation as he glared down at the incomprehensible list of math formula and their attached questions. He sensed, rather than saw, his father’s raised eyebrow as Kolopak said, “What’s wrong son?”

“Nothing…” Chakotay muttered through gritted teeth before admitting as he lifting his head to meet his father’s eyes, “Just wondering how I’m ever going to pass math this year.”

Kolopak smiled sympathetically, “Why don’t you take a break for a little while?” he suggested, lifting the PADD off his son’s lap and switching it off, “How about you take Seven out for a walk? She’s hardly seen anything of our beautiful world except the hospital and this house.”

Seven, who had unobtrusively been tidying the kitchen after lunch, or more accurately, arranging the cupboards to suit her ideals of efficiency, whirled sharply around to face them. “I do not wish to disrupt Chakotay’s studies; I have no reason to go outside.”

Kolopak laughed, “That’s precisely why you should go my dear, and then you can appreciate the countryside without rushing off to complete some chore.” Seeing that both teens were frowning at him, he pushed further, “You two need to get out and smell the roses, while you still can.”

Chakotay straightened his tall frame and pulled his father aside, “I don’t think its safe Dad, I know the villagers were told about her by the Elders, but they might not take well to having a Borg…”

Kolopak studied his anxious face seriously, “This house isn’t a convent Chakotay, she needs to get out.” He glanced concernedly at the bags under Chakotay’s eyes, “And so do you, there is such a thing as studying too hard you know.”

Chakotay couldn’t stop his shoulders dropping sulkily as he realised his father was going to keep pushing this and turned back to Seven, snatching up a light coat as he did so, “It doesn’t seem we have much choice in the matter. Come on Seven.” Wordlessly, with only a diffident nod in Kolopak’s direction, Seven followed him out of the back door.

They walked in silence for the first couple of miles, the only sounds either heard as they skirted the newly sown fields the occasional trill of mating birds and the rustle of grass underneath. Finally, after spending the entire journey so far scanning the area meticulously with her enhanced eye, Seven lost patience and stopped abruptly. “Where exactly are these roses?” she asked with irritation in her tone.

Chakotay was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he probably wouldn’t have noticed she’d stopped walked if his mind hadn’t gradually tuned itself to her marching footsteps and realised he no longer heard them. “Roses?” he asked in bemusement after taking a few seconds to process her out of the blue question, “There aren’t any roses yet, they don’t bloom until summer and even then only in some people’s gardens. They’re Earth plants after all.”

Seven’s discontented frown deepened. “I do not understand. If there are no roses, why would your father direct us to smell them?”

“What? Oh…” Chakotay bit his lips to stop a smiling forming as realisation dawned. “He wasn’t actually telling us to smell flowers Seven. It’s a human saying, he was telling us to pause and enjoy life.”

Seven nodded slowly, and then sighed, “I doubt I will ever fully understand the human attachment to metaphor.”

Chakotay stopped at the top of a hill and glanced back at her as she came to join him. “It just makes our language a little less…utilitarian I suppose, more interesting.”

“Perhaps.” Seven said without much confidence before pointing out the thick patch of forest that started halfway down the hill. “What do your people use that land for? Surely they could clear it and make more farmland.”