Seven of Nine


 * For the mirror universe counterpart, see Annika Hansen (mirror).

Annika Hansen, also known by her Borg designation, Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 (or Seven for short) was a Human female, and former Borg drone, born in 2348. Annika was assimilated, along with her parents, in 2356, but was later liberated by the crew of the USS Voyager in 2374. In the following years she began to reclaim her humanity, but still preferred to go by her Borg designation rather than her given name. She eventually returned to Earth aboard Voyager in 2377. In 2381, during the Caeliar dissolution of the Borg Collective, Seven's remaining Borg implants were removed, following this her humanity had apparently fully reasserted itself, as she then insisted on being called Annika. Seven later redacted this claim after she discovered her Borg technology had been transmuted into Caeliar catoms and she suffered a mental breakdown as a result of her transformation.

Annika Hansen
Annika Hansen was born on the Tendara Colony on stardate 25479, to human exobiologists Erin and Magnus Hansen. Because her parents moved frequently because of their work, Annika spent a lot of time with her aunt, Irene Hansen, on Earth. By the time she was five, Annika was living with her parents on Heronius II. Shortly before her sixth birthday, she was visited by an older version of herself who tried to dissuade her parents from their plans to leave Federation space. Following this encounter, Annika began to have disturbing dreams of black cube-shaped starships. In 2354, Annika and her parents left Heronius II aboard the USS Raven, as they finally had approval by the Federation Council to begin a study of the mysterious Borg Collective. After spending many months searching for a Borg ship, the Raven had broken regulations and had crossed the Romulan Neutral Zone. However, just as they were contemplating a return to Earth, they encountered a Borg Cube. After six months of observation, the Raven followed the cube into a transwarp conduit and into the Delta Quadrant.

Life as a drone
The Hansens gathered a large amount of data about the Borg over the next two years, however it came to an abrupt end in 2356, when the Raven was detected by the Borg and attacked. The Borg pursued the Raven to a planet just inside B'omar space, where the science vessel crash landed. While her parents were quickly assimilated, Annika attempted to hide, but was later found and assimilated. After 5 years inside a Borg maturation chamber, the fully grown Annika Hansen was given the designation Seven of Nine and served aboard a cube. In 2368, Seven was briefly disconnected from the hive mind when she and several other drones in her unimatrix crash landed on Planet 1865-Alpha. Scared of being alone, she injected her fellow drones with nanoprobes and established another collective, before being rescued and re-assimilated. In 2374, Seven was selected as a liaison to work with Captain Kathryn Janeway and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok as part of the alliance against Species 8472. Their mission was to develop a modified nanoprobe weapon that could destroy 8472 bio-ships and force them to withdraw back to fluidic space. After the mission was successful, Seven attempted to assimilate the Voyager crew, but her link to the collective was severed.

Voyager
After many of her implants were successfully removed by Voyager's EMH, her mental and emotional recovery as well as social training was going to be a huge task. After several attempts to communicate with the collective, Seven eventually accepted that her place was aboard Voyager as an individual. Earning the trust and respect of Captain Janeway, Seven began to work on several projects to enhance Voyager's capabilities, such as working on transwarp drive and the construction of the astrometrics lab. In mid 2374, shortly after discovering the Hirogen communication relay stations, Voyager was intercepted by the individual Borg, Hugh. Hugh had learned about Seven severance from the collective and wanted her to be his Second of the Independent Nation of Borg. After some deliberation, Seven decided to remain aboard Voyager. In 2375, Seven suffered a telepathic assault by a race known as the Skedans. As a result, the personality of Annika Hansen briefly resurfaced, as part of a plan by the Skedans to exact revenge on the Borg after the near-completed annihilation of their race. Later that year, Seven became the target of an assassin aboard Voyager after a series of potentially fatal accidents occurred. An in-depth investigation revealed that Voyager herself were responsible for the accidents, after a specially programmed bio-neural gel pack had been installed by Ensign Roberta Luke. Luke was revealed to be a Section 31 agent who had been assigned to Voyager in 2371 as part of an operation to destroy the Maquis. After re-establishing contact with the Federation in 2374, Luke was ordered to kill Seven, but she herself was killed by the Srivani shortly after. In 2377, Seven and Lieutenant Tom Paris were abducted by the Chiar while Voyager was undergoing repairs in orbit. The Chiar were dependent on nanotechnology. After infecting Paris with memory suppressing nanites, Seven was tortured by the Chiar, and eventually removed and replicated Borg nanoprobes. Unfortunately, the nanoprobes began assimilating the Chiar, but Seven was able to modify Paris' memory nanites to disable the Borg nanoprobes.

In the Alpha Quadrant
Following Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant in late 2377, Seven lived with her aunt, Irene Hansen and joined a Federation Think Tank. In 2378 Seven served on the USS Intrepid-A as astrometrics officer until 2380, when Seven took a job as an instructor at Starfleet Academy. As of 2380, Seven of Nine was an instructor at Starfleet Academy. During the Borg incident of that year, Seven was in contact with the assimilated Kathryn Janeway through her implants. After bringing her concerns to Starfleet and being overruled, Seven went rogue and booked passage with Antin Vargo so that she could reach the derelict Borg Cube. When passage to the Cube proved impossible, she instead joined the USS Enterprise-E and its crew so that she could bring her concerns to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. As they proceeded to investigate, the Borg launched an invasion of Earth and demanded that Seven be turned over to them in exchange for the Borg to discontinue their attack. Instead of being returned to the Borg, however, Seven and an Enterprise away team boarded the Planet Killer, encountered by the USS Enterprise, over a century prior. Seven bonded with the device and attacked the Borg Cube that was attacking Earth, releasing the virus program devised by Geordi La Forge-while in the process. When the Planet Killer was destroyed, she was rescued by Vargo. Near the end of the year, she was appointed Deputy Federation Security Advisor by Federation President Nanietta Bacco, out of recognition of her unique skills in assessing the Borg threat during their attempted extermination of the Federation and its allies. She frequently clashed with senior members of President Bacco's Cabinet, including her immediate supervisor, Federation Security Advisor Jas Abrik, and Federation Starfleet Commander-in-Chief Edward Jellico. Despite this, she was involved in several Think Tank and Starfleet Command meetings to determine possible strategy against the invading Collective. Feeling that transphasic torpedoes, Starfleet's only effective weapon against Borg vessels, would eventually be adapted to, Seven advocated the creation of a thalaron weapon, a suggestion that was met with strong opposition as too genocidal, even if the Borg had no such reservations. When Captain Picard requested an allied fleet of reinforcements, Seven declared it insufficient and suggested that the quadrant evacuate through one of the subspace tunnels at the Azure Nebula, again being rebuked. Seven presented a grim outlook to President Bacco when over seven thousand Borg cubes emerged from the nebula and destroyed the meager fleet that had been assembled. Seven was present during many of the regular reports to President Bacco from her staff and the Starfleet liaison, Leonard James Akaar. Seven suspected that the Borg were assimilating advanced propulsion technology as they invaded, causing them to move quicker than expected. Seven was also pessimistic about evacuating core worlds nearing danger, as the Borg would likely still hunt down and destroy escape vessels. As the Borg fleet entered the Sol system, advancing past Jupiter, Seven was present in the Monet Room in the Palais de la Concorde, along with the remainder of the presidency. President Bacco suddenly wondered why former President Min Zife had left the painting Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies. Seven thought that he had found it a point of focus while attempting to concentrate; but Akaar knew that Zife had left it as a reminder of what they fought for - air, beauty, history and everything that was thought of as the legacy of Earth. When the Borg Collective was disbanded by some unusual actions from the Caeliar, Seven's Borg implants dissolved into a fine silvery powder, and she broke down into tears from the loss of the ever-present voices in her head. As she recovered, she stated that her name was Annika. Seven took the death of Admiral Janeway particularly hard, and while teaching at the Academy, cared for her Aunt Irene, who was becoming more and more unstable due to Irumodic Syndrome, a degenerative mental condition with no known cure. When Voyager was assigned to Project Full Circle, Seven became even more distraught knowing that her entire family would be departing and she would be alone with her aunt. After her aunt passed away, she would be truly alone. When Chakotay paid her a visit (after he was not assigned to Voyager any longer), he found Seven in a poor state, her home in disarray and herself unkempt, under great stress. With the deaths of their closest friends Kathryn and B'Elanna, the two mourned and comforted each other after Voyager departed for the Delta Quadrant.

Return to the Delta Quadrant
In 2381, Seven suffered a mental breakdown due to the voice in her head which repeatedly informed her that she was Annika Hansen. However, Chakotay and Icheb were able to help her using meditation techniques. It was also realized that although the Caeliar had seemingly removed her Borg implants, they had in fact replaced them with their own Catoms. Seven then realized she needed to meet the Caeliar to find out why she hadn't been invited to join the gestalt. As a result, Chakotay and Seven followed and eventually joined the Voyager fleet, headed for the Delta Quadrant. Once there, Voyager encountered the Indign cooperative, several species living together in a symbiotic relationship, who worshiped the Borg. A disembodied Neyser consciousness was able to communicate with Seven via her Catoms. After another telepathic encounter with the Indign cooperative, Seven was able to overcome the voice in her head and embrace that aspect of her personality, in the process discovering that she had voluntarily refused to join the Caeliar Gestalt and the voice was a parting gift from the Caeliar to remind her to embrace her identity. Following this, Seven claimed that she was part Borg, part Human and part Caeliar. During the investigation of the Children of the Storm, Seven played a critical role in theorizing and discovering the "mother" of the Children. Meanwhile, she eventually came to realize that her frustration with Counselor Hugh Cambridge originated in deeper feelings, and she expressed her desire to pursue a romantic relationship with him after the mission ended.

Alternate universes
In an alternate timeline "Admiral Seven of Nine" married The Doctor, towards the turn of the 25th century. A renowned Federation scientist with political ties, she and the former EMH contributed research to the Phoenix Project. Both were compelled out of mutual respect for the countless hours of dedication and sacrifice devoted to the Pathfinder Project, years ago. In another alternate timeline, she remained a member of the Collective until late 2374, when an attack by Species 8472 liberated her and seven other members of Unimatrix Zero. They were subsequently rescued by the Vostigye ship Ryemaran, and Seven reasserted her identity as Annika Hansen. In another alternate timeline, she was a member of Jean-Luc Picard's resistance cell, until Wesley Crusher staged a coup, which she joined and was subsequently killed by the Klingons. In yet another alternate timeline in which Voyager took twenty-three years to return to Earth, Seven married Chakotay at an unknown time and died some time between the wedding and their return to Earth. Grief over her death caused Chakotay's own death in 2394. It was these events, along with Tuvok's insanity caused by Tuvan Syndrome, which caused Admiral Janeway to go back in time and bring Voyager home in 2377.