For weeks Seven of Nine had been watching the interactions between B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris in order to gather data on interspecies mating behaviours. The longer she watched them the more routine their behaviour became. It had never occurred to her that it might upset them to be observed. She had followed protocol and kept an appropriate distance from their interactions. She found though that every day that she observed them she edged closer to her subjects. At first she would watch them from across the room but as time passed she became more and more curious about their physiological responses to each other, the dilation of their pupils, the depth and frequency of their breaths, the rate of their heartbeats. So she began to edge closer, first six metres, then five and so on, until she found herself sitting just one table away from them in the mess hall.

Seven was observing them and recording the data on her pad when Lieutenant Torres stormed over to her table.

" Enjoying the view?" Torres asked incredulously

"Explain" Seven said briefly looking away from her pad and peering up at Torres.

"You've been staring at us all night. In fact you were following us yesterday when we were walking to engineering; and the day before when I was waiting for Tom outside the shuttle bay."

Seven looked up into Torres eyes and said without inflection, "You are correct, I have been observing you, It's part of my research on human mating behaviour."

Torres reached down and roughly pulled Seven's pad from her hands, every muscle in her body rapidly tensing with anger. She began to search the pad for the information that Seven had collected,

"Stardate 62847. 1400 hours. Subjects quarrel in corridor outside females quarters. Male returns with twelve flowering plant stems, species rosa rubrifolia, effecting a cessation of hostilities."

Torres continued to read through the entries in Seven's log and with each entry her anger became more palpable. Seven continued to stare at Torres observing her reactions to the thorough log that she had compiled. After reading through several more entries Torres demanded access to all of the information that Seven had collected but Seven refused to provide her with the still incomplete dataset.

As Torres and Paris left the mess hall, Seven entered data on the most recent interaction in her pad. Although she had not broken any protocols she could tell from Torres's behaviour that she would report this to the Captain. Seven sat with her pad in hand reading through the data that she had collected and awaiting a communication from the Captain summoning her to discuss the incident.

She sat in the mess hall for the next two hours analysing and collating the data that she had collected and observing the interactions of other couples on the ship. She found one couple in particular a fascinating case study. At a space station two days ago the captain had encountered an alien from Tau Alpha C. The only other encounter with this species (The Tau) had been on the spaceship Enterprise with an alien colloquially referred to as "The Traveller". This species lived in a realm of space controlled entirely by thought. They traveled throughout the galaxy using the power of thought.

The Captain had been, for lack of a better word, wooing one of these creatures (The Tau) for the better part of two weeks. The Tau's name was Bichani and she was humanoid in nature with a distended brow and three fingers on each hand. Her long black hair was wrapped around her head in a series of intricate black braids and she had piercing purple eyes that studied everything around her with a soft intensity.

When Bichani had first arrived on the ship she had sat back and observed her surrounding for a number of days without engaging with anyone aboard. Seven immediately took to the methodical approach that she took to integrate herself into the mostly human crew. After the first week Seven began to observe her interactions with a Betazoid female named Lalani. At first the interactions followed normal social norms; within acceptable parameters for interactions between acquaintances on a starship. But the longer that Seven observed them the more she realized that their behaviour was a precursor to a romantic relationship. She watched as Lalani gasped for breath when Bichani entered a room and she studied the frequency of unnecessary touching between them. This was the first time that she had encountered a same sex romantic relationship and she felt it was pertinent to include her observations on this couple in her study.

Though both the Doctor and the Captain had tutored her in human behaviour and romantic relationships neither of them had discussed the possibility of same sex relationships and Seven began to wonder why. She began to watch closely how the females on the ship interacted with the other females and how the males interacted with the other males and she realized that many of the females and males show definitive signs of physical arousal when they interacted with their same sex peers. She was recording the information in her pad when she got a com from the Captain summoning her to her quarters.

"Enter" the Captain commanded as Seven stepped into the Janeway's personal quarters.

Seven stood at the edge of the room with her hands folded behind her back as the Captain approached her wearing her formal uniform.

Captain Janeway's gaze drifted over Seven as she stood at attention.

"Come in Seven, I hear that you were involved in an incident in the mess hall earlier today."

Seven sighed deeply and stepped into the room observing the Captain as she stepped closer.

"I read B'Elanna's report. Needless to say I was surprised." The Captain said studying Seven for a response.

"I was careful not to violate protocol." Seven said defensively.

The tone in Seven's voice immediately intrigued Captain Janeway, she paused as she ran her eyes over Seven's body drinking in her unusual tension and obvious discomfort. She pondered momentarily if it was possible that Seven was having an emotional response but quickly pushed the thought aside.

"That's not the point. This is a starship not a nature preserve." Janeway said with a hint of levity.

The Captain began searching frantically around her quarters, "Oh I'm missing a pin."

For a split second Seven studied the Captain as she searched the cabin and found an unfamiliar sensation building in her body, the tension in the cabin became palpable.

"You asked me to broaden my knowledge of human behaviour."

"I'm not questioning your goal seven" the captain said as she bend down to pick up the pip.

The Captain continued, "It's your methods. You shouldn't be taking field notes on the crew."

Janway handed Seven and said slightly breathlessly, "help me with this will you please?"

Janway moved closer to Seven and Seven found her breath catching in her throat as she held the pip steady and began to fix it to the Captain's collar. As she looked down to place the pip on the Captain's collar she watched the rise and fall of her breasts beneath her dress uniform. She was immediately overtaken by an unfamiliar sensation as she felt the heat radiating from the captains body and she found herself moving in closer to the Captain until she could feel the heat of the Captain's leg brush against her pelvis.

As Seven fixed the pip the Captain asked, "Have you ever considered trying it yourself? Romance I mean." Her voice filled with playful mischief and a brief flicker of something more, something that Seven couldn't quite place with her lack of understanding of human interactions.

Seven sighed in frustration. This was an uncomfortable and inefficient use of their time, "I do not require a romantic relationship."

Captain Janeway smiled knowing and with a hint of mockery said, "So why did you collect thirty thousand gigaquats of data on the subject?"

Seven stared at the captain unable to formulate a response. This was a part of herself that she didn't understand, why had she collected the data? Why did it matter at all? What was it about watching Bichani and Lalani that made her body ache? Why did she move her body so close to the Captains? She understood that she was experiencing normal physiological responses to sexual stimuli but what was she supposed to do about these responses? There was no logical reason to engage in a relationship so why had the idea become so fascinating to her. She longed in that moment to be back in the collective, where they would have repaired an implant and she would have been free of this uncomfortable desire that was burning through her.

Captain Janeway stared at Seven knowingly, "I'm late." She said as she raised her eyebrows and studied Seven for a beat too long. Seven felt her body tense once again and an overpowering desire to move towards the Captain but she she stood completely still and watched as Janeway walked away leaving her breathless, confused and alone.