Seven of Nine was at an impasse in her socialization lessons. It was not the first, nor would it be the last despite her attempts to keep an open mind during them and see the applications in social and work sessions around Voyager during her duty and leisure shifts. Many of her impasses occurred at celebratory events, namely holidays. This lesson centered on the Christian earth tradition known as Christmas. The Doctor had introduced it as an opportunity to show affection for other crew members, which Seven had immediately misunderstood. The EMH had spent a few pensive moments trying to convey that Christmas was not a mass orgy that with a decorated tree in the center of the room before telling her to forget the first part of the lesson. He’d given her a quick and dirty history on the holiday, encouraging her to do more in depth research as she pleased, that had told her it was a gift giving holiday centered on community and family. He’d explained that people often gave gifts to others that they needed or wanted but would not because they saw such things as frivolity. Seven had not understood, the replicators provided all that someone could want or need on Voyager so what was the point of the holiday? The Doctor had tried to explain that at times you would anticipate someone’s wants and then provide that person that want before he knew he wanted it. That had only confused her, why would a person show inclinations toward an item they did not want. The time for the lesson had run out before he could appropriately explain the topic so he’d advised her to ask around about the holiday.
She’d ignored his advice for a few days while she compiled a data base of information about Christmas. Most of it was about the cultural shift around the holiday toward more material gains then toward the former collectivity. She didn’t understand, almost everyone had everything they could want or need on Earth so why would they need more things, things that they didn’t know they wanted in the first place. After brooding over it for a few days she tried to devise a list of crewmembers to ask. Commander Tuvoc would be a good candidate if she were looking for an observer’s opinion on the holiday. She’d had a short conversation that had revealed he found the custom mystifying but he’d grown used to its practice among human crew members. Next she’d tried Naomi Wildman, but the child had a skewed view due to her restricted replicator use. Naomi saw it as a time to acquire materials she would not have access to as she was dependent on the adults to replicate her things and the only adult beholden to her was her mother. Naomi did not actually have access to the things she wanted. Seven considered the population of Earth against those that had ready replicator use; she estimated that eighty to ninety percent of the population did in fact have replicator use. No explanation there.
Her next stop had been B’Lanna Torres. Torres had at first looked puzzled, and then brushed her off with a shrug. “Never gave it much thought.” Seven had persisted with her questions whenever she could find time to pester the engineer, which resulted in one of the lieutenants ‘promises’ to seal her in a Jeffries tube. B’Lanna had expressed her displeasure with the ex-drone to Tom, which had sparked a conversation and eventual debate with Harry Kim. The two had apparently come to a similar impasse. After the two had a near blow out over the greedy nature of humans and the possible gain gift giving could give the whole crew was abuzz with the issue.
This eventually caught the Captain’s attention and it took her only a few hours to find the source of the debate. Seven of Nine found herself in the Captain’s ready room halfway through alpha shift. She sat in her chair looking officious, as though she was barely aware of the absurdity of what she was about to discuss. “I hear you’ve been trying to discover the meaning of Christmas.” She remarked, leaning forward in her chair to place her clasped hands on the desk.
“There is no true meaning to the word, it is simply an association. I am merely curious about the purpose of gift giving in a society with very little need.” Seven replied icily.
The Captain allowed her grin to break out across her face. “It doesn’t have a purpose; it is merely a kindness as plain as saying hello.”
“I have received many answers, but that is not one that people can explain? Why would useless items be kind?”
“Well, what matters is not the item given, or even if the recipient likes the item, it’s the thought that counts.”
“Explain.”
“Seven when you see a crew member struggling to lift a heavy object, most would move to help them or ask if they need help. Very few would wait until the crewmember fails or asks for help themselves. Why is this?
“Courtesy, to perform as a cohesive unit.”
“Courtesy is correct. Now why are we so impressed by courtesy?” The question was clearly rhetorical. “Thought. The fact that you paid enough attention to anticipate the need. Gift giving is very similar. You notice that Tom Paris had a little more stubble then usual half way through his duty shift and replicate a new razor for him. He could have done it himself, but by doing that for him you show that you have noticed that something is different and sought to correct it. On holidays such as Christmas, you look for more impressive gifts to give. A new valve cover for Harry’s oboe, a hair band for Naomi, a spoon for Neelix. The most impressive gifts become the home made ones because you saw the need and spent time to make one yourself.”
“Logically meals could be gifts if you saw a hungry crew member and decided to make food for them.”
“Yes that’s true, and that would be a good gift anywhere but a starship.” Janeway replied gently.
Seven took a moment to think. “I could not make Henry a new valve cover.”
“No, but you could replicate a few of them for him for when he needs one. You could write a song that he would like to play. You could offer to sing it for him.” Janeway suggested. “No gift is better than another.”
“Why did you know the answer, but none of the other crewmembers could grasp it?” Seven was clearly done with the current subject and more interested the surrounding facts.
“That question is a little simpler to answer. As an officer I’ve spent my entire career anticipating needs in my duties, of the people below and above me. I see that an engineer needs a differently configured tricorder, so I hand it to them and put the other one away. I see someone on my team struggling while one is completely bored; I put them together so the bored one has the duty of explaining the process to the nervous one and monitoring the other person’s work. Every officer has to give gifts to her subordinates’ everyday but most see only duty. The person won’t remember the exact circumstance, but they will remember that officer going out of their way to be helpful, to assure that they were comfortable or at ease. That will build report with the team or crew that officer works with. That’s the guide to command, know your subordinates and let them know you know. As a human captain I’ve seen how this applies across the board. My crew is built out of people anticipating each other’s needs, at the top I try to help and make impressions where I can. The other species don’t see the relation as well as humans so many that have been in command longer simply overlook it. The summary of it is that, gifts are physical reminders that you think of another person enough to see and help them meet their needs.”
Seven nodded and asked to be dismissed. She was already reorganizing her schedule to get access to the ready room to spend some time tinkering with the replicator there. The captain often complained about the coffee. She couldn’t make gifts, but she could improve people’s lives without a replicator.