Day of Honor - Michael Jan Friedman [24]
Her exec accepted the seat. A moment later, Janeway came around her desk and sat beside him.
"Not the easiest thing you've ever had to tell her?"
the captain asked.
Chakotay grunted softly. "B'Elanna wasn't happy about the idea."'
"But she'll get over it," the captain suggested.
He nodded. "Yes, she will."
Janeway stood again, stretching out the kinks in her neck. "Unfortunately, B'Elanna isn't the only member of the crew who's uncomfortable with the idea of a Borg on the ship."
Chakotay frowned. "I'm afraid Seven of Nine doesn't help her own case. She tends to put people off because she's so direct. So-"
"Honest," said the captain.
The commander nodded again. "That's one word for it."
Janeway smiled sympathetically. "I know. That's what I like about her. Her directness. Her honesty."
"But," Chakotay pointed out, "she still doesn't have any real perspective on what it is to be human."
"And that's the challenge," the captain replied, warming to the subject. "To help ease her back into humanity."
Chakotay smiled. "To make her comfortable among US."
"Exactly. That's the only way she'll be able to rejoin the world she was born into. The human world. I think it's a good sign that she wants a duty assignment. She's taking a step toward us."
Her exec grunted. "No argument there."
Janeway thought for a moment. "I need to speak with Seven of Nine. Give her the lay of the land, as it were. After all, in the collective, no one person was in charge. She's never encountered a chain of command before."
I'll tell her you want to speak with her," said Chakotay.
The captain nodded. "Please do."
Tuvok glanced at his tactical board, where one of the monitors showed that there had been a release of plasma coolant in engineering. Since neither Captain Janeway nor Commander Chakotay was on the bridge, the Vulcan contacted the individual in charge of that section directly.
"Tuvok to Lieutenant Torres. Please respond."
There was silence for a moment. Then Torres said, "I'm here, Tuvok. And if you're going to ask me about the coolant release ... don't. It's over, all right? Let's leave it at that."
With that, she terminated the intraship communication. The Vulcan cocked an eyebrow. Such a reply was unusual, even for such a volatile personality as the chief engineer's.
What was not unusual was the incident Torres had described as "over." As Voyager's tactical officer, Tuvok had gotten used to the occurrence of minor systems dysfunctions. In fact, he had come to expect them.
After all, Voyager wasn't like other starships. She wasn't able to put into drydock for an overhaul every so often, the nearest starbase being decades away at high warp.
As a result, the ship and her crew were forced to face each problem as it arose, and handle it as best they could. In most cases, that meant a considerable amount of improvisation.
It was a tribute to the ingenuity and dedication of Captain Janeway and her operations staff that they
had met each new challenge and surmounted it. In fact, it stirred a certain amount of pride in Tuvok to be associated with such capable people.
Not that he would ever tell them that to their faces. He was a Vulcan, and his species didn't indulge in displays of emotion.
Returning his attention to his monitors, Tuvok initiated a long-range scan. After all, it was the lieutenant's job to scan for external occurrences as well as internal ones.
As Seven of Nine entered the captain's ready room, Janeway turned away from her observation port. "Thank you for coming," she said.
The Borg didn't answer. She just stood there in the center of the room, awaiting the captain's next remark.
"I understand you want to work in engineering," Janeway noted.
"That's correct," Seven of Nine replied.
"Engineering is a sensitive area."
The Borg looked at her. "Sensitive?"
"Important," the captain explained, "in the sense that a ... mistake