Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [48]
Conlon could tell Kim was enjoying himself at her expense. Every spare moment she’d had—and there hadn’t been many since she’d learned of the benamite problem— she’d been fretting over a solution. Thus far, all she had come up with was shortening the fleet’s mission.
She’d come to Harry hoping for a little unconventional perspective. When she’d taken over for Vorik, the Vulcan had scrupulously and in mind-numbing detail given her his appraisal of each of her staff members. Harry Kim was on the short list of non-engineering specialists who could provide valuable insight.
Her days on the da Vinci had taught her that establishing cohesive working relationships between staff members could be tricky. She was new to Voyager, but the engineer understood that she was going to have to make sure Kim understood who was in charge of this little corner of the universe.
Toward this end, she decided to change the subject, as he was clearly not going to tell her more about his miraculous solution until they’d reached the shuttlebay.
“Can I ask you something else?” she said as the turbolift doors slid open.
“Sure.”
“Isn’t B’Elanna one of your oldest friends? I mean, you served together in the Delta quadrant, didn’t you?”
Harry tensed at her side, but kept his voice even as he replied.
“We did. And she is.”
Conlon worried that she might be trespassing on too personal ground but was going to feel even dumber than she already did if she let it go at that.
“I thought so. You just don’t seem as happy as everyone else was today to learn that she’s still alive.”
Kim paused his steps and turned to face her.
“I am happy to see her,” he said coldly. “I’m thrilled she’s still alive.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” Harry repeated and continued walking.
Nancy would have been content to remain silent for the remainder of their walk. She would have been ecstatic had she thought to construct a time machine before she entered the mess hall so that she could have erased this moment from history now that it had occurred. She lagged a little behind as she tormented herself with these thoughts until Harry stopped again and looked her way.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“No apology necessary,” she replied hastily. “It’s none of my business.”
Both the gloating and the hostility in Harry’s face were gone and in their place she caught a glimpse of genuine misery.
“You’re right. It isn’t. But I don’t mind that you asked.”
I don’t know about that, Nancy mused.
Harry continued, “I love B’Elanna and Miral. I wanted to die when I thought they were dead. Having them back is a miracle and I am grateful. I’m just pissed at Tom.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nancy said as kindly as possible. “You two are friends. You’ll work it out.”
“Maybe,” Harry said with a shrug.
Realizing that crossing into this personal territory might feel more comfortable if she made an unpleasant confession of her own, Nancy said, “I have to say, though, I probably wasn’t as happy to see B’Elanna walk into that room as everyone else was.”
“Why not?” Harry asked.
“She’s B’Elanna Torres,” Nancy replied, as if that should more than explain it. “She’s the miracle worker of the Delta quadrant. She’s one of the reasons this ship made it home in one piece. To hear her former subordinates talk, she walks on water, leaps Borg cubes with a single bound, and recalibrates magnetic constrictors just by glancing in their direction.”
She felt better when Harry grinned at this description.
“I’m sure everyone is assuming, now that she’s here, that we’d all be better off if she just took her engine room back right now,” Nancy admitted.
“You’re wrong,” Harry said more seriously. “First of all, that engine room is nothing like the one B’Elanna left when she started her leave more than three years ago. It’s yours now. Second, most of the people on this ship haven’t been with Voyager all that long. You stepped in and so far, you’ve worked a