Disclaimer: Don't own Star Trek or any of its constituents, but I'm pretty sure it's going up for auction soon…
An Exercise in Futility By Nathan Yuen
The comm. opened up with a short burst of static before spilling the panicked message all over the walls of the bridge.
"This is the shuttlecraft Armstrong to Voyager! Come in, Voyager!" The baritone masculine voice starkly contrasted the jumpy cadence that highlighted the communication.
As stately as Guinevere on her throne, Janeway's head rose to the panicked voice. "This is Voyager. We read you, Armstrong. What is your status?"
"We have hit a gravimetric eddy. It threw our propulsion systems into chaos!"
"Do you need retrieval?"
"Negative, Voyager. Give us a few more moments…"
With that, the comm. system went silent, save for the occasional strangled curse from the pilot as he struggled to bring the delinquent engines back under control. Then with a final, frustrated sigh, the pilot messaged, "It's no use, Captain. The shuttle is a total loss. I need to beamed back to the ship."
Janeway looked back at ops, where Ensign Kim nodded in understanding. "Already done, Captain. I commenced transport when he sighed."
On screen, the good shuttlecraft Armstrong went into freefall, spun out of control, and dug an impressive furrow into the crust of an atmosphereless planetoid.
Janeway sighed and shook her head. Recovering quickly, she rose from her chair and said with good humor, "Tell our 'Ted Stryker' down in the transporter room to send a report about the malfunction up to me within the hour."
Several low chuckles bandied about the room: Tom Paris at the conn struggled to fight back a smile. At last his knowledge of 20th-century media – and his knowledge of "Airplane!" movies – are showing some fruition, even if it was entertainment at Chakotay's expense.
After the laughter died down, the problem still remained. Fortunately, at least one person was working on the problem.
When seven strode into Astrometrics she was surprised to find Ensign Kim already hard at work, tapping furiously at a console while on the massive Astrometrics screen the schematic of a shuttlecraft was rapidly modifying itself every few seconds.
Momentarily caught off guard, Seven blurted out, "Ensign Kim, your presence was not expected until eleven hundred hours."
Appearing abashed, Harry said, "Sorry, Seven. I just had a project that I was working on, and Astrometrics was the only station that had enough processing powers to work the simulations."
Seven composed herself, folding her hands behind he back, her expression recalcitrant. "Astrometrics is not designated for your personal projects."
Harry waggled a finger at her. "Ah, but this project benefits the crew as well."
THAT piqued her interest. "Explain."
Seeing that he hadn't been dismissed as "irrelevant" yet, the Ensign pressed on. "As you know, the Captain has ordered life shuttlecraft runs for Chakotay, trying to keep him in practice."
"Indeed," Seven agreed, "Even though simulations on the Holodeck would be a more efficient use of time and resources."
"Well, one can say that the Holodeck isn't a true test of ability, since the human subconscious mind perceives that it's not face with real threats. Chakotay might learn better under live runs. Or else the Captain's trying to tell the Commander to never take the Delta Flyer out for a spin," Harry joked, earning a precious half-smile from Seven. "Besides, with Voyager stationed beside an omicron-particle fountain, the ship momentarily has unlimited resources, so efficiency really isn't an issue.
"However, when we move away from the fountain, it will become one," he finished, gesturing towards the overhead.
"You have discovered a way to efficiently build a shuttle?"
"Make that 'trying to discover,'" Harry sighed. "Right now, the material cost of one shuttle is the equivalent of ten thousand crew replicator rations. I've been trying to get it to half that, but it's been eluding me so far."
Seven nodded, comprehending the problem, and then declared, "I will endeavor to assist." She moved to the main console at Harry's back.
As the air in Astrometrics settled into a companionable silence accompanied solely by the melodic tones of the working computer, Harry began to reminisce about the past month, after he and Tal parted ways. It was one of the most miserable times in his memorable life, filled with sorrow for what could have been, and a present and very persistent physical and emotional pain cause by his sense of loss.
It didn't help that the Doctor was constantly needling him in subtle ways, trying to convince Harry that the only way to stop the suffering was to take his cure. But the pain was the only thing that Harry had left of Tal and he wanted the option of hanging on to it if he chose. He also knew that despite the Doctor's insistence, no amount of artificial cheer from the "Happy Hypo" would lead to true healing. He learned that over his years from Voyager.
Conversely, his friends' continuous avoidance of the event didn't help either. They would struggle in the mess hall to talk like they ordinarily would, airily conversing about some such event, or some goings on, while steadfastly avoiding mentioning that certain stardate or that specific person. Oh, there wasn't some sign that he could count on for his suspicions; he could just "feel" them walking on eggshells, tiptoeing around the subject as if it were a land mine. It aggravated him to no end, because it seemed they were avoiding the blatant truth: Harry Kim, the once pure Ensign, broke the rules and fell from grace.
It was to his surprise then that of all people, Seven – "the Borg ice cube," and "the human machine" as she was known in some parts of the ship – seemed to be the most supportive one throughout his recovery. Neither blatantly ignoring the incident nor referring to it constantly, she sent via PADDs work to do in his free time, astrometrics equations that were challenging enough to keep him distracted and interested but not enough to frustrate him. More often, she indulged him by communing with him in the mess hall to share her observations and curiosities about the crew. (Her most amusing anecdotes were, in fact, about B'elanna and Tom.) All in all, it seemed to Harry that she helped carry the burden through the tough times.
He wanted to thank her for her support. And the most efficient and least confusing way to do it was out loud, here and now. But Harry wondered, what if it wasn't a conscious effort on her part? What if he was just imposing his feelings on her? A second voice rose in Harry's head. Just do it, it said. The worst that could happen is that she gets confused because you've had a little miscommunication. And since when hasn't your relationship with her been one big miscommunication?
With that thought echoing in his head, he took a long, deep breath and blurted out, "Thanks."
She turned toward him, her face an expression of askance.
"Well, I, uh…" he reigned in his stammering and just said it. "Thanks for helping me through the past month. After, well, after Tal left I kinda got lost. Thanks for putting me back on track."
An eternal pause hung in the air as Harry watched Seven consider his statement. Then she opened her mouth, and Harry thought if anyone could die of embarrassment then he would most definitely be in critical condition right now.
"It was of no consequence," Seven stated, and Harry released a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding. She continued, "It was imperative to assist you in recovering back to your original state."
Harry's relief faded into curiosity as he asked, "Why was it so important?"
She turned back to the console. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Harry thought that something resembling embarrassment showed on her face before she could hide it from him. "On a Borg vessel, when a drone is severely damaged, the collective would deactivate that drone because it would be an inefficient waste of resources to repair it. But on this ship you are too integral to ship functions. For the benefit of this collective, you need to be at optimum intellectual capacity, and I felt the need to assist you in your recovery."
Al long silence followed as Seven returned back to her console, then Harry blinked and said, "Thanks… I think."
END
Author's note: I honestly don't know what the story behind this was – it's been too long for me to remember the purpose, other than perhaps exercises in character. All I know is that today, while I was cleaning up my room I found a dusty memo pad in one of my many satchels. I peeked inside and …
"Hey, I didn't know I knew the word 'recalcitrant' back then!"
Perhaps it's my ego talking, but I think it was pretty good, but it had no point except perhaps the closure of the Tal fiasco. But it had all these little tidbits in it, and I wanted to share it with you guys. But it won't be continued, so don't ask me to.