7: Ensign Harry Kim
Harry Kim slid lower into the Big Chair some hours after his conversation with Seven of Nine. It had been a long night, and the ensign was struggling to keep his eyes open; like Tom and Chakotay, the Ops officer had been awake for more than two straight shifts. Now, despite the pressure and the fear that the Borg would still come after them while he was in command, the young man was becoming increasingly desperate for his bed.

"Sir?"

Harry's head snapped up. Embarrassed, he met the understanding blue eyes of the blonde girl who took Tom's place at the helm during the gamma shift. Since his first awkward experience of command, they'd become good friends. Among other things, they'd discovered a shared love of music, and the fact that they'd unknowingly shared a number of classes at the Academy. Sometimes Harry reflected that it was unfair that he should be a senior officer and Department Head, when good people like McKenzie Jenkins were forever kept on the graveyard shift.

Then again, it was also unfair that Harry himself was still an ensign after nearly seven years of exemplary service. Harry tried not to care; tried to remind himself of their unique situation, tried to refrain from criticising the Captain- whom he still revered, despite discovering that like most mere mortals, she had feet of murky clay.

But it was futile. Every time he reminded himself of these facts, he remembered too that Tuvok had been promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander; Tom had been given a field promotion to Lieutenant- despite his chequered past- demoted to Ensign and then restored to Lieutenant again, while Harry remained the eternal ensign….

"Harry!" hissed Ensign Jenkins.

Startled, Harry jerked up again, and, flustered, managed a very passable imitation of the Death Glare. McKenzie's mouth twitched.

"Yes, Ensign?" Harry said as pompously as he could, knowing his eyes were heavy, his uniform sweat stained and his hair unkempt.

The young woman nodded in apparent satisfaction. "We're approaching a nebula, sir," she announced properly.

Harry stared at her blankly. A nebula. He knew what to do with a nebula, didn't he? Of course he did. He was, like his Captain, at heart a science officer.

So why couldn't he think?

"Will I take some readings?" Tal Celes asked very hesitantly from where she stood at Ops. Harry's gamma shift relief had staggered to bed an hour before, and the young Bajoran- who was, after all, a sensor analyst- had found herself on the Bridge.

Harry looked at her stupidly. Readings? Of course she should take readings! What kind of readings? She was looking at him with that wistful earnestness that twisted his heart every time he saw her sweet face, and he knew- he just knew- that she was more terrified even than he was….

And still he could not think what to say.

Tom's arrival came as a blessed and opportune relief.

Harry looked at him in surprise. Tom was the last person he expected to see- but there he stood, evidently as weary as Harry himself, but his pale face irradiated by relief and joy. Harry registered the relief and the joy, but at the end of this eternal day he could not remember why it was important. Instead, he stared at his best friend.

"I've come from sickbay," Tom announced.

Even in his present exhausted state, Harry felt rather than saw how the other members of the Bridge crew stiffened to attention, and he felt the same reaction in himself.

"How're they doing?" he heard Ensign Jenkins ask through the haze that clouded his senses and emotions. The nearly dead rational part of himself knew that this level of exhaustion was dangerous, for both himself and the ship, but he was determined to remain at his post until relieved.

"-fine," he heard Tom say. "Doc says the Captain and B'Elanna just need some time to recover now. Tuvok might take longer, but we're sure he'll get there too."

Harry saw Ensign Jenkins beam; out of the corner of his eye he saw Tal Celes almost crumple with relief. Harry's own hero-worship for his Captain had been tempered by realism and tarnished by time- but for Celes, who had first experienced the full force and charm of Kathryn Janeway's magnetic personality only a couple of months ago, that hero-worship was bright and very much alive.

And himself? Harry's eyes blurred with sudden tears as the burden of fear and anxiety he'd carried for-days, it seemed now- fell from him, leaving him suddenly energised. He raised his head and met Tom's blue eyes for the first time since the latter had come onto the Bridge.

Tom grinned, the smile emphasising the faint lines that worry had traced around his eyes during this past week.

"Chakotay says to tell you you're off duty as of now," he said. "He'll be down shortly; I'm to take the Bridge until he gets here."

Harry rose. "What about you?" he questioned doubtfully.

Tom shook his head and moved towards the now empty command chair. "I've been working in sickbay," he reminded his friend. "Doc insists on regular work breaks- especially during long and complicated surgery."

Harry nodded in understanding and moved towards the lift. The sound of his name made him pause and turn.

Tom was looking straight at him. "If you're not too tired, why don't you go down to sickbay first? I'm sure they'd love to see-"

Harry heard no more. He decided to take Tom's advice and go and see for himself that his friends were whole once again.

This section was shorter than I'd initially planned, but somehow this seemed the right place to finish this section. Doctor coming up next! Please R & R!