Tuvok looked at the sensor screen again.
He continued to monitor their bio-signatures and observed as they left the holodeck and moved through the ship together to deck three. The progress of both bio-signatures halted at the Captain's quarters.
After a further 3.34 minutes, the Captain's bio-signature entered her quarters and the Commander's moved towards his own.
Tuvok judged this outcome to be satisfactory.
He reflected on how he could be of assistance to the Captain in the immediate future, in ensuring that the status quo was maintained with regard to her relationship with her first officer.
He concluded that it would be appropriate for him to offer her an hour of guided Vulcan meditation, in the next day or so, before her return to duty. She might now be vulnerable to suggestions that she would have otherwise found to be inadvisable. The shared traumatic experience had the potential to create a deeper bond between his commanding officers, which might make it more difficult for her to ignore any appeals the Commander might now choose to make. She would likely need assistance to regain her usual sense of well-being. She would need help from her friends. Preferably friends other than the Commander.
Tuvok had long considered himself her friend.
He could assist her indirectly in this endeavour in other ways. He could request that his bridge shifts be altered slightly, ostensibly to allow him time to supervise the implementation of the new security measures that were indeed close to completion. This would require the Commander to cover the bridge at certain times when he was currently on the same duty cycle as the Captain. If their shifts coincided less often, it would assist her in re-establishing an appropriate distance between them.
Perhaps a few carefully selected words from him would remind her of her former resolve to resist any spontaneous changes in her relationship with the Commander. She had long since told Tuvok that she valued his counsel – that he provided her with clarity in situations where her judgment had been impaired. Perhaps this was one such occasion.
He would of course proceed with caution. He did not intend to overstep the bounds of their friendship. He resolved to speak to her in the morning. It was imperative he do so, before the opportunity should arise for her to spend more of her off-duty recovery time alone in the company of her first officer. She would find it hard to forgive herself, were she to acquiesce, on impulse, to taking any actions that she might later regret.
It was imperative that she resist the impulse to do anything that might add to the weighty, self-imposed burdens of guilt she already carried.
He would help her.