Chapter 32 - Introducing B'Elanna Torres, the new Chief Engineer of the Flighty Temptress (Patreon)

I'd looked through the many databases that I had access to, both legal and not, in the hopes of finding people with the right skills who weren't already gainfully employed and didn't potentially owe their loyalty to someone else. So far, I'd found just a single person who had met those criteria and another maybe for a Chief of Security role, though getting ahold of her had been impossible so far. Everyone else who came close to meeting my requirements were either already in or worked on behalf of Starfleet or were doing meaningful work elsewhere and were highly unlikely to want to come and work for me.

It was B'Elanna Torres, of all people, who had met my requirements and was actually recently available. She was a Klingon-Human hybrid and possible future Maquis who would have served with distinction as Chief Engineer on the Federation starship Voyager under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway after they were taken into the Delta quadrant against their will in a couple years’ time. However, by inviting her to DS9 and offering her a job, I'd likely changed all that. Ah well. There was no point to living this life with all my future knowledge if I was constantly afraid of changing the future. There were some things even I was afraid of messing with, but this didn't feel like one of them.