| B'Elanna Torres |
|
| Starfleet Rank Lieutenant |
| Species Half-Klingon, Half-Human |
| Planet Kessik IV |
| Affiliation Federation |
| Gender Female |
| Portrayed Roxann Dawson |
|
After a brilliant but troubled two years heading toward an engineering specialty at Starfleet Academy, subject Torres seemed to be constantly at odds with the Klingon heritage of her maternal side and after several disruptive episodes agreed to leave school. Having grown up on Kessik IV, where she and her mother were the only Klingon residents, her human father left when she was a child, and she has always blamed her Klingon heritage for driving him away.
She later joined the Maquis rebellion in its early stages and by mid-2370 was acting as engineer for former Starfleet officer Chakotay's crew, her position at last report and the crew to which Lt. Tuvok of the U.S.S. Voyager under Captain Kathryn Janeway had infiltrated undercover. Her ship was last heard from a week before the Voyager went looking for it in the DMZ Badlands; both vessels are missing and presumed lost, last detected SD 48307.5.
When she turns to recreation as an outlet, she has been known to play both hoverball and Parrises Squares.
I have never regretted my decision to assign Torres the brevet rank of lieutenant or make her my chief engineer. She is tough, knowledgeable and independent, and sometimes seems an echo of myself at her age in her department, but her mixed heritage has manifested itself in a state of confusion and denial that I hope is not personally insurmountable. Now that B'Elanna is unable to release her frustrations through fighting the Cardassians, she must learn to accept herself and her conflicting heritage.
I recall how far she has come since her diatribe against my order to destroy the Caretaker's Array when we first arrived, and her reaction to Tuvok's grumbling "boot camp" Maquis bears out my faith in her.