Harry Kim (mirror)
Harry Kim was a clarinet prodigy. His mother had gotten her hands on the instrument on the black market and had worked very hard to get Harry the opportunities to learn it. Lessons had been clandestine at first, hiding it from the Alliance overseers until Harry was good enough to make him an amusement to them. As he grew up, and his skills flourished, he found himself performing before higher and higher officials and buying safety and security for those he cared about. At first, this was primarily his parents, but in 2368 one of the officials he performed for, Nal Ghonti, was attended by a young woman named Libby and he fell in love.
Despite her requirements to travel with Ghonti, Libby and Harry struck up a long distance romance and would steal time together any time they found their paths crossing. He'd been working up the nerve to ask her to marry him—he'd even purchased a ring—when tragedy struck. He'd been performing for a group of Alliance officials in from the Orion territory, when the Orion Intendant decided she disliked the clarinet and ordered Harry's parents executed.
This nearly destroyed Harry, and he'd been distraught to the point where he was ready to defy his handlers and force their hand to execute him too when Libby offered an alternative option — he could join the rebellion. He asked her to come with him, even offered her the ring and asked her to marry him. She refused, but only so that she could serve an important role. She would gather information from the Cardassian woman she served — Ghonti was quickly climbing the ladder and was clearly on track to be very powerful in a handful of years.
The star crossed lovers kept in touch via encrypted messages after Libby staged a very loud and public breakup with him, refusing his marriage proposal in front of Ghonti before Harry then escaped his handlers and joined the rebellion.
Harry was lost when he arrived at the cell he was assigned to, moping around mourning not only the death of his parents, but the fact that he was unlikely to see Libby again beyond the occasional fleeting subspace or encrypted message. It was then that Tom Paris (mirror) took him under his wing, and worked hard to help cheer him up. Tom shared with him his favorite thing, an old beaten copy of a Captain Proton novel. The two discussed the story and the larger universe it was set in, even discussing what adventures they'd have together if they were Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid.
2376 provided the spark that would lead him to his place in history. While on a sabotage mission with Tom, they soon found themselves pinned down and looking like there was no out. Someone had warned the guards of the dilithium mine they were coming, and while they'd found out who it was the information was no good if they couldn't get it back to their cell so that the traitor could be burned. As Harry worked through plan after plan in an attempt to keep them both alive, Tom came to realize that their window was closing and there wasn't a way out for both of them — so he took the choice away from Harry and sacrificed himself by playing distraction. Even as Harry reached the beam out site with pattern boosters waiting, he saw the guards shoot Tom. Tom watched Harry beam to safety with his dying breath, and Harry was once again on the brink of despair.
When Libby had heard what had happened, she took a risk to meet with Harry in person. As the two caught up, Harry discussed all the things Tom had done to help him adjust to the rebel life, to teach him what he needed to survive, and he choked on tears as he told her the story of Tom's sacrifice. She encouraged Harry to ensure that Tom's death was not in vain and suggested he act on information she'd just gleaned from Nal Ghonti in order to build a huge victory in the shadow of his loss. The Alliance was putting into motion a plan that was intended to destabilize the Romulan government, to allow them to seize their territory and enslave their people — with warning, Libby believed that it could be stopped and hoped that delivering that information into the right hands could also foster an alliance between the budding Terran government and the Romulans.
