^I have a feeling should Seven not have been there, Kim wouldn't have been able to make it on his own. It felt more like Seven had the knowledge but Kim had the knowhow to incorporate it into astrometrics.
In Shattered Chakotay said that Kim did it. Reverse engineering and integrating Borg tech with Federation tech. Without assimilating the ship by accident, it's probably not easy.
Seven was also credited for building astrometrics. Sorry, missed two replies. Though could Harry have done it alone?
So in Unity, if they had raped the Cube for transwarp coils and tanswarpradio transceivers as well as their cultural database... Voyager's crew should have been able map the galaxy and identify the location and limits of Borg Space, as well as every outpost and cube before leaving that system Astorometrics could hav ben built in seaosn 3. Debris from the assault on earth in First Contact? There should have been many coils and antenna just floating about begging to be reverse engineered.
From the moment he first stepped on board Voyager, Harry was a Senior Staff Officer, a trusted Senior Bridge Officer, and the Head of Department for the Operations Division, AS AN ENSIGN. Harry was the Voyager counterpart to Miles O'Brien, yet you don't see people whining about 'poor Miles'. Harry didn't need a higher physical rank because he was already in a position of authority, and it was a mistake to make a joke out of his lowly physical rank because it cheapened his character and role on the ship.
Looking at what an operations officer actually has to do, quartermaster/environmental controls it's a lot of actual work. Too much dirt under the fingernails to be taken seriously. It should be dedicated to an enlisted crewman with years of experience in the field. Methinks Janeway is a snob and wanted to keep the enlisted out of sight and out of mind fostering the position on an under qualified booksmart child.
Just watch how Janeway welcomes Harry to the bridge the very first time. "Ensign Kim, this is your station." She seems a bit condescending, or patronizing, or maybe it's just her maternal instinct dealing with a puppy dog. I dunno.
Miles' official job title on DS9 was Chief Operations Officer, but, in terms of his actual duties, he was, for all intents and purposes, the Chief Engineer. Harry's duties as the Senior Ops Officer on Voyager were distinctly different, being a combination of Engineer and Navigator (exactly the same role Data had). In fact, the only significant difference between Data and Harry in terms of their 'role' is that Data was not only the HoD for the Enterprise's Ops department, he was also the Second Officer.
Second officer my ass. That's a question of rank completely. Tuvok was Second Officer. Enterprise was ten times the size with ten times the crew (well, almost 7, fuck it) and every thing had to be done just as quickly, but we're not talking about multipliers, this is geometric progression. Data as Operations Officer must have had a few Lieutenants under him, several ensigns, and probably a hundred ensigns. The size of your department determines rank. Any graduate of starfleet academy can work in any field/department with excellence. But only an idiot would put a green ensign in charge of over a hundred crewmen on his, or her first day. (Thinking about B'Elanna) Sure she can look after the engine, even get 40 engineers to do the right things at the right time. That's all the Maquis had to do. But now she has to write daily reports on the state of engineering and the composure of every crewmen and officer under her tracking commendations and demerits. Free time on the holodeck is for children.
^ Did you even bother to read what I said? Apart from Data being Second Officer, he and Harry had the same job responsibilities, regardless of their individual rank. Data being the Chief Operations Officer on the Enterprise had nothing to do with his being a Lt. Cmdr; he could've had Harry's rank and still done the same job just as well. The only thing Data's rank added to his character was his status as the Enterprise's Second Officer.
The difference is O'brien could've been an officer if he had wanted and probably would've advanced. He was happy being enlisted. Kim... couldn't advance even though he did want to.
Harry would always crack under pressure, then punish himself and everybody else by screaming "It's all my fault! I killed them!" like he did in Timeless.
So instead of realizing that it wouldn't make much sense for there to be many promotions given to anyone, or appreciating that he's a Senior Officer on his first major assignment anywhere....he just whines over it? No wonder he wouldn't get promoted.