Adrift on Voyager - An Old Man's War/Star Trek VOY Crossover

Day 361

2375.332

Sickbay did not have imposing doors, but that did not stop Cochrane from hesitating outside them. She did not like doctors. The first doctor to ever examine her had been McCoy, and that had been when her consciousness had still been dormant. She had also been stunned by phasers the first time and under direct orders from Commander Spock the second. McCoy had later become a member of her small family on the Enterprise, but Cochrane still disliked being his patient.

The second doctor to examine her had been green. Szilard had wanted her to be examined by a CDF doctor before she took the other Equilibrium-created soldiers to war against the Consu, but Cochrane had flat-out refused. She only caved in after one land battle went particularly badly and her forearm had become victim to a Consu slashing arm. Having only one arm in wartime was inconvenient, so Cochrane had offered the doctor enough cooperation to ensure that she would have a new arm grafted to her elbow. The third through seventh were the team who had treated her the time when her wire-frame craft had skipped in to Phoenix Station with her unconscious and dying inside it. She had not been able to argue with them then, and when she had needed another life-saving surgery, she had complied. To argue would have been both illogical and deadly.

This doctor would be the eigth, as well as the one with the most questions for her. McCoy had had questions about her species and genetic engineering, but she had not been in a position to answer them at the beginning. The CDF doctors worked exclusively with genetically engineered soldiers, so they had not had any such questions. Voyager's doctor would have as many questions as McCoy had, but this time Cochrane would be expected to answer them. That was what she dreaded.

Steeling herself, Cochrane entered sickbay. As with the rest of the ship, the technology was more advanced than the Enterprise had had a century ago. "Lieutenant Puvar Cochrane, reporting for my physical," she said.

"Finally," huffed the voice of the tall, balding man whom Cochrane had met briefly in the mess hall on her first night on Voyager. He exited the round, windowed office that was in the centre of sickbay. "You were supposed to come in three days ago."

"I am aware," Cochrane replied, sitting on a biobed as McCoy had conducted physicals that way.

"So it's true what they say. You're the one who bargains with the captain and gets away with it."

"I thought this was supposed to be a physical, not sarcastic banter overlaid with ship gossip."

The doctor – who had yet to give Cochrane his name – huffed and took out a tricorder to scan her biometrics. He furrowed his eyebrows at the readout. "That's impossible. It must be broken. One moment, lieutenant."

Cochrane put out a hand to stop him. "A logical assumption, yet incorrect. The tricorder is functioning within acceptable parameters, and the data is accurate." She slid off the biobed. "That will be all."

The doctor reached out to grab Cochrane by the elbow with his free hand. "Your bone growth is remarkably even, almost entirely unaffected by any environmental factors. Your right forearm and hand even more so. I'm detecting some sort of mechanical system resisting my scans. Your very DNA is –"

"That will be all," Cochrane hissed, momentarily dropping her Vulcan mask. She tore her elbow from his grasp and walked briskly out of sickbay.

***

A forkful of leola root stew was on the way to her mouth when a plate was placed on the table opposite her. On the plate was a slice of pizza and some fries, definitely replicated fare. Cochrane looked up from her PDA. The owner of the plate was the helm officer, Ensign Tom Paris.