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It was surreal, Pavel thought, to watch one’s body die from the sidelines.
His body was otherwise unmarked, save from a gash on his throat and a large stab-wound right in the middle of his stomach. If he didn’t know better, he would swear his body was dead. He looked dead.
Doctor McCoy was intense bordering on panicked; Pavel could tell, because this new body could detect human body chemicals, including the ones involved in a state of arousal. Pavel doesn’t even need to analyze the information on his own, this alien brain automatically translating for him that McCoy’s scent and body-language mean that he’s in a state of alarm.
Pavel, for his part, sits silently on the bed a few feet away, watching as they try to save his body. He’s still shocked: Shocked at being in this body, shocked at watching himself dying on a table a few feet away, shocked at the information this brain that is clearly not his own is giving him.
“Pavel,” Hikaru has a hand on his shoulder. Not his shoulder. This alien person’s shoulder, this alien person who had clapped a hand over his mouth and switched their bodies so easily you could tell he’d done it before. The alien who he hadn’t gotten a good look at, whose name he didn’t even know, their sole conversation being limited to “You should stay here if you don’t want your crewmates killing you.”
“What?”
And then he’d left Pavel in the maintenance closet. Or rather… He left Pavel’s mind there. His body walked to the bridge and confronted the captain and put a knife to Pavel’s throat and said that if Kirk did not re-direct the Enterprise to a nearby planet and beam down, that he would kill the navigator.
Pavel didn’t need to be told what happened next.
“I’m sorry,” Captain Kirk was pale, shaking, speaking to Pavel but staring at his physical body as McCoy and the others worked. “I’m sorry, I moved my hand, it was reflex, but he must have thought I was going for a weapon.”
Pavel wanted to assure the Captain that it was okay, he wasn’t upset, that this stranger would have probably tried to kill him even if he hadn’t moved. And Pavel cannot begrudge anyone, Captain Kirk least of all, their right to defend themselves. Even though, of course, it wasn’t actually the Captain who had shot him, but the security team that had responded to the distress call from the bridge.
But Pavel couldn’t reassure anyone of anything. This alien had a mask fused to his face that allowed him to breathe- at least, that’s what Pavel suspected the mask was for, as every breath has been labored since their bodies were switched- and he still couldn’t figure out how to speak around it. He didn’t dare remove it, and he was afraid to tamper with the apparatus for fear that it would cut off whatever was allowing him to breathe properly.
“Pavel,” Hikaru repeated, gently rubbing his (not his) arm. “Maybe we should go back to your room.”
But Pavel shook his head as much as he dared, keeping his eyes fixed on the bed.
He was torn between a horrible desire to return to his body and a terrifying fear that once he did, he would die and be stuck in this strange body that he hadn’t even seen properly yet. He wasn’t sure he wanted to: From the looks he was getting, it was obvious that he was pretty frightening now.
No one ever looked at him like that in his real body.
At some point, the commotion surrounding the bed with his actual body on it began to subside to something calmer, more reassuring. Doctor McCoy’s movements became less frantic and more relieved. Hikaru had taken up residence next to Pavel on the bed when the Doctor finally made his way over.
“Alright,” He said, hands on his hips. “You’re out of the woods.”
Pavel nodded slowly.
Hikaru patted his arm. “Now we just need to find a way to switch the two of you back.”
Before Pavel could offer his opinion on that, Captain Kirk spoke up from the spot he’d been rooted to since he’d spoken to Pavel.
“Actually, Scotty just called up: He says he’s figured out how to do it. Tested it on himself and Keenser first, which I kinda wish he would’ve asked me about before just plugging ahead and doing it, but-”
“No,” Pavel choked. Or tried; it came out as a strained whining-wheezing sound that was likely incomprehensible to anyone around him. All he could do was shake his head and lean away from McCoy, wincing as pain erupted in his lower back. It had been throbbing dully ever since he’d gotten into this body, and was now starting to suspect that it housed whatever this species of alien considered to be a heart.
“Chekov,” McCoy read his distress correctly and put a hand on his back. “It’s okay. You’re sedated; you’re not going to feel any pain.”
Pavel’s fingers dug into the bed, shaking his head, desperate to communicate but being unable to.
McCoy seemed to understand. “You’re not going to die, either. You’re perfectly stable. The odds of you dying are extremely slim. Lower than that, even. In fact, being in the med-bay already, I’d say you’re actually a few notches ahead of the rest of the people in this floating tin-can in terms of how safe you are.”
The attempt at humor was appreciated, though it did little to bring Pavel’s heart-rate down.
He curled his fingers around Hikaru’s arm as tightly as he dared. The man had been a big brother to him in the Academy, when he’d been surrounded by considerably older students who were not always especially tolerant of fourteen year-old functional-fluency-in-English-speaking Russian geniuses. He’d scared off more bullies in that school than Pavel should have been able to keep track of (it was forty-four; he does have an exceptional memory).
Unfortunately, Hikaru was not around in the hallway at that particular moment to scare away a body-stealing bully who’d very nearly gotten Pavel killed by his own crew. And there’s nothing he or anyone else can do about that now.
And if the imposter were to wake up before they made the switch back, he might try to make another go at attacking someone or taking over the ship, and there’s no guaranteeing Pavel’s physical safety if that happens.
Every moment spent in this body instead of his real one, however damaged it is, leads to the potential of being stuck in this body forever.
So Pavel hobbled over to the bed where his body was and waited for instructions, battling the sheer terror he had at the possibility that he might transfer right back into his unconscious body and not wake up again.
He needn’t have.
In six hours, Pavel would be awake, and the imposter would be in the brig.
Pavel would wake up with Mr. Scott sitting beside him, having just relieved Hikaru because he’d been awake for nearly twenty hours at that point.
Scotty would be bright and happy to see that Pavel was awake, and regale him with the tale of his body-swapping adventure with Keenser, including why the small alien might or might not want him dead for some of the things he’d done whilst in his body.
And Pavel would listen patiently and chuckle, twitching all the while, mind anxious and relieved to be back where it was supposed to be.
-End