Katherine Pulaski



Katherine Pulaski was a female Human Starfleet physician whose myriad Starfleet experience included stints on starships, starbases and research facilities. She is perhaps best known for her brief stint as chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise in 2365 and the USS Intrepid-A in 2378.

Early life
Katherine Pulaski, the daughter of Sabina and Georgos Pulaski, was born in Krakow, Poland in 2318. She has at least one sibling, for she has a nephew who also serves in Starfleet; Wes Pulaski. She is known to have been married three times by 2365. One of her husbands was a Bajoran doctor named Kellec Ton. She was known to have at least a single daughter called Jackie Pulaski who also became a doctor.

Early Career
When she was old enough, Pulaski decided that she wanted to pursue medicine as her career, and by 2335 she was undertaking her internship on the planet, Chaquafar. In 2343, Pulaski finally earned her medical degree from the Stony Brook University Medical School, and decided to specialize in genetic statistical modeling. In 2347, Pulaski accepted a Starfleet commission with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and took a position in the medical department aboard the USS Renegade the following year. Pulaski was assigned to Starfleet Medical in San Francisco in 2353 when she first met Kyle Riker. Pulaski oversaw Riker's rehabilitation after he was severely injured by a Tholian attack on Starbase 311. Pulaski and Riker became romantically involved in an intense relationship that lasted just over a year. Following her relationship with Riker, Pulaski married three times, including the Bajoran doctor, Kellec Ton, and Starfleet officer Brian Anderson. All three marriages ended in divorce; however, Pulaski maintained close friendships with all of her former husbands. In the year 2358, Pulaski became the CMO of the USS Repulse, under Captain Taggert. Taggert thought very highly of Pulaski, and informed her that she would always have a home on the Repulse. Nevertheless, when the opportunity to serve on the fleets flagship, the USS Enterprise, Pulaski jumped at the chance.

Enterprise
Pulaski served as chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the year 2365, when the ship's previous CMO, Beverly Crusher, was given the position of "Head of Starfleet Medical." Early on in Pulaski's stint as Enterprise CMO, she made private arrangements with a visiting Klingon dignitary, the Honorable Kobry, to automatically pronounce him dead if he were ever attacked in order to forestall any further attacks upon him. After Kobry was indeed attacked, Pulaski did as Kobry asked of her, and even defended her sickbay when Kobry's attacker, the renegade Klingon Tron, burst into the room demanding treatment. Other experiences with Klingon culture also presented themselves to Pulaski, in the form of Worf's including her in his Rite of Ascension and tea ceremonies, as well as William T. Riker's Officer Exchange Program aboard the IKV Pagh. After a young native of Drema IV named Sarjenka was brought aboard the Enterprise, and her planet was saved from self destruction, Pulaski used a method to erase the young girl's memories of her contact with off-worlders. A type of maverick, Pulaski used some of her own remedies in treating patients, such as "PCS", or "Pulaski's chicken soup." When Crusher returned to the Enterprise-D in 2366, Pulaski was expecting to go to Deep Space 5 to await her new posting. Her plans changed when the returning Crusher gave Pulaski an assignment from Starfleet Medical to get in touch with one of her former husbands, Kellec Ton, in order to supply Starfleet Medical with information about a medical crisis in the Cardassian-occupied Bajoran sector. After the communication with Ton, Starfleet Medical obtained permission from the Cardassian prefect of the Bajoran sector, Gul Skrain Dukat, for Pulaski to lead a small medical team to research the unknown disease on the Terok Nor space station. Pulaski's researchers eventually identified the strange malady as a variation of the Double Helix virus that was designed to jump between the various species inhabiting the station. With the identification of the disease, Pulaski was able to develop a cure before the Terok Nor station was destroyed to prevent further outbreak.

Later Assignments
Following the Bajoran mission, Pulaski received orders to return to the Repulse, this time under the command of the original Captain Taggert's daughter, Captain Ariel Taggert. Pulaski was on board the Repulse in 2367 when that ship, the Enterprise and the USS Chekov took part in a three-way battle between Starfleet, the Borg, and an ancient alien Doomsday machine. In 2368, Pulaski served as CMO aboard a medical ship, the USS Debakey. During that mission, she was called upon to cure a romance-inducing pathogen discovered on Cygnus IV. Pulaski later served on the USS Progress under Captain David Gold, until that vessel's decommissioning in late 2369. From the Progress, Pulaski transferred to the newly commissioned Drema Station in the Selcundi Drema sector. During the transfer, she re-encountered Sarjenka. Also at some point during the 2360s, Pulaski had to opportunity to give a guest lecture to the students at Starfleet Medical Academy. By late 2370, Pulaski was again seen serving on the Repulse. At some point, she received a call for help from her daughter Jackie Pulaski who had joined the Maquis. This cell of the terrorist organization was responsible for a dangerous genetically engineered disease to which her daughter had helped create and now wished to stop from being unleashed. Ultimately, she was successful in finding a cure but her daughter had to stand trial for her association in the matter though it was believed that her actions would go in her favor and that Captain Benjamin Sisko was going to testify on her behalf. By 2376, a year after the end of the Dominion War, Pulaski was serving at the research facility known as the Phlox Institute. She was still serving there in late 2378, when she attended the wedding of former Enterprise shipmates William T. Riker and Deanna Troi. Later that year Pulaski served on the USS Intrepid-A as chief medical officer from 2378 to 2381, she left the Intrepid and was then replaced by Karen Loews in 2383.