Zefram Cochrane

Zefram Levar Cochrane was a Human male who lived in the mid 21st century.

Early Life
Zefram Cochrane was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in the early 2030s. His mother was Lisa Cochrane. He was called "Zef" or "Zee" by his friends. 


 * There are differing accounts of Cochrane's exact date of birth: The First Contact novelization give the year of his birth as 2013. His first name was also spelled as "Zephram" here, and in . Starfleet Academy lists his date of birth as February 9, 2032; the most recent Federation: The First 150 Years states January 27, 2031.

Cochrane grew up with a love for science, as his parents were academics. He had a rough adolescence because of the fallout from World War III and learned to internalize his love of science. As interest in science went down around the country, Cochrane got a job with the military, which was one of the last places with an active science lab. 

As Cochrane intellectually understood the possibility of faster than light travel, he formed a team and began an extensive review of the physical sciences, with the hope that this would lead to greater understanding of ideas relevant to faster than light propulsion. This lead to his invention of a device known as a fluctuation superimpeller, which was a critical component of his continuum distortion propulsion engines - which would be nicknamed warp drive. 

In April 2063, Cochrane successfully broke the light speed barrier with his experimental warp drive aboard the test vessel Phoenix. The following day, he made first contact with the Vulcans. Cochrane was actually researching something else and stumbled on the concept of warp drive. 

The installation in Bozeman, Montana where he worked on his warp drive was attacked by a Borg vessel which had traveled back in time to prevent first contact with the Vulcans. Their attempt failed, due to the actions of the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), who aided Cochrane in repairing the warp vessel and defeating the Borg. This gave Cochrane some knowledge of what threats were present in space. Though he kept his knowledge of the future a secret, on one occasion during a speech he did attempt to warn people about the Borg threat. He was dismissed as being intoxicated once again and the incident was forgotten after he retracted the statement. 

Cochrane was the author of The Potential of Warp Propulsion. The book was published with a typo and, according to legend, Cochrane physically corrected the error in one copy and signed his name in the book. 

Cochrane later left Earth, eventually settling on Alpha Centauri. Two of his other colleagues were Montcalm Daystrom, ancestor of the creator of duotronics, and Henry Archer, scientist and father of the famous Jonathan Archer, first captain of Starfleet's first Warp 5 capable craft, Enterprise. Cochrane also married Monica Burke, granddaughter of John Burke. 

In 2117, Cochrane left his home on Alpha Centauri, eventually settling on planetoid Gamma Caneris IV, where he survived with the help of a cloud-creature he called the Companion. In 2267, Cochrane was discovered alive by Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). While he initially wanted to leave the planet with Kirk to see the Federation he'd helped create, the Companion wouldn't let him. The Companion merged with a dying Federation administrator, Nancy Hedford, and married Cochrane, who fell in love with her when she was in a human body. 

On stardate 5803.6, the Enterprise encountered Cochrane and The Companion again. The Enterprise had entered the Caneris region searching for missing Hyperwarp ships which had disappeared from the region. Unable to solve the problem, they visited Cochrane and asked for help. Despite The Companion's objections, Cochrane helped modify the Enterprise's engines to be able to travel up to speeds of warp 15. Unfortunately, Cochrane's assistance allowed the Enterprise to accidentally enter an alternate universe from which The Companion originates. The Companion, having followed the Enterprise through the rift, was almost forced to stay, but the warp 15 drive was able to return them to normal space. 

The two died together in May 2366 after being rescued from Adrik Thorsen by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). For their final moments, Cochrane requested that the ship be positioned so they could see the stars they were familiar with. 


 * Much of Cochrane's backstory established in Federation was superseded by the film First Contact.

Legacy
Cochrane's legacy lived on long after his death. Many buildings and statues are raised in his honor. On Starfleet Academy's grounds a huge statue of him stands pointing to the sky, very much like many other statues of him previously had. Leonard McCoy remembers Cochrane's cheekbones being placed differently, as opposed to the depiction of him, while talking to Kirk over a bottle of Chateau Picard, in 2270. 

Cochrane also had the unsung distinction of not only being one of the few to have met William T. Riker, Henry Archer and James T. Kirk, in this order. But, his pivotal role in history may have brought forth the mirror universe. His decision shaped events by his choosing (or not) to inform the Vulcans about the impending Borg presence. After confiding with Lily Sloane, his actions are one of the catalysts that made Starfleet's charter of war, rather than exploration. It was unknown if the Vulcan science community accepted the time travel aspect. As any way, shape or form of it has been refuted, ex post facto. 

Cochrane was the author of the book Transformational Relativity and Continuum Distortion Propulsion. 

In 2373, Benjamin Sisko cited Cochrane as being one of the great engineers of the post-warp era, along with Ty'lep, Montgomery Scott and Miles O'Brien. 

Alternate Universes
In an alternate timeline where Montgomery Scott rescued James T. Kirk before he could be absorbed into the Nexus, the Borg were not stopped by Captain Picard, and Cochrane was not successful in his warp flight and attracting the Vulcans; the Borg went on to assimilate Earth. 

Quotes

 * "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man and let history make its own judgments."

Behind the Scenes
Certain novels and RPGs such as FASA sources given an alternate account on Zefram Cochrane which predate his appearance in the movie First Contact. In these versions, Cochrane is revealed to be a human inhabitant of Alpha Centauri which had developed its own separate human civilization and was the inventor of the warp drive. states that Cochrane was a Centauran with his true name being Zeyafram Co'akran.