Star Trek

Natasha (Tasha) Yar

STARFLEET PERSONNEL FILE ? Yar, Natasha "Tasha"
(deceased)
Rank: Lieutenant
Final assignment: Chief of security, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D
Year of birth: 2337
Place of birth: Turkana IV
Date of death: 2364 (Stardate 41601)
Place of death: Vagra II
Cause of death: Head trauma from alien assault
Marital status: Single

Database Entry
(Includes last Psychological Profile by Ship's Counselor Deanna Troi)

The original security chief under Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the U.S.S. Enterprise led a tragic yet heroic life until her death in the line of duty in 2364.

Yar was born on the failing colony world of Turkana IV in 2337, but both her parents were killed in the crossfire among the planet's cadre infighting just after her younger sister Ishara was born some 4 1/2 years later. After their foster care family abandoned them within months, the girls led a violent and harrowing life on the streets, eluding rape gangs and drug addiction while fending for themselves. One comforting companion amid the chaos at the time was a kitten.

Yar finally got off the world in 2352, at age 15 — just about the time the colony broke all contact with the UFP. She invited Ishara to join her, but the younger sister refused, preferring the protection of her Coalition cadre there. The two never saw each other again, although Ishara learned of her sister's legacy from Enterprise officers in 2367.

Picard had asked for Yar aboard the Enterprise after he first saw her as she risked her life in a Carnelian mine field to save a colonist, and her current captain owed him a favor.

Despite a valiant effort by Dr. Crusher, on SD 41601 during a rescue mission on Vagra II she died as a result of injuries from an invisible energy bolt to her head by the malevolent creature Armus; it left a blotch on her jaw. A memorial service that featured a holographic recording of her last thoughts and thank-yous to her closest shipmates was held later.

Well-trained in martial arts and athletics, her favorite pastimes were aikido and Parrises squares, and she participated in ship-board competitions. Having grown up hardened to sentimentality, she found it a struggle to express her femininity — although the Tsiolkovsky virus allowed her to share an intimacy with Data once, an intimacy he treasured with a small hologram from her memorial tape, though he was forced to disclose the encounter during his trial for sentient rights a year later.

Historical File Addendum: Report of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

As explained to me by Guinan, a highly-perceptive El-Aurian and my close friend, a duplicate Tasha Yar in a parallel time-line re-entered this universe in 2344 via a time vortex, aboard the Ambassador-class U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701- C. Unknown to outsiders, Yar was taken as a consort by a Romulan general aboard the ships that attacked and defeated that Enterprise without leaving a trace of it, and she gave birth a year later to his daughter, Sela. In 2349, when Sela was 4, she foiled her own mother's escape attempt and Tasha was killed again.