Sulu's History
Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu was a 23rd century Human Starfleet officer. As a Starfleet cadet, he first served as helmsman of the USS Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike. Sulu was involved in the defeat and death of Nero, a Romulan bent on the obliteration of the entire United Federation of Planets. As a result, he continued to serve as the helmsman and third officer of the Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk.
Sulu took over at the helm of the USS Enterprise because the originally-assigned helmsman, McKenna, was ill with lungworm. As the fleet went to warp on its maiden voyage, Sulu forgot to disengage the external inertial dampener, leaving the Enterprise in Earth orbit for several moments as the rest of the fleet jumped away. Though embarrassing, the extra time afforded by this delay caused the Enterprise to enter the Vulcan system after Nero's assault had destroyed the rest of the fleet, likely saving the lives of the crew of the Enterprise.
Sulu participated in a space-dive along with James T. Kirk and Chief Engineer Olson in an attempt to disable Nero's drilling rig as it drilled to the core of Vulcan. He was a skilled fencer and used his training in hand-to-hand combat and a retractable sword to fight Romulans on the drilling platform, saving Kirk from a potentially fatal attack by one of the Romulans. Subsequently, Kirk endeavored to return the favor, diving into a freefall to save a falling Sulu.
Having been present when Pike appointed Kirk first officer, Sulu pointed out it was Kirk's right to sit in the command chair. During the Battle of Earth, Sulu carefully maneuvered the Enterprise into Saturn's orbit, where the planet's magnetic rings would shield the ship from the Narada's sensors. He sped the Enterprise after the Romulan vessel when it left the Sol system in pursuit of the Jellyfish, firing all the Enterprise's phaser banks to disarm the Narada's missiles. When the Narada was being sucked into a black hole but Nero refused an offer of help from Kirk, Sulu fired all phasers and photon torpedoes at the ship. He was later present when Kirk was promoted to captain, and remained the ship's helmsman under his command.
In 2259, Sulu was piloting a shuttle on Nibiru to rappel Spock into a volcano that was endangering the Nibirans. Ash from the volcano damaged the shuttle, breaking the wire holding Spock, and forcing Sulu to dive to the Enterprise, which was underwater.
During a mission to find mass murderer John Harrison, Sulu vouched for seventy-two experimental advanced long-range torpedoes being brought aboard the ship, though Montgomery Scott was refusing to allow them on board. While Kirk and Spock went to Qo'noS to apprehend Harrison, Sulu sat in the command chair and broadcast a message ordering Harrison to surrender or be fired on. His message was so frightening that McCoy asked Sulu to "remind me never to piss you off."
Later, when the Enterprise was severely damaged and hurtling to Earth, Sulu defied Spock's issuing of an order for the crew to evacuate the ship, preferring to go down with it.
Almost a year later, Sulu attended a memorial service for those killed, and resumed working as helmsman on the repaired Enterprise. He and Kirk spoke about the taste he had developed for sitting in the captain's chair, and Sulu expressed interest in captaining his own ship.
Sulu left his husband and daughter behind for his duties aboard the Enterprise. In 2263, halfway through its five-year mission, the Enterprise stopped at Starbase Yorktown, where he met back up with his husband, Ben, and their daughter. After receiving a mission to escort Kalara through the Necro Cloud in an attempt to find her crew, the ship was attacked by Krall's forces. In the midst of the battle, Sulu took the conn as Captain Kirk hid an artifact known as the Abronath from the attackers. Sulu, along with Kirk and Chekov, escaped from the ship in their Kelvin pods to the surface of nearby planet Altamid. On the planet's surface, he, as well as Uhura and other surviving crewmembers, were captured by Krall. That night, Sulu and the others broke out of Krall's encampment and tried to send a message to Starfleet, only to find they were unable to. Sulu and the other crewmembers were finally rescued by Kirk, Jaylah, and others. With some difficulty, Sulu thereafter managed to fly the USS Franklin from the Altamid surface to a crash landing in Yorktown.
After Krall's attack on Yorktown was halted by James T. Kirk and his crew, Sulu attended a surprise birthday party for their captain. At the party, they watched the new Enterprise-A being built. Sometime later Sulu served as the helmsman of the USS Enterprise-A as the crew continued their five year mission.
