Tasha Yar's History
Lieutenant Natasha Yar, better known as Tasha, was a Human Starfleet officer born on Turkana IV, and former security chief on the USS Enterprise-D. Tasha Yar was killed not even a year into the Enterprise's mission. She was fondly remembered by the Enterprise crew, and an alternate version of Tasha indirectly played a very important role in Romulan politics.
Tasha was born in 2337 on the failed Federation colony world of Turkana IV. Her sister, Ishara, was born five years later. Both of their parents were killed shortly after Ishara's birth, after which they were looked after for a few months by "some people" who later disappeared, leaving Tasha to care for herself and her sister. Tasha had to avoid rape gangs and terrible violence just to scavenge for the bare necessities of life, such as food. One of the few bright spots in her life was finding a cat, which she attempted to protect while being chased by a rape gang. Narcotic use was also commonplace. Tasha apparently resorted to drugs as an escape at some point, but later remembered that they were of more harm to her than good.
Although Ishara decided to remain on the planet and eventually joined the Turkana IV Coalition, Tasha managed to find a way off Turkana IV in 2352 by the age of fifteen. Ishara and Tasha never saw one another again.
Tasha began to attend Starfleet Academy soon after her escape and credited Starfleet with saving her from her previous life. She joined Security because of the lawless environment in which she grew up. In 2363, while conducting a rescue mission, Yar rescued a colonist after traversing a Carnelian minefield. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ship at the time was also present. Picard was so impressed with her bravery that he requested Yar be assigned to the Enterprise, as Yar's current ship's captain owed him a favor.
In 2364, Yar piloted Picard to the Enterprise-D in the shuttlecraft Galileo for his first visit to the ship. She set out to Farpoint Station from Earth Station McKinley with most of the crew.
En route, the Enterprise was intercepted and detained by the entity known as Q. Tasha wanted to fight him, but Picard refused her suggestion because of the tremendous power of Q. While the senior staff was taken to the 21st century courtroom and put on trial by Q, Yar could no longer resist the urge to tell Q he was wrong for accusing humanity of "savage, childlike behavior." She was placed into a sort of deep freeze by Q as punishment, but was later revived.
Later, Yar took part in several away teams which investigated Farpoint Station and the living station's mate, which returned to seek vengeance against the Bandi for imprisoning the other creature.
While the Enterprise was negotiating at the world of Ligon II for a vaccine needed on Styris IV, the Ligonian leader Lutan became impressed with Tasha's martial arts skills and her physical beauty. As a show of defiance and boldness in line with the Ligon Code of Honor, he kidnapped her and brought her to his planet. Picard needed to negotiate both for her safe return and for the vaccine. However, Lutan was determined to have Yar as his First One, the ceremonial title of his wife. The current First One, Yareena, challenged Lutan's decision, requiring Yar to participate in a fight to the death with Yareena. In order to satisfy the needs of the culture and return to the Enterprise, Tasha fought and killed Yareena. Fortunately, samples of the poison used on Yar's weapon was returned to the Enterprise by Data, allowing Doctor Beverly Crusher to develop an antidote and revive Yareena once they were brought to the Enterprise. Yareena stripped Lutan of his title and offered him to Tasha, but she refused, stating that there would be "complications".
When the Enterprise was transported beyond the known universe by the Traveler, to a place where matter and thought were not distinct, Yar hallucinated that she had returned to Turkana IV and was being chased by the rape gangs.
Because of the matriarchal nature of the society on Angel I, Yar took informal command of the away team while Commander William T. Riker negotiated for the release of survivors from the freighter Odin. When Riker put on one of the sexualized outfits worn by men on the planet, she and Deanna had a good laugh at the first officer's expense.
Tasha was killed in late 2364 on the planet Vagra II. She was part of an away team sent to rescue Deanna Troi and Ben Prieto, who had crashed there aboard a shuttle. Their rescue was impeded by a lifeform known as Armus. When Yar tried to walk around Armus to get to the shuttle crew, Armus attacked and killed her without warning, simply as a display of his power. Dr. Crusher tried to revive her but she was too badly injured, as the life had been "drained" from her. The officially recorded cause of death was heavy synaptic damage.
In an alternate timeline created by the USS Enterprise-C's transit from 2344 to 2366 through a temporal rift, Tasha had not been killed at Vagra II, and continued to serve as tactical officer aboard the Enterprise-D during a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Tasha had joined the Enterprise-D crew immediately upon graduating from Starfleet Academy in 2362.
In 2366, the Enterprise-D encountered the Enterprise-C as it emerged from the temporal rift, after the Enterprise-C had nearly been destroyed in a Romulan attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III. During the course of making repairs to the Enterprise-C, Tasha became close to a crewmember from that ship, Lieutenant Richard Castillo, and the two of them developed romantic feelings for one another. She later became aware, through Guinan, that in the other timeline she had died a meaningless death. When the Enterprise-C's captain, Rachel Garrett, was killed in a Klingon attack, Tasha requested permission from Captain Picard to transfer to the Enterprise-C and accompany it back through the rift in an attempt to restore the timeline, explaining that she wanted her death to count for something. Captain Picard granted her request. Although Castillo, who had assumed command of the Enterprise-C, was initially reluctant to accept Tasha on an apparent suicide mission, he relented and assigned her to the tactical position. Entering the rift just as three Klingon Birds-of-Prey began attacking both Enterprises, the Enterprise-C successfully returned to its own time, where it played an instrumental role in guaranteeing peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, restoring the flow of history.
While the Enterprise-C was destroyed, several crewmembers survived and were taken prisoner by the Romulans, Tasha among them.
After being interrogated, all of the survivors were to be executed, but a Romulan general became enamored of Tasha and offered to spare the lives of the prisoners if she became his consort, a condition to which Tasha agreed. One year later, she gave birth to a daughter, Sela. In 2349, when Sela was four years old, Tasha took her and attempted to escape, but sensing that her mother was taking her away from her home and her father, Sela cried out, and Tasha was discovered and subsequently executed.
