Starfleet Historical Files: Narendra III
From Starfleet Historical Files
Filed Stardate 57262.1, February 2380
Lieutenant Aurelan Brand, Starfleet Diplomatic Corps
Captain Rylen Sh'ross, Professor Emeritus, Starfleet History, Starfleet Academy
The Battle
The battle of Narendra III. An oft overlooked yet pivotal moment in the annals of Federation history. The year was 2344, Stardate 21096.4. A flight of 4 A-type Romulan warbirds crossed the border into Klingon space and attacked the Klingon colony on Narendra III. Although uncorroborated, sources inside the Romulan Empire have since indicated that the attack was a rogue operation, ordered by the then recently-deposed Praetor, Dralath. Responding to a distress call from the colony the Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C diverted from its patrol near the Archer system and moved to defend the colony. What happened next is unclear, as there are no first-hand accounts from the battle. What is known (mostly from surviving sensor logs from the outpost) is that the Enterprise-C destroyed one warbird and heavily damaged another, before the ship was itself destroyed. The Narendra III outpost was also totally destroyed. Although conventional wisdom has always been that the Enterprise-C was lost with all hands (and indeed, the ship’s status is officially listed as ‘presumed destroyed’), it is now believed, though reports are unconfirmed, that some number of the crew survived and were taken to Romulus as prisoners.
The Enigma
According to accounts obtained many years after the fact one of the survivors was a Starfleet security officer one Lieutenant Natasha Yar apparently from an alternate timeline version of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, whom apparently joined the ship through some quirk of time travel. We do not fully understand this. In the year 2368 the Enterprise-D encountered a young Romulan commander named Sela, who claims to be the daughter of the late Starfleet lieutenant and a Romulan officer. According to Sela, her mother was one of several prisoners taken from the Enterprise-C following the battle. This Lieutenant Yar was, according to Sela, sent back in time with Enterprise-C crew by the Captain Picard commanding an alternate timeline Enterprise-D. Said Sela:
Place in History
Although the events surrounding the battle may be shrouded in mystery, one thing is clear: the importance of the battle in the history of Federation-Klingon relations cannot be overstated. The Enterprise-Cs sacrifice in battle attempting to save a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack was seen as a most honorable act by the Klingon Empire, and indeed was a critical step in cementing the peace treaty and subsequently the Khitomer Alliance between the United Federation of Planets and the Empire. Who knows how the last three and a half decades would have unfolded had the Enterprise-C not intervened or if they had fled the battle instead of staying and fighting and ultimately sacrificing themselves. It has been argued that had the Enterprise-C not entered the battle, or had they fled to save themselves, the Klingons may well have interpreted their actions as cowardice, and even withdrawn from peace talks with the Federation. A souring of relations between the two powers at such a critical point would have resulted in peace not materializing for many more years, if ever. Some scholars have even theorized that relations between the two powers soured by an act of cowardice in the pre-Khitomer alliance political climate would have resulted in an all-out, perhaps even prolonged war. We may never know.
I wrote this from an in-universe perspective, as a Starfleet Historical Records File, written as an academic work by a member of the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps in collaboration with a Starfleet Academy history professor. The "Tasha Yar Enigma" is framed as just that, an enigma. In universe the only information would be that which was related by Sela (along with whatever was obtained by intelligence operatives).
Filed Stardate 57262.1, February 2380
Lieutenant Aurelan Brand, Starfleet Diplomatic Corps
Captain Rylen Sh'ross, Professor Emeritus, Starfleet History, Starfleet Academy
An In Depth Re-Examination of the Battle of Narendra III
The Battle
The battle of Narendra III. An oft overlooked yet pivotal moment in the annals of Federation history. The year was 2344, Stardate 21096.4. A flight of 4 A-type Romulan warbirds crossed the border into Klingon space and attacked the Klingon colony on Narendra III. Although uncorroborated, sources inside the Romulan Empire have since indicated that the attack was a rogue operation, ordered by the then recently-deposed Praetor, Dralath. Responding to a distress call from the colony the Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C diverted from its patrol near the Archer system and moved to defend the colony. What happened next is unclear, as there are no first-hand accounts from the battle. What is known (mostly from surviving sensor logs from the outpost) is that the Enterprise-C destroyed one warbird and heavily damaged another, before the ship was itself destroyed. The Narendra III outpost was also totally destroyed. Although conventional wisdom has always been that the Enterprise-C was lost with all hands (and indeed, the ship’s status is officially listed as ‘presumed destroyed’), it is now believed, though reports are unconfirmed, that some number of the crew survived and were taken to Romulus as prisoners.
The Enigma
According to accounts obtained many years after the fact one of the survivors was a Starfleet security officer one Lieutenant Natasha Yar apparently from an alternate timeline version of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, whom apparently joined the ship through some quirk of time travel. We do not fully understand this. In the year 2368 the Enterprise-D encountered a young Romulan commander named Sela, who claims to be the daughter of the late Starfleet lieutenant and a Romulan officer. According to Sela, her mother was one of several prisoners taken from the Enterprise-C following the battle. This Lieutenant Yar was, according to Sela, sent back in time with Enterprise-C crew by the Captain Picard commanding an alternate timeline Enterprise-D. Said Sela:
“[Tasha] was among those few who survived. They were all to have been executed after the interrogation, but a Romulan general saw her and became enamored with her. So a deal was struck. Their lives would be spared if she became his consort. I was born a year later.”The commander also claims that her mother was executed five years later following an escape attempt with the then four year old child Sela. Given the Romulan penchant for false information and twisting facts to suit their own ends, in addition to the lack of substantive proof, all of Commander Sela’s claims in this matter are suspect. In 2370 a sample of Commander Sela's DNA was obtained by operatives on Romulus. Federation scientists have analyzed the sample and found that the DNA is half human and half Romulan, and that the human half of the DNA is a match to the DNA on record for Lieutenant Yar. However, noting the Romulan Empires extensive knowledge of genetics and their known history with cloning (see for example the Shinzon incident), this DNA evidence, while intriguing, neither proves nor disproves Sela’s claims.
Place in History
Although the events surrounding the battle may be shrouded in mystery, one thing is clear: the importance of the battle in the history of Federation-Klingon relations cannot be overstated. The Enterprise-Cs sacrifice in battle attempting to save a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack was seen as a most honorable act by the Klingon Empire, and indeed was a critical step in cementing the peace treaty and subsequently the Khitomer Alliance between the United Federation of Planets and the Empire. Who knows how the last three and a half decades would have unfolded had the Enterprise-C not intervened or if they had fled the battle instead of staying and fighting and ultimately sacrificing themselves. It has been argued that had the Enterprise-C not entered the battle, or had they fled to save themselves, the Klingons may well have interpreted their actions as cowardice, and even withdrawn from peace talks with the Federation. A souring of relations between the two powers at such a critical point would have resulted in peace not materializing for many more years, if ever. Some scholars have even theorized that relations between the two powers soured by an act of cowardice in the pre-Khitomer alliance political climate would have resulted in an all-out, perhaps even prolonged war. We may never know.
I wrote this from an in-universe perspective, as a Starfleet Historical Records File, written as an academic work by a member of the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps in collaboration with a Starfleet Academy history professor. The "Tasha Yar Enigma" is framed as just that, an enigma. In universe the only information would be that which was related by Sela (along with whatever was obtained by intelligence operatives).
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