Ishara Yar
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Ishara Yar is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation who appeared in the episode "Legacy". She was portrayed by Beth Toussaint.
[edit] Overview
Ishara Yar was born on Turkana IV just one year before her parents died in a fight between rival gangs. The colony had fallen into anarchy after various gangs, called cadres, overthrew the government and took control, severing all ties with the United Federation of Planets. The infant Ishara and her elder sister, Natasha Yar (also known as Tasha), were taken in for a few months after they were orphaned, until one day they came home and found their caretakers were gone. The girls learned to live on the streets and to avoid the rape gangs. Unlike Tasha, who harbored continued resentment towards the cadres for the death of their parents, Ishara joined the cadre called The Coalition as soon as she was old enough. When Tasha left Turkana IV at the age of 15, she asked Ishara to go with her, but Ishara chose to stay with the cadre, saying that they had become her family. Ishara believed her sister was a coward for leaving, and claimed she did not even remember what she looked like.
By 2367, the colony had restored some form of order, with two dominant cadres controlling the subterranean network of tunnels that were all that remained of the colony. In the episode "Legacy", Ishara becomes the Coalition's liaison to the USS Enterprise-D after an escape pod crashes on the planet and its occupants taken hostage by the Alliance, its rival cadre. She developed a friendship with Lieutenant Commander Data, who had been close to her sister Tasha. It was eventually revealed that her assistance to the Enterprise's crew to retrieve the escape pod was part of a deception to disable the Alliance defense grid, allowing Coalition forces to invade and crush the Alliance. Data and Riker eventually stop her before she succeeded in her plan.
Near the end of the episode before she is returned to Turkana IV, Ishara confesses to Data that the time she spent with him on the Enterprise was the closest she had ever come to experiencing true friendship. She gives him her proximity implant to remember her by.
