Hikaru Sulu

Hikaru Sulu was a secondary protagonist in the original Star Trek series and the various media based on the series.
Sulu was first introduced in the pilot episode Where No Man has Gone Before. At the time he served as the ship's physicist on the Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk. Following the untimely death of Lee Kelso at the hands of Gary Mitchell, Sulu moved from science over to operations, and became the chief helmsman on the Enterprise.
Over the next five years Sulu served with distinction on the Enterprise, becoming very loyal to Captain Kirk. Sulu became close friends with many of his fellow officers on the Enterprise, including Spock, Leonard McCoy, Montgomery Scott, and Nyota Uhura. He was particularly close to Pavel Chekov, who sat next to him as navigator during the first five year mission.
Sulu would continue to serve under Kirk following the first five year mission. Seeing potential in the young man, Kirk arranged for his field promotion from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander. Seeing a strong leader in Sulu, Kirk encouraged him to pursue the command track, and had Sulu serve as his first officer when Spock was absent from the Enterprise.
A chance meeting with a woman named Susan Ling led to Sulu fathering a daughter named Demora Sulu. After Ling died of Sukaro's disease, Demora came to live with Sulu and eventually followed in his footsteps as a Starfleet officer, later becoming Captain of a Federation starship Enterprise.
By 2290 Sulu was promoted to Captain and named the commanding officer of the Excelsior after the death of Captain Styles at the hands of the Klingon pirate Qagh. His actions in the immediate aftermath helped cripple Qagh's organization, provide the means to cure the remaining human-like Klingons of the effects of the Qu'vat virus, and give the Klingon government enough advanced warning to greatly reduce the damage that Qagh's bioweapons attack on Qo'noS did to the Klingon people. A good word from Ambassador Kamarag resulted in Starfleet making Sulu's promotion to Captain and commanding officer of the Excelsior permanent. 
After a three year mission cataloguing gaseous anomalies in the Beta Quadrant he played a vital role in ensuring the success of the Khitomer Conference between the Federation and Klingon Empire.
Eventually the first officer slot on the USS Excelsior opened up and Commander Chekov was available, so Sulu selected him as first officer. The two friends served together for several years before Chekov was finally promoted to Captain and given command of the USS Undaunted. In 2295 one of Qagh's bioweapons activated, killing the children of Kor, Kang, and Koloth. The three Klingons and Curzon Dax all swore a blood oath to hunt Qagh down and kill him, with Kang declaring he would cut the Albino's heart out and eat it while the dying Albino watched. The bioweapon also targeted Demora Sulu, but as she had been conceived after Sulu had visited Omega IV - which was the source of Qagh's bioweapons - she had some immunity to the weapon and recovered after several days of illness. Even though Demora survived the Klingons invited Sulu to join them in the blood oath. Sulu declined, feeling it was not proper for a Starfleet Captain to swear such an oath, but did promise to help as much as legally possible.
At the close of the 23rd century, Sulu helped Starfleet Intelligence operative Elias Vaughn disrupt a Romulan Tal'Shiar plot to wreck Federation / Klingon relations. 
Sulu continued to serve as the Captain of the Excelsior for many years until the ship was decommissioned in 2320. After retiring from Starfleet he would serve as Federation President. In 2344 either Sulu, his daughter, or his grandson sponsored a young man named Chakotay for admission to Starfleet Academy.
==Trivia==
* Sources differ on who the Captain Sulu was that Chakotay mentioned in the Voyager episode Tattoo, with some suggesting that it was Hikaru Sulu while others suggest it was Demora Sulu (even though Chakotay referred to Sulu as a he in the episode). The novel Pathways stated it was Sulu's grandson Hiromi who sponsored Chakotay. 
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