Nyota Uhura

**Nyota Uhura** is a Human female best known as an influential officer in the Federation Starfleet in the 23rd and 24th centuries. Uhura was one of only a small group of servicemen who served under the command of Captain James T. Kirk continuously from his ascent to the captaincy of the USS *Enterprise* until the end of his 23rd century career, decades later.

# History

## Early Life

Nyota Uhura was born in the year 2239 in the United States of Africa on Earth.

The daughter of Alhamisi and M'Umbha Uhura, she was born in Kitui Province, Kenya. Her family's name is derived from the Swahili word *Uhuru*, which translates to "freedom", and her given name means "star".

As a child, Uhura lived with her parents in the coastal city of Mombasa where she was enrolled in several after-school classes, such as music and dance, swimming, gymnastics and languages. Once a year just after her birthday in January, she stayed for a month in the country with her grandparents and cousins.

At some time in her childhood, Uhura attended Public School 29 in Nairobi, where her teacher was Ms. Yemada.

In the summer of 2249, at the age of 10, Uhura learned sign language from her deaf cousin, Epala, while visiting her in Koyo.

Also in 2249, Uhura was a student at the Institute for Advanced Mathematics, where her roommate was a girl named T'iana. There was a fire in their dorm room and T'iana was trapped under a fallen beam, and Uhura was lit ablaze. Uhura was unable to save T'iana before succumbing to the effects of the heat and fire. For years afterwards, Uhura would have dreams about T'iana's death and Uhura's subsequent rescue by adults. The fear recurred most vividly in 2269 when Uhura was part of the *Enterprise* crew facing a deadly heat effect that began in the Beta Castelli star system.

In 2255, just after her 16th birthday, Uhura traditionally killed an automated lion with a spear in East Africa.

Shortly before Uhura entered the Academy, her father, Alhamisi, disappeared while on a deep space mission.

## Starfleet Academy

Uhura entered Starfleet Academy in 2257, and studied at the Starfleet College of Communications. There, she learned spatial navigation, Duotronics, and cryptography skills under Lieutenant Benjamin Finney.

Cadet Uhura's roommate at the Academy was an Orion girl named Gaila. The Orion girl's attitude did not impress Uhura, who later said the Orion was "full of it". Uhura remembered this quality of Orion women when she was involved in a fight with the Orion Emerald Empress in an alternate reality.

## Starfleet Career

### Aboard the *Ahriman* and *Potemkin*

Uhura graduated from the Academy in 2261 and was assigned to the *Saladin*-class destroyer, USS *Ahriman*, as junior communications officer. While on a mission to Wynet V later that year, the *Ahriman*s commanding officer was killed. Shortly after, Uhura was promoted to lieutenant junior grade.

Shortly after, Lieutenant Uhura transferred to the *Constitution*-class USS *Potemkin* as junior communications officer.

### Aboard the *Enterprise* (NCC-1701)(2264-2269)

Uhura transferred aboard the USS *Enterprise* in 2264 as Junior Communications Officer, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk . she was unsure about the young captain. A skilled singer, she sometimes performed music and improv with  Spock (a skilled lyre player) on the crew rec deck. Six years later, in 2270, Lieutenant Arex, a harpist, joined. One of Uhura's favorite songs was "The Moon's a Window to Heaven".

Nevertheless, Uhura's first conversation with Kirk saw him praise her father and express regret over his loss, thus earning Uhura's respect.

Within the first Six months of Kirk's Mission Chief Communications Officer Hounslaw Tanaka was killed and Uhura took over, while she performed very well during the mission even to the point of being Vital, Starfleet and First Officer Spock did not believe she was ready for the Chief Position and assigned the position to Daniel Alden whom held the position until 2266 when he transferred off the ship.

In her first assignment as Chief Communications officer aboard the *Enterprise*, Uhura commandeered a shuttlecraft so that she could rescue Captain Kirk and a landing party from a group of Klingons that had captured them. Uhura also helped adjust the Universal translator during the initial First contact with the Archernarians of Archernar IV just before she, Capts. Kirk, Cassady, and an away team appeared before them.

Shortly after the *Enterprise*'s first encounter with Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Uhura went to Captain Kirk and requested to be reassigned from the command division to the engineering and services division. Kirk was not happy with this decision and grilled her about throwing away her command abilities and leadership potential, however, despite his disappointment, he approved her transfer.

Later that year, following the Romulan attack on the Neutral Zone outposts, she was promoted to full Lieutenant, after she deciphered the Romulan micropulse code.

The start of 2267 marked Uhura's stint on *Enterprise* with being complimented as a Nubian (of ancient Egypt) by the Q called Trelane. Weeks afterwards, she was temporarily re-assigned to the USS *Lexington*, under the command of Commodore Robert Wesley, to aid with communications with an alien race from the Gamma Xaridian system.

Later on in 2267, Uhura was reunited with Trent Ojuremi on the planet Merope IV, when the *Enterprise* transported survivors from the *Stephen Hawking* to the planet.

In 2268, Uhura was instrumental in finding a cure for the ADF syndrome that had struck the planet Eeiauo. Remembering songs that she and an Eeiauoan friend sang at the Academy, she directed the *Enterprise* to the planet Sivao, which was the long-forgotten homeworld of the Eeiauoans.

The culmination of her trust and respect for Kirk over the past half decade surfaced when she admitted to him how the sound of his voice calmed her in times of shipboard crisis. Though it was never made public, the two may have shared a relationship on the border between professional and intimate. An example of this is when Kirk was quick to defend her, while she was assaulted by a thrall on Triskelion. One of her lesser-known (and quite embarrassing) moments was her inadvertently seeing Kirk's "birthday suit". This happened, of course, while she made a special errand to Kirk's quarters on March 22nd.

Uhura finally got a shot at command in 2269. After all of the male *Enterprise* crewmembers were lured down to Taurus II by the enchanting women on the planet, Uhura was forced to assume command. She assumed command once again during the ship's conflict with the Crusaders on Ephrata IV when Kirk, Spock and Sulu were trapped on the planet and Scotty was seriously injured in an attack, leaving Uhura the highest-ranking bridge officer. Despite her initial fears, Uhura not only won a game of 'chicken' with Crusader Sokis when he threatened to use a gravity beam to make the *Enterprise* crash into the planet (Correctly deducing that Sokis needed *Enterprise* too much to actually destroy it), but was able to devise a plan to defeat the Crusaders' brainwashing.

### Return to Earth and the Second Five Year Mission

When the *Enterprise* returned to Earth in 2269, following the completion of the five-year mission, Uhura took a new assignment with Kirk and many of the Senior Staff aboard the USS Colorado

In 2271, Uhura was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and re-assigned to the newly-refitted *Enterprise* as chief communications officer. She also used an updated version of linguacode, first ciphered by Hoshi Sato, in the 22nd Century.

in 2282, Uhura was promoted to full Commander and began Teaching at Starfleet Academy. In 2285 she received much criticism for choosing a posting at Earth spacedock's transporter room and communication ops. Her eager assistant, "Mr. Adventure" was one to question her choice, which had appealed to her desire for more "peace and quiet" after the recent events of the Genesis affair. This may have been her first calling to covert operations, as this was all a stage to grant Admiral Kirk's party safe passage back to the de-commissioned *Enterprise*. She later made rendezvous with them on Vulcan, having used the transporter system to travel to the Vulcan Embassy on Earth. At the behest of Ambassador Sarek, they were all granted clemency and asylum from Starfleet jurisdiction for rescuing his son Spock from a non-sanctioned Klingon incursion to the Genesis planet, a galactic controversy of its time.

### Assignment to the *Enterprise* (NCC-1701-A

Following the destruction of the *Enterprise* in 2285 and the Cetacean Probe crisis on 2286, Commander Uhura was assigned to the newly-launched USS *Enterprise*-A. as Chief Communications Officer. Shortly after, Uhura accompanies Chekov and Lt. William Bearclaw to investigate the smuggling of dilithium crystals. The party discovered that the smugglers were also slavers, and managed to engineer the smugglers capture.

Later that year, Uhura joined with the renegade Vulcan Sybok, when he took over the *Enterprise* and used the ship to penetrate the Great Barrier, to find the legendary planet Sha Ka Ree. It was at this time she confessed her affections toward Montgomery Scott, while the two were alone. Even though her emotions were uninhibited on this occasion, he kept composed and decided to maintain a Platonic relationship. Scott, however, had told her she was one of the most understanding women (besides *Enterprise*) he had known.

#### Mission to the Quatrin System

In 2287, while on shore leave in the Quatrain system, Uhura and Chekov witnessed a multiple murder. Fortunately, one of the victims survived and was beamed aboard the *Enterprise* for treatment. The Quatrain security agency began to investigate the murders and insisted that Uhura and Chekov appear before a board of inquiry to give evidence.

Meanwhile, the Quatrain security director learned that the survivor identified one of his men as the murderer to Captain Kirk, and ordered his second-in-command to kill Uhura and Chekov before they could beam back to the *Enterprise*. Chekov managed to stop the killer, but was wounded in the attempt, and Uhura managed to steal a shuttlecraft and headed to the nearby ice planet, Beta, with Chekov.

After arriving on Beta, Uhura headed off to find medical help for Chekov, and encountered a group of Betan rebels who lent assistance and treated Chekov, in exchange for Uhura's help with their communications equipment. At the Betan encampment, Uhura was captured by the security forces, but managed to get a message to the *Enterprise* and a security team rescued her.

 In 2293, Uhura was three months from standing down as the communications officer of the *Enterprise-A*. Before the Camp Khitomer crisis, she had expected to chair a seminar at Starfleet Academy. During the crisis, Uhura served as communications officer of the *Enterprise*-A. The *Enterprise* crew played a vital role in the success of the Khitomer Conference by exposing a conspiracy that sought to sabotage the peace process.

## After the *Enterprise*

Following the Praxis incident in 2293, Uhura once again began teaching at Starfleet Academy. A few months later Uhura joined Captain Spock and Dr. McCoy on a diplomatic mission to Qo'noS to improve relations, and began working with Klingon musicians and singers to exchange musical ideas and theories.

In 2294, Now Captain Rank Uhura was given Command of the USS Hermes

At some point afterwards that year, Uhura tracked down her former crewmate, Montgomery Scott, and asked him gently to move on with life and quit blaming himself following the loss of Captain Kirk, and expressed her condolences and her regret at being unable to make it to the memorial.

in 2310, the *Hermes* took aboard Doctors Gillian Taylor and Carol Marcus, who planned to test an experimental Genesis Device on the planet Pacifica. However, Marcus and Taylor encountered intelligent life in Pacifica's ocean and the plan was abandoned.

## Starfleet Intelligence

Uhura was first approached by operatives of Starfleet Intelligence on Khitomer following the attempted assassination of Federation President Ra-ghoratreii in 2293. They offered her a spot in S.I., which Uhura accepted.

For the rest of her Starship career, even when she commanded the *Hermes*, she was passing on things that she heard on to Starfleet Intelligence. She never spied on Starfleet personnel, only passing on information that she heard on the subspace frequencies.

In the years that followed Uhura gradually made her way up the chain of command at Starfleet Intelligence, eventually making her way to the Top of Intelligence Operatives. She maintained the rank of captain, in part to retain a low profile, but had security clearances higher than some admirals.

In the year 2343, Captain Uhura traveled to Starbase 47 in the midst of the Betreka Nebula Incident to personally assign operative Elias Vaughn to assess the situation on Raknal IV.

In 2344, Uhura made an unofficial request to Captain Saavik of the USS *Armstrong* to travel to Romulus and bring back Spock, who had answered a summons sent by a Romulan officer named Charvanek.

In 2360, Admiral Uhura sent a team that included Lieutenants Benjamin Sisko, Selar and Tuvok on a covert mission behind the borders of the Romulan Star Empire to gather intelligence on the virulent disease called the gnawing that had been afflicting the Empire.

Admiral Uhura remained working in Starfleet Intelligence throughout the Dominion War and the Watraii affair of 2377. As of 2377, she is 138 years old.

## Personal life

In 2350, Uhura Purchased land and had a home built into a hillside overlooking the Muir Woods in California on Earth.

### Interests

Uhura was proud of her African heritage. In fact, she decorated her personal living quarters aboard the *Enterprise* with a zebra-skin bedspread, some African sculptures and masks, and wall panels containing African images.

She was also well known among her fellow *Enterprise* colleagues for entertaining them with her singing talent, including her own renditions of songs, such as *Oh, On the Starship Enterprise*.

One of Uhura's favorite love songs to sing was the song "Beyond Antares". She chose the song in response to a request made by Kevin Riley, who was on duty alone in engineering, and who wanted to be reassured that he was not the only living thing left in the universe. She also sang it while on bridge duty the following year. Her performance led to the incident that triggering *Nomad*'s assault on her.

### Friendships and relationships

#### James T. Kirk

Serving under Kirk for many years, Uhura developed a great respect for him, both as a starship captain and a person. Later in the early 2280s Kirk and Uhura had a Relationship that while short lived was intense and the two of the realized very quickly it was a mistake and put it behind them.

#### Montgomery Scott

In 2287, Uhura and Montgomery Scott were to take shore leave together. As Scott was unable to leave the *Enterprise*-A, she brought him dinner. Later, she began to show some romantic interest in Scott while being under the influence of Sybok. Scott, nevertheless, politely declined the advance, mindful of her "condition" and realizing that she was in fact a "convert

#### Kimara Cretak

Uhura met Kimara Cretak at the Khitomer Conference in 2293 when the Romulan was serving as an aide to Senator Pardek. Although they never met face-to-face again, they kept in touch via specially coded subspace signals. (

#### Scott Heisenberg

Lieutenant junior grade Scott Heisenberg was unceremoniously locked in a closet at phaser-point in the Old City Station transporter room by Uhura in 2285. Months later in 2286, Uhura ran into Heisenberg at Starfleet Headquarters where he admitted to her that it wasn't the phaser she'd pointed at him that scared him, but rather the look she gave him after he called her a "space veteran" and remarked that "her career was winding down". Despite this rather rocky start, the two became friends and Heisenberg ended up working for Uhura in Starfleet Intelligence.

#### Curzon Dax

By 2360, Uhura and Curzon Dax were very good friends. In fact, Curzon wanted a little more than just friendship and actively flirted with Uhura, mostly to no avail.

## Personal Timeline

 2256
 2326
 2331
 2375