Yar's Chosen Sacrifice
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Tasha Yar requests a transfer to the Enterprise-C, catching Picard off guard.
Picard probes Tasha's motives, revealing her knowledge of her supposed fate from Guinan.
Tasha asserts her desire to make her potential death meaningful, contrasting it with the 'senseless death' Guinan predicted.
Picard, moved by her conviction, grants Tasha's transfer request with a silent exchange of respect.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Absent but morally weighty; her earlier insistence creates urgency and existential disquiet in the room through Tasha's testimony.
Not physically present in the room but explicitly invoked by Tasha as the source of the revelation that Yar 'wasn't supposed to be alive'; functions as the unseen moral instigator whose counsel reframes Tasha's choice.
- • To highlight temporal dissonance and moral wrongness in the altered timeline (as inferred)
- • To counsel individuals toward actions that restore historical or moral balance (as inferred)
- • That timelines have ethical realities that matter to individuals
- • That some lives are displaced by temporal anomalies and should be corrected
Resolute calm masking acceptance of imminent mortality; composed, purposeful, and morally determined rather than impulsively emotional.
Enters the ready room, speaks plainly and calmly, explains the tactical need aboard the Enterprise‑C, cites Guinan's revelation about her original death, requests transfer with formal salutation, then leaves after permission is granted.
- • To ensure the Enterprise‑C has the tactical expertise it needs
- • To make her possible death matter by serving a strategic purpose
- • To reclaim agency over her fate in light of the timeline revelation
- • That dying meaningfully is preferable to surviving without consequence
- • That her presence aboard Enterprise‑C could measurably improve its chances
- • That Guinan's insight about timelines is credible and morally relevant
Shaken and conflicted; outwardly composed but inwardly aghast and grief-adjacent, carrying the weight of potential historical consequences.
Seated at his ready room desk, Picard receives Tasha's unexpected request, tests her motives with measured questions, registers the existential revelation, endures a long, inward look, and then grants permission in a voice that combines command with moral resignation.
- • To protect his crew and the integrity of the Enterprise-D
- • To determine whether Tasha's request is motivated by duty or despair
- • To avoid making a decision that needlessly alters history without justification
- • That a captain must weigh individual sacrifice against broader historical consequences
- • That he is responsible for authorizing transfers that could cost lives
- • That institutional duty sometimes requires intolerable personal choices
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Picard's ready-room chime emits the concise two-note tone to summon attention and open the scene; it functions as the narrative cue that transitions private work into an urgent, intimate moral exchange.
Picard's desk frames the power dynamic: Picard sits behind it as captain and gatekeeper, Tasha sits at its edge when asked to 'sit down,' and the desk acts as a physical boundary emphasizing formality and the weight of the decision.
The ready-room door slides open to admit Tasha and closes after she leaves, physically marking the entry and exit of agency. Its presence structures the private nature of the request and frames the intimacy of the conversation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The U.S.S. Enterprise‑C (its bridge and fate) functions as the conceptual battleground referenced throughout the exchange — the doomed ship whose survival or destruction determines historical outcome and justifies Tasha's sacrifice.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Guinan's revelation to Tasha about her fate leads directly to Tasha's request to transfer to the Enterprise-C."
"Guinan's revelation to Tasha about her fate leads directly to Tasha's request to transfer to the Enterprise-C."
"Tasha's confrontation with her meaningless original death contrasts with her later choice to die meaningfully."
"Tasha's confrontation with her meaningless original death contrasts with her later choice to die meaningfully."
"Picard's approval of Tasha's transfer results in her assuming duties on the Enterprise-C."
Key Dialogue
"TASHA: "Captain, I request a transfer to the Enterprise-C.""
"TASHA: "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be alive.""
"TASHA: "If I am to die in one, I'd like my death to count for something.""
"PICARD: "Permission granted.""