Ishara Yar

Ishara Yar aboard the Enterprise

Ishara Yar was a Human female, born on Turkana IV in 2342. Ishara's parents were killed just after she was born, leaving her elder sister, Tasha, to care for her. When she was old enough, Ishara allied herself with the Coalition. Her sister left the planet as soon as she was able but Ishara refused to join her - she had already joined the Coalition and considered leaving cowardly.

In 2367, the USS Enterprise-D came to Turkana IV to rescue crew members who had escaped from the USS Arcos after a warp core breach. The Alliance had captured the two crew members and were holding them hostage in exchange for weapons. Ishara volunteered to help the Enterprise in its rescue mission.

She supplied the Enterprise with the location of the crew's escape pod, maps of the Alliance tunnels, and ultimately volunteered to create a diversion by setting off the Alliance proximity detectors so that Geordi La Forge could track the missing crewmen. She was stunned by a phaser blast, but Commander Riker brought her back safely to the Enterprise.

Ishara appeared to grow close to the Enterprise crew (Lieutenant Commander Data in particular) and indicated she wanted to leave the Coalition and perhaps one day join Starfleet. Doctor Crusher removed the implant that identified her with the cadre and she agreed to accompany the away team on a second mission to recover the Arcos crew.

However, while in Alliance territory - deeper than she could ever have gotten with the implant - Ishara took the opportunity to sabotage the fusion reactor that powered the Alliance defensive systems in order to enable a massive invasion by the Coalition. Data and Riker intervened by stunning Ishara so she could not shut down the reactor, then ultimately sent her back to her cadre. As she left, however, she told Data that the time they had spent together was the closest thing to friendship that she had ever known. (TNG: "Legacy")

Ishara Yar was played by Beth Toussaint.