The Best Lieutenant Natasha 'Tasha' Yar Quotes

Trent: Mistress Beata invites you to witness this morning's reaffirmation of Angel One's moral imperative.
Lieutenant: Is that the civilized word for 'murder' on this world?

Lt. Richard Castillo: Most everyone calls me "Castillo"... my mother calls me "Richard".
Natasha: OK, Castillo.
Lt. Richard Castillo: No... I think maybe I'd like it better if you called me "Richard".
Natasha: Richard.

Counselor: Lutan is such... such a basic male image. And having him say he wants you...
Lieutenant: Yes, of course it made me feel good when he...
[stops short]
Lieutenant: Troi, I'm your friend and you tricked me!

[Tasha Yar has requested to be transferred to the Enterprise-C]
Capt. Picard: The Enterprise-C will be destroyed.
Natasha: But Captain, at least, with someone at Tactical, they will have a chance to defend themselves well. It may be a matter of seconds or minutes, but those could be the minutes that change history. Guinan says I died a senseless death in the other timeline. I didn't like the sound of that, Captain. I've always known the risks that come with a Starfleet uniform. If I'm to die in one... I'd like my death to count for something.
Capt. Picard: Lieutenant. Permission granted.

Commander William T. Riker: Commander Riker to the Enterprise.
Doctor: [over comm] This is the Enterprise, Crusher here.
Lieutenant: Must be worse up there than we thought.

Guinan: Tasha, you're not supposed to be here.
Natasha: Where am I supposed to be?
Guinan: Dead.
Natasha: Do you know how?
Guinan: No. But I do know it was an empty death. A death without purpose.

[Yar's first line]
Lieutenant: Lieutenant Worf is right, sir. As Security Chief, I can't just stand here and let...
[she is interrupted by Picard]

[a boar-like creature appears on the bridge]
Lieutenant: What is it?
Lieutenant: A Klingon targ! My pet... from home! But when I was a child...
Lieutenant: You're telling me it's a kitty-cat?

Letek: [of Humans] They shamelessly clothe their females.
Mordoc: Inviting others to unclothe them, the very depth of perversion.
Lieutenant: Paws off, Ferengi!

Lieutenant: [on the Ornaran's and Brekkian's natural defensive powers] A natural electrical charge?
Commander William T. Riker: Formidable.
Lieutenant: Yes. And a difficult weapon to confiscate.

Lt. Tasha Yar: What I want now is gentleness. And joy... and love. From you, Data; you are fully functional, aren't you?
Lt. Cmdr. Data: Of course, but...
Lt. Tasha Yar: How fully?
Lt. Cmdr. Data: In every way, of course. I am programed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring.
Lt. Tasha Yar: Oh! You jewel, that's exactly what I hoped!

[from Tasha's holographic message]
Lt. Tasha Yar: What I want you to know is how much I loved my life, and those of you who shared it with me. You are my family. You all know where I came from, and what my life was like before, but Starfleet took that frightened, angry young girl and tempered her. I have been blessed with your friendship and your love.

Lieutenant: [about the Edo] They're wild in some ways, actually puritanical in others. Neat as pins, ultra-lawful; and they make love at the drop of a hat.
Lieutenant: Any... hat.

Lt. Tasha Yar: Data, I'm only going to tell you this just once: it never happened.

Lt. Tasha Yar: Captain, so far we've obeyed every order, no matter how far-fetched it might have seemed. But if we're to risk the safety of the ship and crew, I think we have to ask you for an explanation.
Captain: I understand your concerns, Lieutenant; and I know that if I were in your position, I would be doing the same thing - looking for answers. But you're not gonna find any, because I don't have any to give you. I know it is difficult for you to understand, but we have to take the ship into the very center of the phenomenon and create a static warp shell. Now, this will put the ship at risk. Quite frankly, we may not survive. But I want you to believe that I am doing this for a greater purpose, and that what is at stake here is more than any of you can possibly imagine. I know you have your doubts about me, about each other, about this ship. All I can say is that although we have only been together for a short time, I know that you are the finest crew in the fleet. And I would trust each of you with my life. So, I am asking you for a leap of faith - and to trust me.

Lieutenant: We're being probed sir.

Lieutenant: We can learn something from non-disclosure?
Lt. Commander Data: [smoking pipe] Indubitably, my good woman.
[Yar looks quizzically at Riker]
Commander William T. Riker: It's something the Captain mentioned. Sherlock Holmes. Indubitably, Data has been studying him.

Lt. Tasha Yar: [her final words] Death is that state in which one exists only in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end. No goodbyes. Just good memories. Hailing frequencies closed, sir.
Capt. Picard: Au revoir, Natasha.

[reading his orders to take command of the Enterprise, during which he is distracted several times by visions of Q's laughing and jeering minions from "Encounter at Farpoint"]
Captain: "To Captain Jean-Luc Picard, stardate 41148... You are hereby requested and required to take command... to take command of the USS Enterprise as of this date. Signed, Rear Admiral Norah Satie, Starfleet Command."
[the visions get the better of him]
Captain: Red alert! All crew to battle stations!
Lt. Tasha Yar: You heard him! Move!

Yareena: How could you not love him? Every woman loves him.
Lieutenant: I fight for the vaccine. That's the truth.
Yareena: The truth is I will kill you if I can. And believe me, I can. There's nothing else to say.
Lieutenant: In my world it's a greater honor to refuse...
Yareena: You are on our world!

Lt. Tasha Yar: Do you know how old I was when I was abandoned?
Lt. Cmdr. Data: Chronological age? No. I am afraid I am not familiar with...
Lt. Tasha Yar: Five. Five years old. But I survived. I learned how to stay alive, how to avoid the rape gangs. I was fifteen before I escaped.
Lt. Cmdr. Data: I am sorry. I did not know.

Commander William T. Riker: With the saucer gone, can I assume that something interesting happened on the way here?
Lieutenant: [leading him into a turbolift] Battle bridge. That's for the captain to explain, sir.

Natasha: [on the ship coming through the anomaly] Definitely Federation starship. Accessing registry...
Commander William T. Riker: Looks like they had a rough ride.
Natasha: "NCC 1701 - C... USS - Enterprise"...

Lieutenant: You are favored in the ship's pool.
Lt. Tasha Yar: You bet on me?
Lieutenant: A sure thing.

Lieutenant: The problem is, is that one of the cooks has just been asked to broil reptile for the Anticans - and it looks like the Selay delegate.

Lt. Tasha Yar: My friend Data. You see things with the wonder of a child, and that makes you more human than any of us.

Lt. Tasha Yar: Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I wish I could say you've been like a father to me, but I've never had one, so I don't know what it feels like, but if there was someone in this universe I could choose to be like, someone who I would want to make proud of me, it's you - you who have the heart of an explorer and the soul of a poet.

Lieutenant: [the crew are trying to rescue a freighter from burning up in a planet's atmosphere] Captain, the tractor beam is available... if you want it?
Commander William T. Riker: At least we could pull them out of orbit before they enter the atmosphere.
Captain: [to the viewscreen] Freighter, we're going to lock on the tractor beam and pull you out of orbit.
T'Jon: Hey, that... that's great.
[Picard can't quite hide his bemusement with Captain T'Jon's cavalier attitude in this crisis situation]
Lt. Worf: [the Enterprise tractor beam tries and fails to grab onto the freighter] Captain, the freighter's orbit continues to deteriorate.
Lieutenant: The solar flares are interfering with the tractor beam, Captain. I can't lock on.
Captain: Captain T'Jon, we are unable to attach the tractor beam because of the intense solar activity.
T'Jon: [disinterested as ever] I understand. Thanks for trying.

Commander William T. Riker: Riker, W.T., reporting as ordered, sir.
Captain: Is the viewer ready?
Lieutenant: All set up, sir.
Captain: We'll first bring you up to date on a little adventure we had on our way here, Commander. Then we'll talk. Welcome aboard.

Lieutenant: Jewels! Look at these jewels!
Counselor: They're bonding gifts - what you would call wedding presents.
Commander William T. Riker: Who's getting married?
Counselor: I am.

Badar: I admit some of my people are impulsive, and we all have reason to hate the Selay.
Lieutenant: They appear to have the same feelings about you, sir.
Badar: Ah, the nature of politics.

[Riker and Yar are faced with the imminent threat of a deadly weapon]
Lieutenant: We could split up.
Commander William T. Riker: What good would that do?
Lieutenant: Confuse it, delay it, something.
Commander William T. Riker: It would still get us; it would just take a little longer.
Lieutenant: It might give one of us time to get out of range.
Commander William T. Riker: Out of *range*?
Lieutenant: Forget I said it. These devices wiped out an entire planet. I don't think it has a range.
Commander William T. Riker: Then what does that leave us?
[Yar bites her lip]
Commander William T. Riker: Right. That's what I thought.
[an energy blast from the newest drone narrowly misses them]
Lieutenant: On second thought, we could look for deeper cover!

[after Yareena's "death", she has renounced Lutan as her First One and chosen Hagon in his place]
Lieutenant: How sad for you. You've lost everything.
Lutan: I have my honor.

Captain: So, while we still have some power left, it's time for difficult decisions. Opinions, please?
Lieutenant: I say put all available power into a full-out, combined phaser and photon torpedo salvo. Destroy their ability to sustain this force field, sir.
Lieutenant: Yes! Hit them hard and hit them fast.
Captain: Impractical. And provocative. Even assuming that we have the power to sustain such a tactic.
Lieutenant: But, Captain, isn't firing on us an act of war?
Counselor: The facts are the Ferengi did fire on us, but we were chasing them. Since then, all they've done is search our computers trying to learn who and what we are.
Captain: Your point, Counselor?
Counselor: Let's talk to them.
Captain: It's been tried. No response.
Counselor: But did we tell them anything they wanted to hear?

Captain: Ferengi vessel, we await your response.
Lieutenant: Suggest first strike, sir. Our shields now only have 63 seconds of power left before lowering.
Lieutenant: If the Ferengis' ship sensors can read us, sir, they will be waiting until we are most vulnerable.
Commander William T. Riker: I'm afraid I agree, Captain. They have not responded...
Captain: We will wait a bit more, Number One.
Lieutenant: 50 seconds.
Captain: Patience. Patience.
Daimon: The quicker we can come to terms, the better, NCC-1701-D.
Captain: Who is speaking?
Daimon: I am Tarr, DaiMon of the Ferengi. You wish to discuss surrender, Captain Picard?
Captain: What I said, DaiMon Tarr, is...
Daimon: Unconditional surrender, I warn you, is totally unacceptable. We will die to the last one of us before such dishonor.
Lieutenant: [Picard gives her the "cut it" gesture] Hailing frequencies closed, sir.
Captain: Something has seized their ship, too. They're in the same predicament as us. Launch a sensor probe. Set it to search for the source of... whatever this "something" is that is holding both ships.

Lieutenant: I thought for a minute we had a problem.
Lieutenant: Oh?
Lieutenant: Yes, it looked like Korris was going to hold that little girl as a hostage.
Lieutenant: That is not our way. Cowards take hostages. Klingons do not.

Lieutenant: Believe it or not, Worf is developing a sense of humor.
Commander William T. Riker: I hope so, for their sake.

Wesley: Data, I can understand how this might happen to the Ornarans. What I can't understand is this: Why would anyone *voluntarily* become dependent on a chemical?
Lt. Commander Data: Voluntary addiction to drugs is a recurrent theme in many cultures. Regrettably, having had no firsthand experience with such dependency, chances are I cannot give you an appropriate response.
Wesley: That's all right, Data.
Lieutenant: [jumping in] I believe I can, Wesley. In the first place, nobody *wants* to become dependent. That happens later.
Wesley: Still, if people *know* it happens, why do they even start?
Lieutenant: Remember what I told you about life on my home planet? There was so much poverty and violence that, for some, the closest thing to an escape was through drugs.
Wesley: How does a chemical substance provide an escape?
Lieutenant: In the real sense, it can't... but it makes you think it's doing so. You have to understand that drugs - can make you feel good. They put you on top of the world. You're happy, sure of yourself, in control...
Wesley: What's the point, though, if you know it's artificial?
Lieutenant: Because it doesn't *seem* artificial until after the drug wears off. Then comes what they call a "crash". You feel just the opposite of the way you did earlier: sad, insecure, like everything's coming down on you and there's nothing that can be done about it.
Wesley: [DELETED LINE] Doesn't *that* wear off, too?
Lieutenant: [DELETED LINE] Ultimately, yes - but the trouble is that a lot of people can't wait for "ultimately". It's got nothing to do with common sense; they simply don't have enough willpower to ride out the crash. So they take more of the drug to cope, to feel the way they did before. The problem with doing that is, your body adapts to the drug as you keep taking it.
Wesley: [DELETED LINE; doing the math] ... Meaning you'd need larger and more frequent dosages to get the results you wanted, wouldn't you?
Lieutenant: Indeed. On the other hand, using more of the drug more often also leaves you feeling worse - and for longer - after it wears off. That's how you get trapped. Before you know it, you're taking the drug... not to feel good, but to *keep* from feeling *bad*. At that point, all you care about is getting your next dosage. Nothing else matters.
Wesley: I see how it all works, Tasha, but I'm still not sure I understand it. Sorry.
Lieutenant: Wesley. Don't be. In fact, let's hope for your sake you never do.

Lieutenant: What have bright, primary colors got to do with it?
Captain: Ah, I understand the allusion. Colors representing countries at a time when they competed with each other. Red, white and blue for the United States, whereas the French... more properly used the same colors in the order blue, white and red.
Lt. Commander Data: And the German nation red, black and gold, the Italians green, white and red, the British...
Captain: That's enough, Data!
Lt. Commander Data: It was you who...
Captain: We were discussing the Ferengi.

Lieutenant: Behave yourselves, gentlemen.
[after separating the fighting Sobi and T'Jon with a phaser]

Commander William T. Riker: You're on notice that all of your weapons, no matter what their basic function, are being confiscated. Violence will not be tolerated on the Enterprise.
Badar: Of course not. And if any does occur, let me assure you, it will not be we Anticans who start it.
Lieutenant: Thank you, sir.
[Riker and Yar leave the Anticans' quarters]
Badar: But... we will *finish* it.

Commander William T. Riker: [as the Enterprise is fired on] Shall we return their fire, sir?
Captain: Negative, Number One. They're just responding to our close pursuit. Fall back a bit, but stay with them.
Lt. Commander Data: They are slowing, too, sir.
Lieutenant: They may be turning to fight.
Captain: Open hailing frequen... why are we gaining on them? Don't anticipate.
Lieutenant: I'm not, sir. Something's wrong.

[Picard is alone on the bridge, when Yar appears at her station]
Captain: Where is everyone else?
Lieutenant: Down on some planet.
Captain: Some planet? What're *you* doing here?
Lieutenant: Well, I, er... uh... It sounds strange; but I'm in a penalty box.

Lt. Tasha Yar: You wanted me?
Lt. Cmdr. Data: Captain Picard ordered me to escort you to Sickbay, Lieutenant.
Lt. Tasha Yar: Did he say when?
Lt. Cmdr. Data: I'm sure he meant now. So... you should get into uniform.
Lt. Tasha Yar: But I got out of my uniform for you, Data.

Natasha: I've been working with one of the officers on the Enterprise-C. He's, he's nice, I, I like him. I'm worried about what's going to happen to him.
Lt. Commander Data: We may never know what happens. If they succeed, we will not even realize that these events occurred.