Natira

Natira was an alien leader first introduced in the Star Trek episode For The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.

Natira was born in the first part of the 23rd century on the Fabrini worldship Yonada. The ship had been launched about 10,000 years earlier from the planet Fabrina as a way of saving the Fabrini people when their homeworld's star was about to go supernova and wipe out all life on Fabrina. By the 23rd century the Fabrini had forgotten they were on a spaceship, with their lives tightly controlled by the Oracle, the computer controlling the starship. Instruments of Obedience were implanted in to all Fabrini on the ship, allowing the Oracle to punish or even kill the people under its charge if they did or said something that displeased the Oracle.

As a young girl Natira was an inquisitive child who often questioned her elders about the nature of their existence. Her father was an intelligent man who also had discovered the truth about the Yonada and was not afraid to speak his mind. He often felt the pain of warning when he spoke his mind. One day Natira's questions wore her father down, and he tried to tell her the truth about Yonada and the Oracle killed him to keep him from doing so.

After the death of her father Natira convinced herself that she had been wrong to doubt the Oracle, and became one of the most devout followers of the computer. In reward she was named High Priestess of the Fabrina by 2268, and was the youngest to ever hold that title.

By 2268 the vessel was on the outskirts of the Daran system. By then the Oracle had taken the ship off course. Instead of going into orbit of Daran III as planned, the ship was instead on a collision course with Daran IV. After the Oracle fired on the nearby Federation starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, and Mr. Spock beamed down to investigate.

McCoy and Natira were immediately attracted to each other. Suffering from the then terminal illness xenopolycythemia, McCoy decided to remain with and marry Natira and accepted an Instrument of Obedience from the Oracle as a condition of doing so. McCoy soon contacted the Enterprise to tell them he knew how to access the Yonada computer. Kirk and Spock beamed back down to Yonada and kept the Oracle from killing McCoy by removing his Instrument of Obedience.

Meanwhile Natira's old doubts came flooding back. When she admitted to the Oracle that she had doubts, the Oracle tried to kill her, but the Enterprise landing party removed her Instrument of Obedience. Kirk and Spock were able to access the control room, and put Yonada back on to its proper course. Spock also found the Fabrini medical data banks, which contained a cure for xenopolycythemia. McCoy and Natira separated, with McCoy promising he would come see her again when the Fabrini reached Daran III.

Upon reaching Daran III, which the Fabrini named Lorina, she and the other Fabrini began establishing a colony on that world. Natira remained in charge as Governess, but was unpopular due to her efforts to stamp out the old religion. With assistance from her ex-husband McCoy and the Enterprise crew Natira was able to hammer out a peace accord with her religious and political opponents - Natira realized that despite all the Oracle had done it was an important unifying symbol to the Fabrini people. Working with the new High Priestess Rishala she began the hard work of bringing peace to the divided population of Lorina.

By the 2360s Natira served as her people's ambassador to the Federation.