Hoshi Sato



Lieutenant Commander Hoshi Sato (2129-2246) is most famous for her roles in the historic voyages of the Enterprise (NX-01) and as the mind behind the most critical breakthroughs in the development of the Universal Translator.

Early Life
Sato was born on July 9th, 2129, in Kyoto Japan, on Earth. Growing up, she discovered that she had an uncanny ability, almost an instinct, with translating languages.

In her fourth year at the Training Institute she attended an advanced seminar taught by Doctor Teodoro called Toward a Universal Translator: Alien Grammers And The Limits Of The Possible in which she was one of only five students. In this class, Hoshi learned of both the near impossibility and absolute neccesity of developing a functional Universal Translator if humanity was to travel the stars. (ENT novel: Rosetta)

During Starfleet training, Sato was discharged after she broke the arm of her CO after the two got into an argument regarding a poker game she was holding. Regulations at the time stated that gambling was only an honor violation if it was held while school was actually in session, so she held the game on weekends. However the CO still tried to break up the game, at which point she broke his arm. Owing to Starfleet's need for language experts, Sato was allowed to rejoin Starfleet on probation. (ENT episode Observer Effect).

Enterprise
Sato served as Communications and Protocol Officer aboard the first Warp-5 capable vessel, the Enterprise (NX-01) under Captain Jonathan Archer from 2151-2161. Sato was on leave from Starfleet and working at a language school in Brazil, when she was approached by Captain Archer, who wanted her to cut short her leave and journey with Enterprise to Qo'nos, the Klingon homeworld, and return an injured man to them. Sato initially refused, but changed her mind after Archer played a sample of the Klingon language for her.

Her attempts to communicate with the Klingon, Klaang, were largely successful, and Hoshi was later able to translate what the Klingon High Council was saying to Archer without the use of a translator. (ENT novelization: Broken Bow)

After the mission to Qo'noS, Sato agreed to remain aboard the Enterprise, but she soon found the life in space to be difficult for her, and experienced space sickness. At one point she considered leaving Enterprise, but first contact with the Axanarri a few weeks later convinced her to stay. Despite teething problems, Sato became an essential part of Enterprise 's crew.

Sato faced a huge problem when trying to decipher the Fazi language a few weeks later. The Fazi's highly structured language meant that she was not completely happy with the translation, but Archer had no problem communicating with Councilman Draa, despite offending him several times. (ENT episode: "Fight or Flight" and novel: By the Book). In 2154, while assisting the Thelasian Trading Confederacy in translating the language of the mysterious Antianna, Hoshi made the initial breakthrough that eventually resulted her invention of the linguacode translation matrix. Linguacode is the most critical element of the Universal translator technology and is still in use on Starships today. Hoshi perfected the Linguacode Translation Matrix following her retirement from Starfleet in her late thirties. (ENT novel: Rosetta)

Later Life
After her departure from Starfleet with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and the invention of the Linguacode Translation Matrix, Hoshi married Takashi Kimura and re-located to the planet Tarsus IV, where she lived to the age of 117. Hoshi and her family were among the 4,000 colonists that were killed on the order of Governor Kodos when an exotic fungus eradicated large portions of the world's food supply.


 * (Much of the information on this page was taken from a biography of Hoshi written by Enterprise series writer Mike Sussman for the two-part episode In a Mirror, Darkly. Most of the bio appeared on-screen in the episode.)