Character Profiles: Ensign Hoshi Sato
STARFLEET PERSONNEL FILE: Sato, Hoshi
Played By:
Linda Park
Rank: Ensign
Assignment: Communications Officer, Enterprise NX-01
Previous Assignment: Taught exo-linguistics at Amazon University, Brazil
Full Name: Hoshi Sato
Marital status: Single
Psychological Profile: Report of Starfleet Medical/Counselor's Office
Hoshi is a young, spirited, intelligent woman with an extraordinary gift for alien languages who also serves as Enterprise's translator — a vital role when making first contact. A "white-knuckle" space-farer, Hoshi reluctantly gave up her teaching job after being convinced by Archer to join Starfleet. Archer has more faith in Sato than she does in her herself.
Biographical Overview
Whereas other crew members are chomping at the bit for alien contact and to explore strange new worlds, Hoshi is gradually becoming accustomed to the challenges, unusual experiences and potential dangers of space exploration.
Beginning with her very first mission, Hoshi discovered that being a linguist involves quick thinking on her feet in situations where the safety of the crew was at stake, not to mention making the first impression for humankind in the galaxy. When the Klingon warrior Klaang regained consciousness aboard Enterprise en route to the Klingon homeworld of Q'onoS, it was her job to not only glean any information that might help the mission, but to calm him down and let him know he was not among enemies. Later, once Klaang was rescued from the Suliban and returned to Q'onoS, Hoshi was able to facilitate enough communication between the Klingons and Archer to complete the mission without incident.
Not long after, Enterprise made the grisly discovery of a ship filled with alien corpses, drained of fluids. Hoshi's immediate reaction was terror, which disturbed her in terms of her own professionalism. She considered the possibility that she simply isn't cut out for deep space exploration, but was able to overcome her own fears and insecurities enough to re-board the eerie ship and decipher the controls to send out a distress call to the victims' fellow beings. When they arrived, she was able to break the language barrier and make first contact with this new race, the Axanar, and communicate that humans were not responsible for the massacre, aiding in establishing favorable relations with another new race.
Hoshi was part of the first human away team to disguise themselves as indigenous beings for the purposes of studying a pre-industrial culture when Enterprise visited the Akaali, a race of roughly 500 million living on a Minshara-class planet. This practice of masquerading would be repeated by humans studying alien societies without cultural contamination for centuries to come.
Along with her communications duties, Hoshi is also able to keep an eye on other vital systems. For example, when the Suliban Silik had infiltrated Enterprise disguised as a religious pilgrim, it was Hoshi who noticed when he attempted to bypass the lockout codes in Shuttlepod Launch Bay One.
Implicitly trusted by Captain Archer, Hoshi was entrusted to do some research by Archer into the private life of Malcolm Reed, specifically his favorite foods for a planned surprise birthday celebration. She methodically approached the task like a detective, discreetly contacting his loved ones and even subtly trying to get information directly out of Reed, which led to a temporary misunderstanding, as Reed misinterpreted her enquiries as romantic overtures. In the end, thanks to help from Dr. Phlox, she successfully was able to deduce Reed's favorite food (pineapple) and satisfy Archer's request.
Few things get past Hoshi. For example, she noticed that of all the male crewmembers, Dr. Phlox receives the most mail by far. She gets along well with her crewmates, such as Ensign Elizabeth Cutler. When the two were included on the away team that dealt with the disease-stricken Valakians and the Menk on Valakis, they worked together with Dr. Phlox and both suspected that the Menk were actually second-class citizens used for menial labor on the planet.
As her first year in deep space progressed, Hoshi's initial trepidation ebbed substantially. For example, when she was stranded along with Reed and T'Pol aboard a derelict Klingon vessel sinking slowly into a Class-9 gas giant, she was rattled, but able to maintain her cool enough to focus on the task at hand: deciphering the ship's logs, controls and readouts so that they could get the ship running under its own power.
In another unusual circumstance, Hoshi's skills were applied to communicating with a strange creature that had taken up residence in a Shuttlepod Bay and had trapped several crew members, including Captain Archer. In addition to attempting to learn a new language, the organism communicated almost telepathically, forcing Hoshi to improvise a solution, saving not only the crew members, but the creature as well.
Hoshi also has contributed to Starfleet missions in other ways, such as selflessly donating use of her personal quarters to a visiting Vulcan ambassador during her first year on board Enterprise. She views new languages as a challenge, such as her visit to Risa, where she discovered some additional benefits to learning new languages.
As Hoshi continues her tenure aboard Enterprise, she almost mirrors humankind in taking the initial steps into the intergalactic community: tentative and concerned at first, but more and more sure of herself as time goes on. While ready to take whatever action is necessary to help the crew and Starfleet, her accomplishments in communication also provide an example of how tense situations can be diffused through diplomatic means.