Narendra III was a long standing Klingon colony first visited by Starfleet in the mid-22nd century. In 2152 it hosted the first human on trial under Klingon law at a time where the warrior caste was overshadowing all others, but almost two hundred years later it would also be the place where peace with the Klingons would be secured by an act of sacrifice for the Empire.
In 2344 Narendra III fell under a vicious attack by the Romulans. Despite being outnumbered, and peace with the Klingon Empire still in it’s infancy following the Khitomer Accord, Captain Rachel Garrett responded to a desperate distress call from the Klingons. Taking on four Romulan Warbirds, Garrett’s Enterprise didn’t survive. The Battle of Narendra III was a barbaric one sides affair, with the colony decimated by orbital bombardments by the time the Enterprise arrived and despite being outfitted with state of the art weapons systems, four combined warbirds on a mission of destruction was too much to overcome.
It was a devastating day for both the Klingon Empire and the Federation, but Garrett responding to her old enemies calls for help turned out to be one of the most vital turning points in how the Federation would be shaped over the following decades.
Seeing Garrett’s decision as a true act of honour, the Empire’s relations with the Federation were solidified. Considering the Romulans acts of terror cowardly, relations between the two fractured entirely making way for a new era of peace between warring super-powers as the Romulans continued their attacks,. Including a similar attack at Khitomer itself.
Finalising the transition from enemies to allies, the Klingon-Federation alliance grew stronger over the years that followed to the point that officer exchanges were implemented and the two would defend and back each other up in times of conflict by default.
The history of the event wasn’t quite what was recorded, of course. IT would be decades before it was learned the Romulans had taken prisoners, one of which would come from an alternate future.
During the battle the Enterprise was pulled out of the battle briefly and into the future. In that alternate future, the Enterprise being taken out of the picture resulted in escalating tensions with the Klingons and eventual war. Garrett committed herself and her ship to helping her successor, Captain Picard and his Enterprise, in the war. Upon learning of what should have happened, Garrett takes her ship and her crew back with one addition, Tasha Yar.
Despite dying on the journey thanks to an attack on the Enterprise’s, Garrett’s legacy would remain to the point where statues of her were commissioned in honour including one dubbed ‘The Red Lady’ built at the entrance to an Academy Campus on M’Talas Prime.
Coming from the ‘Lost Era’, there’s not much known about Garrett in the official Trek canon aside from Narendra III and her sole appearance in TNG episode Yesterdays Enterprise. Though that may be about to change.
Originally portrayed in Next Generation by Tricia O’Neill, Kacey Rohl is set to reprise the role as a younger version of Garrett in the upcoming Section 31 movie. Starring Michele Yeoh as Phillipa Georgiou, the film is the only to be set within the previously untouched gap between The Undiscovered Country and the Next Generation and will have Garrett join in a Section 31 mission years before taking the helm of the Enterprise.
Section 31 is set to make it’s debut next year on Paramount Plus.