Ash Tyler's History
Ash Tyler, formerly known as Voq, was a 23rd century Klingon warrior who underwent the choH'a', an extreme, agonizing surgery so that he would appear to be Human during the Federation-Klingon War. His DNA and memories were somehow spliced with captured Starfleet officer Lieutenant Ash Tyler in the experimental procedure, making him an artificial hybrid. This procedure was extensive enough that his entire body appeared Human, and internal scans proved his organs had been modified as well; anatomically, he was completely Human. His mission was to become a sleeper agent, and by the time the process was complete, Tyler's personality had completely subsumed Voq's.
Voq was born with albinism, which caused him to be outcast from his house and from Klingon society. He came to refer to himself as "son of none". Voq was also a decent gambler who played t'Sang. As an adult, he became part of the movement of T'Kuvma, a messianic, traditionalist political leader who regarded the expanding United Federation of Planets as a threat to Klingon identity and independence. Voq became one of T'Kuvma's most devoted followers.
In 2256 aboard the Sarcophagus, Voq volunteered to take on the role of Torchbearer after the death of Rejac. T'Kuvma initially rejected him, citing that the position of Torchbearer belonged to one of noble birth. Voq argued that his faith made him worthy – that he had been reborn through the flames of Kahless – which he demonstrated by burning his fist in a lit brazier. Accepting Voq to be a mirror of himself, T'Kuvma gave his own bat'leth to Voq and charged him with the Torchbearer's sacred duty of lighting the Beacon of Kahless.
When the Klingon High Council answered the summons of the Beacon, Voq was the first to respond to their communications. He was treated with contempt by the leaders of the Great Houses, particularly Kol. Nevertheless, Voq ardently proselytized T'Kuvma's vision of a purified Klingon Empire united against the Federation. Following their victory over Starfleet in the Battle of the Binary Stars, Voq urged the High Council again to follow T'Kuvma, whom his compatriot L'Rell proclaimed as T'Kuvma "the Unforgettable".
Voq attacked Commander Michael Burnham after she and Captain Philippa Georgiou boarded the Sarcophagus in an attempt to capture T'Kuvma. However, Burnham defeated him and ultimately fatally shot T'Kuvma. Voq held his dying lord and vowed that all Klingons would rally behind T'Kuvma's memory.
While T'Kuvma had achieved his goal of unifying the Klingon Empire against the Federation, his followers were largely sidelined. After the battle, the Sarcophagus, commanded by Voq and L'Rell, was stranded for months with no functioning drive and dwindling supplies of food. Voq directed that the ship be repaired by cannibalizing the wrecks of Starfleet vessels destroyed in the Battle of the Binary Stars. However, to repair the ship's warp drive, he would have to use the wreck of the USS Shenzhou, something he utterly refused to do owing to the role of its captain and first officer in T'Kuvma's death.
After several months, Kol of the House of Kor arrived in the system with fresh supplies. Voq greeted him warmly and was convinced to use the Shenzhou's warp drive to help repair the Sarcophagus. He crossed to the ship with L'Rell to retrieve the components, who had begun to feel attracted to him owing to his loyalty and determination. Upon their return to the Sarcophagus, however, Voq discovered that the crew had submitted to Kol as their leader after he provided them with food. L'Rell appeared to switch sides to Kol and convinced him to maroon Voq on the wreck of the Shenzhou to die rather than kill him on the spot.
Left on the wreck of the USS Shenzhou to suffocate, Voq discovered Michael Burnham's personnel record and realized that she was T'Kuvma's killer. L'Rell secretly beamed over and informed Voq that she was still on his side. She told him that she had a raider ship for him to use to reach the matriarchs of her sect, the House of Mo'Kai, where she told him he would learn powers he could not yet imagine helping him win the war.
L'Rell had warned Voq that Mo'Kai's help would cost him everything. Obsessed with defending T'Kuvma's legacy and finding his killer, Michael Burnham, Voq underwent the choH'a', an extreme, agonizing surgery so that he would appear to be Human. He assumed the identity of the captured Starfleet officer Lieutenant Ash Tyler, and by the time the process was complete, Tyler's personality had completely subsumed Voq's. Now believing himself to be Ash Tyler, the completely transformed Voq was deposited aboard a Klingon prison ship, with L'Rell nearby to act as his jailer, with the intent that "Ash Tyler" escape and return to Starfleet as a sleeper agent.
Under the guise of Ash Tyler, Voq believed he was held captive for 227 days, almost seven months. His cellmate during his captivity was Harcourt Fenton Mudd. During his time with Mudd, he listened to his story of how he robbed a bank on Betazed. He was "rescued" along with Captain Gabriel Lorca by the USS Discovery, all according to L'Rell's plans.
A week after this, Captain Lorca appointed "Tyler" as his new chief of security aboard the Discovery. Captain Lorca was impressed by his skill piloting a stolen Klingon raider during their escape, as well as his impressive marksmanship in Discovery's holographic combat simulator.
"Tyler" appeared to have suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of rape, torture, and medical experimentation inflicted upon him during his imprisonment by his Klingon "captor", L'Rell. Furthermore, he harbored an internal rage towards Klingons, wanting to hurt them the way they hurt him. During his mission with Burnham to place sensors in the Klingon Ship of the Dead, "Ash" encountered L'Rell in a room of corpses, and subsequently lapsed into catatonia. He was coached back to a conscious state by an injured Admiral Katrina Cornwell, who was a prisoner on the ship, and was able to defeat incoming Klingon warriors who were closing on their position. L'Rell was subsequently taken prisoner and transferred to Discovery's brig.
"Tyler" was still haunted by nightmares and flashbacks from his violations, and what was later revealed to be his surgical transformation from Voq to the Human form of Tyler. He took solace in his burgeoning romantic relationship with Burnham, who had shared trauma from the loss of her parents, her transient death, and the events from the Battle of the Binary Stars.
When the Discovery found itself in the mirror universe, "Tyler", who was experiencing nightmares of surgery being performed on him, went to confront L'Rell in the brig. L'Rell recited a Klingon prayer to him, which seemed to trigger a reaction. Disturbed by this, "Tyler" asked Doctor Hugh Culber to perform a medical examination on him to see if he was fit for duty. Culber discovered that, contrary to earlier examinations, his patient's skeletal structure and organs had been surgically altered and that his personality had been overlaid the personality of someone else. Culber said he had to ground "Tyler" because he was not sure that he was who he claimed to be. In response, "Voq" became self-aware and broke Culber's neck before accompanying Burnham and Lorca on a mission to the ISS Shenzhou.
While aboard the Shenzhou, Tyler and Burnham were able to gain the trust of a rebel council charged with leading the rebellion against the Terran Empire, which included Sarek and Voq. Listening to the mirror Voq speak was enough to trigger dormant memories in Tyler's mind, which awakened the truth in him that he was, in fact, Voq himself. Having reasserted his Klingon personality, he physically attacked his counterpart, but was defeated in combat. Since Sarek confirmed, through the use of a mind meld, that Burnham's motives were altruistic, she and Tyler were allowed to return to the Shenzhou, where Burnham confronted him in her quarters and learned the truth of his Klingon origins. "Tyler" attacked Burnham and planned to kill her but was thwarted by the intervention of Saru. Facing execution for apparently attempting to kill the ship's captain, per standard Empire orders, "Tyler" was sentenced to be beamed into space. Burnham, however, operated the transporter herself to ensure that "Tyler" could be quickly beamed aboard the Discovery. She had hidden stolen files about the USS Defiant on his person, which the Discovery crew planned to use to return to their universe. Once aboard, "Tyler" claimed that Burnham should have left him to die, but Saru quickly reminded him that was not in the tradition of Starfleet.
"Tyler" was confined to the medical bay where Dr. Pollard and her medical team examined him; their scans confirmed that he was Human, even with "Tyler" displaying enhanced strength. "Tyler" then asked Saru for help, for which Saru turned to L'Rell, who revealed that Voq was given Tyler's personalities and memories in order to infiltrate Starfleet as a spy. Upon seeing "Tyler" in pain, L'Rell agreed to help him, performing a procedure which removed Voq's personality and left Tyler's personality in control – L'Rell marking Voq's passing with the traditional Klingon ritual.
Upon his recovery and Discovery's return to their universe, Tyler, with Voq's memories, told Saru how Voq agreed to undergo the choH'a'. Despite this revelation, Tyler was accepted by his fellow crewmates such as Cadet Tilly and Lt. Detmer.
After the war's conclusion, Tyler decided his place was on Qo'noS, helping L'Rell maintain her hold on power. However, his human appearance proved to be a political liability. L'Rell initially protected Tyler, but when Kol-Sha discovered the infant son of L'Rell and Voq, she decided (at the prompting of Section 31 agent Philippa Georgiou) to falsify the deaths of both the child and Tyler/Voq. Tyler and the baby were spirited away from Qo'noS by Section 31; the baby was left to be raised anonymously by the monks of Boreth. Tyler was recruited by Section 31.
As a Section 31 agent, Tyler was assigned to liaison with Discovery in their investigation of the Red Angel and the search for Spock. In that position, he was distrusted by Captain Christopher Pike.
After Gabrielle Burnham was identified as the Red Angel, Leland ordered Tyler to help him steal the Sphere data from Discovery. However, Leland had actually been taken over by Control who was attempting to take the data for itself and Georgiou warned Tyler after deducing the truth. Tyler betrayed Control who severely wounded him. Tyler managed to broadcast a warning about Leland to Discovery and then fled from the NCIA-93 in an escape pod before it jumped to warp. Tyler's escape pod was detected by Discovery who rescued him.
After another red burst appeared over Boreth, Tyler contacted L'Rell to arrange safe passage and revealed to Burnham that the planet was the home of Voq and L'Rell's son. Tyler argued with L'Rell about the mission, but she refused to allow him to beam down personally as it endangered the life of their son. The two argued before Pike volunteered to go down instead. While Pike was gone, Tyler and L'Rell recognized the less than ideal circumstances of their reunion and the truth about their relationship: Tyler would always be in love with Burnham like she would always be in love with Voq whom Tyler no longer was. However, while L'Rell no longer wholly recognized her former lover, she understood that like herself, Tyler would do anything to protect their son. After his return, Pike revealed to the two that he had met their son Tenavik who had asked Pike to return Voq's Torchbearer pin to Tyler, no longer needing it to guide his way.
When the Discovery chose to travel to the 32nd century in order to keep the Sphere data out of Control's hands, Tyler chose to remain in the present to continue his work for Section 31, considering it to be important. Tyler departed shortly before the Battle near Xahea, only to return with L'Rell and a fleet of reinforcements to help the Discovery and the USS Enterprise against the Section 31 drone ships. From the bridge of a Klingon cleave ship, Tyler watched as Discovery successfully made it through the wormhole.
Following the defeat of Control and the departure of Discovery, Tyler became the acting commander of Section 31. At a debriefing for the events surrounding the destruction of Control, Tyler was offered a promotion to Commander and the position of permanent head of Section 31. Due to Tyler's unique experiences and history, Starfleet came to regard him as the perfect candidate to lead the controversial organization, an offer that Tyler accepted after being reassured that Starfleet had completely destroyed Control
