11 Talk

Taris

Taris was a Romulan female who lives during the 24th century. A member of the Romulan military, she served as the Captain of the D'deridex-class warbird IRW Haakona, and in 2391, was declared the leader of the Romulan Star Empire. (TNG episode: "Contagion"; STO website: The Path to 2409)

When Taris followed the USS Enterprise-D to Iconia, she attempted to claim the planet for the Romulan Star Empire, but was rebuffed by Commander William Riker. By then, her ship was malfunctioning due to an ancient Iconian program present in the Haakona's computers. When Picard used an Iconian gateway to board the Haakona, the ship was locked on a self-destruct countdown which Taris was unable to deactivate. The Enterprise was able to locate and beam Picard off the Romulan ship, and the Enterprise crew instructed Taris how to purge the Iconian program and save their lives. (TNG episode: "Contagion").

Contrary to later accounts of Taris's life in The Path to 2409, the TNG novel: The Devil's Heart describes the death of Taris, in combat against the USS Enterprise-D in 2368.

Taris continued to serve in the Romulan fleet in the decades that followed, gradually earning promotion to the rank of Admiral. Initially, she served Praetor Tal'Aura during the Romulan political schism following the Shinzon's murder of the Imperial Senate in 2379, but following the defeat in 2383 of Fleet Admiral Tomalak's task force at the hands of Empress Donatra, Taris defected to the Imperial Romulan State, with a twelve ship fleet under her command. She soon became a trusted adviser to Donatra, serving as her representative at peace talks on Romulus in 2384 and being charged with readying the Imperial Romulan State's defenses after the talks are aborted by Tal'aura's untimely death.

In 2386, amid continuing chaos in Romulan political circles, Taris elected to defer many of her responsibilities to General Tebok, and took her ship to Levaeri V to investigate claims that the Sword of the Raptor Star, a venerated relic of the Romulan-Vulcan Sundering, had been recovered. Taris was still in the Lavaeri system when Romulus was destroyed by the Hobus supernova; although Donatra had recalled her prior to the cataclysm, and her transmission containing these orders had been noted en route by a military communications post, Taris did not comply. There was no evidence that her ship ever received the transmission, and oddly, the communications officer who would have received the orders could not be found.

In the aftermath of Romulus's destruction, many looked to Taris for leadership as one of the senior-most surviving military officers. She initially focused on rallying remaining forces, and recalled all vessels on deep-space exploration missions. Pragmatism marked her actions over the next two years: she worked to reassemble the Romulan fleet, personally cajoling recalcitrant commanders, and concentrated its activities on relief efforts and border defense.

Although she expressed no public interest in political power, she was increasingly looked to by the Romulan colony worlds for leadership. When the Federation withdrew its forces from the Romulan-Klingon border in 2391, she quieted complaints among the colonies by insisting on Romulan self-reliance. She backed up her words with actions later that year when her fleet successfully repelled a Klingon invasion of the Zeta Pictoris system. Following her impressive victory, the leaders of Rator III acclaimed her the leader of the Romulan Star Empire. Achernar Prime and a dozen other colonies soon followed, and despite protesting her disinterest in politics, Taris accepted, summoning the leaders of the colonies to Rator III in order to elect a new Senate and establish a new government and capitol. (STO website: The Path to 2409)

It would later be revealed that Taris was a servant of the Iconians, and was involved with the Hobus supernova. She would in 2409 be discovered, and arrested by the crew of a Starfleet Starship (STO mission: "Taris")