Taris

Taris was a Romulan female who lived during the 24th century. A member of the Romulan military, she served as the Captain of the warbird, and in 2391, was declared the leader of the Romulan Star Empire. 

Iconia Incident
When Taris followed the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) to Iconia, she attempted to claim the planet for the Romulan Star Empire, but was rebuffed by Commander William T. 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. .


 * Contrary to later accounts of Taris's life in The Path to 2409, the describes the death of Taris, in combat against the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in 2368.

Continued service in the Romulan fleet
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. 

Leader of the Romulan Star Empire
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 capital. 

Exile
As the 24th century closed, however, Taris lost popularity following her 2396 quarantine order against the bloodfire epidemic on Kevratas. General Tebok also refused Taris' order to use lethal force to put down an uprising on Kevratas, and the Senate sided with him when Taris attempted to fire him. In 2397 Tebok promoted Velal, who was openly critical of Taris' policies.

Following the 2399 death of Tebok in the destruction of the, Taris attempted to take personal command of the Romulan Star Navy but was opposed by Gen. Velal and the Senate. A power struggle ensued and in 2401 Velal allied with the exiled Sela to depose her. Kevratas and Abraxas Prime sided with Velal, but when the Romulan Second Fleet arrived in orbit in 2403 Taris had vanished. Sela replaced her as Praetor and in 2407 would declare herself Empress of the Romulan Star Empire. 

It would later be revealed that Taris was a servant of the Iconians, and was involved with the Hobus supernova. In 2409 she encountered a Romulan Republic captain who discovered this, and her Reman guards sacrificed themselves to cover her escape through an Iconian gateway inside her base in the Hobus Nebula. She was later apprehended at a base on Iconia by the crew of a Starfleet starship. 

Taris was imprisoned at Facility 4028 pending trial, but escaped by transporter in the midst of First Kar'ukan's attack on the installation to retrieve the female Changeling. Her whereabouts were still unknown as of early 2410. 

In 2410, members of the Alpha Quadrant Alliance, lead by Sela, entered a third Dyson Sphere and discovered Taris there. Chasing her, they confronted her on a balcony. Sela accused Taris of wanting to rule with the Iconians, but Taris disagrees, claiming that she didn't want to rule, but wanted the Iconians to undo the Hobus supernova and restore the old Empire through time travel. Sela calls her a bigger fool than she thought and knocks her off the platform, telling her that the Iconians would never do that and even if they could, time travel destroys their minds.