S'Tev Saren

Saren was born in the great city of the Romulan homeworld, Romulus, in the year 2325, 23rd of April. Throughout his young life, he studied hard, learned what it meant to be a patriot and a loyal Romulan from his mother, and learned the meaning of duty and honor to the people from his father, who served in the Imperial Navy. As soon as Saren was of age, he entered the academy to become an Imperial Officer of the Romulan Star Navy. After the required time, he earned several commendations for completing several courses with high grades. Saren graduated, achieved the rank of uhlan, and was assigned to a warbird as a security officer and soldier of the Imperial Navy by 2346.

(As a Junior Officer)

On board the IRW Tekel, Saren witnessed one of the junior officers reading news articles from the Federation Network regarding several things. One of them was the Klingon Empire had agreed to peaceful negotiations with the Federation after the destruction of the Enterprise-C at the hands of the Imperial Navy. The celebration of such victory was cut short when the Imperial Intelligence found from monitoring communications traffic between their two greatest enemies that there was talk of peace. Two years later, the Imperial Navy worked diligently with the Tal’Shiar to destroy that peace. But that was not what made Saren concerned, if he ever had a different opinion on how the empire and the navy operated, he best keep it to himself. Since he noticed that junior officer that was reading these articles, as did the security team’s senior officers. They arrested the junior officer for distortion of the empire. The so-called ‘free news’ from the Federation is nothing more than propaganda.

For most of the four years on board the Tekel, Saren did not seen much of anything. Often the Tekel was tasked to patrol the Neutral Zone on their side of the border to ensure that no Federation vessel had violated the treaty. Other times it was silent operations inside the Neutral Zone to test their cloaking technology, which had improved significantly over the years when they last encountered the Federation. During his service on the Tekel, he had grown close to a woman named Mai Jomar, a centurion engineer with a degree that made her an expert on their cloaking technology. And she told him that there was one thing that they still had yet to solve. Due to the cloaking device radiating a slight subspace variance, they cannot go past a certain warp speed or risk detection. Or, if too many of their ships are grouped, there would be a detection of tetryon particles. Plus, they would be detected if anyone were to use a tachyon scan or tachyon sensor sweep. She explained this after spending years working closely with the cloaking device on board the Tekel, to which she noticed these little issues.

Another thing that Centurion Jomar told him was that she caught wind of the Imperial Navy building a new fleet of warbirds, which would symbolize the empire’s might. And Jomar said to him that she was offered a position as chief engineer on board one of those warbirds, and she would put in a good word for him to get him a posting on the same ship as her. Unfortunately, later that day, while they were patrolling the border between their territory and the Klingon Empire, they were ambushed by three Klingon Birds of Prey. The first attack had damaged the cloaking device, and Centurion Jomar died from a power junction overload. The Tekel sent a distress call to the nearest Romulan warbird while fending off the three Klingon vessels. The Tekel was able to take out the weapons from two of the Birds of Prey, but the third disabled the Tekel, and all three Klingon vessels closed in to board their ship. This resulted in the ship’s security and the rest of the crew an onboard fight with the Klingons. While Saren was standing with his security group, with their rifles aimed down the corridor and firing away at the invading Klingons, three Klingons beamed behind them, to which they were alerted to the sound of the transporter beam. Forced into hand-to-hand combat, Saren watched his comrades die, which left him to fend off three Klingons. One hard kick to the stomach of the one directly in front of him allowed him to draw his sidearm and fire immediately from the hip at the two other Klingons. Saren’s attempt to shoot the third Klingon was interrupted when the edge of the blade of the Klingon’s d’g tahg sliced his right cheek. The shock and pain from the attack had sent Saren to his hands and knees, where the fear of death had washed over him. But before he allowed such fear to paralyze him, he felt the hilt of a knife from one of the fallen Klingons in his hand. At the very moment the last Klingon went for the final blow by raising his arms above his head with both hands on the hilt of his d’g tahg, Saren grabbed d’g tahg from the floor, spun around, and drove the whole blade right into the Klingon’s stomach. The Klingon would then fall to the floor; his cold, wide-open stare at Saren had shown fear in his eyes. Fear, that a Romulan bested him.

Saren and the rest of the crew dealt with the rest of the invading Klingons, while a warbird answered the call and obliterated the three Klingon Birds of Prey. Saren and others aboard were commended for their actions of bravery. While the Tekel made its way to the nearest Imperial Yard for repairs and new crew, many on board celebrated their victory. On the other hand, Saren very much did not feel like celebrating as he stood by the coffin of his dear friend. Saren’s actions with the engagement of the three Klingons had also earned Saren a promotion to sublieutenant and the transfer to the newest warbird, a D’Deridex-class, the IRW D’Dara.

(The Dominion War)

Saren had been on board the D’Dara for 18 years before the Dominion was encountered. During that time, Saren had made chief weapons officer on board the D’Dara with the rank of centurion. When they began to conduct cloaked operations into the Gamma Quadrant to gauge the Dominion’s forces further, was when Saren knew that something was not right. The first that got his attention was the Klingon Empire declaring war on the Cardassian Union. He thought it was peculiar, although, in his position, he agreed with others that watching two of their enemies fight each other is more appealing than being in that fight. The second thing was the reports of these changeling infiltrators and how one of the Klingon’s most decorated generals, who encouraged and led the charge against the Cardassian Union, was, in fact, one of those changelings. The last thing that got to Saren that made him question the senate was the Non-Aggression Treaty signed with the Dominion, to which Saren found to be a mistake since he believed the Dominion were a threat to everyone. Then when the Dominion consistently crossed Romulan territory to attack Federation or Klingon assets, that bothered Saren even more.

It was not until the death of a senator at the hands of the Dominion that had the senate formally declare war and have the Imperial Navy join Starfleet and the Klingons. To Saren, the Dominion had crossed that line long ago when they were a threat to the entire Alpha-Beta Quadrants. But he no longer needed to dwell on those thoughts when the D’Dara was ordered to join the task forces for a major offensive at the Battle of Chin’toka. After the said battle, Saren watched as many vessels on both sides were nothing but derelicts floating adrift in space. He laid eyes on many D’Deridex-class warbirds that were among those derelicts. D’Dara assisted recovery vessels in recovering all the crippled warbirds to return them to the nearest starbase or fleet yard for repairs.

During the war, when ever Saren got the chance to take leave, he would not stray too far from the D’Dara. One of those chances happened to be when the D’Dara was either in orbit or docked with Deep Space Nine. While on board Deep Space Nine, he kept an eye on the news feeds whenever he had the chance. Saren would read all he could and memorize the information before returning to the warbird. He wrote vital topics and information to reflect and cross-reference all the information he got from an outside source with the knowledge that the Imperial Navy and the news feed the Romulan Star Empire released. Some of the information he found to be in conflict, others to be worded differently to make the empire more of a leader in something. Technology. Popularity. Fact remained was that, while he had all this information, he did not know anyone he could trust to share it or even question it. All he could do was consider the fact that the Imperial Navy was right, everything outside the empire is propaganda. Or perhaps they were the liars and the information was speaking truth to an extent. With the thought of being caught with the information, he chose to erase everything he had wrote down. Safest place for any questionable thoughts was in his head and to keep it that way.

D’Dara returned with a task force of more warbirds to aid in defense of the Second Battle of Chin’Toka, where they were unfortunately forced to retreat. D’Dara participated in the Battle of Cardassia, and Saren witnessed the Cardassian forces turning on the Dominion and the Breen. At the war’s end, while the D’Dara was assigned to assist in the recovery efforts of the disabled warbirds, Saren was promoted to subcommander and now the new first officer on board the D’Dara.

(The End of a Career)

As first officer on board the D’Dara, they patrolled or investigated anomalies within Romulan space, Saren saw that his career would change. First, he was approached by Commander S’anra Terik, commanding officer of the IRW Intrakhu, who had kept an eye on Saren’s career and wanted to make him first officer on her warbird, a Valdore-class. Terik explained to Saren that she needed someone she could trust for an upcoming strike force mission and for what has yet to come. She then told Saren that there were quite a few secrets she knew that she would like to share with someone and after some observation of Saren’s career, she believed he was one she could trust.

While on board the Intrakhu, Saren participated in the assault on a Breen Shipyard. The leadership and tactician of their strike force commanding officer was brilliant, but Terik warned Saren to be cautious and to keep an open mind. Under the leadership of Shinzon, Saren had found that they had won every battle with few losses. But Saren wondered if there was an ulterior motive behind the man, and Saren’s question was soon answered when the senate was assassinated, and Terik’s loyalty to Donatra had the Intrakhu in combat with the Reman warbird Scimitar. Thankfully the battle ended with no ships destroyed and minimum casualties.

On the other hand, Saren put the fate of the Intrakhu and the Reman warbird behind him. Terik told Saren that the Navy and the Tal’Shiar had failed to protect the senate, that they should have known better than to allow a man from Remus to gain so much power. Not only that, Terik believed there would be a movement, a rebellion from within, but feared that the Tal’Shiar had ears everywhere. She could not say more and advised Saren to retire, that the Imperial Navy is no longer the same that she once knew. Saren did not want to believe anything she had said right away but after he took some time to himself to observe the changes and collect all that has happened in the last few years, Saren eventually agreed. So Saren retired from the Imperial Navy and returned to Romulus to seek a new career, a career in pottery.

(Family First, Always)

It took Saren’s first three years of his life on Romulus to enjoy being retired. During those first three years, he learned how to craft pottery and had established a small business for himself, which was a growing success. He hand-crafted many pots with unique designs on each one. Then he met a wonderful, charming woman named Ecural, who he had given his true name. It was actually Ecural who taught him how to craft pottery, helped him improve and helped him open the shop. Saren did not hesitate to express his feelings as soon as he realized he had them for her and he was incredibly happy when she felt the same way. A year later they had Nuhir, a beautiful daughter and a year after that, they had a boy named Chavek. He was happy more than he has ever been now than he was with the Imperial Navy. That is until they got the horrifying news that their star was to go supernova. Luckily for Saren, he had connections, and Terik had chosen to stay in the Imperial Navy for her own reasons. The Intrakhu was still her ship, and Saren was glad to see it again when he and his family were evacuated off Romulus.

He watched as the empire he knew divided into three, and the colony world he and his wife had chosen for their children to grow in had fallen under the flag of the Romulan Star Empire. Saren was furious and protested loudly. But before he took a trip to Rator, he was stopped by a visit from Terik. He proclaimed that it was the senate’s fault for failing to protect the people they stood for, who voted to represent them. He told her it was their fault for being blinded by the Federation and for believing in their lies. But Terik told him there was more to it and it was not the Federation’s fault but she could not say more as she was still looking for answers herself. Terik then told Saren that she was still in command the Intrakhu, and it was under a new flag. The Romulan Republic. She offered him a place in the Romulan Republic for him and his family, but he chose to decline. He wanted to return to his family, learn how to farm, and provide food for his family and fellow colonists. He told Terik that he was simply furious, and Saren allowed his rage to get the better of him, and he wanted no part of this liberation that the Romulan Republic was trying to do. His family had become everything, and he would choose them every time.

(Loss of a Family and a New Career)

Over the years in the Kani colony, Saren would wake up every morning to the smell of breakfast and coffee that his wife had made for him and their children. Every morning he would spend quality time with his family at the breakfast table, drink his coffee, eat his food, wish his children a great day before they were off to school, and make love to his wife before he went out into the fields to tend to his crop. Such frequent engagements with his wife would then turn up three more additions to the family. First there was their daughter Nuhir and their son Chavek. Then came their daughter Sulusi, daughter Rohe and their son Hajai. He had tried to obtain more efficient and productive equipment to make farming easier. Still, every time led to either unavailable or too expensive if he were to try to barter with a Ferengi. So often, he would spend the day out in the fields plowing the fields or, when harvest time came, harvesting the fields. Therefore became a routine for him, and his thoughts on what was happening in space were far from his mind. One day when he was out on the field harvesting his crops, he came into contact with a wild, vicious animal native to the planet, and all he had was a scythe. Due to a lack of fence, it was an unfortunate confrontation with the creature that led to him being injured but victorious. After that encounter, he received medical attention, but with no regenerators, he was left with additional scars. One from the fight with the Klingons and now two over his left eye from brow to cheek. Fortunately for him, the claws had missed his eye. After treatment, he ensured that he had a proper fence to keep any more of those creatures out.

The colony was attacked on June 15th, 2392, a group of Klingons called themselves the Sovereignty of Kahless. Saren had the training, the skill, and the tools to defend his home, but he could not protect his family. Turned out, while he was busy with the Klingons at the front of his home, a couple Klingons forced their way through the back door and killed his family. The response time of the Imperial Navy was incredibly awful and disgraceful that by the time a warbird came to repel the Klingons, over a quarter of the colonists were murdered. But it wasn’t an Imperial warbird that saved them, it was a Republic warbird. His respect and honor for the Imperial Navy were completely gone. From that day on, Saren spoke actively with the governor and the colonists that the colony should declare independence from the broken empire. At the time, they would listen, but no one would follow through, not even the governor; his excuse was that he was afraid of retaliation from the Imperial Navy. Lucky for them, the Republic warbird was Terik’s and she made it clear to the governor and all colonists that the Republic will protect them. And so Saren chose in taking up her offer in joining the Republic, as did the colony.

As of 2392, Saren had been Terik’s first officer on board the RRW Intrakhu. He served those eight years in the Romulan Republic with honor and integrity that with the agreement from the rest of the admiralty, Vice Admiral Terik promoted Saren to commander and placed him in command of his very own warbird.