Sela

Sela is the half-Human/half-Romulan daughter of Romulan General Volskiar and his consort, Lieutenant Tasha Yar (a future version from an alternate timeline).

Early Life
Sela was born on Romulus in the year 2345 and grew up in her father's private compound on Romulus's surface. In 2349, when she was four years old, her mother tried to sneak her out of the compound and back to Federation space. Sela, not wanting to be separated from her beloved father and the only life she ever knew, cried out for the guards who captured Tasha, who was then executed in front of Sela. This led Sela to believe that her humanity was a weakness that would be her downfall and stood by this belief all her life. 

Career
By the late 24th century, she had enlisted in the Romulan Star Empire's military forces. While in training, she befriended one of the instructors, Saket, who became her mentor and taught her what it took to become a competent soldier, a good leader, and an expert tactician. It is presumed because of her dominant human features that she suffered racial insults while in training but was able to get through the difficult times with brute force, leading her to adopt a cold and angry attitude to everything. 

Encounters with the Federation
She reached the rank of commander by 2367 and was influential in the Senate and military councils. She was given a high-profile mission to destroy the Klingon Empire by any means necessary. Sela initially tried to have an influential, yet hostile to the Federation, Klingon governor named Vagh assassinated. This would have inevitably led to war as it would confirm Vagh's anti-Federation opinions, especially if the influential Klingon Ambassador Kell (a Romulan collaborator) vouched for him in his memory. To this end, she intercepted the shuttlecraft commanded by Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and brainwashed him to become Kell's un-willing assassin. Unfortunately, the plan failed when Lieutenant Commander Data realized the plot and warned Vagh in time to stop Geordi. While Vagh was saved (and now convinced of the Federation's good intentions), Kell was arrested and executed and Geordi was freed of the brainwashing. 

Sela then sought to use the Klingon's own political instability in the wake of the deaths of K'mpec and Duras, son of Ja'rod, to cause a civil war that would destroy the Klingon Empire and leave the Federation's position weakened without Klingon military support. Sela recruited Romulan collaborators Lursa, B'Etor and Toral (Duras's illegitimate son) to this end and guaranteed Romulan weaponry and supplies if the conflict should break out. The plan initially succeeded, with the war spreading to outlying Klingon star systems and Toral's forces winning at almost every turn. However, the Federation sent a fleet, led by the infamous Captain Jean-Luc Picard, to blockade the Klingon-Romulan border and choke off the supply chain. The civil war ended in favor of Federation-supportive forces under Gowron and Lursa and B'Etor's family's hold on the Klingon Empire effectively ended. 

With the failure of her latest mission, Sela conspired with Proconsul Neral and Senator Pardek to invade Vulcan. She arranged with multiple criminals (such as Omag) to steal three Vulcan transports and use them to ferry 2000 Romulan troops to Vulcan (all of them on loan from the Senate). The plan was thwarted yet again by Picard, Data and Romulan dissidents led by Ambassador Spock. Sela was forced to cover up the Romulan's involvement in the attempted invasion by ordering a warbird to destroy the transports before the troops could be interrogated by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D. 

Fall from Grace
The loss of 2000 loyal troops, three ships, several key Klingon supporters for their secret missions into the Klingon Empire and failure to complete these key assignments resulted in Sela falling out of favor with the Senate and loss of influence over her fellow officers. Matters worsened when she was reduced to commanding the IRW N'ventnar, an old, failing B-Type warbird, something she regarded as an embarrassment.

Sela finally got a chance to redeem herself by accepting a mission to recruit the Elohsians into the Empire. She felt she would gain much favor back as Eloh's planet was on the border of the Neutral Zone and would allow an ideal spying platform on Federation territory. The assignment worked better than she had hoped, with the Elohsians formally part of the Empire, she humiliated Picard in public and exposed the ineptness of the Tal Shiar. This led to the agency's many enemies to form around Sela and pledge her allegiance, helping her regain a better position than prior to her initial encounter with Picard and his crew. 

In 2371, Sela commanded a task force of warbirds into Cardassian space to recover a sample of a lethal virus (created by the Redeemers) being held by Saket (now imprisoned in the labor camp in Lazon II), and use it to launch a secret biological attack on the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS. The attack was a success, and Sela destroyed much of the bases defenses by using a stolen Federation Peregrine-class fighter before abandoning it and beaming down to the surface, and transporting herself, Saket and his new friend, ex-Maquis member Thomas Riker. Sela believed, for most of the time, that Thomas was in fact Will Riker. Saket, however, had been injured by the guards in the escape and died in sickbay, though the sample was found hidden in one of his false eyeballs.

Later, Sela and Riker became lovers, with Sela recruiting him in her plans by tasking him to release the virus, which was hidden in a bottle of Romulan ale, into the atmosphere while on the surface, and to also assassinate Chancellor Gowron. To ensure he would do this, Sela double-crossed Riker and kidnapped Deanna Troi and Alexander Rozhenko from Betazed, holding them hostage on Lintar IV. Riker could not help but feel that he couldn't bear anything to happen to Troi and agreed to her demands. However, the attack was foiled when Deep Space 9's security chief, Odo, replaced the virus-bottle and tipped off Commander Elizabeth Shelby on the USS Excalibur about the hostage's location. While the hostages were rescued safely, Riker fled from Starfleet yet again and Sela and her forces retreated. 

In early 2373, Sela, as a result of failing to cripple the Klingon Empire once again, had become an outcast and had fled underground. While piloting a one-man shuttlecraft over a remote planet, Sela was shot down by its ninja-like inhabitants, the Bodai Shin. Her old nemesis, Picard, was also stranded and they were forced to work together to escape alive. They soon parted ways after this. 

In late 2375, Sela somehow regained her command, and led several warbirds to Sector 221-G and attacked the USS Independence (NCC-41452). The ship was quickly destroyed by the warbirds, but many of the crew escaped via escape pods. Sela ordered the escape pods destroyed, and many were, before the USS Excalibur arrived and drove her ships away. 


 * When Sela was last seen in Double or Nothing she was in Starfleet custody and comatose. No explanation was given for her subsequent appearances in Armada and Death in Winter.

In 2376, Sela's new allies arranged to have her promoted to admiral and command the latest type of warbirds and to work on high-profile projects. Sela was summoned by the Tal Shiar agent Jal Par to capture a recently discovered Omega molecule from the Ferengi and Cardassians and deliver it to a secret research facility to use it to fuel the empire. The raid was a success (through a combination of Ferengi greed for dilithium and the Cardassians' weakened military) and Sela's fleet destroyed countless Klingon patrol ships and invading Borg Cubes and escaped through a wormhole to the facility and delivered the molecule safely. Sela then manipulated the Borg's belief in the molecule being "perfection itself" and convinced the Borg into destroying Toral's faction in the new Klingon Civil War that threatened the Romulan Empire with its escalating conflict in exchange for the molecule. After the Borg finished destroying his bases and ships (killing Toral as well), the weakened Borg were then double-crossed and destroyed by Sela, temporarily ending the Borg threat to the Romulan Empire (unfortunately the molecule was later captured by the Borg after they learned where it was being kept by the now-assimilated Jal Par). Sela then served as the Romulan Empire's representative during the negotiations to form the Alliance against the Borg invasion. 

After Shinzon
In 2379, during the power vacuum created by the demise of Praetor Shinzon (whose coup d'état served to cripple the Empire and resulted in the deaths of the entire Romulan Senate), Sela became a personal agent of new Praetor; Tal'Aura, though had to accept a demotion back to Commander.

In the days following Shinzon's coup, the Romulan Empire faced a myriad of challenges, the most unexpected of which was originating from their farthest outer subject worlds; which were critical components in the Empire's economy, whose natives, dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of the Romulans and often making minor attempts at rebellion and secession, began taking their objections to the streets and challenged Imperial authority. Soon, their continued submission to Romulus was in jeopardy, and Tal'Aura had a growing list of rebellions to deal with.

As a result, Sela (or, as she referred to, as "the half-blood"), her best operative, was sent to the frozen outworld of Kevratas on the fringe of Romulan territory, which possessed the strongest area of rebellion activity. Due to her own experiences, however, Tal'Aura also sent a second operative and veteran spy; Manathas to Kevratas, without Sela's knowledge. Nevertheless, Tal'Aura was confident that Sela, having hunted down and crushed rebel movements before for the Praetor's predecessors; and by extension earned a name for herself with her cold and ruthless efficiency, would succeed in her mission against the "crude" rebels.

Somehow, Sela received word that a Federation scientist; Doctor Beverly Crusher, was on Kevratas meeting with the rebels. As such, she personally led a squad of soldiers that successfully trapped and captured Crusher, faking her death in the process.

Picard, Crusher's long-time romantic admirer, did not accept this, and with the aid of old shipmates Pug Joseph and Doctor Carter Greyhorse, did they affect a rescue. Tal'Aura ordered Sela to remain on Kevratas to monitor the tenuous situation along the empire's border worlds for the time being. 

25th century
The Empire was devastated for many years, however by 2408, the Romulans had established a new homeworld on Nova Roma and had reinstated the Romulan monarchy with Sela as the new Romulan empress. (The Path to 2409)

Appearance & Personality
Sela is described as bearing an uncanny resemblance to her mother; inheriting her "piercing gaze, (her) strong but feminine features, close-cropped blond hair, and the determined jut of her chin". The only exception is her pointed Romulan ears. This is considered an ironic twist; as she is entirely her father's daughter under the surface. Despite the setbacks she faced, Sela proved to be one of the craftiest and most dangerous individuals certain Federation personnel (e.g. Jean-Luc Picard, Beverly Crusher etc.) had ever encountered.