Tal Shiar

The Tal Shiar is the secretive intelligence agency of the Romulan Star Empire, and is the most highly respected and feared organization within the Star Empire. Their main objective is to protect the Empire's security from both external and internal threats using whatever covert (or overt) means necessary.

The Tal Shiar are only held responsible to the highest levels of the Romulan Senate, yet the Tal Shiar often peforms operations without their permission or support. Their seeming placement above the law has bred contempt between Tal Shiar and the Romulan Imperial Fleet, as Tal Shiar authority exceeds that of the highest ranks of the military, even though the Tal Shiar use their own military vessels to perform their operations. (TNG episode: "Face of the Enemy" and DS9 episode: "The Die is Cast").

The History of the Tal Shiar
The date the Tal Shiar came into existence is unknown but knowledge of the Tal Shiar in the Federation began in the late 23rd century, when the Tal Shiar performed a number of covertly dangerous operations against Starfleet and the Federation.

Assignment: Eternity (2269)
In 2269, a small force of Tal Shiar troops led by Commander Dellas managed to gain control of the top-secret cloaked planet known as Deployment Base Alpha. The base was operated by agents who worked for the secretative organization known as Aegis, but Dellas and her soldiers were able to kill the agents, and began to examine the advanced technology for their own ends.

Dellas and her team discovered that the technology would allow them to both monitor time, and give them the ability to travel through it. After viewing the history of the late 23rd and early 24th centuries resulting from the signing of the Khitomer Accords in 2293, Dellas began to plot the assassination of Ambassador Spock.

Fortunately, her plan was foiled when the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) arrived with Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln, and Isis who had received a distress call from the Aegis agents, and had traveled to the 23rd century to enlist Captain James T. Kirk's assistance. Together, Seven and Kirk were able to destroy the equipment and self-destruct the base, keeping it out of the Tal Shiar's hands. (TOS novel: Assignment: Eternity).

The Khitomer Massacre (2346)
In 2346, the Tal Shiar was able to obtain information gained from the Cardassian Obsidian Order that the Klingon House of Kultan had commissioned the development of biogenic weapons on the outlying colony on Khitomer. The Tal Shiar supplied the information to the Romulan Senate, and shortly after preparations for an all-out assault on Khitomer were underway. (DS9 novel: Vengeance).

When the assault was underway a few weeks later, the Tal Shiar enlisted the aid of Ja'rod, who sabotaged the colony's planetary defenses and allowed the Romulan fleet to completely ravage the planet. (TNG episode: "Sins of the Father", and TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible).

Dark Matters (2356)
In the 2350s, the Tal Shiar sponsored a number of experiments involving artificial wormholes and cloaking devices that utilised dark matter, that were performed by Doctor Telek R'Mor and Ambassador Lhiau. By 2356, the experiments were proved successful and Chairman Jekri Kaleh had thirteen D'deridex-class warbirds equipped with dark matter cloaking devices.

Following a presentation of the new technology to the Romulan Senate, the fleet of Romulan warbirds set out through an artificial wormhole to travel into the 2370s and capture the USS Voyager and bring it back to the 2350s where they could use the starships advanced technology. Thankfully, the Tal Shiar are not able to gain Voyager 's advanced technology, but instead massed over 4,000 vessels along the Romulan Neutral Zone and prepared to attack five Federation colonies along the border, and using their dark matter cloaks and wormhole technology attack Earth, Vulcan, Bolarus IX, and Starbases 12, 74, and 212.

Thankfully, Lhiau and R'Mor were able to return to Romulus after escaping to Voyager and inform the Romulan Senate of the Tal Shiar's and Kaleh's plans to invade the Federation and the Empress was able to put an end to the assault, labelling the whole mission an excercise, and ordered that all dark matter technology be removed. With her great mission a failure, Kaleh retired from the Tal Shiar. (VOY novels: Dark Matters: Cloak and Dagger, Ghost Dance, Shadow of Heaven'').