Donatra was a female Romulan in the 24th century who served in the Imperial Fleet of the Romulan Star Empire. By 2379 she had ascended to Commander of the Third Fleet, and was captain of the IRW Valdore. In the wake of Shinzon's coup of the Empire Donatra rose in political prominence, and in 2380 declared herself the first Empress of the newly splintered Imperial Romulan State, which she ruled for five years until eventually reuniting with the Star Empire.
History
Donatra was born in 2327. (ST novel: A Singular Destiny)
Imperial Service
By 2367 Donatra was serving as Centurion and transferred to the IRW T'sarok, under command of Suran. He counselled the eager young officer that she should slow down, for that would be no shortage of enemies for her to destroy. Donatra rose to be Suran's first officer, and while in that position first encountered Admiral Braeg on a mission in the D'nossos system. Suran was leading a task force against the Tellati, and during in the battle they came across a warbird whose command staff had been killed; Donatra and two of her subordinates beamed aboard and brought the warbird back into the battle. Braeg immediately offered her command of one of his warbirds, but Donatra turned him down, too loyal to Suran to transfer.
Braeg made it his mission to pursue Donatra and orchestrated a meeting in the Reggiana system where Donatra had been invited to give a lecture. The two began to talk about military philosophy, but the discussions soon became more impassioned and the pair became secret lovers. (TNG novel: Death in Winter)
Politics
Donatra was later awarded her own command, the IRW Valdore and by 2379 Donatra was commander of the Imperial Third Fleet, by then an equal with Commander Suran of the Fifth Fleet. In that year Donatra was amongst a group, including Commander Suran and Senator Tal'Aura, which allied with Shinzon of Remus in a coup. While Shinzon was in power Donatra and Suran briefly commanded the entire Imperial Defence Force. (TNG novel: Death in Winter; TNG movie & novelization: Nemesis)
Donatra initially promised her allegiance to Shinzon, and even made sexual advances towards him, however her efforts were rebuffed, and shortly after she learned of Shinzon's illness. Increasingly convinced Shinzon was unstable, and planning a genocidal attack on Earth Donatra convinced Suran they should no longer support Shinzon and took the Valdore and another warbird to assist the USS Enterprise in battling Shinzon's ship, the Scimitar, in the Bassen Rift.
Donatra on the bridge of the Valdore
Donatra's arrival was warmly welcomed by Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise, however her assistance was short lived after Shinzon successfully disabled both of the opposing warbirds. Once the Enterprise crew successfully defeated Shinzon, Donatra offered medical assistance to the then severely damaged Starfleet vessel and declared that Picard had earned a friend in the Empire that day. (TNG movie & novelization: Nemesis)
In the wake of Shinzon's coup Donatra established her allegiances; The newly appointed Praetor Tal'Aura, not willing to trust her fellow conspirators, appointed Tomalak Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Force. However she underestimated the loyalty of the Romulans serving under Donatra and Suran, which led to a schism in the Romulan military with only half the fleet acknowledging the new Praetor. Donatra and Suran allied themselves with Braeg, who had retired from the Defence Force to stand against Tal'Aura's Praetorship. (TNG novel: Death in Winter)
Braeg orchestrated civil unrest in Victory Square on Romulus to try and force Tal'Aura out of office, while in space Donatra's forces battled Tomalak's. Braeg's rebellion was crushed when Tal'Aura brought in heavy weaponry to quell the crowd, prompting Braeg to surrender rather than allow a massacre. While in space Donatra's forces were outsmarted by Tomalak, taking heavy losses, but retreating to fight another day. For Braeg's treason Tal'Aura had him poisoned. Donatra herself received plasma burns to her side during in the battle, but refused to have the scars healed as a reminder of her love for Braeg and her hatred for Tal'Aura. (TNG novel: Death in Winter; TTN novel: Taking Wing)
A few weeks after the coup Donatra and Suran had established a strong hold in the Bassen Rift, at the sight of the Great Bloom, a phenomenon that had developed at the site of the destruction of the Scimitar. Their fleet included numerous ships which were official written off as seized or destroyed in the Reman uprising of the coup.
Around that time Donatra and the Valdore traveled to the Neutral Zone to welcome the USS Titan and its convoy into Romulan space. Donatra provided the Titan, which was on a humanitarian and diplomatic mission to Romulus, with an escort through Romulan space to guard against what Donatra described as "rogue elements". Donatra herself made a quick detour to her fleet in the Great Bloom before taking the Valdore back to Romulus to participate in the talks the Titan was overseeing to try and restabilize the Romulan political system.
While at Romulus, another faction in the Romulan political situation, the Remans, threatened to attack Romulus unless they were awarded the continent of Ehrie'fvil for Reman habitation. Donatra took the Valdore in to intercept the Reman fleet but was outnumbered had had to retreat to call in her backup fleet. She got no response until Suran's ship decloaked, and Suran informed her that their fleet in the Great Bloom had vanished. However dealing with the more immediate problem Donatra and Suran returned to Romulus to defend against the Reman attack, in turn prompting Klingon vessel's in Titan's convey to strike out at the two Romulan vessels in defence of the Remans. As the situation escalated the Titan stepped in and negotiated an agreement to let the Remans settle the continent, under the protection of the Klingons. This decision was initially opposed by Tal'Aura, but Donatra supported it and it went ahead. (TTN novel: Taking Wing)
- Contray to Donatra's many appearances in the larger prose continuity, the TOS novel: Captain's Blood suggests that following the events of Nemesis Donatra, along with various other Romulan officials disappeared, removed from diplomatic lists and apparently the memories of those involved in the preceding incidents.
Lost In Space
Later, after extensively searching the Great Bloom for her missing fleet Donatra approached the Titan to request the use of it's state-of-the-art sensors to try and locate the missing vessels. Captain Riker agreed, but while investigating the anomaly was pulled in, along with the Valdore displacing both vessels 210000 light-years into the Small Magellanic Cloud. Donatra awoke from the rough ride to find the Valdore in a sorry state, and the IKS Dugh which had been tailing the Valdore and the Titan in an even worse condition. Donatra had her crew pull the Dugh and several nearby escape pods out of the most volitle area of the anomaly and then recruited the Klingons to salvage components from their vessel to help restore the Valdore to full operation. (TTN novels: Taking Wing, The Red King)
Meanwhile the escape pods turned out to be from a native vessel which had been destroyed, containing Neyel and other native races, giving Donatra an incite into the local situation. Once the Valdore was fully operational they located the nearby Titan and the three crews began to pool their resources to find out what had happened, where the rest of Donatra's fleet was and how they might get home. As the Titan crew revealed their findings on the anomaly, which turned out to be an emergent protouniverse, they detected Donatra's fleet, which has been taken over by a rapidly developing sentience from the protouniverse.
The Titan and Valdore set off after the Romulan fleet and once close enough Donatra and Riker lead away teams to the IRW Ra'khoi where they found the crew alive but comatosed, the Romulan computer systems having apparently prevented the alien intelligence from killing the crew completely when it took over the ship. Once aboard Donatra's crew were able to reprogram the fleet and return control to the crews.
By this time the Romulans and the Titan had become aware of the destructive qualities of the anomaly which was tearing local space apart, threatening nearby worlds. Feeling partly responsible for the turn of events Captain Riker proposed to evacuate as much of the population of the Neyel homeworld, Oghen, as possible. However Commander Suran rejected this idea and ordered the fleet to make preparations to return through the rift. Donatra initially complied with Suran, but her morality, and increasing tensions with Suran, prompted her to relieve him, with the assistance of her chief medical officer, allowing her to bring to fleet to Oghen and assist the Titan.
Donatra's fleet spent nearly four days transporting Oghen refugees to the Vanguard colony, the original asteroid home of the Neyel. The fleet then coordinated to tractor the colony to the anomaly and back to the Milky Way. En route a member of the Valdore's crew in the infirmary saw past Donatra and Dr. Venora's deception and revived Suran from his medically induced slumber. Suran went to the bridge to confront Donatra who brought their continually escalating struggle for power to an end by killing him with an ihl-sen.
On the way back through the anomaly Donatra convinced Riker to allow her fleet to assist the Dugh on the journey by tractoring it. However she used the opportunity to destroy the Dugh by towing it with an unbalanced arrangement of tractor beams, thus preventing the Dugh reporting back on the state of Donatra's fleet; with Donatra especially wary that half her fleet would be rendered warp incapable when they had to detonate their warp cores to seal the rift on the final leg of their journey home. This final act disappointed Riker who had come to see Donatra as an ally, but she considered it merely what had to be done. (TTN novel: The Red King)
After the continual damage dealt to the Valdore Donatra needed her ship repaired, however she no longer trusted the technicians on the Two Worlds, who were too close to Tal'Aura, so instead set course for the ships yards at Artalierh, which she knew were run by people loyal to her. En route the Valdore was attacked by four Birds-of-Prey. Donatra suspected they had been sent by Tal'Aura, and after destroying the lead ship convinced the next most senior commander, Norvid, to come with her to Artalierh where they could contact the Two Worlds and gain confirmation of the orders; if Tal'Aura denied sanctioning an attack on an Imperial warbird, Norvid's former commander, the then deceased Horrhae, would become a scapegoat, pushing Norvid and the other commanders to side with Donatra. (TNG novel: Q & A)
- In an alternate realty where the universe began to end at this point in time, while Donatra waited for her reinforcements to join her on the journey to Artalierh a mysterious spatial anomaly appeared, causing them to vanish, she subsequently ordered the Valdore to proceed to Artalierh to report the incident. This turn of events was undone when Jean-Luc Picard preventing Them from ending the universe.
A New State
Towards the end of 2380, Donatra consolidated her powerbase and made a move against the Star Empire under Tal'Aura; on Archernar Prime she declared the existence of the Imperial Romulan State, declaring herself the Empress and using the parts of the military loyal to her to take control of that system and others, including Xanitla, Ralatak, and Virinat. These world's were the primary agricultral planets in the Star Empire, which effectivly meant Donatra held the Empire's food supply hostage. (ST novel: Articles of the Federation)
- The Star Trek Online timeline, The Path to 2409 cannibalises much of Donatra's history from this period. However the timeline does make some slight alterations; In The Path to 2409 Donatra forms the Imperial Romulan State slightly later, in 2381, and her capitol planet is the slightly differently spelt Archenar Prime.
Her new government was almost immediately recognized by the Klingon Empire, though the United Federation of Planets initially refused to intervene in what it considered an internal Romulan affair. By early 2381, the Federation was forced to recognize the sovereignty of the Imperial Romulan State as a result of pressure from the Klingons and the need to show solidarity with its ally. The Federation and Imperial Romulan State established ambassadorships to one-another's states with Donatra appointing former warbird commander Jovis as her Ambassador to the Federation. During the Borg Invasion of that year Jovis commented to Federation President Nanietta Bacco that Donatra wished to open a new era of peace with the Federation. (ST novel: Articles of the Federation; ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals)
In the wake of the Borg Invasion the Federation's resources were stretched thin, and aid they had been providing to Romulus since Shinzon's coup was considered a resource they could use elsewhere. However Donatra refused to trade with Tal'Aura and the Romulan Star Empire was still in desperate need of food. The Federation sent a variety of diplomats and Starfleet captains for talks with Donatra and finally recruited Professor Sonek Pran to meet with her in the hope of convincing her to consider trading with Tal'Aura, and provide the Federation some relief.
Where other's had failed Pran succeeded in convincing Donatra that she had already won her feud with Tal'Aura, that what he imaged was her ultimate goal of reuniting the Romulan people as Tal'Aura's power crumbled was already underway; with Tal'Aura not having enough military might to engage Donatra in open war, and the Imperial Romulan State having a strangle-hold on Romulan food resources. Pran argued that if Donatra were to trade with the Empire the people would be all too aware of who was responsible for them being fed. However when Donatra tried to open talks with Tal'Aura all she got was rejection.
A short while late Tal'Aura's motivations were revealed, she and the Star Empire had become members of a new interstellar alliance, the Typhon Pact, a group of nations united in currency, trade and technology, a new opposition force to the Federation and the Klingons. In response the Pact's competition invited several states, including the Imperial Romulan State, to join in an expansion of the Khitomer Accords, to create a new counter-group to the Pact - Donatra immediately accepted this offer. (ST novel: A Singular Destiny)
- The Star Trek Online timeline, The Path to 2409 does not incorporate the events of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy or A Singular Destiny and subsequently makes no mention of the political situation brought about by the formation of the Typhon Pact, instead the Romulan situation remains a largely internal matter.
In 2383, the Star Empire's forces under command of Fleet Commander Tomalak attacked Donatra's fleet at Xanitla. Donatra's forces were victorious in the battle, and as an additional blow to the Star Empire Admiral Taris and the twelve ships under her command defected to the Imperial State. By the following year this crushing defeat pushed Tal'Aura to reluctantly open peace talks with the Imperial State to establish boarders and a neutral zone. Donatra sent Taris to Romulus as her representative but Tal'aura was assassinated shortly after. Donatra strongly refuted any claims of her involvement in the assassination and recalled Taris in preparation for any subsequent offensive. (ST website : The Path to 2409)
Reunification
In 2385, in the aftermath of Tal'Aura's assassination Donatra used the opportunity to win the hearts of the Romulan people by delivering food aid to non-military worlds in the Star Empire. Together with Proconsul Sela and Tal Shiar leader Rehaek, Donatra agreed to fold the worlds of the Imperial Romulan State back into the Star Empire, while she retained command of the military - keeping most of her forces away from Romulus in case the peace did not hold. The newly reunited Romulan Senate then appointed Senator Chulan the new Praetor.
With Donatra gaining increasing popular support as a peace maker, and holding sway over the Praetor with her military control she took the opportunity to open peace talks with the Remans, securing their physical strength and resource wealth by meeting with Colonel Xiomek to offer representation in the Romulan Senate and citizenship for all Remans. (ST website : The Path to 2409)
Appendices
Personal timeline
| date(s) | assignment/event/posting |
|---|---|
| 2327 | Born |
| 2367-? | Centurion under the command of Suran |
| 2367 | Suran's first officer on the IRW T'sarok |
| ?-2379-2380 | Commander of the IRW Valdore |
| ?-2379-2380 | Commander of the Imperial Third Fleet |
| 2380-2385 | Empress of the Imperial Romulan State |
Appearances and references
In publication order
- TNG movie & novelization: Nemesis
- TOS novel: Captain's Blood (referenced only)
- TTN novel: Taking Wing
- ST novel: Articles of the Federation (referenced only)
- TNG novel: Death in Winter
- TTN novel: The Red King
- TNG novel: Q & A
- TNG novel: Greater Than the Sum (referenced only)
- ST website : The Path to 2409
- ST - Destiny novel: Mere Mortals (referenced only)
- ST novel: A Singular Destiny
External link
- Donatra article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.