measured_words | Twenty-Five Years

This is a series I started writing to explore what happened to Nero, Ayel, and the Narada crew during the twenty-five years between the destruction of the USS Kelvin and the attack on the Klingon prison planet. Where were the crew? What happened to the ship? How did Nero manage to maintain both their loyalty and his simmering hate for Spock for so long? I thought I would set up this entry to keep track of things, as I post more chapters, expand the list of named crew members beyond two, to explain my sources, and so forth. If there is any other information people would like to see here, just let me know.

Chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Capture and Oath
Chapter 3: Interrogations
Chapter 4: Refugees
Chapter 5: The Mines
Chapter 6: Connections
Chapter 7: Paren's Tale
Chapter 8: Disruption
Chapter 9: Conflict
Chapter 10: Alliances Tested
Chapter 11: Conversations
Chapter 12: New Status Quo. LJ | DW | AO3

Sources and Resources: I am drawing on a number of sources for this work. Primarily, of course, the movie. However, it is the supplemental material, especially the prequel comic Countdown, as well as the movie tie-in book, which gives more information about the Romulan characters. These, especially the comic (which I recommend to anyone interested in the movie Romulans or Spock Prime), provide me with a lot of material. I am also drawing heavily on the cultural and historical material presented Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels, mixing and matching with the presentation of the Romulans seen in TNG. I'm running with rumours about the cut scenes from Rura Penthe, though I hope to see them eventually :) Essentially, I'm cherry-picking what I consider cannon. If anyone has questions or suggestions, please feel free to ask.

ETA: having now seen both the deleted scenes and the Nero comic... I can officially say I'm ignoring them ;)

As for resources, I do recommend the Diane Duane books, especially My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way. The latter has a glossary of Romulan (or, rather, Rihannsu ;) words, some of which will appear in this series. There are a few online versions of the glossary, however, such as this one, though I take no responsibility for the green-on-white colour scheme -_-

The most important term/concept I'm using is mnhei-sahe, which I'll define here:
Mnhei'sahe
The Ruling Passion (The concept, or concept complex, that rules most of Rihannsu life in terms of Honor. Mnhei'sahe is primarily occupied with courtesy to the people around one: this courtesy, depending on circumstances, may require killing a person to do him honor, or severely disadvantaging oneself on his behalf. There are many ramifications too involved to go into, but generall Mnhei'sahe is satisfied if all the parties to an agreement feel that their "face" or honor is intact after a (social) or other transaction. NB: The concept has occasionally been mistranslated as implying that a given action is done "for another person's good." This is incorrect; such a concept literally does not exist in Rihannsu culture. One does things for one's own good -- or rather, the good of one's honor, and if properly carried out, the actions in question will have benefitted the other parties in the transaction as well.)

All the Romulan words are attribuable to Diane Duane.

Why did I decide to do this? As I said above, damnit I want to know what they were doing! I had a few ideas, but hadn't committed to actually writing anything. I thought I might at least wait until the cut-scenes were released.... But then I read a fan Q&A with Bob Orci who said that "This should be a rich area for fan fiction!" (see comment #469 @_@). And lo, the series was ordained from on high. Or something. I'm on a mission from ~~God~~ Bob. Clearly.

ETA: Or maybe he was making an oblique reference to something more official. Which, I mean... Gimme! But also >_<

ETA2: I'll add a note here, since it has been awhile since I have added anything, to say that I was re-inspired to return to it after the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Cast: There are only two named Romulans in the movie. There are three in Countdown, plus another who has a key role and is not named. Other than that, there are mostly generic background Romulans. Obviously, for a story focusing on the crew, i need a bit more to work with. So I'm naming some previously existing characters, and making up some new ones! I'll add some relevant biological bits as they become established in-story.

Established Characters:

Nero - Captain of the Narada. I expect that if you are reading this you probably have *some* idea who he is :)

Ayel - Nero's second in command.

T'Lalea - Female Romulan seen in Countdown. Some images of her hereNever named, but one of Nero's inner circle, important in the chain of command. Nero claims she is the toughest on the ship, and she has some clue about interstellar geology. I have made her head of security.

Thrai - Giant grey-haired Romulan from Countdown. Was one of Nero's inner circle. I killed him... Or rather I let George Kirk's heroic ramming of the Narada kill him. However he was named, and named after a Romulan predator introduced in the Diane Duane novels, so I thought he deserved mention ;)

Introduced Characters, in order of first appearance:

H'Man - Male. Narada's medical officer. First appearance: ch. 1.

Taul - Male. A medic. First appearance: ch. 1.

Paran - Female. Narada's chief engineer. First appearance: ch. 3.

Vanor - Male. A older miner from the drill crews. First appearance: ch. 4.

Aifn - Female. A miner from the drill crews. First appearance: ch. 5.

Rihain - Female. A miner from the drill crews. First appearance: ch. 5.

Saleema - Female. An alien inmate, consort of the Klingon geophysicist assigned to Rura Penthe (Q'Vul). First appearance: ch. 6.

Llhran - Male. Romulan computer tech. First appearance: ch. 8.

Rhyd - Male. Narada crewman. First appearance: ch. 8.

Maunn - Male. Klingon Guard. First appearance: ch. 8.

H'Lad - Male. Narada crewman. First appearance: ch. 9.

Parva - Male. Narada crewman. First appearance: ch. 9.

Illraehi - Male. Acting security adviser for Narada crew. First appearance: ch. 9. Deceased ch. 9.

Q'Vul - Male. Klingon geophysicist assigned to Rura Penthe. Lover of Saleema. First appearance: ch. 10.

H'Rhish - Male. Narada crewman - Geologist. First appearance: ch. 12.

S'Terek - Male. Narada crewman. First appearance: ch. 12.

Lhain - Male. Narada crewman. First appearance: ch. 12.

Tarras - Male. Orion inmate. First appearance: ch. 12.