A reference image of Voni. She stands wearing a blue checkered cape fastened with a buckle of the Romulan Star Empire logo. Under the cape is the TOS era Romulan uniform. She wears Klingon-esque boots, with raptor talons added to the front and back. An uncolored image on the left shows her brandishing a gladius, grinning at an unseen combatent. Text next to her says Despite her dedication to tradition, she takes a rather direct approach to conflict. The drawing in the bottom left shows a Vulcan PADD with a text bubble coming from it, with a logo for MySubspace. Text next to it says A dedicated user of MySubspace, accessed using a hacked Vulcan PADD

Voni

A Romulan commander who values tradition. Voni was raised from birth to be the model soldier, after her brother failed to live up to expectations. Growing up under such scrutiny, she quickly learned not just to hide any odd habits, but to use her interest in tradition to appeal to others. She became infatuated with mythology and history, which quickly led her to studying Vulcan history- as well as the peace movement. At the same time she climbed ranks, eventually becoming a commander. Voni now lives a double life, careful to please her parents, command her ship, and uphold the values of the Romulan Star Empire… all while wishing she could escape from it.

Backstory

Voni had always had a strained relationship with her brother- she had managed to rise through the ranks to become the family pride, while he had apparently fumbled before she was even born. The problem became easier to ignore once they went their separate ways, then abruptly came to the forefront when she learned of Maljek’s betrayal to the Empire. Worst of all, he had become an “active problem”, and she would soon be the one to take care of him.

She was, truthfully, very much like him. While he was infatuated with androids and hacking, she had a love for history and mythology. The only difference was that this interest could appeal to her parents, who were dedicated to tradition, and valued their high position in society. She made it a point to integrate what she could of her interests into her modern life- she even carried a sword when acting as commander.

She tried to give Maljek a chance, initially. When she saw him on a trade planet, she “mistook” him as being a spy. All he had to do was come back and tell the Empire what he had learned, and explain his actions as a dedicated method to getting close to the Enterprise crew. But Maljek had refused, returning to the ship. Soon she found that Maljek had a talent for escape- with each confrontation, he would manage to find a way out of it, safe until she was next sent after him. The problem was easy to ignore again; their spats became routine.

The Romulan Star Empire, however, would not stand to have a traitor so flagrantly elude them. One fateful day Maljek entered the bridge and faced the viewscreen, expecting to recognize only his sister. Instead, by her side, was Petik- their father, and someone who would not show mercy. If there was a way to catch Maljek, Petik would find it. Voni felt the strain return; she did not want to see her brother executed, but could not possibly disobey an order from someone who was both her father and a superior officer. Panicked, she was able to pull some strings for Maljek, but marked herself as suspicious in the process.

Maljek became skilled at escaping their father, too, much to Petik’s annoyance. Both siblings knew he had resented Maljek for tarnishing the family’s reputation, and Voni could see that resentment growing. His plans became more insidious, until one night, Petik approached Voni with a new plan. He would plant a device on the Enterprise, capable of remotely hacking and destroying a ship- her own ship. The blame would easily be pinned on Maljek. Petik and Voni would be the sole survivors, and return to Romulus to incite a full military-backed movement against Maljek.

Voni, adequately horrified, could no longer bear it. She tried to find a way to tell someone, anyone, but suddenly found she could barely get out of Petik’s sight. Eventually Petik contacted the Enterprise one last time, and on the viewscreen, she broke. She warned the crew about the device, that it would kill her entire crew- just before Petik aimed a phaser at her. He activated the device on a countdown, using Voni as a hostage to get himself to an escape pod.

Engineering rushed to find the device in time. Maljek managed to locate it, identifying it as Federation technology, meaning Geordi and Data could dismantle it while he transported to the Warbird to help Voni. Petik let go of her once Maljek found him- he was the one he wanted, after all. The phaser fired, Maljek scrambled forward, in seconds the two were wrestling and clawing on the floor. The phaser was inching closer and closer to Maljek’s head, he was trying to push it away, but Petik was overpowering him-

Before he could do it, Voni plunged her sword into his back.

Petik struggled to sit up. His eyes hung over Maljek, then drifted up towards Voni, choked sigh leaving him. “I always hoped that it would be you,” he said, “but I didn’t imagine it like this.”

The fallout was complicated. A high-ranking commander had just killed another, but the latter had nearly murdered an entire crew, all behind the back of the Tal Shiar and military. The warbird’s crew, however, was thankful to be alive. They, namely the Tal Shiar officer on board, decided Voni was safest in a “temporary exile”; mostly satisfying the myriad of reasons someone might want her punished, but also keeping her out of harm’s way by keeping her in Federation territory.

Thus, Voni has begun a new chapter on Deep Space 9.

Triva

  • In her mid 40s during when Maljek first boards the Enterprise.
  • I based her rather heavily on Azula from A:TLA… She’s great as a tragic character of course, but I always felt bad for her, especially after the way the later comics treated her. Consider Voni a sort of love letter/fix-it fic.
  • Voiceclaim (voice at 1:50 and 3:10).