Tal Shiar The Tal Shiar was the elite intelligence agency of the Romulan Star Empire . It was a highly - respected and feared force in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants . Its purpose was guarding the security of the Empire , both from the Romulan s ' interstellar enemies - most notably the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire - as well as from traitors within the Romulan population itself . The covert , often invisible presence of the Tal Shiar kept the general populace in a constant state of paranoia . Dissent and dissatisfaction with the status quo were met with severe punishment and dissidents were often known to " disappear " . ( ) Organization . It was common practice for the chairman of the Tal Shiar to be a member of the Continuing Committee . This was initially not the case for Chairman Koval , who was kept off the Committee , as he had often displayed anti - Federation sentiment and was opposed to the Federation Alliance against the Dominion . ( ) Senator Vreenak was the Vice - Chairman of the Tal Shiar during the 2370s , up until his untimely death in 2374 . ( ) The Tal Shiar reported only to the highest levels of the Romulan government , and even so they undertook many missions without the direct knowledge of the Romulan Senate , conducting operations with virtual impunity throughout the Empire . Their authority superseded that of most Romulan military commander s , resulting in a mutual distrust and hatred between the two organizations . The Tal Shiar operated their own fleet , often to their own aims . ( ; ) History . In 2369 , the Romulan underground movement forced Counselor Deanna Troi of the to pose as Major of the Tal Shiar in order to facilitate the defection of Vice - Proconsul M ' ret and his aides to the Federation . The real Major Rakal was killed prior to the operation . ( ) In 2371 , the Tal Shiar formed a secret coalition with the Cardassian Obsidian Order , to carry out a preemptive strike against the in the Dominion . As part of this operation , they carried out the assassinations of several former Obsidian Order operatives , including ( unsuccessfully ) Elim Garak . However , the Tal Shiar itself had been infiltrated by the Founder s , and their combined fleet of twenty ships was ambushed and annihilated at the Battle of the Omarion Nebula . ( ) Unlike the Obsidian Order , the Tal Shiar was able to be rebuilt after the attack on the Founder homeworld . In 2374 , operatives of the Romulan Military hijacked the prototype starship and attempted to bring it to the Empire . They were supposed to bring it to the Military but received orders during the operation to deliver it to the Tal Shiar ' s fleet instead . ( ) In late 2374 , the Tal Shiar investigated the destruction of Senator Vreenak ' s shuttle . Their preliminary report pointed towards Dominion sabotage . ( ) The chairman of the Tal Shiar during the Dominion War , Koval , was in fact a Federation collaborator who was planted in preparation for feared hostilities following the war . Following covert maneuvering orchestrated by Section 31 , Koval became a member of the Continuing Committee from which he had been previously excluded . ( ) In 2375 , the Tal Shiar was responsible for the security arrangements of the Romulan Conference . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The Tal Shiar was first mentioned in the form of the Federation impostor Major Rakal in the episode . However , the agency would not be mentioned on that series again . " Face of the Enemy " writer Naren Shankar named the organization as a homage to the tal - shaya , a Vulcan martial arts technique from . ( " " ) . In an unfilmed scene of the episode " The Wire " , Benjamin Sisko mentioned Stolpan , a Romulan friend of his , being arrested by the Tal Shiar and taken to their headquarters . Apocrypha . In " " , in 2387 the Tal Shiar had been experimenting with Borg nanoprobe technology , and chose the miner " Narada " as a test - bed for the system - explaining how Nero ' s " simple mining vessel " could become the all - but - invincible force seen in . In " The Way of D ' era " , the Tal Shiar has a military counterpart , the Tal Diann . The Tal Diann was set up by the Romulan Navy to keep tabs on both the Tal Shiar and several fleets directed by Senators , reporting the former ' s actions to Star Command , and the latter ' s to the Praetor . In " Star Trek Online " , set in the year 2409 , the Tal Shiar are the main rivals of Empress Sela for control of the dying Romulan Empire , which has become engulfed by internal conflict since the destruction of Romulus in 2387 . The Tal Shiar have aligned with the Iconian s against the Federation , the Klingon Empire , and the dissident colony of " New Romulus " , seeing the Iconians as their best bet of regaining their former glory . In the feature episode series " Cloaked Intentions " , players from both the Federation and the Klingon Empire join the Reman resistance against the Tal Shiar and their commander , Colonel Hakeev , culminating in a showdown at a secret Romulan base that incorporates active Iconian gateway s . In STO ' s expansion pack , " Legacy of Romulus " , the Tal Shiar is the principal antagonist of the Romulan Republic ' s storyline , which ends with the five missions of " Cloaked Intentions " .