Romulans - Warlike race of aliens on the sci-fi series STAR TREK/NBC/1966-69. During the 22nd century, the Earth space program moved into the galaxy with sophisticated warp drive engines that enabled them to cross the vastness of space quickly, and thus encounter a variety of new and alien cultures. Most of these civilizations united together under the banner of the United Federation of Planets, co-existing peaceably. However, there were those who were not as friendly. Such were the Romulans, an empire of pointy-eared humanoids (distant relatives of the Vulcan race) who were always at odds with the Federation. The Romulans were a military society which trained their people to be vicious fighters. They shunned defeat and when the victor, never took prisoners...alive. Located in a solar system with two suns, these aliens derived their name from the primary sun named Romulus. Their empire bordered on the Federation space boundaries. This was called the Romulan neutral zone. Any unauthorized traffic in this sector constituted an act of war. The Romulans often conspired with other warlike races, (for example, the Klingons) in their bids for power. On the undercarriage of the Romulan spacecrafts there were markings that bore the resemblance of a large swooping "bird of prey." The Romulans debuted during the episode No. 9 "Balance of Terror." During the 1991 season, a Romulan female named Sela (Denise Crosby) was involved in both an attempted coup in the Klingon Empire and the failed conquest of the planet Vulcan. Sela allegedly was the daughter of Federation officer Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) who had been captured and made a concubine to a high ranking Romulan official. Unaware of her mother's Federation background, Sela devotedly followed the political manifest of the Romulan empire.