Scimitar

The Scimitar menaces the Enterprise-E

The Scimitar was a Reman-operated vessel under the command of Praetor Shinzon. Apart from being larger and better-armed than most conventional vessels in the Star Trek universe, it also possessed a superweapon claimed to be capable of destroying living tissue on a planetary scale.

Physical description

The vessel shared a general layout with the Dominion warship. The tapered primary hull housed the vessel's sublight and FTL engines, crew areas and conventional weapons. Two down-swept wings flanked this primary hull, holding the vessel's superweapon.

The interior of the Scimitar was spartan and dark, mirroring the conditions on the Reman homeworld. The main bridge featured a conventional layout, albeit spread across two levels. The vessel's corridors were unusually wide, allowing small spacecraft to pass through them with some difficulty. A reception area with a large window looking out into space, as well as a sizable hangar, were located in the bow of the ship.

Tactical systems

The Scimitar deploys its "targeting wings"

As the vessel was designed as a pure warship, it carried a significant arsenal of weapons and defenses, including 52 pulse disruptors, 27 photon torpedo tubes and multiple layers of shielding. Unusually, this shielding could remain active even when the vessel was cloaked; like the cloaks generally used by the Romulan Empire, this version was capable of evading most means of detection available to the Federation.

Complementing the ship's weapons were an unknown number of Scorpion-class fighters.

The Scimitar also possessed a thalaron weapon capable of creating and emitting a controlled dose of "thalaron radiation". Any living matter exposed to this radiation would become petrified, even when protected by energy shielding or (the equivalent of) a starship hull. For unknown reasons, the Scimitar has to deploy large "targeting wings" to fire the thalaron weapon, even at point-blank range (the Enterprise was less then a mile away when targeted with the superweapon) and despite not need the targeting wings for its other armament.

Operational life

The origins of the Scimitar remain a mystery. While the interior and control surfaces are Reman in design, it seems unlikely that a group of slaves would be able to construct a vessel of the Scimitar's size and abilities in secret. The design of the ship, as well as the military history of it's first and only commander, have lead some to believe that it may have originated in the Dominion.

What is known is that the vessel was first seen in 2379 as the flagship of the self-appointed new Praetor of the Romulan Empire, a Reman slave leader known as Shinzon. Following a failed attempt to kidnap Captain Picard, he chased the Enterprise into the Bassen Rift, using the Scimitar's weapons to try and disable the Enterprise. During the course of the battle both vessels suffered severe damage (the Scimitar taking damage was largely a result of Shinzon's incompetence, because he had the Scimitar, cloaked, attack the Enterprise at such a close ranger that it fire blindly and it), even more so when Picard attempted to destroy the Scimitar by ramming it (which the Scimitar could have avoided if Shinzon had move back in full reverse, but instead he had it wallow like a beached wail). With his mental and physical health deteriorating rapidly, Shinzon attempted to use the thalaron weapon on the Enterprise and continue on to destroy Earth; this attempt was thwarted when Data, now aboard the Scimitar, destroyed the thalaron generator. The Scimitar was lost in the ensuing explosion.