Trekipedia

Nero

On Stardate 64333.4, the life of the Romulan miner named Nero changed forever, when the Hobus star began to erupt into a supernova.^[1] Nero, commanding the mining vessel Narada, was overseeing a mining survey of the system, and was forced to flee before his ship was destroyed in the supernova’s initial blast.^[1]

Nero rushed back to Romulus, where he spoke before the Senate, representing the Mining Guild. He came to the defense of Ambassador Spock, who was attempting to warn the Romulan government of the danger posed by the Hobus supernova.^[1] Nero, at the behest of his wife, Mandana, later met privately with Spock and agreed to help the ambassador in his quest to halt the spread of the supernova’s shockwave, which was propagating at warp speeds.^[1]

On Stardate 64390.1, Nero took Spock aboard the Narada, and they traveled to the Kimben System to obtain decalithium, a vital component in the creation of Red Matter, which Spock hoped to use to implode the supernova. Upon arrival, the ship was attacked by Remans,^[1] but they were stopped by the timely arrival of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E, under the command of Captain Data.^[2] The Enterprise escorted the Narada to Vulcan.^[2] Spock, Nero, and Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard appealed to the Science Council to intercede on the Romulans’ behalf, but their requests were denied.^[2] In frustration, Nero returned to Romulus, only to arrive as it was destroyed by the supernova’s accelerating shockwave.^[2]

Nero swore vengeance on the Federation, on Vulcan, and on Spock himself for failing to prevent the tragedy that claimed his wife and unborn son.^[3] Using mining explosives, he destroyed three Federation relief ships that arrived too late to save anyone, then rescued the praetor, only to kill him for his own part in delaying the evacuation of Romulus.^[3] Taking the Debrune Teral’n, an ancient weapon that symbolized the praetor’s power, and joining his crew in branding themselves in ritual tattoos to show their state of mourning, Nero made his way to the Vault, a secret facility that had adapted captured Borg technology, and used it to refit the Narada into a weapon of immense power.^[3]

On Stardate 64467.14, after destroying a Klingon fleet commanded by General Worf, and nearly killing Worf before his rescue by the Enterprise, Nero cut short the battle in order to find Spock, who was using the Red Matter charge to collapse the supernova.^[4] Nero brought the Narada out of warp too close to the newly-formed black hole, however, and it pulled both the Narada and Spock’s ship, the Jellyfish, into its event horizon.^[4]

ST11 Timeline

The ships were believed lost,^[4] but had acctually been transported back in time.^[5] The Narada emerged near Klingon space in 2233, near the U.S.S. Kelvin NCC-0514.^[5] Not realizing what had actually happened, and seeing a Starfleet ship, the Narada immediately opened fire.^[5] After the Kelvin‘s Captain Robau confirmed that the Narada had, indeed, traveled back in time, Nero killed him with the Debrune Teral’n and resumed the attack. The Kelvin‘s crew evacuated, and the Kelvin itself rammed the Narada, disabling it and allowing the shuttles carrying the crew to escape.^[5]

As the Narada repaired itself, several crew members wished to return to Romulus, in an attempt to start over and warn the Romulans of this era of the danger posed by the Hobus supernova.^[7] Nero allowed them to leave in a shuttle, but it was a ruse: he destroyed the shuttle, killing all aboard and declaring that, “I will not go back to Romulus until the Federation is destroyed.”^[7] His plans were soon interrupted, however, when a Klingon fleet led by Captain Kor of the I.K.S. Klothos captured the crippled Narada and its crew.^[7]

Nero and his crew spent the next twenty-five years on the Klingon prison world of Rura Penthe.^{[5, 6, 8]} During that time, having taken a vow of silence until the day of his vengeance, he enlisted the aid of a Human prisoner, Clavell, in determining when and where Spock would emerge from the future.^[8] Making their escape from Rura Penthe,^[8] the Narada, which Nero had discovered had developed some form of self-awareness over the decades in orbit of Rura Penthe, took Nero and his crew to the edge of the Delta Quadrant, where they encountered the machine life-form V’Ger.^[9] Trying unsuccessfully to merge with Nero, V’Ger instead gave him the final calculations that he needed to determine when and where Spock would appear in this new reality. Leaving V’Ger behind, the Narada made its way to the rendezvous point.^[9]

Nero quickly captured Spock, bringing him and the Jellyfish aboard the Narada.^{[5, 10]} En route to Delta Vega in the 40 Eridani (Vulcan) System, the Narada was ambushed by a Klingon fleet commanded by Koth, the commandant of Rura Penthe, but destroyed all 47 ships.^[10] Nero marooned Spock on Delta Vega, where, like Nero himself, he would be forced to watch helplessly as his homeworld was destroyed.^{[5, 10]}

Upon reaching Vulcan, Nero destroyed a fleet of Starfleet ships dispatched to protect the planet, sparing only the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, so that this reality’s younger version of Spock would also be forced to watch his world be destroyed.^[5] Before using the Red Matter he’d captured from the older Spock to destroy Vulcan, Nero captured the Enterprise‘s captain, Christopher Pike, in the hopes of forcing information on Earth‘s defenses from him.^[5]

Making his way to Earth after destroying Vulcan, Nero was stopped only by a desperate plan formed by this reality’s James T. Kirk, whose father was killed during Nero’s attack on the Kelvin twenty-five years earlier, substantially altering the course of his life. After Kirk and Spock captured the Jellyfish and used the Red Matter to form a singularity within the Narada itself, Nero refused their offers of aid, choosing instead to die as the newly-formed black hole’s tidal forces ripped the Narada apart.^[5]

Portrayed by Eric Bana^[5]