Letant was a male Romulan and politician who served as a senator in the Romulan Senate in the 24th century Romulan Empire.
In late 2374, he represented the Romulan Star Empire at a meeting of the Federation Alliance on Deep Space 9. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Romulan involvement in the proposed invasion of Cardassian space, specifically, the Chin'toka system, which had been found to be a weak spot.
Like most of his people, Letant had a disdain for Klingons, something which aggravated General Martok, who was representing the Klingon Empire at the meeting. After expressing reluctance to join the invasion, Martok and Letant traded insults, with Martok calling Letant a coward, and Letant calling the general a "Klingon jackal". This continued until Letant loudly told an aide: "Notice the primitive rage in his eye… the uncontrolled brutality. Klingons can be quite entertaining, don't you agree? I think every Romulan zoo should have a pair." This caused Martok to reach for his d'k tahg, but he was stopped by Benjamin Sisko and Worf.
With calm restored, Letant told the others that he believed that the best course of action would be to let the Dominion send their starships and they would be able to "annihilate them one by one".
Letant was finally convinced by Sisko, Worf, and Admiral William Ross that the only way to defeat the Dominion was to destroy their shipyards and weapons plants and to force them to retreat to Cardassia Prime. Sisko also told Letant that that was "a goal we all share. Klingons, Humans, and Romulans."
A Prophet later took Letant's form in a vision that Sisko experienced, in which they told him not to go to Cardassia.
Several hours later, the real Letant was present at a meeting with Sisko, Ross, and Martok. Even after the discovery of the Cardassians' orbital weapon platforms, Letant continued to support the attack, saying that Romulans "live up to our agreements." After Ross wished them all good luck, Letant told him "Romulans don't believe in luck." (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")
Appendices[]
Background information[]
The Letant makeup is given a quick touch-up
Letant's name was not mentioned in dialogue, and appears only in the opening guest star credits, as well as the script.
At one point in the script he is called "Levant", although this is likely a typing error.
Although it seems unlikely that Letant actually led the Romulan ships during the First Battle of Chin'toka (unless he is a military veteran, which is certainly possible), he was never seen again and was apparently replaced by Kimara Cretak three months later in "Image in the Sand".
External links[]
- Letant at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works