| abstract | - The Romulan bird-of-prey was a type of Romulan Star Empire starship, a bird-of-prey in Imperial Fleet service in the 22nd century. These vessels were most notably in service as combatant vessels during the Earth-Romulan War. Unlike the more streamlined type of 22nd century bird-of-prey also in use during this period, this type of bird-of-prey was cylindrical in shape, and had two cigar-shaped warp nacelles attached aft of amidships on either side of the hull. (ST reference: Star Trek Chronology) Like most types of Romulan vessels, these birds-of-prey displayed the blue-green device of a winged predator on the underbelly of its hull. In 2159, Starfleet was able to gain an image of one of these types of bird-of-prey. This image was later displayed by James T. Kirk during a Federation History class at Starfleet Academy in 2251. (TOS - My Brother's Keeper novel: Republic) In 2371, the crew of Deep Space 9 discovered a Romulan bird-of-prey from the 22nd century within the Bajoran wormhole. The artificial quantum singularity drive of the vessel cause the wormhole to emit an electromagnetic pulse. (DS9 comic: "Last Remains") The novel Republic suggests that such vessels operated on mere impulse power and used atomic weapons, which is contradicted by the use of warp drive by Romulan vessels of this era during Star Trek: Enterprise. The appearance of this ship type in DS9 comic: "Last Remains" also refers to a more sophisticated drive mechanism, utilizing a quantum singularity. It is also possible, that the term "impuls power" meant that the ship does not use the energy of annihilation of matter / antimatter for the warp engines, but used a simple fusion "impulse energy" for them. So, Romulan warships of this era may have the warp drive, but warp drive, powered by fusion, not the annihilation energy
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