Romas was an Ornaran. Like other members of his species, he was addicted to the drug, felicium. The drug was a cure for a plague that the Ornarans believed would kill them if they did not have the drug. A neighboring planet, Brekka, provided the drug in exchange for food and other necessities. In reality the plague had been wiped out many years before, and the people who died after they stopped taking the drug were in fact suffering from withdrawal symptoms, the medicine being highly addictive. The Brekkians used the drug to control the Ornarans so that they would continue to provide for Brekka.