Vedoc (died 2369) was a Romulan male who served as a Subcommander in the Romulan Star Empire's Navy. His uncle was the First Prefect Lorris, a highly influential Romulan politician who had the ear of the Praetor.
A studious young officer, Vedoc preferred to spend his leaves reading books in his uncle's library instead of partying with his fellow shipmates. It was in this library that Vedoc found a book by the Vulcan archaeologist T'Sara, and from there learned about the Devil's Heart and its role in Romulan history. His uncle Lorris thought highly of his nephew, even though he felt that Lorris spent too much time in the library and not out networking with other military officers. Lorris felt that should he live long enough Vedoc would be an excellent choice to succeed him as head of the family.
Vedoc spent most of his early career on ships that patrolled the Romulan Neutral Zone. Most of these assignments were quite tedious, and Vedoc passed the time by disassembling and reassembling various vessel components, gaining practical engineering knowledge over the course of his career.
During the late 2360s Vedoc secretly became a member of Ambassador Spock's Unification movement and learned a great deal about Vulcan philosophy.
When the Heart resurfaced in 2369, it touched off a deadly race among the Romulans and other species who wanted to regain possession of the Heart. Lorris arranged for the warbird IRW Haakona to be sent across the Neutral Zone to determine if the rumors about the Heart resurfacing were true or not, and also arranged for Vedoc to be assigned to the Haakona under Commander Taris.
For the purposes of the mission, Vedoc assumed an idiot persona, and let Taris and the Haakona crew believe that he was an idiot who had relied on his family connections to get as far as he did in his career. He was successful in convincing Taris he was an idiot that she decided to have him transferred off her ship at the conclusion of their current mission. The Haakona was able to track down the Heart, finding it onboard the Enterprise. While the Haakona was in pursuit of the Enterprise, Vedoc talked Taris into allowing him to assist at the auxiliary weapon's station. Feeling that the Romulans must never possess the Heart again, Vedoc decided to sabotage the Haakona so it could be defeated by the Enterprise. Vedoc managed to pull a shield relay apart just enough so that it would fail during the course of battle. Vedoc's sabotage was successful - during battle with the Enterprise a small section of the forward shields on the Haakona collapsed. The Enterprise was able to fire phasers through the collapsed shield section, apparently destroying the Haakona in the process.
Vedoc's sacrifice meant that Captain Jean-Luc Picard retained possession of the Heart. Picard was able to help the Heart continue on a journey to a distant galaxy, where it would someday grow into another Guardian of Forever. (TNG novel: The Devil's Heart).