A race of sentient shape-shifters native to the planet Vendor. In their natural form, Vendorians look rather like floating orange lamps adorned with six trailing tentacles. Because of their ability to rearrange their molecular structures at will, thus taking on the shapes of various humanoid species, Federation authorities look upon them with suspicion. On stardate 5143.3 (2269), a Vendorian disguised as the interstellar trader and philanthropist Carter Winston justified this distrust — and a Federation quarantine against Vendor — by assisting the Romulans in a failed attempt to capture the U.S.S. Enterprise. Because of the feelings for Winston's fiancée he "inherited? from the original Winston, the Vendorian switched sides at the last moment, undoing the Romulan plot.