The Oryani Incident

The Mazu is waylaid from its previous mission when the ship is hit with a force strong enough to knock out all of its power and systems, including the life support! And in the aftermath of that emergency, a response to a distress call lands the crew in the middle of a moral quandary involving a group of religious dissidents seeking asylum from a society hunting them down as terrorists! The grey areas of the Prime Directive are tested in The Oryani Incident!

Synopsis
The Mazu returns from Verex 3 to Deep Space K7, where the captain has been debriefed by Fleet Admiral Grasic and Sector Admiral Davis. Davis explains that Fleet Admiral is a jerk, and that it was inappropriate for him to claim that the Mazu was under his personal command. He has also assigned more crew to the Mazu, which was still effectively operating with a skeleton crew. They’ve been assigned a number of new graduate Ensigns from Starfleet Academy, including a new Andorian helmsman, Ensign Tyssab Azanon, who has taken the helm while Ramirez has been assigned to restore the shuttle that he altered without permission for the Verex 3 mission. The crew compliment of the Mazu is up to about 200.

The crew updates Captain Ral on what they learned on the previous mission, and they head for the Ajilon colony, to follow up on the lead they found - Amber Prescott may still be there, and may know more about Doctor Jennifer Prescott.

Commander Neumann speaks privately with the captain about Ramirez. He is concerned that Ramirez worked without involving command, and may have involvement in some sort of criminal enterprise, after hearing him speak about Damon Tarbok.

Cade speaks to the captain about his concerns about feeling useful as a medic, and the crew’s perception of him, given his background with the Bajoran resistance. He would like to start doing crew physicals to feel useful and to get to know everyone a little better.

Another new ensign - human Rayla Nelson - gives Ensign Tyssab a quick tour of the ship, and Izzy is the first to report to Cade for a physical. Izzy and Cade chat about Andorian physiology and Bajoran food. Izzy is a bit of a foodie and regularly hosts family dinners for the crew.

Out of nowhere, the ship takes a hit, all systems fail, and the crew is sent flying. In sickbay, Izzy is fine, but Cade is knocked out and his arm badly broken. On the bridge, Nelson is knocked out, and the captain is trapped in the ready room, injured but conscious. None of the electronic systems on the ship are working, including life support, gravity, and emergency systems.

Knowing that the oxygen on the ship is limited, Izzy helps Jorsh get Cade conscious and patched up enough to give medical aid to others, then manually opens a door to sickbay and heads for Engineering to get the ship back up and running. Cade heads out into the corridors to triage the injured.

The captain forces her way out of the ready room to the bridge. The crew there conjectures on what has happened, and treats Nelson’s wounds. Morganth and Ral break into the turbolift shaft and head for Engineering.

As Cade stabilizes the injured deck by deck, Izzy gets to Engineering. She sends the seriously injured toward sickbay, and gets to work restoring power. There is structural damage all over the ship, where pieces of equipment have just shifted, meaning all plasma conduits will have to be realigned before power can be turned back on, or there will be plasma leaks at any of the misaligned conduits. She sends most of her engineers into the ship in teams to realign those conduits as the captain and Morganth arrive at Engineering.

The repair priorities are: Power first, then life support, lights, and communication before turning the gravity back on, and then external sensors and engines. Cade continues to move deck by deck treating injured and securing the unconscious so they are not injured when gravity is restored. On the bridge, Tyssab and Neumann share ghost stories because they can’t do anything else.

As the engineering teams realign conduits across the ship, Izzy and the captain restore the emergency power cells and replace the regulator controls. Emergency power and life support are restored just as air starts to run out. As communication systems and sensors are restored, sensor readings and distress calls from all over the sector show that the event hit a wide area, with the epicenter apparently in Klingon space. The bridge crew catalogs and triages that data, and Captain Ral works on a report to the admirals. Izzy gives the crew warning to secure themselves and then turns gravity back on. Ral checks in with Admiral Davis, who confirms their observation that the event originated in Klingon space. Izzy restores the engines.

The Mazu picks up a distress call from the Oryani cruiser Retleth, and sets course to assist them. They come upon two ships - one larger cruiser with failing life support, and a smaller ship that looks to be put together from spare parts with all systems offline except for shields. The Oryani are known to be a newly warp-capable species, who only recently made first contact with the Federation. As the Mazu makes contact with the larger ship, they explain that the smaller ship contains fugitive criminals, who will be taken back to their world for trial and punishment.

Ral and Izzy send an engineering team lead by Specialist Deloran with Neumann and Morganth to help with repairs on the Retleth. While there, they notice injured Oryani continuing with their work with no sign of medical aid. Neumann and Morganth inquire about the crimes of the other ship, and the Oryani captain refuses to give details beyond saying they were guilty of sedition and terrorism, but agrees that the Mazu may assist the other ship in getting life support back online, so they can be taken back alive.

Izzy beams over to the Oryani cruiser to accompany Neumann and Morganth to the other ship. As she beams into the Retleth’s shuttle bay, many of the Oryani step away and scowl at her. She boards the runabout and they take off for the other ship.

As the runabout arrives at the other ship, that ship sends a message asking for asylum. Izzy starts to work on life support, while the captain of the ship and an ambassador explain to Neumann that the Oryani religion forbids medical care, which is considered to make the body “impure” (that impurity also carries over to transporting). The 365 refugees on this ship are seeking asylum because they have treatable conditions and wish to live. If they are taken back to the Oryani world, they will most likely die - either from their injuries and illnesses, or execution for terrorism.

After updating Captain Ral, Admiral Davis, and Cade, the Mazu crew decides to provide medical aid to the renegade ship and assist in their escape to Federation space. The engineering team is transported off the Retleth. The Mazu moves between the two ships as life support is restored to the refugee ship. Cade is transported to the refugee ship to give medical aid. Izzy works to restore engines on the refugee ship. The cruiser opens fire on the Mazu as their captain accuses the Mazu of interference in violation of the Prime Directive, but the Mazu holds them off long enough for Izzy to restore the engines. The Mazu tractors the refugee ship and both jump to warp in tandem. The Mazu continues to defend both ships as the cruiser pursues, until they are finally able to disable the cruiser and deliver the refugees back to K7.