Upsilon Ultima Incident

The Upsilon Ultima incident occurred on ZY 3096, when customs agents on Weun impounded the Pentarchate cargo vessel Upsilon Ultima after a routine check for contraband revealed that a cargo module the ship's manifest claimed to hold a shipment of bio-electrical components had been fitted with a rudimentary life support system and converted into a crude passenger module. In fact, the module contained thirty-seven unauthorized emigrants from the Iridium Throne, destined for the Integer Iota Relay. Varuk Mai demanded the "Upsilon Thirty-Seven," as they came to be called, be returned to the Throne immediately, in accordance with the Pentarchate's policy on extradition. Although the Weunese government initially agreed to this, these demands proved massively unpopular. Of the Thirty-Seven, whose numbers included six children, twenty-one faced an immediate death sentence upon their return, and the remainder would be subject to mandatory sterilization. Bowing to pressure from the public, the Weunese consuls pulled an about-face and refused Mai's demands, citing their world's own laws regarding political asylum, which had previously only been applied to asylum seekers from outside the Pentarchate. Although this was not the first time one of the Pentarchate's members had failed to secure extradition of dissidents from another, the incident served to highlight Mai's weak position at home and strengthened rumors that Mai MMVC, whose cloning vat had undergone damage during a failed assassination attempt on their previous iteration, was a mutant with a flawed genome and therefore illegitimate. The resulting bad blood between Mai's government and Weun would ultimately prove to be one of the key factors behind the failure of the First Congressmoot on Succession.

- Academician Khalnik (talk) 20:51, 30 December 2018 (PST)