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 discovered the presence of thirty-seven unauthorized emigrants from the Iridium Throne in a cargo module fitted with rudimentary life support systems. A mixture of political dissidents and the "genetically inferior," the Upsilon Thirty-Seven, as they would come to be known, had paid the crew of the Upsilon to smuggle them to the Integer Iota Relay. The then-leader of the throne, Varuk Mai MMVC, demanded the Thirty-Seven be returned to the Throne immediately, in accordance with the Pentarchate's policy on extradition. Although the Weunese government initially agreed to return the Thirty-Seven, this decision 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 highlighted 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. This weakening of Mai's position emboldened their domestic opponents, contributing greatly to the present crisis, while bad blood between Mai's government and Weun would ultimately prove one of the key factors behind the failure of the First Congressmoot on Succession.

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