The news that the Planetary Union's Orville had successfully rescued nearly ten thousand "missing persons" imprisoned in the Kalivon zoo spread like wildfire, thrusting the previously obscure, Earth-led Planetary Union into the spotlight.
Then, after the rescued people had been returned to their respective homeworlds, administrative bodies from at least a thousand civilizations sent the Planetary Union messages of thanks, communications, or congratulatory transmissions. The Union was caught off guard, but the flood of attention also gave it a major boost in visibility and raised its standing in the Milky Way's Earth Arm to new heights.
And so!
The Orville's crew members naturally reaped the rewards. Acting Captain Alara, for instance, who had successfully rescued Captain Ed and First Officer Kelly, was promoted to lieutenant and commended by Planetary Union Headquarters, becoming one of the direct beneficiaries of the incident.
Of course, the Orville's crew, the Planetary Union, and even the Kalivons all knew that things hadn't happened the way the publicized accounts described. Alara had had little to do with the actual achievement. But, for reasons best left unspoken, everyone tacitly agreed to let Lieutenant Alara, the Xelayan security officer, take all the credit.
Then, after the commendations, the whole affair was swiftly put behind them.
The real instigator continued to stay aboard the Orville as an "honored guest." Aside from the Planetary Union secretly sending a senior commissioner to visit the Orville and meet with someone on a day not long after the "Kalivon incident," little else changed.
As for the extraordinarily serious offense of someone having taken the Orville by force, no one was willing to bring it up again. Planetary Union Headquarters and Fleet Command both turned a blind eye, as if nothing had happened.
But the people aboard the Orville knew that things had quietly