What surprised Ed was that after they had waited for the Orville to return, sent a report explaining the situation to Planetary Union Command, and successfully summoned two other Union warships to take over matters concerning the giant ecosystem ship, the commanders at Headquarters had not reprimanded them for their reckless actions. Instead, they had even given him verbal praise, leaving him rather astonished and flattered.
But regardless, with the Planetary Union's repairs and training, the people aboard that ecosystem ship—who had survived in its closed-loop ecosystem for at least two thousand years and had only just completed their revolution—were finally able to set sail again, embarking on their long journey to a habitable planet.
In keeping with certain universal understandings, the Planetary Union had not given them a more advanced quantum drive, nor had it interfered with their colonization. And whether the members of that alien intelligent species would still accept the people who had been lost for over two thousand years and had reproduced for dozens of generations was not something Ed or the people at Planetary Union Command needed to worry about.
And likewise!
Whether the Planetary Union engineers had taken advantage of their repairs to the ship's engine to acquire important ecological data, ship data, and data on the hull's ability to block scans was even less something Ed and the others could interfere with or dare ask about.
In short!
After providing "free" assistance and receiving the grateful praise of the people aboard the ecosystem ship, Ed, Annie, and the others soon set off again aboard the Orville, continuing their journey to explore the borders of the Union's territory, chart star systems, and fill in the maps of its remote regions.
"Captain!"
"We've received a distress signal from the Gatria system!"
"It's been confirmed!"
"It's