Lieutenant Iskander al-Kwaritzmi’s log: we are en route to a planet designated as Norborhann-3A, in Romulan Republic space. Apparently the Republic has requested our aid for a humanitarian mission, and being the closest Federation ship with such purpose, we have been dispatched. I have been lead to understand that the Norborhann system has been the stage of a recent battle between a marauding Klingon fleet and a defending Romulan force. Commander Kornatuv has called us to Main Engineering to be briefed.

“Alright, meat-wrenches, listen up!” screamed the large Klingon. “We finally got ourselves some information — and if I do not like it, I guess you’ll like it even less!”

All Engineering senior personnel — the Lieutenant Commander who ran the show, plus the eight Lieutenants who held a department, which included Iskander for dual roles as Transporter Division responsible and Gamma shift chief — were sitting in the Engineering conference room, just at the side of Main Reactor Hall. Iskander was used to the conference room of the California-class Redding: small, but lovingly decorated and made comfortable by a chief engineer obsessed with being cheerful and pleasant. The Sternbach‘s chief engineer, a Klingon who considered repairs to be an essential battle tactics, had no such illusions: her conference room was decorated with Klingon repair tools that could double as weapons.

Lieutenant Commander Kornatuv pressed a button and the holographic display in the middle of the conference table came to life: it showed a planet which Iskander didn’t recognize. Rotating slowly on its axis, it presented a yellow face and a pale green face.

“This is Norborhann-3A” she said. “The Romulan Republic has finally given us some more astrometric data and we have been able to fill in some of the gaps. Class-M planet, it’s actually the moon of a gas giant.”

“If life on it grows in such inhomogeneous fashion” said Lieutenant Zambi, “then it must be tidally locked.”

Kornatuv looked at her. “Explain!”

“One side is yellow and probably quite desertic. The other side is pale green, which probably means it is rich in forests. This is typical of tidally locked planets that always show the same face to the gas giant they orbit, right?”

Kornatuv gestured to explain further.

“One side either gets the direct sunlight when closer to the sun, an experiences a long dark cold night. Both are quite bad for vegetation. The other side is further from the star when receiving sunlight, making it more milder, and during its night it probably gets a lot of reflected sunlight from the gas giant.”

“What is the orbital period?” asked Iskander.

“17.4 standard days thereabouts for a rotation around the gas giant Norborhann-3” answered Kornatuv. “For them, of course, that’s a day, since they are tidally locked, and it is also a lunar month.”

“They?” repeated someone else.

Kornatuv harrumped.”Right. The planet is inhabited by a pre-Warp species. An avian species, culturally undergoing an industrial revolution. About thirty million of them.”

She typed something and the holographic display went from projecting a three-dimensional view of the planet to a two-dimensional map: the large desert, the forest side with rivers and seas, and settlement positions. As one could have expected, the natives had a preference for living around the water: their settlement grew around the rivers and the seas, with large sections of the desert remaining only barely touched.

Iskander looked at the map and noticed a long red mark on it, starting in the desert and stopping not far from one of the largest settlements.

“What is the red mark?” asked Lieutenant Nayl before Iskander could ask.

“Three days ago , a Klingon marauding group entered the Romulan Republic space and were repelled by an equally sized force” said Kornatuv. “The two fleets intercepted in the Norborhann system, with little regard for the presence of a native civilization. One old D’Deridex was wounded and fell on the planet: the red line marks the path it carved on the surface. Who knew that those big ugly green things could be put to such effective use as a plough — it must be the silly sharp beak that they build on them. Anyway — it landed very fast, but almost flat; it’s left a wound on the surface that is hundred of kilometres long. And, as you can see, it lies broken and derelict just next to one of the most influential cities on that planet – Natirillä, I think it is called.”

Silence fell. For a moment Iskander struggled to grasp the enormity of the thing.

“Are you saying that a D’Deridex with a contained artificial singularity inside it is sitting a couple of kilometres away from a large pre-Warp city?” he asked finally.

“Yes, that’s a good summary” agreed the Klingon. “And, need I remind you, the Romulan Republic has no Prime Directive.”

“Is it at least cloaked?”

“It is broken” repeated the Klingon.

“And you said that they’re avian” said Zambi. “The news has probably spread with the speed of the wind. Their cultural development has already been completely altered.”

“I’m sure half of the natives are flying there to try to get a look while the other half is recoiling in fear” evaluated Kornatuv. “And did I say – large sections of the D’Deridex were ripped open during the crash. Those hundred kilometres are littered with bits and pieces of technology of all kinds, together with Romulan bodies alive and dead.”

“This is… an ethical mess” said Zambi. “The Prime Directive is completely broken on every single side. And if they lose containment of the singularity –”

Kornatuv nodded. “If they lose containment of the singularity, the planet also breaks. And the Admiralty has decided that it should become our ethical mess. The Romulan Republic has hesitantly requested our help and the Sternbach is perfectly equipped for engineering support tasks. We’ll be there in three days!”

Nobody spoke.

“Any of you has ever dreamed of breaking the Prime Directive?” prompted them again Kornatuv.

“I dream of not breaking it” answered Iskander, quietly.

The hologram of Norborhann-3A slowly gyrated on itself, in the center of the room and of everyone’s thoughts.

Kornatuv grunted. “Well, we are going anyways.”