Comic book format
New Beginnings: While the Orville completed its survey of a magnetar, Captain Ed Mercer and Lieutenant Gordon Malloy take a shuttle, heading for a conference at Outpost 23. However, they pick up a weak distress signal and find it came from a buoy from the BCV Burton which was lost hundred years previous in the war against the Tzel. A habitable planet is not far away, so they go to investigate and find one region showing lifesigns and a power source but, when they attempt to land, they get shot down and have to crash-land. They discover a colony of penguin-like creatures, called Chogs, who are using the replicator aboard the crashed Burton to feed themselves. Ed and Gordon discover that when the Burton crashed, its damaged quantum reactor polluted the planet, leaving the Chog with no means of survival. So, Ensign Hodges and the other Burton survivors had set up the replicator for the Chog, and the weapon that had shot the shuttle down was actually there to protect the planet from space debris from the Tzel war. Ed and Gordon get taken prisoner by the Chog when they access the Burton outside of feeding time, but they manage to warn the Orville of what is happening when the ship comes looking for them. The Union send the Ulysses to terraform and restore the planet for the Chog. [Timeline: A few weeks after the events in the Series 1 episode “Mad Idolatry”]
The Word of Avis: The Orville stops a small Union transport ship that is heading towards Krill territory and bring the ship into their shuttlebay. Aboard the transport are Darden, Karx, Franx, and Celeste (who Lieutenant John Lamarr had known at Union Point) who claim that damaged controls aboard their ship had put them off course. Mercer is dubious about that, because Darden, Karx, and Franx were the ones who had been assigned to study the Krill “Bible” – the Ankhana – that the Orville had previously obtained, and LaMarr knows that Celeste is a well-qualified mechanic who could have kept the ship’s systems operating well. It is discovered that the four of them had adopted the Krill religion (the worship of Avis) and were trying the go “home”. The Orville is then discovered to have been put off course by a computer virus introduced when they had used a tractor beam to stop the transport ship, and the Orville was now thirty-five light years inside Krill territory. Using the Calivon holographic generator they disguise the Orville as a Krill battlecruiser, place Darden and his associates in the brig, and make a run for Union territory. However, a fleet of three Krill ships spot them and scan them with a neutron beam which knocks out the holographic camouflage, and they have to try and hide in an asteroid belt. They are nearly captured and destroyed, but with some help from Celeste they use the Calivon device to disguise the transport ship as the Orville in order to draw the Krill away, while the real Orville escapes. The Krill named Teleya was aboard the lead Krill ship and she is not disappointed at the Orville’s escape because she has special plans for Captain Mercer.
Comic book format
Launch Day: The Orville faces down eight Krill ships who say they are going to destroy the non-aligned Alibar homeworld, because the people there were building a powerful weapon to attack them. The Orville’s sensors showed a lot of subspace interference around the planet, but there was no evidence to say it was a weapon, so it is agreed that Captain Ed Mercer, Kelly Grayson, Gordon Malloy and John laMarr would take a cloaked shuttle and investigate what is happening. Twenty years previously, the planet had turned xenophobic, blaming outsiders for their problems, and Mercer and Malloy had been crewmen on the Bohr at that time when an Alibar crewman (Ycil) had been forced to return home. Ed’s and Kelly’s investigations on the planet and Gordon’s and John’s investigation of the large spherical-shaped structure in orbit that was causing the subspace interference shows that it is actually a subspace engine or quantum shifter that was going to fulfill the planet’s xenophobic goals and remove the whole system from this universe. Ed and Kelly are captured by the Alibar authorities but Gordon and John rescues him and they escape the planet. However, by that time the Krill fleet have decided to attack the planet and the Orville goes along with them. When Mercer is able to let them know that it is a quantum shifter, not a weapon, the Krill don’t believe him, and they attack as the Orville puts a safe distance between itself and the planet. The Krill do destroy the quantum shifter but not before it has moved the whole system out of normal space, along with the Krill fleet. Finding themselves cut off from the normal universe, and with Alibar as the only planet around, the Krill decide to take it over, so the Alibar have not escaped their problems.
Heroes: Five years previous, Talla Keyali had visited the fourth planet in the HR 5070 system and met the friendly Okudum people, including a girl named Aki who told her the story of the legendary Xandria, hero of the Okudum. When the Orville visits the planet, they discover that it has been invaded by the Nazh who have effectively enslaved the people and are using them to mine dysonium for them. The Orville is ordered not to interfere because the Union doesn’t need more enemies. However, Talla takes a leave of absence and, assisted by Dr. Finn and Commander laMarr, goes back to help. With her abnormal strength and a protective outfit, she masquerades as the legendary Xandria and starts to fight off the Nazh. Unfortunately, the Nazh leader (Ilis) notices that ‘Xandria’ has not killed any of his people and guesses that she is an alien with ethics against killing, so he refuses to accept her order to leave the planet. One of his people had also noticed that Aki had seemed to recognize ‘Xandria’, so they lay a trap for ‘Xandria’ at Aki’s house, including killing Aki’s parents. Talla is captured and is about to be killed, when Aki arrives dressed as Xandria. She has no reservations about killing and maiming the Nazh, and she beheads Ilis and gets the Nazh to leave the planet. She also tells Talla to leave, as she is no longer needed. As they head back towards the Orville in their shuttle, Talla wonders what they have done to Aki.