[rust]

A very nice idea, and I am very much tempted to borrow it for my setting,
where I will have to explain a fake document in the near future. The story
about the novel would fit in very well as a piece of the background, I think.

In my setting the document, a colony's appeal for membership in the Fede-
ration, was forged by a well meaning diplomat who wanted to ensure that
his homeworld did join the Federation instead of remaining proudly isolated
and poor.

For the Kinunir warrant I would tend to look for a similar explanation, some-
thing done by a decent person with good intentions, but with an unexpec-
ted bad outcome.
Perhaps this person wanted the Kinunir to go somewhere to prevent or stop
some dangerous development (a planned rebellion or coup d'etat ?).
Unfortunately the instructions the person gave with the full authority of the
fake warrant collided with some secret (or just unknown to him) program of
the artificial intelligence, creating a logical paradox, and drove the artificial
intelligence "mad".
Faced with only two options, and both of them forbidden by its orders, all it
could do was to stop the ship dead in space in some remote location until the
situation had changed or someone had found a solution to the problem.