Our interactions with the Polemistians did not go as planned.

We will now conduct a hearing on the proposed relocation of Polemistians. Councilmember Avat Durah will once again represent the will of the council, and President Oliver Pierce will be returning as the opposition. Do either one of you wish to say anything before we begin?

...why are you here?

You know very well why I'm here Durah.

This business has nothing to do with you or the UPN, you are merely interfering with the will of the Council.

Unfortunately, for both of us, our alliance under the Treaty of Itraxy makes this issue of great importance to the UPN.

What happened to your principle of non-intervention President?

Consider this an extension of the "Good Neighbor" policy, when you see your neighbor about to make a monumentally foolhardy decision you have cause to question it. Especially since such a decision could end up affecting your own home as well.

What nonsense! The will of the Council is supr—

Councilmember! We will have time for dialogue after you present your positions. If you would please do so we could continue this hearing in a peaceful manner.

[Sigh] My apologies. The Council believe that due to the current war torn state of the Polemistian home planet, that a relocation program must be put into effect to integrate their numbers into Coalition without further conflict. In doing so, we shall have elevated the Polemistians to a higher standard of living compared to the current conditions of their home planet, and end the conflict of their people prematurely so that the rebuilding of their home can be put underway. It is true that their current conditions are due to our own failures to predict their own behavior, but it is due to such mistakes that we should be the ones that aid the Polemistians into integrating with Coalition society. It is our moral responsibility, our duty as a galactic power to aid those in need, is that not right President Pierce?

Your response President?

I would like to preface this statement with another gesture of thanks to the Council on hearing out the concerns of the UPN, and I am not opposed to providing aid to the Polemistians either, just not in the matter that you suggest. Once again the UPN wishes to point out that the current Polemistian cultural and politcal climate is just not suitable for complete integration with the Coalition at this time. What you are proposing is in fact just injecting an unstable and highly variable element into your society. Given the position of UPN military bases located throughout Coalition Space, such an instability will inevitably affect UPN assets as well, forcing our participation in this matter. I ask that the Council reconsider their position on this matter and work with the UPN to develop a much more sound plan than the one proposed.

What makes you so sure that instability will occur Pierce? What makes you so certain?

We are certain due to the numerous incidents that have already occurred throughout Coalition space. Rather than prefacing your integration strategy with "proposed" I ask that the Council be truthful with its intention. The plan is already in effect, and it is failing.

You have no—

Feburary 14th, 2441, a group of Polemistians identifying with the group known as the Sword of Nerok infiltrated and conducted a raid on the colony of Janus 5. Total amount of casualties including Coalition forces sent to subdue them: 150.

A single inci—

April 22nd, 2441, a small group of Polemistian refugees kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Nereid consort and her assistants over the period of a month before her location was reported to the authorities. The sentence you gave these men? Community service for 12 months.

The consort and her aids were understanding of the councils concerns of assigning a troubled species too harsh a punishment.

Too harsh a punishment? The consort is no longer able to conceive Councilmember! I spoke with her directly and rather than "understanding" of your concerns it was more like you forced them to adhere to your standard, a violation of the Nereids' Neutrality Pact established and updated at the formation formation of the Coalition in 2391. Specifically article 5 section C: "Under no circumstances shall any galactic power, Coalition, UPN, Empire, or Guild, subject a Nereid to their society's political power. Any Nereid has the right to challenge any rule of law that applies to their person, and must not be forced into compliance to the power's standards."

You have no proof that the Coalition did such a thing Pierce! Has the UPN stooped to wild allegations now?

Perhaps not Durah, but after speaking with the consort I am of the mind that someone did force her to comply with the ruling. I know this because any mention of possible coercion or force was met by complete silence or a string of political speak that I do not care to spout off. So yes, perhaps I cannot prove that the Coalition violated the Pact, but at the same time I cannot ignore what you have done to the woman.

This is preposterous President! Yes, the two incidents you mention are indeed tragic, but what do you expect the council to do? Deport and remove the Polemistians currently relocated in our society?

That is precisely what I want you do to Durah, before this problem worsens anymore.

It was two inciden—

May 15, 2441, a Polemistian by the name of Loka Y'ggaro entered the Afriedes Recreational Center and detonated a makeshift explosive device strapped to his chest. The resulting explosion wiped out the bottom floor of the complex. Total casualties: 83. It was later learned that this was also an act of the Sword of Nerok. May I remind you Durah, that before the Polemistians were pulled into your society there are no recorded incidences of terror attacks from any number of your species?

That does not justify punishing them as a whole Pierce! Do you believe that the best course of action would be to simply let these people die on their own homeworld? Are you that heartless?

Spare me the emotional rhetoric, I never said that we should abandon them altogether, I said we should aid them differently than the current system you have now.

Explain.

First, let's examine your current vetting system, or lack thereof.

There is a vetting system in place President, or have you only been looking at the Coalitions mishaps rather than our system as a whole?

If you consider your current vetting system to be adequate then I am sorry to say Durah that it is an utter disaster of a policy.

How dare—

If you would let me finish, your current "vetting' system is merely a priority assigned to women and children from the Polemistian home planet of Ulcoria. However, what you have failed to do is account for Polemistian biology when specifying what age qualifies as "child". Your policy lists the age of 15, according to the Galactic Standard, as the maximum age for children but in reality a Polemistian fully matures at the age of 10. This renders your system redundant, since this preference for "children" has allowed Polemistians of fighting age to slip through this "vetting" system of yours and infiltrate Coalition territory. Though even if you changed this part of your policy to account for this, it still would not be enough, for it appears that the people vetting these refugees do not seem to care who they let through in the first place. Many of these "children" they have let through are in fact, according to our own research, between the ages of 25-30 under the galactic standard. This is why I say you have no vetting system, because you do not bother to enforce it at all.

...why specify fighting age President? Are you suggesting that all these men you speak of will somehow turn and attack all of us, preposterous.

If you would please, Councilmember, demonstrate some nuance in your understanding of Polemistian culture rather than jumping to conclusions at my words, then perhaps we could make some progress in this discussion. I am not saying that the Polemistians will rise up, I am saying that there is a disproportionate chance of a Polemistian male to become radicalized due to the circumstances surrounding them. Let us examine this system as a whole, shall we? Not only have these people fled a war-torn planet brought about by your gifts of technology to your so called "moderate" groups, but they have also been thrust into a completely alien environment. They have gone from a wholly patriarchal society to one that aims to be egalitarian. No longer can they socially dominate what they culturally consider the lesser sex, and no longer do they hold any power in this strange new world filled with technologies that may as well be magic. This will only light the fire of aggression more within them, priming them to become radicalized by the propaganda put out by the Sword of Verok that for some reason you have failed to handle. Yes, there are many of these Polemistians that do in fact integrate well within your society, but you cannot hope to have any real progress with these people unless you act with caution and understanding of their circumstances. Have you not considered what this cultural clash will do, or have you hypocritically thought that your own culture was superior enough that they would just go along with it, no questions asked?

...suppose you are right Pierce, you have yet to provide any other alternative in dealing with these people other than deporting them all from Coalition space. The Council is very aware of the natural aggression of the Polemistians as a whole, but taking that into account, would forcibly rounding them out and kicking them out not further galvanize them into action against the Coalition? Would not subjecting them to the iron fist of the law rally these radicals to strike at us even more?

Durah, if you mean to suggest that enforcing the law and exercising caution will somehow offend the Polemistians into becoming radicalized, then I would question the strength of the will of the Council. You cannot appease these people Councilmember, for doing so only reinforces the notion that to get what they want all they need to do is act aggressive. You are in fact facilitating their behavior by not treating them similar to your own citizens, but instead treating them like children that need to be coddled. As to your point about the suggested deportation of all Polemistians refugees, that is only a baseline to work from. The UPN is amenable to alternative suggestions, but it is only due to your current flawed vetting system that such a suggestion must be put forward in the first place. You have so poorly counted the number of refugees coming from Ulcoria that your reported number of one million is merely a fraction of the actual number present within your society. We have no way of screening any of these people to see if they have integrated well into your society because we have no way of individually contacting all the ones across your planets.

So you want to throw them back to some war torn world Pierce?! Have you no empathy for these people?!

I have empathy Durah, and it is because of that that I am even here in the first place. You are not placing the safety of your citizens first, but rather are making a hasty play to draw more people into your society without properly setting up a system that works for both your people and those you interact with. While you pursue your goal of spreading your ideals across the galaxy your own people feel the burden of these decisions. Perhaps you are protected from these consequences in your protected neighborhood, Durah, but the incidents I mentioned before are only a few of an escalating number of incidents that are bringing harm to your people. You are not acting on behalf of your citizens, but rather for what you say is good for your people, and it has left blood on your hands. I am not suggesting that we just throw the refugees to the wolves, and if you are unable to bring yourself to deport these people then we shall let them stay. At the very least, however, you must freeze the immigration of refugees currently coming into the Coalition until you set up a better system to properly vet who is coming in. In the meantime, the UPN has a list of suggested safe zones on Ulcoria that would serve as good shelter for all the refugees driven from their war torn homes. It will serve as an adequate place to house these people until the conflict on their planet ends. This system we propose mitigates the risks of your previous system, and should allow any of the refugees that wish to fully integrate with Coalition society to do so without allowing in any radical elements wishing to strike at the Coalition and its people.

That was not part of the original plan to accelerate their development President. All the Polemistians were to be integrated to the Coalition so that none of them would be left behind in underprivileged positions.

Unfortunately Durah, that plan is not working. Your gifts of technology to the rebels against the original monarchal rule of the Polemistians did allow them to overthrow their tyrants, but also made them tyrants themselves. Far more brutal tyrants, for with the aid of the technology granted to they subjected their people to a more totalitarian rule dictated by those wielding this technology. In your haste to correct this error, you armed yet another set of rebels without properly understanding their ideology and gave birth to the Sword of Verok, a group of radicals that are in fact worse than the people they are rebelling against, for while the current tyrants in power do not set their sights on the Coalition as of now, the Sword of Verok does. They wish to subjugate you Councilmember, not become subjugated themselves. Until you decide to sort this mess out yourself, to which the UPN is willing aid your effort in, this cycle of increasingly violent rebels will continue until eventually a truly insidious ideology becomes dominant among the Polemistians, making further cooperation with them impossible. In attempting to uplift these people, you have instead regressed them into a state of further state of conflict, and it has been to the detriment to your society as a whole. I understand if you do not wish to listen to the concerns of the UPN, but you must understand Councilmember that the way things are now isn't working, and that in your haste to "aid" these people you have set yourself to the wrong path. Considering the ties between the UPN and the Coalition, it is appropriate that we express our concerns in this matter and work together to develop a system that may not be ideal according to your own preferences, but one that works in practical execution.

...the Council will consider your request President.

That is all I ask.

This hearing with the President of the UPN opened the eyes of many of the Council, but not in the way that Pierce may have expected. There were changes made to the refugee program, but the Council stuck to the ideal that they must accept all those that wished to leave their planet. These people were now to be properly vetted of course, but the Council still opted to go along with plan of accelerated development of all Polemistians, which made them neglect the use of safe zones as the UPN suggested. As a result, the sheer volume of people fleeing from their planet has made those vetting these refugees prone to mistakes. Many new incidents similar to the ones President Pierce described occur across the Coalition. We have tried to handle these situations ourselves, but the current trend of these attacks seem to have changed focus. There has been a sharp rise in attacks on Human citizens of the Coalition, and the locations of these attacks have started to occur closer and closer to UPN bases that lie within our territory. The Council no longer accepts any more hearings with the UPN, and their decision to reject many of the UPN's suggestions in developing a new relocation program has started to form a tension between the Council and the UPN, one that I am afraid has soured our relationships for years to come. My own people as well, once peaceful and accepting of our ways, have grown anxious and restless. Many of us still try to appease the Polemistians, to show them the way through example and charity, but I can feel a storm brewing the back of people's minds. There is an anger to the air, one that has seeped into the hearts of many, and the Council still chooses to stay the course. We have no other option, do we? For to use excessive force against the Polemistians would make us no different than the Empire, and to accept the help of the UPN would mean that the Coalition would be unable to handle any problems without the assistance of humans. Yet... is what we are doing truly what is right? Is accepting these attacks from the Polemistians, accepting that there will be these bumps... these failures along the road truly part of our ideology? Should we not listen to the humans in this case, who seem to have an idea of what they are talking about?

... I do not know, but I can only hope that the Councils decisions benefit us in the end, for the means to get there have not been for the good of all.