Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [55]
“Ambassador Organa Solo,” the representative from Balmorra intruded, “is something wrong?”
Leia surfaced from her ruminations and steered a contrite smile across the table. “Excuse me. You were saying …”
“I was saying that you haven’t answered my question,” the slender, starched human said in a miffed tone. “How does the New Republic justify such a request, when countless habitable worlds exist where refugees might be sheltered, without the danger of their jeopardizing the economic well-being of native populations?”
Leia fought to maintain diplomatic aplomb. “Of course we have the means to transport tens of millions of refugees to any number of planets in outlying sectors. But our aim is not simply to rid ourselves of an inconvenience. We’re talking about peoples who contribute significantly to the stability and prosperity of the New Republic, and who have lost everything—homes, livelihood, in many cases family members or entire kin groups.”
“What good are such groups without worlds,” someone at the table scoffed.
“Precisely the point,” Leia said. “What the Senate Select Committee for Refugees requires are worlds with intact infrastructures—not only with habitable land, but also planetary defenses, spaceports, surface transportation networks, and dependable communication with Coruscant and the Core Worlds.”
Alsakan’s ringlet-haired representative sniffed. “A very laudable ideal, Ambassador, but who’s going to feed and clothe these displaced billions? Who’s going to construct the shelters and install the irradiators to ensure that the native populations are protected against whatever diseases the refugees might be harboring?”
“The senate has already allocated funds to address those very concerns.”
“But for how long?” the twin-horned envoy from Devaron asked. “Should the New Republic renege on its promises—or be forced to by circumstance—economic responsibilities will fall to the host worlds, which by then will hardly be in a position to banish the groups they accepted in all good faith. The result could be economic catastrophe.”
Leia allowed some of her frustration to show. “Need I remind you that we are in the midst of a war that threatens the very existence of that economy—not to mention the freedoms all of us have enjoyed since the defeat of the Empire?”
When she was certain she had their attention, she went on. “We have the capacity to move populations from the Outer Rim to worlds closer to the Core. Where necessary—and where they can be spared—we will make use of bulk transports and freighters to relocate tens of thousands at a time. But before that can happen, some of you are going to have to volunteer to accept these peoples, as Mon Calamari did with the displaced Ithorians, and as Bimmisaari has recently done with those who fled Obroa-skai.
“Our goal is to create self-sufficient enclaves, to be managed by appropriate individuals selected from within the refugee populations—administrators, physicians, teachers, technicians. However, these enclaves will serve as temporary facilities only. Little by little, we will relocate specific groups or species to suitable worlds, or perhaps introduce populations to currently uninhabited worlds.”
“Individual enclaves for each species?” Jagga-Two’s delegate asked.
“Where possible,” Leia said. “Otherwise, we plan to place compatible groups together.”
“And see to the diverse needs of those groups?”
“Of course.”
“And what happens when antagonistic groups are required to share the same enclave?” the representative from a repopulated world in the Koornacht Cluster asked.
“We’ll deal with those problems as they arise.”
“How—by providing security forces?”
“Some forces will be necessary, yes.”
The Balmorran loosed an incredulous