Chapter 158: Unexpected Assistance.
Chapter 158: Unexpected Assistance.
Orion’s Arm Branch, Solar System, in the Human Federation’s Presidential Palace on Earth.
15 days had passed since Lin Fan had captured the Kabat Empire’s Capital Circle. A day after Lin Fan had taken the Capital Circle, Li Cangdou and Sophia had also taken Afife, while Fujiwara Ayako and Carol took Fedele.
Currently, the eleven fleets of the First Legion were sweeping through the entire territory of the Kabat Empire. It was expected that they would have complete control of the territory in another 10 days.
Today, a group of bureaucrats had, once again, gathered in the Presidential Palace. The reason being, Qin Tian had escorted the Theo Alliance’s terminal device to the Presidential Palace.
On the conference table was a ring box-like holder. Inside was a round device the size of a marble.
After reading the manual, Lin Zhen stretched out his hand and touched it lightly. Soon, an operation interface was projected.
Lin Zhen was a bit curious and tapped the confirmation button. He found that the interface was tactile, this was obviously a high-end application of energy.
The page then switched and a virtual agreement appeared, titled ‘The Theo Alliance Agreement’. There was a reminder on the side, that one must agree to all of the terms in the agreement and sign it before accessing the terminal.
As a matter of course, Lin Zhen asked Ed, along with his staff to come forward, to study the terms and conditions together.
The crowd went through the agreement, article by article and discussed it from time to time. Surprisingly, they found that the agreements were unexpectedly fair. They did not see any overbearing clauses that clearly oppressed the members. Rather, it was more like a multi-civilizational cooperation agreement.
Of course, the Hitria Empire, as the Alliance leader, would certainly gain a little more than other civilizations, but that was all.
It wasn’t until everyone saw Article 28, which caused many people to frown.
<<Article 28 of the Theo Alliance Agreement>>
As a member of the Alliance, you must maintain the unity of your own civilization and it’s continuity. The Alliance does not recognize the frequent change of leaders.
The Alliance has the right to remove the civilization’s leader unless: the leader voluntarily steps down, suffers from any illness, hitting the limit of his lifespan, and other reasons. Arbitrary changes of leaders are not allowed.
•×•×•×•
This rule could be said to be a direct poke at the Human Federation’s sore spot.
Earlier, Lin Zhen and Ed had sought to change the presidential term years. After all, just about any random policy in the Interstellar Era could last for a dozen or even 100 years!
The leader was set to change in about 30 years. However, once the next President, who ascends, was unsatisfied with the policy, he might change it again.
By that point, any policy would lose its sustainability. Such a thing was absolutely destructive to the Human Federation as a whole.
Therefore, Lin Zhen and Ed were ready to modify the system, so that the maximum term of the President could reach 100 years. But the resistance against this could be imagined.
Not to mention the external resistance, even more than half of Lin Zhen’s nine Board Members would strongly disagree.
Finally, this matter had been dragged on. Even now, it was still not resolved.
However, Lin Zhen did not expect that the agreement of the Theo Alliance would have such a mandatory rule.
Though, Lin Zhen could also understand this type of approach. No one liked having his business partner change all the time after all. It would make things full of uncertainty.
On the other hand, Ed showed a smile, but he quickly hid it.
He did not expect that the Theo Alliance would give them any assistance. This was even more thorough than Lin Zhen’s previous plan with Ed. This rule stated that unless the President voluntarily stepped down, was ill, hit his lifespan limit, etc. he would not be replaced. It was really an unexpected surprise!
In this way, things were more workable, and Ed was now confident about reopening the topic about the presidential terms.
“Everyone, what do you think about Article 28?”
Ed asked.
“Well…”
Several of the Board Members wanted to oppose it as strongly as they did before, but when they looked at the Alliance Agreement displayed on the terminal, their words seemed to be stuck in their throats. They couldn’t say it out loud.
“I know you guys are not convinced, but we are now an Interstellar Civilization. You have already seen several Alien Civilizations, which of them changes their leader every 30 years?”
“Take the Io Federation, they are the only civilization we have seen that does not have a lifelong leader. But even then, their leader would be in post for at least 1,000 years!”
“Do you still not understand how important the continuity of policies is to an Interstellar Civilization?”
Ed looked at several of the Board Members, with some annoyance on his face.
“Vice President Ed, it’s useless to convince us. We still have to vote through the Federal Justice to change the presidential term!”
A Board Member said helplessly. After all, the President does not have the right to amend a Presidential Act, or just modify who becomes the next President according to their own preferences. That would be chaos!
Therefore, if one wanted to amend a Presidential Act, they would have to go through the seven independent Federal Justices to vote on the amendment.
The seven Federal Justices were basically the spokesmen of one side of the power. Wanting them to agree to the amendment of the presidential term to a lifetime system was as difficult as climbing to the sky.
“Leave this matter to me, you follow the agreement of the Theo Alliance. Just display the part of the Presidential Act that needs to be modified for me, I have my own ways to convince those Federal Justices!”
Ed was confident in his hands.
But then again, this related to the destruction of the Human Federation, and the extinction of Humanity!
If those idiots still did not know which to choose, then the Human Federation would simply disintegrate. There would be no more cure!
“Ed, are you sure?”
Lin Zhen glanced at Ed and asked.
“Don’t worry, leave it to me!”
“Alright, I can be rest assured with you taking care of things!”
The two men looked at each other and smiled.
The Board Members looked at these two and couldn’t help, but think, ‘Is this brotherhood or a bromance?’
The meeting continued until midnight, before they finally finished considering all of the terms.
In the 178 articles in the agreement, except for the issue of the leader’s term, the rest had no problems. Meaning, as long as the issue of the presidential term was resolved, they can officially sign the agreement of the Theo Alliance.
The next morning, Ed went out with a pile of documents. He was preparing to visit the seven independent Federal Justices within the day!
This matter could not be delayed. The earlier they get it done, the earlier the Human Race could progress!