"YOU'VE JUST ENTERED THE 1000th TREATY INTO
THE VINDA TREATY ARCHIVE NETWORK!" the machine said in a robotic, yet excited voice.
"Obviously not my idea," Aron thought. He looked with near-indifference as a line went down the middle of the screen. On either side of the line, there was a treaty. On the left, the first treaty entered and on the right, the treaty he had just entered. Aron thought, "What the hay?" and tapped the screen on the left side.
"Odd. Vinda Corporation isn't even a party to this treaty."
A horrible thought shook Aron. Perhaps the slicers had gotten in. He remembered that Kas had said that some of them were "half-way decent." But he pushed that thought away. VC had doubled its V Guards. He was reading with intense interest now. Aron had graduated from the New Republic Diplomacy Academy summa cum laude as an Ambassador of Galactic Jurisdiction. He remembered a class that he wasn't all that fond of: Loopholes. The whole class was about finding loopholes in treaty provisions of our opposite numbers from whatever faction. He appreciated the knowledge now...but it was useless on this treaty: it was without loopholes.
"Whoever worked this one knew what he was doing," Aron said aloud.
It was a treaty obviously years old, possibly not even a treaty. It could have been a charter or license or something. The first party was the Corporate Sector Authority. Aron could barely remember the days when there was an active governing CSA. It was before he graduated. The second party, and obvious host of the negotiations, was...
"Amcron Corporation?" Aron had never heard of them.
"Must be defunct," he reasoned.
He was most intrigued. But the brass would ask questions if an associate ambassador spent an hour filing a treaty in V-TAN, even if he took a moment to soak up the success of having entered the thousandth one. As such, Aron tapped the treaty twice, ordered the disc ejected, and placed it in the holder that had carried the thousandth treaty. He would take it home with him that evening and read it fully. But, for now, he had to get upstairs to his office. The elevator seemed the quickest way.
"I don't mind paperwork unless it's in the way. And NOW, it's in the way," the frustrated ambassador uttered.
