Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

was like for him to be a knight. They talked till dinnertime and then after dinner they talked well into the night.

***

Trance felt he was more prepared to finish the school year and almost couldn’t wait for the end of year tournaments. He felt that he and his team had a real shot at winning at least a couple of them as well as the possibility that some of them might do very well in the individual events. Trance also looked toward graduating from school and moving on to becoming a real knight. He was excited and studied hard to get good grades that would help him hopefully get into a very good division. The one he most wanted to join was the division led by Major Marlett and had Zak and Bear in it.

One of the most wonderful things to happen to him was dating Princess Corena. She was smart and funny and had a wonderful personality, not to mention that to him she was the most beautiful young woman he’d ever laid eyes on. On their first actual date she had come and picked him up with one of the royal coaches and they went to a nice little restaurant in town and then to a motion picture show.

Trance was fascinated with the movie theatre. It was very similar to the ones he remembered from his youth, yet they were so much more advanced. The screen was nearly twice as tall and wide as one from Earth, and it was curved to give the ultimate illusion that you were in the movie. The sound system was also amazingly set up and so real you could hear every sound possible in the scene you were watching.

After the movie they went and had dessert at a local ice cream parlor and she took him home. He had kissed her good night and felt that he may well have met the true love of his life. It would be on his second date that he knew he’d met the girl of his dreams.

The date started like the one before, yet this time they went and had something to eat afterwards and spent hours talking and laughing about growing up and their plans for the future. Trance learned a lot about Corena. “I want to join the Lady Golden Griffins to make a difference and help protect my home world and kingdom,” she said. Her mother the Queen was not thrilled about her being a lady knight. But her father, King Maximus, was actually very supportive of her efforts to join and encouraged her to be the best at whatever she chose to do.

Trance learned that her great, great, great, great-grandfather had run for and been elected to every public office, including King, only one of seven people to ever do so. Of those seven he was one of four men, the other three ladies that ran and became ruling Queens of Cator. In school Trance had been fascinated with his government class to discover how the government was arranged.

The government was a democratic monarchy. There was an election every five years for every public office in the kingdom of Cator on Althora. The government had three branches: legislative, judicial, and executive. These branches went all the way from the town level to the county level and then up to the state and kingdom level. In the legislative branch, they wrote the laws. A person started out to be a Seravant or local representative in their town. There was one Seravant for every one hundred people in the town. Once you served one full term you could run and be Baton, local senator, who represented the town aristocracy, any royalty and the upper class that had the highest income in town. The number of Batons was directly linked to the percentage of the town’s aristocracy compared to everyone else in town. An example would be that if thirty percent of the population was aristocracy, then take the number of Seravants and take thirty percent of that number and that gave you the number of Batons the town would have. Laws would have to pass both houses to take effect.

Once a person had served as a Baton they could then run for town Magistrate or Mayor. This was the head of the town, the executive branch. Laws written and passed in the legislature had to be signed by the Magistrate. He or she could even veto the law. The Magistrate also oversaw the enforcement of the law, usually by directing the local sheriffs. Only a Magistrate could then be nominated and move up to be elected in the legislative branch for the county as a Subrata, or county rep. There was one Subrata for every thousand people in the county.

After a person was a Subrata you could run for Baronett. The same percentage was used at the county, state and kingdom level for senators. At this high office you were now considered royal. The executive office for the county was Count. Only Baronetts could run for Count. At the state legislative level were the Duprays, reps that represented ten thousand serfs, and then Dukes. Counts could run for Duprays, and then Duprays for Dukes. From a Duke you could run for Baron, governor. Finally at the kingdom level there were the Lauretts, representatives for every one hundred thousand serfs, and then a Laurett could run for Lord, the kingdoms senate. The last executive office was that of King.

Trance had also learned that even though all of these offices were elected, there was also the ancient rule of inheritance. If any elected official passed away while in office, that office went to his or her spouse or their eldest child. The nearest Trance could work out that meant that if something happened to Corena’s dad King Maximus her mother would have the option to be the ruling Queen, or she could abdicate rule to Corena. Inheritance only went so long as the person was