Space Knights: The Arrival Gregory Samuelson (superbooks4u .txt) 📖

The third branch of government was the judicial. Judges were appointed by the executive officer of a town, county, state, or kingdom and then approved by the legislature at the appropriate level. At the town level there were the civil courts that approved laws if the law is challenged, and ruled in civil disputes. There were also criminal courts to settle criminal cases. There were also appeals courts that heard appeals. There were also the county and state courts, and then finally the Kingdom Court.

Trance enjoyed talking with Corena and learning about the government and her family history. He also learned that she loved animals. She had two little dogs. She described them as little furry cuddly guys that made him think of Pomeranians. One dog was pure white and called Shuggy, and the other dog was pure black, called Chocky. Both dogs loved everybody and wanted to be petted by anyone close to them. They also loved their treats and it seemed that they plotted to convince whoever was close to give them more treats. If they could have it their way they’d skip their regular dog food and just eat their treats. Trance laughed out loud when he heard this and commented, “I don’t blame them. As my grandmother used to say, ‘You don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow, so start your meal with dessert.’ She said a lot of things her own way.”

She chuckled, and then they continued talking about church and school. Corena told him about where she went to church and about her friends. Trance talked about going to church on Earth and what he’d learned here on Althora. He told her about his friends and what they wanted to do when they graduated. They really had a great time and after several hours they headed back to Trance’s house. Once there Trance leaned over and softly kissed Corena. She kissed him back and before he knew what he’d said he confessed his feelings. To his utter amazement she said that she felt the same toward him and she had been falling for him since she had started to really get to know him.

***

A week after their second date Trance was still feeling elated. In his heart he felt that everything was going his way. He had truly fallen in love with Princess Corena, and she felt the same toward him. He was also getting excited about the fact that the battlefield events were about to start.

In a battlefield event both teams would start out from opposite ends of the field, march toward each other and then engage in a battle to eliminate the opposing team. There were also a few horse events for those that somehow had a robot horse to ride. The main horse event was the joust. There were a variety of jousting events, one for every type of weapon, and then one for all. These events were very exciting and really anticipated. It seemed that in the past boys or girls from families that were fairly well off, and so could afford a horse usually contested these events. This year there was the exciting prospect that Trance would be able to compete in the swordsmen joust as well as the all-around joust.

Trance had been working on his horse Odin every free chance he had since Corena had given him the horse when the division of Golden Griffins guarding her had encountered him during the summer before school started and returned him to his family. With Kyle’s help he had gone and found the technical book on robot warhorses that Major Marlett had recommended. Trance looked up other books on the computer with the global info web. He found plans and specs on the newest warhorses and compared them to Odin. Kyle even procured an old copy of the Warhorse Inspection Manuel. With the manual as a guide Trance started to work to bring Odin up to the standard where he could use him as his warhorse.

Kyle knew where the scrapyards were that had numerous old horses and other robot animals. Trance’s dad took him out to the scrapyard to find parts that he needed to make Odin more up to date. It was more affordable to find the parts there; some of the parts were a real bargain than buying them new. Additionally, it was considered the highest form of recycling which was huge on Althora. Almost everything could and was recycled.

In most cases the parts they found were in excellent shape despite the condition of the horse they came from. Through his research Trance discovered that Odin was a Muster Type 18B Warhorse; the newest models were Muster Type 25C. Trance had to bring Odin up to the standard of a Type 22A at least to make him pass the inspection where he could use him as his horse. He scrounged around to find the most modern leg motors, power packs, control panels, and circuit boards.

Week by week Trance worked on Odin, replacing his leg motors and putting in newer, smoother, and stronger hydraulics so that Odin could run faster. Trance even found a newer and much larger master control box. Gradually, as he found newer control circuit boards, Trance installed and soldered them in. He did keep many of Odin’s old control boards in order to keep the horse’s unique personality and past, yet he found newer, more efficient, and powerful circuits.

Trance made some good innovations that he hoped would impress the inspector so he could get Odin to pass the inspection. One innovation Trance made was to install a voice box from a rather beat up and quite old robot knight he had stumbled across in the scrapyard. Now when Odin wanted to communicate with him, Odin could speak as well as have the words scroll across the view screen. Trance had upgraded the view screen to one he found on a really beat up Type 23A.

A second innovation was that he came across