The Storm Maker (5 page)

Colonel
Sthykar was driving his army car—a big, sturdy and powerful vehicle—down the
inner roads of the Capital towards the Constellation. With him was his wife.
Slyntya, of a few years and a newly selected Constellar. Slyntya was looking straight
ahead wide eyed and alert as she always did when Sthykar was driving.

       “Sthykar,
slow down,” she said. “We are not even on the national road.”

       “I
am slow, driving only at eighty miles per hour,” he replied. “You know I drive
a hundred on the national road.”

       “You
have to stop that, or I will introduce a bill to put a speed limit on the
national roads.” She turned towards him and smiled.

       “You
will get laughed out of the Constellation,” Sthykar laughed and she shook her
head with a blush.

       Colonel
Sthykar was a man thirty-three years old, standing 5’10’’, big eyes, thick
eyebrows, wavy hair with a slight receding hairline on the sides, a muscular
body around 200 pounds, looking handsome in a rugged, masculine manner. He was
a Colonel in the Mountain Cavalry, which was part of the Elite Army. Today he
was wearing his dress uniform: King’s Red hat and full sleeve shirt with black
combat boots, pants and a big two-inch wide leather belt that was always worn
over the shirt. There were insignia of his army and rank on the upper left
chest of his shirt and medals on the upper right chest. Golden epaulets flowed
down from both the shoulders; his hat’s center symbol and the belt buckle were
both a shiny King’s Red star with a black horse head in the middle—the national
symbol of the Starfire Nation.

       His
wife was Constellar Slyntya, a thirty-five year old woman, 5’8’’ in height,
medium sized eyes, beautiful face, hair flowing down to the center of her back
with waves and curls in them adding to the décor, big wide hips, voluptuous
thighs and long legs all making for a feminine, curvy figure. It was her first
year of her first term as a Constellar. She was dressed elegantly in a purple
sweater over black skirt with a black belt on top and was wearing black high
heels.

       “Sthykar,
what is this you were telling me about buying some land?” she asked as Sthykar
drove on.

       “My
friend Relkyett has a great offer for land somewhere down southwest,” Sthykar
said. “He bought a plot and told me about it. There is a lot of timber that
grows on it. It would make a great investment as well as a vacation spot.”

       “A
vacation spot out in the backcountry.” She frowned. “Why don’t you want to buy
a house in the city?”

       “Alright,
we will make that our next purchase,” Sthykar said, “I know you are a big city
girl, and now with your Constellar salary, which is more than mine, we will buy
a house in a couple of years.”

       “I
like that,” Slyntya said. “How long are you going to stay there?”

       “Anywhere
from one to two weeks,” Sthykar replied, “The way I see it, you are going to be
busy over next few weeks. This is still your first year, so you have a lot of
politics, procedures, history and state administration to learn. My army
vacation carried over from the last year of two weeks on top of a month I will
have this year, and Relkyett is getting together a lot of my friends. Might as
well use the vacation time with my friends while you are busy. Later in the
year, we can go together someplace.”

      
“
I
will definitely look forward to that,” she said.

       They
drove for approximately fifteen more minutes while conversing before they
arrived in front of the gate of the Constellation. It was a big gate with steel
bars with tall, concrete walls on either side. Armed guards stood outside as
well as inside. One of them approached the driver-side window and saluted
Sthykar when noticing his rank and uniform.

       “Colonel,”
he said, “I have to see identification—just a formality.”

       “Just
dropping off my wife, Constellar Slyntya.” He pointed to her and she held up
her ID card to the guard.

       “Go
ahead, madam,” he said and motioned for the gate to be opened.

       After
they drove in and through another gate, they were on the road leading to the
building of the Constellation with lush green grass on either side and
patrolled by armed guards. The Constellation was the hundred member law-making
body of the Starfire Nation whose members were selected every five years.

       The
Constellation building was shaped like a five-point star, except with one point
and one triangle missing. That missing part symbolized the King whose Royal
Palace was at another location and who completed the Constellation as its
leader as well as a tiebreaker when needed.

       Sthykar
stopped the car in the parking lot in front of the main entrance. Slyntya
picked up her purse and looked at her hair in the mirror and then asked
Sthykar, “Aren’t you going to come in? More people know you in there, than they
know me.”

       “No,
that’s what I am worried about,” Sthykar chuckled. “Many will want to talk to
me and I rather not, but I can’t just shoo away politically powerful
Constellars. Give my regards to the King when he comes in.”

       “I
don’t think there will be more than eight or ten Constellars in there,” Slyntya
said opening the door. “You sure don’t want to come inside?”

       “Ha!”
Sthykar said. “Those of us in the army get up at six o’clock and start work
half hour after that, latest at seven. And our Constellars are still hauling
themselves in at nine thirty.”

       “What
are you going to be doing?” she asked while getting out of the car.

       “I
have to finish up some paperwork before going on the vacation,” Sthykar said.
“I am going directly to the base. I will fly out tomorrow, the day after or
whenever my work is wrapped up. You can have a Constellation car drop you off
at home.”

       “Goodbye,
Colonel,” she said with a wide smile.

       “Alright
then,” Sthykar said, half saluted her in jest. He turned his car around and
drove off waving to her with his hand out the window.

       She
stood in the parking lot watching his car drive up to the first gate, then she
walked towards the main entrance escorted by the Constellation guards all the
way to the door.

       Once
inside the hall, Slyntya saw a few Constellars standing around talking. Her
guess had been correct; there were no more than a dozen who had arrived. The
inside of the Constellation hall was built as an auditorium with a hundred
seats facing a podium and a throne to the right of the podium. There was a big
painting on the wall behind the podium of old King Starryvk riding on his horse
with his bow and arrow on the grasslands of Thorac Steppes—the King who had led
the Starfirians in finding and settling on the south polar continent.
Surrounding him were his champions on their horses with their own bows and
arrows or their swords in their hands. It was an impressive painting covering
the entire length and breadth of the wall.

       She
turned away from looking at the painting and walked up the stairs in the middle
towards her seat. There were eleven rows of seats with long tables arranged as
in an auditorium with the first row lowest and on par with the ground floor;
each subsequent row was a couple of steps higher. The black-colored seats with
red cushions were independent and separated from each other in distance but the
reddish-brown wooden table stretched continuously from one end of the room to
the other with the only break in the middle for the steps. There were five
seats in the first row, seven in the second, eight in the third and ten each in
the remaining eight rows. Slyntya exchanged formal pleasantries with other
Constellars and walked up to her seat, which was third from the aisle in the
ninth row. There was no one else in her row or in the two rows above her or the
row below her. She sat down, put her purse on the table and took out a few
papers and a pen.

       As
she was reading the papers, which introduced different procedures of the
Constellation to the new members, her mind left the dull readings behind and
became lost in her personal thoughts. She had felt a little strange being a
Constellar in Starfire Nation, as she was a foreigner here, although she had
become a Starfirian national a while back. Her fellow Constellars were
welcoming of her, but she could not tell whether that was because she was the
wife of a national hero. She did not know if even her selection had been due to
the fact that she was married to Colonel Sthykar.

       Politics,
however, were not new to her. Her father had been part of the government for a
few years in her old country, Karaln Nation. She, too, had wanted to do that
and had managed just that but in a different country altogether. When the
mighty Narducat Empire had invaded and occupied her country, Starfirians had
come to fight for them. Then she met Colonel Sthykar and moved with him to
Starfire nation and started taking interest in its politics. However, there was
a big difference in the two countries’ politics. Karaln nation was much more
intellectual with polite discussions, while Starfire was the nation of
hard-headed men. The Constellars here generously peppered their speeches with
invectives and insults, hurled at each other, humor and harshness mixed in.
However they had been respectful to her so far and the King himself had assured
her that if anyone started insulting her, he would stand him down right then
and there and give him a tongue lashing.

       “Slyntya,
dear,” a voice interrupted her thoughts and she turned to where Constellar
Krrtya stood next to her. “How are you doing?”

       “I
am fine, but where is everyone?” Slyntya asked as Krrtya sat down in the chair
to her right. Her own seat was in the fifth row but the seat next to Slyntya
was still empty.

       “This
is the first day after the break and that is how it is,” Constellar Krrtya
said. “Mostly only first time Constellars will show up to learn the ropes of
state politics. I came to give you company.”

       “I
am happy,” Slyntya replied.

       “I
am going to get a coffee,” Krrtya said, “I will be back in a few minutes,” she
said and walked down the stairs and out of the Constellation hall towards the
cafeteria.

       Constellar
Krrtya was a fifty-five year old woman, almost as tall as Slyntya, but not
quite by an inch, on the thin side with her hair falling down to her shoulder.
She was an experienced, second term Constellar and had become an informal
mentor for Slyntya. She had taken an interest in her and helped her out and
Slyntya was happy for that. Krrtya appeared to be a genuinely kind lady to
Slyntya who felt sympathy for her as a young outsider. However, there might
have been another reason for her becoming close and cozy towards Slyntya. Her
husband owned the seventh largest car company by the number of annual car sales
in the country. More importantly his car company was number three when it came
to selling the big, powerful engine cars that were particularly popular with
young men. If he could get Colonel Sthykar to endorse his cars, that would do
wonders for his business.

       Krrtya
came back with her coffee and sat down next to Slyntya, and they chatted for
the next half an hour as more Constellars, mostly first term ones arrived.
There were forty six new Constellars, and Slyntya saw that roughly half of the
hall was full. Then the Capitan of the Royal Cavalry entered and all side
discussions stopped as he loudly announced, “Please rise for the King.”

       Krrtya
quickly made her way back to her seat. Everyone rose silently as the King
walked in and to the podium. He opened the Constellation for official business
with a few words and then left with the capitan.

       As
Krrtya had said, there wasn’t going to be much state business conducted on the
first day back. Constellar Slyntya sat through the next four hours, listening
to speeches and lectures by political philosophers and theorists on different
parts of Starfirian state. Every once in a while there would be different
speakers who introduced new Constellars to different topics and they covered a
lot: history, procedures, and the responsibility of all the minor houses, the
tasks of different government departments, army matters and foreign relations.
It was harder for Slyntya, most of the information was new to her because she
had not grown up here nor gone to school or college here. She could not easily
place her new found knowledge in context and had a load of questions for
Sthykar at night. Now that he was going on a vacation, it would be even more
difficult to digest the material.

       She
took some notes leading up to the lunch time and was relieved when the hour
long break came. As she was picking up her stuff, Constellar Dvyet, who was in
his third term and the head of House of Banks, walked up to her. She had been
placed on the House of Banks. Every Constellar was placed on at least one minor
house which supervised some government department under its care.

       “Hey,
I did not see you before,” she said.

       “I
just came,” Dvyet said. “I have been through this learning ten years ago,” he
said. “I am not going to waste my time again with it.”