Chapter 20: The orientation trip

[March/April 2262 AD]

The elections for the senate had surprised me. I really had expected to be just a candidate and not getting many votes at all, but I had actually been elected as one of the three District Twelve senators, together with Delly and Thom. I was not sure if it had been due to the advertising campaign my relatives and friends had initiated or other reasons, but I had succeeded. While I had still been kind of puzzled about what becoming a senator actually implied and what was expected from me in that position, President Taylor had finally visited our district, as she had announced earlier. She had suggested that the district's elected senators travel to the Capitol with her right away as an orientation trip, and thus I found myself on the luxurious train leaving District Twelve for the second time in my life; the first trip outside had been to District Six some time ago together with Prim.

District Eleven was going to be our next stop, and future senators from the other districts, those the president had visited earlier already, were going to take other trains to get to the capitol, where we'd all meet.

For this trip I actually got a cabin of my own assigned, and one of the staff explained that cabins like this had been used when tributes traveled to the Capitol from districts far away; it might have been that very train which had brought Katniss and Peeta to the Capitol several years ago when they had to compete in the 74th Hunger Games. The cabin had an own attached bathroom, albeit a small one, and the bed was nice and soft. Traveling style was not bad, but of course I did not spend all day there. As I recalled from my earlier maglev ride to District Six, looking out to enjoy the scenery was something to do, and I also wanted to talk a little more with my fellow senators.

At the very end of the train there was a lounge car, and shortly after we had been shown to our cabins, Delly, Thom and I met there and found some very comfortable seats. It felt a little odd to sit there and see the landscape passing by outside through the side and rear windows, but at least the seats had been arranged in a way to allow this nice view outside, and the windows were low enough so that one could not see just out, but also slightly down.

Thom and I kept quiet for some time, but Delly was her usual jovial self and just kept talking and babbling, until we eventually asked her to stay silent for some time and just enjoy the view, at least for now.

When leaving the old town, we had first traversed the long tunnel west, and shortly afterwards there was a branch in the track. The line to District Six turned right, towards the northwest, whereas we took the left branch and turned southwest.

For some time the area outside looked similar to what I had seen before, but over time one could observe the vegetation change slowly. Open prairie alternated with forests, the track crossed the occasional creek, and sometimes we could see some herds of larger animals; none of us knew which species they were, though. We watched the environment for hours and talked very little, until one of the staff asked us what we wanted for lunch and where we'd prefer to take it. When we asked what the options were we were handed a menu, and the lady told us that we could either eat here, in our cabins, or in the designated dining area in one of the other cars. We looked at each other, and I suggested:

"We've been sitting here for hours, so what about moving on to that dining area?"

The others nodded, and once we had picked our choices from the printed menu, which offered three different main dishes and a small selection of soups and deserts, we slowly moved through the train until we got to the designated car. This one had a small kitchen and a number of tables, and President Paylor and a few of her staff were occupying one of those. When lunch was about to served, she came over to our table, and while we ate, we also exchanged a few words with her.

In mid afternoon we arrived in the main station of District Eleven, and the platform almost looked like some recordings from earlier years had shown the Capitol station when a tribute train arrived – lots of people waiting and cheering. When the train slowly moved into the station, we all looked out, and we saw that the people out there looked happy; they seemed to welcome the President arriving. I could not recall that President Snow had ever toured the districts, at least not officially. There were some isolated reports about him showing up unexpectedly, like he had done to intimidate Katniss between the 74th and the 75th games, but no official tours; maybe he had feared for his life.

Anyway, here we were in District Eleven, and when we stepped out of the train behind the President, we took our time, moved ahead slowly, and smiled at people, like she was doing. Smiling at people was not a challenge, though, as they really looked like they were happy to see us, or probably mostly the President, and we did not have to pretend.

The few days here in the district passed quickly; we got nice quarters assigned, talked to the mayor and the elected senators from here – five instead of three, due to the larger district area and higher population level – and we also met some special people, including the families of some former tributes. We toured the former district borders, which was in parts actually a high wall rather than a fence, and we talked to more citizens. Most of the people in that district had medium or dark skin, like Rue and Thresh in the 74th Hunger Games, and I learned that the Capitol had migrated lots of dark skinned people into the district on purpose. After all, they had to work outside a lot, and the dark skin made them more resistant against sunburn.

We also got to visit one of the larger orchards and saw some of the trees blossoming, and we were shown a few of the many apiaries the citizens maintained to make sure that the trees were properly pollinated. There was also a chance to go into one of the forests, and they actually had a few training areas where children could learn how to navigate safely in a tree and between tress. That helped, as I learned, to have them work in larger trees and assist with the harvest.

Of course we also met this district's elected senators, and they had five rather than just three, due to the district's higher population. Four out of five had dark skin, but there was a light skinned lady who was an exception. She told us that her family had been living in the area for centuries, and their business had been to manufacture and optimize the tools needed to cultivate the orchards and to harvest the fruits. As only the local people knew exactly what was needed, that kind of work had always been done locally.

Finally our time in District Eleven was over and we boarded the train again to move on to the Capitol. This journey took more than just a few hours; large map of the continent in one of the cars showed the locations and the distances. We left in the late afternoon and spent a night in our comfortable rooms. As I was a morning person and used to getting up early, I found myself in the dining car just before sunrise, and while I enjoyed breakfast I could the mountains rising ahead and to the side, with the rail tracks moving in and out of tunnels occasionally. Vegetation outside was different from home, but even most mountains visible around were covered by trees, with the higher reaches snow covered. That was quite a sight, and I felt sorry for my Delly and Thom for missing that.

Later on, when they were awake as well, we just got a glimpse of what I had admired before from the read observation lounge, and we were scheduled to arrive at our goal in the late morning.

The Capitol! We passed through a long tunnel before getting there, and then the Capitol valley opened up ahead of us. There were buildings much higher than anything I had seen before, there were carefully maintained parks, lakes with boats, and much more, and everything around us looked very affluent, judged by material being used, maintenance levels and such. I could not even start to imagine how much effort people must have spent to build all of that, but of course they had had decades to waste the money extorted from the districts. The train moved much slower than before now, as if we were supposed to get a good chance to look around, and when we passed a mansion which looked big enough to house two dozen or more people, the President explained:

"Can you imagine that such a house used to be inhabited just by two or three people?"

"But this is much larger than even a victor home in our district!"

"Yes, it is. Now, things are changing, of course, and laws have been put in place to make people show some more modesty."

"How can you achieve that?"

"Simple – money. We have introduced property taxes, and the amount depends on family size and property size. If a family owns property up to certain size, no taxes are collected. If the size is bigger, there is some tax, and if size is huge, there is a lot of tax to pay. That works, believe me."

"And what are you doing with the tax income?"

"Some of that goes to the districts to improve the infrastructure there, which has been neglected for many decades, and some is used to change some setup here in the Capitol. We are rebuilding some houses next to the university to be living quarters for students from the districts, and we have build proper quarters for all senators, of course. But see, we are arriving now!"

Indeed, the train slowed down and was about to enter the Capitol's main station.

The Capitol was overwhelming. We had been ushered to guest quarters in some kind of hotel near the station, and on the next day we had been shown to the meeting hall for the future senate sessions. It was almost fully completed and only lacking a few details, and we spent the entire morning introducing ourselves. Overall there were 67 senators; the Capitol, which had by far the largest population, sent nine, three districts had seven, five districts got five, and four districts, including mine, only three. Everybody got about three minutes to talk, and it was quite interesting to learn where everybody was from and what kind of background they had. There was a surprising number of young people, with the youngest one still a teenager, even slightly younger than Delly, and there was a nice balance between men and women. Overall, I was looking forward to working with my future colleagues.

We had the afternoon off to rest and chat, and on the next day we were given a tour through the Capitol. Our guide not only showed some highlights, but also indicated some locations where fighting had been focused on during the last days of resistance. President Paylor invited to a formal lunch, and we continued the tour in the afternoon; this included a short trip to 'The Nut', a fortified mountain complex which had been a center of Capitol defense at the end of the rebellion.

One day later we were shown to the living quarters being available for the future senators. They had a nice park like area close to the senate assembly hall, and there were almost one hundred medium sized buildings in there. A guide explained that each senator would have a maid coming in each day to take care of mundane tasks like doing the laundry and cleaning. Each house had at least three bedrooms and a large office, and the larger one had additional rooms, so that family size could be taken into consideration. Some of the older senators had mentioned several children, and they'd want to claim larger homes. The campus had common amenities like a large outdoor pool and recreation area just for senators and families, a gym and spa, and some other nice facilities, including a couple of small restaurants and a shop for basic needs, if one lacked the time to go for an extended shopping trip outside of campus.

We toured one of the completed homes, and the interior looked similar to one of the victor homes, or maybe even more luxurious; I immediately knew that Prim would love it. There was a properly sized kitchen, a basement for storage, a garage for a car if one was needed, and different specials in different homes. A couple of residences had a small greenhouse in the backyard, and my mind was set to try to get one of those, if possible.

It turned out that most of the elected senators did not have specific preferences and would be fine with any of the homes, but our guide assured us that specific wishes would be collected and they'd see to what extent that could be done. Also, we were told when I mentioned the greenhouse, if more than three senators wanted a greenhouse, they'd be happy to erect more of those. For now, main criteria would be things which could not so easily amended and changed, mainly size and number of bedrooms.

Some of us, mainly elected senators from the poorer districts, pointed out that the quarters seemed to be somewhat extravagant, but our guide replied:

"Believe me, this is nothing. Some families occupy homes like ten times as large as those ones here in the park. A lot of capitol citizens have been swimming in space and luxuries for many decades, and President Paylor has vowed to end this. Decent sized homes are acceptable and some luxuries are fully all right, but there's going to be a limit quite soon, and luxury taxes and property taxes are going to enforce our new rules. No, what we've got here is not really extravagant, but just decent. Besides, President Paylor needs you to be able to focus on your main work as much as possible, and you are not supposed to be distracted by daily mundane tasks."

Thom, the former coal miner, was one of those who could barely believe what was offered to us, and when Delly, he and I talked in the evening, he was still a little bit in awe. Delly and I had been living in Merchant houses rather than Seam ones at least, and I had spent some time in Peeta՚s victory home, too. But they probably had a point. Senators would want to invite people, entertain guests at home and such, and space needed to be there for that, in an equal way for each senator.

Yet another day later we were shown to the senate office building next to the meeting hall. There were offices with different sizes, and our guide of the day explained:

"Senators can chose to either have an office of their own and share an office with others. We assume that senators from the same district might want to work close together, and you do have a choice to share a larger office and the office staff. It would be great if you could make up your mind before you leave for your home districts so that we can reconstruct offices according to the needs."

Delly, Thom and I looked at each other, and while I did not really know Thom very well, I knew that working with Delly would be nice and fun at least. Of course she was quite verbose on that:

"Ryan, Thom, let's share an office, please?"

Thom was not yet convinced:

"I am not sure. I may need a chance to be alone from time to time; this is so overwhelming!"

Our guide showed that, even for shared offices, they were setting up smaller cubicles one could use to focus one's thoughts or for confidential phone calls and such, and that was eventually good enough for Thom to agree.

Delly, Thom and I had also quickly made up our mind on the living quarters we preferred, and I had to admit that I was happy to see that the house Delly wanted was on the other side of the campus from the one I preferred. Delly was really a wonderful person to have around, but when Prim and I moved in, newly married, we might not really want to have her wander in at odd times to chat and socialize.

The next couple of days were available for anything we were interested in, and I asked for details on the university. After all, Prim would go there, and I wanted to learn more about it. Fortunately, the part of the university focused on medical education was not very far from the senators' campus, and Prim would easily be able to walk there or ride a bicycle. And maybe not only Prim, I suddenly recalled. My pretty fiancée had found time to remind me about Lizzy Anderson before I had left home. Prim՚s best friend also wanted to attend Capitol university and learn the medical profession, but she was not quite as gifted as Prim was and did not earn a full scholarship. While university fees were waived for the top candidates from the districts, Lizzy would still have to find lodging, and that was not exactly cheap. Her parents had save some money since they had started to work for the Mellark family, but that was not going to be enough by far. Now, with the big house Prim and I would get, we could certainly make a room available for Lizzy, couldn't we?

Fortunately rules for senators were going to be very flexible as I learned when I asked about that detail. In addition, and I had only learned about that quite recently, the Andersons were actually related to the Everdeens, and Prim and Lizzy had the same great-grandparents, so that they were second cousins or so. Lizzy would be limited in her social life, though. She was not going to be allowed to bring visitors to the house whenever she liked, and all guests would have to pre-approved by me. On the other hand, she was still a minor and would be for two years to come, and if she accepted my offer, she would have to bow to reality and accept the rules. I did not think that this was a problem; I had known Lizzy for some time, and she would fit right in, or at least that was what I expected and hoped for.

As soon as I was home again, I was going to talk to Prim about those options, and we were going to talk to Lizzy and her parents about the options and conditions, too.

On our final day before we were scheduled to travel back to our home districts, we met with President Paylor once more. She asked if we had seen everything we had wanted to see and if all questions had been answered, and she told us once more that she was looking forward to working with all of us later in the year.

Before we separated, she gave us an outlook on some topics we were going to work on first, including finances. According to what she expected, it was not just going to be our task to approve or reject individual proposals for future laws and regulations, but also to find option to improve them further. In order to enable and boost that concept, senators could work together in smaller groups of six or eight or so and have extended discussions on topics in certain areas, like finances, employment, trade, and more.

When I was in my train to get home, that was a lot of stuff to think about.