Ecolitan Prime (Ecolitan Matter) Read Online Free Page A

of Accord. On New Augusta, each address within the towers or tunnels merely seemed to have a standard portal. The portal to the Accord Legation, aside from its green color and gold letters proclaiming the LEGATION OF ACCORD , differed little from the others he had passed.
    As high as he was in the Diplomatic Tower, there was considerable foot traffic, along with numerous automated delivery carts.
    Nathaniel half turned toward the bystanders who watched his honor guard with a mixture of boredom and indifferent curiosity. As he did, the sight of an all-too-familiar object coming to bear on him sent him into a diving roll behind the still-standing guards.
    Scritttt!
    The splinter gun fragments shattered across the portal facing and skittered along the corridor.
    “Spread and search!” snapped the Marine Lieutenant.
    “He’s gone already,” observed Nathaniel, dusting himself off.
    The Marine officer ignored the Ecolitan’s observation and sprinted down the corridor. Two ratings closed up next to Nathaniel, each scanning the corridor in a different direction.
    “Sir? Don’t you think you should get under cover?”
    “Little late for that.”
    Most of the bystanders had scuttled out of the path of the onrushing Marines or had found they had business elsewhere.
    Nathaniel scanned the faces that remained. Two of the handful still in the corridor struck him as possibilities, and he committed their faces to memory before turning his full attention to the narrow scratch on the portal.
    “Hmmm…” he murmured. The splinter had barely scratched the permaplast. He checked the corridor floor and tiles for nearly twenty meters but could find no trace of the splinter fragments he had heard.
    What with the apparent attack and all the Imperial Marines, the Ecolitan felt more like he had been leading an expedition through Accord’s southern forests than arriving in New Augusta.
    Finally, he touched the Legation entry plate, and the door slid open. The two Marines marched in and stationed themselves in front of the entry desk. Nathaniel followed.
    The decor of the receiving area that was supposed to represent the decor and ambience of Harmony didn’t. The gargoyled lorkin wood hanging lamps were Secession Renaissance. The woven wheat grass entry mat was Early Settler. The inlaid blackash tea table was pre-Secession, and the likes of the long maroon and overupholstered couch had never been seen in Harmony or even in the depths of the Parundan Peninsula.
    As Nathaniel refrained from staring at the mismatched furniture, three more Marines quick-stepped in with his field pack and datacases, deposited them next to the entry desk, and marched away to reform outside the Legation.
    The Lieutenant stepped up and gave the Envoy a stiff salute.
    “Further instructions, sir?”
    “Dismissed,” Nathaniel responded in Panglais.
    “Yes, sir. Thanks to you, Lord Whaler, sir.”
    As the door noiselessly closed, the Ecolitan turned his attention to the woman at the desk. She wasn’t from Accord, and his change of attention caught her intently studying him.
    That was to be expected. The Empire supplied, without charge, space in the Diplomatic Tower and paid up to twenty assistants or technical specialists for each Legation. A planetary government, hegemony, federation, or what-have-you could send as many or as few nationals as it desired for Legation staff, and use any or none of those paid by the Empire.
    The catch was the cost. If the Legation were located in the Diplomatic Tower, the Empire paid for the space, the power, and the Empire-supplied staff. If any out-system government chose to put its Legation elsewhere in New Augusta, then the Empire paid none of the costs. While the richer or more militaristic systems, such as Olympia or the Fuardian Conglomerate, had separate Legations staffed strictly by their own nationals, most non-Imperial governments availed themselves of at least the space in the Diplomatic Towers.
    The House of Delegates