(eng) L. E. Modesitt - Ecolitan 1-4 by The Ecologic Envoy; The Ecolitian Enigma

Author:The Ecologic Envoy; The Ecolitian Enigma [Enigma, The Ecologic Envoy; The Ecolitian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IX

IN THE MORNING, another pale green groundcar waited in the shade of the portico of the Guest House, the window of the driver’s side open. A round-faced young man, black-haired and clean-shaven, sat behind the wheel, his eyes on the doors.

As the two Ecolitans stepped outside, the driver bounded out of the car and stepped around the bonnet to greet them. “Sirs! I’m Glubb Bagot, and the chief sent me to be your driver.” The young man wore the white shorts, socks, and shoes of the port authority, but a green-and-white striped uniform shirt.

“Nathaniel Whaler, and this is Ecolitan Sylvia Ferro-Maine.” Nathaniel tried not to wrinkle his nose at the pungency of the Artosan atmosphere—or was it because the Guest House was down-wind of some industrial or agricultural facility?

“The chief said you were in charge, professors. Where do you want to go?” Bagot offered an open smile.

“The synde bean fields, to see some in all stages, and from thence to the processing facility.”

“Lots of bean fields, professor. They start over there, and they go for kilos in every direction.” The driver gestured out past the portico and in the general westward direction. Between the edge of the road and the field, less than a hundred meters from the west side of the Guest House, two men worked on a fuel-burning tractor in the clear morning light.

Although his eyes followed Bagot’s gesture, Nathaniel was well aware that his belt detector pulsed. He and Sylvia exchanged glances. More surveillance, but who…and why? Those handling the spying had to be locals; they were too obvious to be anything else, and that meant the Prime had been right about the study not being entirely desired by New Avalon—or by someone.

“Are there more toward Lanceville? Or are the majority farther out?”

“Some in just about every direction, sir.” Glubb Bagot offered another guileless smile.

“Start toward Lanceville.” Holding his datacase in his right hand, Nathaniel opened the rear door with his left, letting the detector scan the groundcar, but no energy flows beyond the normal registered.

With a bored expression, Sylvia slipped inside, sliding across the worn plastic to seat herself behind the driver and letting her datacase rest on her lap. Nathaniel took the other side of the rear seat, closing the door.

“Toward Lanceville it is, sirs.” Glubb Bagot closed his own door and started the antique internal combustion engine. Gray smoke puffed from behind the boot.

The mechanical wheezing from under the bonnet, and the faint hint of air that was lukewarm as opposed to hot, indicated that the ground-car possessed some rudimentary cooling system. Despite the comparatively lightweight greens, Nathaniel blotted his forehead even before the vehicle was on the permacrete headed eastward.

The low, dark green plants filled roughly half the fields on both sides of the narrow road. In those fields not filled with beans grew falfamut, the legumelike nitrogen-and soil-fixing plant that also doubled as animal fodder. The combination provided an effective two-crop rotation that continually strengthened the soil and the atmosphere—provided that the rotation was equal, not something that always happened.

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