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--- Embassy.

The building itself looked like a giant plant, its central column sprouting branch like arms at regular intervals in a rising spiral. Each branch supporting a large platform like an enormous leaf, ready to catch any sunlight that might filter down through the eternal rain clouds of Maramus. Each of the platforms was in fact a garden unto itself, growing multiple varieties of fruits and vegetables from all across the federation.

Topping it all, like an enormous flower facing the sky, was a plastiglass dome, one hundred meters across. Filled with a veritable jungle of exotic plants, from all corners of the Federation and beyond. Some of which were tall enough that they touched the roof, and followed the curve of the dome itself.

The arcology loomed, towering above the rest of the city. At nearly two kilometers tall, it was more than three times the height of the next tallest building in Capatolis. Not only did it physically pierce the dense fog and cloud layers which perpetually blanketed the city, it also projected a protective field around itself which disrupted the clouds, so sunlight was able to shine upon even its lowest platforms, and at times even allowing light to penetrate all the way down to street level.

The complex was surrounded by a thirty meter tall perimeter wall, bordering an entire city block. Each face of the wall held a single, ten meter tall double gate. Beyond the gates, a cobblestone court yard extended to the base of the arcology itself. From there, several entrances were available to take visitors to any location within the structure.

When the Embassy was first opened to the public, the main gates were opened each morning, and a small group of Krysh would hand out free fruit to anyone who wanted it. At the beginning, there were few takers. Memories of the war were still fresh, and what the Krysh did to prisoners made them highly suspicious, but within a few months, the majority of the homeless in the city had begun to queue up outside the gates each morning before they were opened.

Then the Krysh began inviting people to enter and tour the Embassy. Some, most of them children, never came out again. Within six months, street urchins in the capital had all but vanished, and the number of arrests for vagrancy had dropped to near zero. This only fueled the rumors, that the bugs were eating them, or using them as fertilizer for the fruit they were handing out.

Eventually the mayor of the capital, as well as the planetary governor, demanded to see the inner workings of the embassy for themselves, along with a live media broadcast of their tour.

The Krysh welcomed them in, and allowed them unfettered access to every part of the complex. They were able to go where ever they wished, no door was off limits. Some required an escort for safety reasons, but they were never denied access.

During their tour, it became apparent that the complex contained a very large population of young, well fed children of every species. Each had an assigned task to perform, such as escorting visitors, delivering internal messages, or maintaining the gardens. The movement of water, soil, fruits and vegetables, between the various levels within the complex was all performed by this manual labor.

All wore simple tunics and leggings of similar design, with only the color designating the task which they had been assigned. For many, it was probably the only new clothing they had ever worn. But the most noticeable part of the uniform, to outsiders, was not the various colors, but the hats. Every worker wore a hemispherical helmet, topped with a pair of simulated antennae, and false eye spots on each side. When seen as a group from a distance, they did indeed look and move like an insect colony. All very organized, and all looking very happy to be doing their assigned tasks.

They also discovered that the building extended well below street level another half kilometer. The levels nearest the surface were arranged in a more recognizable grid pattern of rooms with interconnecting hallways. They included class rooms, cafeterias, media access booths, gymnasiums, communal sleeping chambers, and bathing facilities, including swimming pools.

Deeper still, the industrial core of the complex was tied into the cities sewer, water, power, and media utilities. It took the keen eyes of a city engineer, watching the tour later to notice that the sewer and water systems were flowing the wrong direction. A later investigation found that the Krysh were processing the city sewage for use as fertilizer, and were back feeding excess water back into the city supply. Water which was later found to be cleaner than what the city itself was supplying.

In the end, the building was given a clean bill of health from both government officials, and activity at the arcology continued as normal.

Even though more than fifty years have passed since that public tour, the rumors about what goes on inside the walls still persist.

---

The security shuttle slid to a stop in front of the north face of the embassy complex. Its rear gate yawned open, and allowed its passengers to exit. A golden dragon, and a young skunk girl with her right arm in a sling and an umbrella in her left.

The dragon approached the driver side window and rapped on it with his knuckles. The window silently slid down, revealing the face of a young fox. "Is there a problem, sir?" he asked nervously.

"If we aren't back in two hours, wait another two," he said conspiratorially, and passed the canine a handful of currency notes.

"But, sir, we both work for Internal Security," said the very confused fox.

"Good lad," said Dro, patting the roof of the vehicle, and returning to Shannon's side.

"Did he take the money?" asked Shannon.

"I didn't give him a choice," said Dro.

"Someday, that joke is going to backfire on you," she chided him.

"And you will be there to laugh at me," he replied.

Before them stood the perimeter wall, taller than most of the adjacent buildings, made of black stone, purportedly mined from its own foundations.

"Ever been to a Krysh arcology before?" asked the dragon as he ruffled his jacket.

"I've never dealt face to face with a Krysh before," replied Shannon. Staring up the side of the enormous structure and shielding her eyes with her good hand. "Is the glow normal?"

"That is the sun. Not something you often see on Maramus," replied the dragon as he ascended the steps to the main gate.

"I know what the sun looks like," she groaned, rolling her eyes. "I meant the greenish haze surrounding the building. It almost looks like shielding, but that wouldn't play nice with the atmosphere."

"It is a shield, of sorts, and it definitely isn't playing nice with the atmosphere. Electro statics, stripping all of the particulates, including rain from the air as it passes through, that is why they have this little patch of sunlight in the middle of the city."

As they entered through the massive gates, Shannon saw that the entire interior surface of the protective wall was a constant cascade of darkened water as it dripped from the bottom edge of the shield. Then she noticed the smell, or lack there of. She sniffed deeply a few times to make sure her nose was working properly.

"Smells good doesn't it?" asked Dro. "Not having all that stuff in the air."

"What do they do with it all?" she asked, still goggling at the scale of it.

"They run all of the water through filters, and what they don't drink or irrigate with, is pumped back into the city supply," he said as they approached the reception desk. "The pollutants are collected and refined into their basic elements. Heavy metals can be very lucrative when resold onto the open market."

Standing at the reception desk, watching them approach, was a young wolf wearing one of the antennae laden helmets. His black facial markings starkly contrasting the bright white of the hat. He tried his best to hide his excitement, but his tail apparently had not received the memo. "Good morning," he gushed. "Welcome to the Free Krysh Embassy, my name is Elrod, how can I be of service?"

"Agents Amddifad and Oroyo from Internal Security. We have an appointment with the Ambassador," said the dragon as he and Shannon handed the boy their ident cards.

The wolf waved them across his desk, and the verification appeared on its surface. "Yes, sir, ma'am," he said, nodding and handing the cards back to each of them. Grabbing his data pad he stepped down from his plinth and bowed slightly. "If you would just follow me, please, I will escort you to the atrium."

As they followed the grinning wolf across the court yard, they passed his replacement, a young feline traveling in the opposite direction with a similar data pad. The cat was so distracted when looking back at the trio, that when he reached the reception desk, he nearly tripped into it.

The express elevator was located at the center of the complex, and its doors opened the moment the young wolf palmed the call panel. Bowing slightly, he gestured for them to enter before him. Once in the lift, the wolf stepped in and pressed the only button on the panel. The doors shut, and the car began ascending at a respectable rate.

The dragon bounced on his toes a few times, noting that his horns were still half a meter from the ceiling. He would have to locate and compliment the designers.

As the wolf focused on the rapidly moving progress indicator, the dragon nudged Shannon and pointed at his wagging tail. Shannon nodded, and shrugged, not knowing what was making the wolf so happy. She was surprised that his tail hadn't fallen off yet.

"So how much did you win?" Dro suddenly asked.

The boy's tail instantly stopped wagging. "Sir?"

"In the pool. For being the lucky one to be on duty when we arrived, how much did you win?"

The boy turned his head, eyes wide with surprise. "How did you..," he began.

"I read your mind," said the dragon, tapping the side of his own head with a talon. "How much?"

"Twenty five creds," he squeaked.

"Mmm," the dragon nodded, then returned to facing the doors.

The wolf slowly turned back to the doors, a worried look on his face, his tail now drooping significantly but the tip was still twitching rapidly.

The lift slowed as it approached the top floor, then stopped gently. The doors slid open and the wolf stepped out and to one side, allowing them to exit. "Apex Atrium, Ambassadorial Residence," he announced cheerfully.

After Shannon and Dro exited the elevator, the wolf made to re-enter the car and return to the main floor, but Dro blocked his path with a hand. "Elrod..," he said quietly.

The wolf froze and turned his head to meet the dragon's eyes. "Sir?"

The dragon had a short conversation with the boy in Lupe, then pressed a coin into the palm of his hand.

Clutching the coin, Elrod stepped back into the lift and palmed the button again. The last thing Shannon saw was the wolf grinning like an idiot, with his tail wagging even more violently than before as the doors closed.

"So what was that all about?" asked Shannon.

"First I asked him, that if I could read minds, why did I have to ask him how much he had won?" said the dragon, "I then admitted that I obviously cannot read minds, but then gave him fifty creds to tell his friends that I could."

Shannon sighed, "Sometimes I think you dragons do things for no other reason than for spectacle."

"What in the worlds gave you that idea?" he asked, punctuated by smoke rings from his nostrils.

Shannon rolled her eyes again.

"Why not?" admitted the dragon, "Especially when it takes so little effort. Life is so blasted dull most of the time, it deserves to have a bit of spectacle inflicted upon it now and then."

After a few moments of silence Shannon finally had to ask, "So how did you know about the betting pool?"

"I saw it on his replacement's data pad as we passed him," said the dragon as if it were obvious.

---Thats

The atrium was located at the center of the magnificent enclosed dome at the top of the embassy. Walkways of synthetic stone radiated outward from the elevator in winding paths which quickly disappeared into the artificial jungle.

As they waited, a quiet sizzling sound could be heard, which gradually increased in volume. Growing louder and louder, its echos bouncing off the interior surface of the dome, delaying and amplifying the sound into a growling buzz. Shannon winced as the frequency of the sound suddenly swept up the audible spectrum ending in a sharp percussive chirp, and then silence.

"Speaking of spectacle...," said Dro very quietly, as the echo faded away and the source of the sound stepped out from the jungle flora before them.

A bipedal insectoid with two pairs of arms, the upper pair larger and more muscular than the lower. Taller than a dragon, though not nearly as massive, the Krysh was dressed in long narrow strips of brightly colored fabric. The strips were wrapped, in pairs, around its upper body and arms, interwoven to create a checkerboard pattern where they intersected. The trailing ends of the strips were left loose half way down each arm, like frilled sleeves. Its lower body trailed behind it, naked, but shielded by two pairs of lacy transparent wings.

As the Krysh approached, Shannon thought that the bug was staring directly at her with its unblinking eyes, however the dragon, and anyone else in the room would have seen the same effect from their perspective.

The internal structure of the compound eyes, gave the illusion of a small black dot in each eye, which appeared to follow the person observing it. Located on either side of its triangular head, the ovaloid primary eyes were actually fixed in position, and were viewing all directions equally at all times.

The lower, smaller pair of arms, were manipulating a data pad used for translation. When the Krysh stopped, it folded the arms to its chest, with the tablet facing out, indicating that its attention was now focused on them.

The dragon took a step forward, bowed low, and stretched forth a hand, rapidly clicking his talons on the stone floor.

A barely audible clicking and hissing emanated from the insect's mandibles as the tablet translated. "Oh please. I haven't been addressed as royalty since the war ended."

The dragon resumed standing and said, "If there are any remaining still worthy of that title, you would be one. You will always be a Queen to me."

"You know each other," said Shannon. It was a statement, not a question.

"Shocking as it may sound, yes, I do know other people," said the dragon.