"Evan Innes - America 2040 02 - Golden World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Innes Evan)

тАЬBecause I care for you,тАЭ she interrupted.

He felt his anger melting away. тАЬNow where were we?тАЭ he asked, moving toward her.
She pointed toward the clock. Max rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. It was time.



TWO



Jack Purdy, chief of scouts, sat on fresh, green grass with his long legs crossed under him. He had a
bush of blond hair in need of cutting, and a thin, intense face. He had taken the first scout ship down from
theSpirit of America to the surface of the big planet, and against orders, heтАЩd removed his space armor to
breathe air that had not been recycled and to go for an exuberant swim in the ocean, which, from his
vantage point atop a low hill, extended endlessly into the distance. HeтАЩd had to spend twenty days
quarantined, alone on the surfaceтАФthat is, except for other scouts who had recently landed by the spot
on the sand dunes where heтАЩd set up his survival tent. The visitors were envious because they were in
space armor and he was not.

The time alone, especially the nights, had been good for Jack. The dark circles of grief that had been
under his eyes ever since the death of his wife, Dinah, and his best friend, Pat Renfro, of the virus on the
planet were gone, merged into a good tan.

Dr. Mandy Miller sat on the grass next to him, shading her eyes to look up into the sky.

тАЬYouтАЩll hearSpirit before you see her,тАЭ Jack said. тАЬWhen Max opens up one hundred rockets at max
power, sheтАЩll bellow like nothing youтАЩve ever heard.тАЭ

But the sky, to Mandy, was fascinating. Their new sun, 61 Cygni B, a K7-class star, emitted a light that
appeared far more orange than the familiar, yellowish, G star that was old Sol. The skyтАЩs blue was
deeper, darker than an Earth sky, and the few clouds took on a soft, silvery look. The grass on which
she sat was the deepest green sheтАЩd ever seen in vegetable matter. In the distance, behind them, a line of
trees near a watercourse gleamed with iridescent yellow blooms as big as her two hands.

тАЬLook,тАЭ Jack said, tapping her on the arm. She lowered her eyes. A small herd of antelopelike
creatures, the males with long, curved, silver horns, had emerged from the trees and were grazing toward
them. They were about the size of an Earth goat, their coats a lustrous orange-tan. They seemed not to
notice-the humans congregated on the hilltop. The little grass eaters did not seem, to Mandy, to be alien
at all, and yet they were native to a planet over eleven light years from Earth. As head of Life Sciences,
she had run tests on blood taken from one of the animals by Jack Purdy, and those tests had astounded
her. The difference between the blood of those orangish-tan alien animals and an Earth dairy cow was so
minor as to be almost indistinguishable.

For centuries scientists and writers had speculated about life among the stars, and some of them had
been rather inventive. Then an Earth expedition lands on an alien planet, and the first life form to be seen
was hydrocarbon based, had eyes like an Earth deer, and the same methods of synthesizing protein from
amino acids as a cow.