"Robyn Tallis - Planet Builders 1 - Mountain of Stolen Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tallis Robyn)

Sean nudged his father and pointed to a trio of

theskies pressed against the fence. The large, lizardlike animals were watching the proceedings carefully,
their amber eyes wide with interest. Governor Matthews scowled. When the colonists first arrived the
theskies had been terrified; now they were so friendly they were becoming a nuisance. The fence around
the loading dock had been erected specifically to keep the theskies from getting entangled with the
elevator mechanisms.

Sean heard the door close behind him. By craning his neck and squinting, he could just see the absurdly
slender cables that would guide and support the elevator on its trip. Though he couldn't see them more
than an arm's length past the elevator, Sean knew the cables stretched thousands of meters into the sky
to a satellite locked in an orbit precisely matching Gauguin's daily rotation. Even though the satellite
traveled over a thousand kilometers per hour, it always remained directly over the loading dock.

Technically, this was a "geosynchronous satellite." But Spacers referred to them as "flyspecks," because
from space they looked like flyspecks on a globe.

The elevator began to move. Looking out, Sean fixed his eyes on the ground. Soon the surface of the
planet was several meters below him and receding fast. His stomach began to flutter. He glanced over his
shoulder. Only one of the adults had turned to look through the clear wall. The man's jaw was set, but his
face seemed to

have gone pale under skin that was usually the typical amber-honey color to which the human race had
blended itself over the last five hundred years. The man nodded at Sean, then shifted to face the blank
wall.

Sean looked straight out into the sky and fought back a wave of dizziness. He began to review the way
the elevator worked, a trick he used to help himself through this part of the ride. He envisioned the four
slender but enormously strong cables linking the satellite to the loading dock, making it possible for an
"elevator" to climb into space without the tremendous burst of energy it took for a conventional rocket to
escape the pull of the planet's gravity.

He turned and looked at the indicator above the door. Two thousand meters and still climbing. Looking
back out over the planet, undoubtedly the most beautiful he had ever seen, Sean fought to keep himself
from loving it. He had done that too many times before, on too many worlds. When his family moved to
Gauguin, Sean had vowed not to let himself to be hurt that way again.

Who am I? thought the girl. The question scared her. She really ought to know who she was.

Maybe if she could see something it would help. She tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn't work. She
tried again. When they still wouldn't open she started to scream, only her mouth wouldn't work, either.
Nothing came out.

She tried to move an arm, a hand, a finger. Anything. Nothing happened, not a single twitch. It was as if
she had been bound with rope from head to foot.

A wave of panic surged through her mind. But before it could overwhelm her, a soft voice began to
whisper soothing words in her ear. "Good morning, Clea. Please relax while you wait for your body and
your memory to reactivate. You are safe and well. I repeat, you are safe and well. You will see your