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

Sean smiled. "Does he always sound like that?" "That's his happy noise," said Clea. "You don't want to
be around on a bad day."

Fifteen minutes later the entire Tourni family was on its feet. With her parents on one side of her and her
little sisters, Andrena and Sara, on the other, Clea felt ready to walk to the observation deck to take a
look at their new home. To her delight Sean excused the other "awakeners" and offered to stay with the
family until they finished getting their bearings. She walked beside him as he led them down a long,
curving corridor with smooth blue walls.

Sean glanced sideways at Clea as they walked along the blue corridor. She was about ten centimeters
shorter than himself, with honey-brown hair that rippled halfway down her backтАФabout the same color
as Zach Yamoto's, but much more attractive on Clea than on that skate. Her eyes held flecks of brown
and amber and gold, as if they had been designed to go with her hair. Sean wondered if the Tourni family
was into genetic engineering, or if Clea's beauty was just the luck of the draw.
When they reached the observation deck, Sean heard the Tournis make the same involun-

tary soundтАФa quick little intake of breathтАФthat he had heard from almost everyone he had escorted to
the deck. He understood. The captain of the starship had drawn away the opaque shielding to reveal a
clear wall two meters high and fifteen meters wide. To stand here with no lights behind you was to stand
on the edge of space. A single object dominated the viewing wall: the green, blue, and white sphere that
was Gauguin.

Clea grabbed Sean's elbow. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

Sean smiled. "You ain't seen nothin' yet," he answered.

Gauguin was indeed beautiful. Of all the habitable worlds the human race had found in the hundred years
since the starship drive had made colonization of the galaxy possible, it was said that Gauguin was the
closest to what Earth had once been.

In fact, many people thought Gauguin was even more beautiful than Old Earth, although it was
considered "politically incorrect" to say so. Unlike most planets discovered so far, Gauguin had plenty of
water. A great, interconnected ocean circled the globe; all three continents held scores of huge inland
lakes tied together by mighty rivers; and almost everywhere, lesser bodies of waterтАФminor lakes and
rivers, ponds and streamsтАФcould be found in abundance. Only at the polar ice caps and in three small
desert areas was liquid water scarce.

Looking down at Gauguin, Sean felt a thrill of excitement at all there was to explore and discover, all the
mysteries that might be waiting for them down there. He clamped down on the feeling the moment he
identified it. Let others love it if they wanted. He couldn't afford that luxury. Gauguin was his fifth planet.
He had no reason to think it would be his last.


CHAPTER TWO:
The Restless Planet
Zach Yamoto whistled contentedly as he ambled along the path to the Greendomes. The trail bordered
the Tati, a small river that ran through Gauguin's first city, Ambora. Zach enjoyed the sound of the river
splashing along beside him, and when he came to a small bridge he felt an almost irresistible urge to sit
and dangle his feet for a while. He checked his watch. Good! By his calculations he had fifteen minutes