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

before Grumps would consider him seriously overdue. To Zach's way of thinking, that changed mere
desire into something resembling a moral obligation. "Definitely time to dangle," he said, slipping off his
sandals and sliding his legs over the edge of the bridge. His feet came within inches of the water. He was
wearing a shortsleeved boorman, the one-piece outfit favored by many in Ambora's semitropicai climate.
A light breeze

played through his shoulder-length brown hair. The rays of Gauguin's blue sun felt good on his bare arms
and legs, which were the color of coffee mixed with milk.

It was a beautiful morning, made even more so by the fact that he had managed to skate through the first
half of the day's drudge without actually doing anything he didn't want to.

He gazed down over Ambora. The five major domes of the city seemed to glow in the midmor-ning
sunshine. Beyond them the great blue-green sweep of Sanjo Bay was joined by the laughing waters of
the Tati. Beyond the bay, stretching endlessly into the distance, lay the great Kartai Sea itself.
Zach felt a great wave of contentment overwhelm him. After the incredible crowding of Earth, it was hard
to believe his family had actually ended up in a place this beautiful. He used to resent the time his father
spent on his job, but if this was the final reward, maybe it had been worth it.

His reverie was interrupted by a quufer scuttling across the bridge to nestle in beside him. Though the first
settlers claimed the quufers had once been shy, like the theskies, they were now so friendly they were
nearly always underfoot.

Zach smiled and ruffled the creature's scales, which were so long, thin, and soft that everyone had initially
thought they were hair.

"Kwoo," said the quufer, making the noise that had given the species its popular name. "Kwoo."

"What are you doing out here, fella?" asked Zach. He used the term "fella" lightly, since no one had yet
figured out how to determine the sex of a quufer.

"Kwoo," responded the quufer, hunching into itself so that it became about the size and shape of a stack
of dinner plates. The skin beneath its transparent scales grew dark, indicating contentment.

Human and quufer sat in companionable silence. Zach was just thinking that he should get moving when
the quufer uttered a small shriek and turned bright green, the color of alarm. It stretched to its full length,
about the distance from Zach's wrist to his shoulder, then raced away, its tiny legs scrabbling against the
wood of the bridge. Zach watched in astonishment as the creature dove into the bushes at the edge of the
path, where its green scales blended so effectively with the tropical foliage that it disappeared almost
instantly.

"Now what was that all about?" he said to no one in particular. He wondered if the quufer had heard
something he hadn't, something it considered a potential threat. The creatures were known to have
incredibly acute hearing, better even than humans wearing amplification implants.

Shaking his head, Zach slipped into his sandals. Still trying to decipher the quufer's strange behavior, he
returned to the trail leading to the Greendomes.

A door slid open as he approached the main dome. Zach stepped through and followed a corridor past
the offices to the growing rooms, where he spotted Sean Matthews using an electronic clipboard to