"Steve White - Emperor of Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (White Steve)

"Very good, sir." The steward gave a small bow and departed. Corin looked around. People were
drifting away, leaving only a few in the observation bubble. He turned back to the spectacle outside.
They were approaching the terminator, and Santaclara's day side stood revealed. A hot young F5v star
such as this had no business possessing a blue cloud-swirling life-bearing planet. . . .

"Think we'll see a Luon?"

He started at the voice and turned to look at its owner. He'd noticed the auburn-haired woman before,
but had never been presented with an opportunity for self-introduction that met his rather exacting
standards in such things. Now she herself had finally made the move, and was giving him a gaze of frank
appraisal with clear blue eyes that suited a complexion fair enough to be potentially inconvenient under
this sun. And, to his annoyance, he found himself struck most by the way she'd paralleled his own
thoughts, which had been leading him by a natural chain of association to the ancient terraformers, now
dying out, who had bequeathed worlds like Santaclara to their human successors.

"Probably not," he replied. "I've heard that some people here claim to have seen one, still alive in the
mountains. But stories like that are usually just imagination and alcohol. Nobody sees the Luonli unless
they want to be seen."

"You mean . . . the stories about them being mind-controllers?" Like a cloud shadow on a windy day, an
uneasy frown crossed her face. Those features were too strongly marked for conventional prettiness, and
too expressive to mask her feelings. Once seen, they lingered in the memory.

"That's probably a little strong. As I understand it,influencing the mind is about the extent of their
telepathic capacity. And they've never shown any inclination to use it except to preserve their privacy as
they quietly dwindle toward extinction." Corin decided he was waxing altogether too serious, and that
self-introduction was in order. "By the way, I'm Commander Corin Marshak. I had to use civilian
transportation for the last leg of my trip to this system becauseтАФ"

"тАФthe Fleet is swamped at this end of the Empire as a result of the preparations for the Emperor's visit
to the Cassiopeia frontier," she finished for him. "Yes, I know. I'm Major Janille Dornay . . . sir."

Corin extended his hand. The Marine major returned his handshake with a grip whose strength didn't
surprise him. It went with her lithe leanness. Still, civilian clothes looked better on her than on him. . . .

"So, Major, you must be in the same position I am."

"Yes . . . except that I haven't come nearly as far." She hesitated, unable to think of a graceful way to
refer to his limp. "I've heard talk that you saw action against the Ch'axanthuтАФthat you're only just back
from there." She paused, inviting reminiscences.

"Yes." He realized the monosyllable had come out more curtly than he'd intended, and sought to perform
conversational salvage. "Actually, I wasn't thinking of the Luonli just now," he lied, indicating the
planetary panorama unfolding below. "I was thinking of all the history this world holds."

"History?" Her brow crinkled with puzzlement, then cleared. "Oh, yes. I remember now. Many centuries
ago, the Iota Pegasi system was part of the New Human rebels' state, whatever it was called."