"Larry Niven - Building Harlequin's Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

"Any word from Earth?" Gabriel already knew the answer.

"Not since Year 291, shiptime."

"From Ymir?"

"Nothing, Gabriel."
It might be that Gabriel was the only human heartbeat in the entire universe.

He flinched from that thought. Surely there were humans at Ymir. Surely Leif Eriksson and Lewis and
Clark had reached Ymir, safe, and thousands or millions of humans now populated a rebuilt planet. Or
billions? Ymir was to have been made a second Earth, and Earth had housed tens of billions, sixty
thousand years ago. They'd sent message probes, traveling at a tenth light-speed at best, at the highpoint
of their journey. A hundred forty-eight light-years distanced them, at Gliese 876, from Ymir at HDC
212776. That was a lot of distance for fragile probes to travel.

Gabriel wiggled his toes, stretched his fingers, and bounced his calves lightly on the bed.

Two hours later, he pushed himself to standing and went to the galley to make tea infused with vitamins
and mint, easy for a rejuvenated and rebuilt body to accept. He took the tea to his office, wrinkling his
nose at the medicinal smell, and ordered Astronaut to pull up views of Selene.

Bad smelling or not, the first sip of tea sat warm and perfect in his belly as images of the little moon filled
his walls.

A cloud obscured part of the surface. A cloud! He smiled broadly, then laughed in delight. He sat
mesmerized, watching the cloud, until his tea bulb was empty.

Then he started barking out a list for Astronaut to read to him: precipitation measures, exact atmospheric
composition, water loss, evaporation...

Within an hour, Gabriel confirmed they could walk on the moon. They could start to introduce life. They
could ... he gave instructions to wake Ali and Wayne, and went to get ready for them. He sang as he
pulled himself down the corridor to Medical.



GABRIEL AND ALI WALKED on the barren surface of the little moon. They started inside light
pressure suits, taking readings and checking radiation levels, double-testing what they already knew from
the tiny sensors that dotted Selene. Ali stripped first, all the way down to underwear and bra and shoes,
oxygen tank and mask. Her olive skin dimpled in the cool air.

He laughed with pleasure watching her; a tiny half-naked woman climbing on rocks; jumping from one to
the other, tossing stones and catching them.

Drawn by Ali's antics, Gabriel stripped to his pants and shirt, mask and tank, and ran and cavorted and
grinned while Ali knelt and touched the regolith, walked to a new place, and touched the surface again.
He danced with her on the surface, seeing wonder and reverence in her eyes as she moved easily,
gracefully.