"Harry Harrison & Robert Sheckley - Bill the Galactic Hero 3 " - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

"The fact is," the computer said, "as life gets more complicated here in Tsuris I'm called upon to do more
and more things. It is beginning to tax my capacity. And I need to keep some capacity for my own
interests."
"I didn't know a computer had interests," Bill said.
"You don't know much about computers," the computer huffed. "Of course I have personal interests. It
may intrigue you to know that I'm writing a novel."


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 Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains

"I think I've heard of computers writing novels," Bill said. "At least I have read lots of them that could
have been written by a computer. What is your one about?"
"Maybe I'll give you a peek at it sometime," the computer said coyly. "Meanwhile, let's go to work."
Bill was put in charge of harvesting the Tsotska plants in Rhodomontade province. The Tsotska plant
provided one of the Tsurisians' main sources of sustenance. A small shrub with pink blossoms, the
Tsotska provided both fruits and nuts, and a third type of fruit which looked like a repulsive purple
banana, but was really very nutritious. The fields of Tsotska plants, stretching to the horizon, were
interspersed along their rows with watering equipment. Bill was in charge of turning this off and on. In
one way, it wasn't a difficult job. Since Bill didn't have a body, all he had to do was direct his will at the
necessary valves, which, being psychotropic, would then open up. It was strange that even with
psychotropic valves, some stuck and some seemed rusty. And it was strange, too, that the amount of
energy that went into turning the valves on and off was exactly the same as the energy that would have
been required if Bill had had a body doing it. Of course, the visuals were more interesting. Bill could will
himself high above the fields, swoop down like a bird, or he could go underground and inspect the state
of the roots. There seemed no limit to what he could do without a body. It was all a lot of work though,
unlike what he had thought that life would be like without a body. And after a while Bill got bored with
it. In fact, after a few days of this, he came to the conclusion that manual labor without a body was just as
difficult, tiresome, and enervating as life with a body. It made Bill wonder what life after death, if there
was such a thing, would be like. He suspected it wouldn't be as nice as people thought.
It was pleasant being in the Tsotska fields once the computer had arranged it so that Bill could feel an
analog of heat and cold, as well as kinesthetic analogs and others for the other senses. He knew that he
wasn't experiencing the real thing, but it was a lot better than nothing at all. Some afternoons he would
lay his metaphoric body down on a grassy knoll on the edge of one of the Tsotska fields. By adjustment
of his analog receptors he could get the heavenly odor of red clover and sassweed. The computer even put
in a musical analog for him. Bill wasn't much on classics, but the computer explained that the plants grew
best when they listened to a lot of Mozart. Bill didn't complain, even though he usually liked music with a
beat to it so he could tap his foot.
After a while he got bored with the Tsotska fields and started to wander around. The computer was wired
to all parts of the planet, so Bill could make use of the best transportation system he had ever seen. It did
require the expenditure of energy to move along the transmission lines. But Bill soon discovered the
analog of a battery pack, and so he was able to move himself around effortlessly, the way it was always
meant be.
The power pack analog came about when he met the Squoll. This was a small rodent-like creature that
lived in the fields and woods of Tsuris and was able to communicate with autonomous computer
projections such as Bill. The Squoll wasn't very intelligent тАФ about the equal to a young and retarded
sheepdog тАФ but it made nice company. It was about the size of a terrestrial squirrel, and it had a large
bushy tail at either end. This remarkable example of natural mimicry saved it from the many predators
who liked to eat Squoll, since seeing two tails confused them just long enough for the Squoll to make his
escape. Bill followed the Squoll back to its nest. The Squolls lived in the limbs of cardifer trees, those