"Raymond Jones - The King of Eolim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Raymond)

The pianist swallowed hard. His smile dimmed a moment, but
he brought it back. "That's great, Free. That's just great." He
turned to the keyboard, and his fingers picked out a tinkling
melody that seemed timed to the flickering lights on the crown.
"King of Eolim," he said musingly. "I didn't know there was still a
land of Eolim." He began to hum.

"Freeman Bradwell King of Eolim King of Eolim Long live the
King Long live Free!"

The others began to unfreeze now and sang along with rising
enthusiasm and happiness. Free looked about. They were
smiling. They liked him, he thought. They really liked him.

"Thanks," he said to the man at the keyboard. "Thanks very
much."

"Thanks to you, King Free. A long and happy reign."

He left the piano room quickly, overwhelmed by their gesture.
His father had been right. He didn't need to be afraid of all these
people. They were willing to be his friends.

He passed other music rooms and came to the game rooms.
The first was the big Universe room, which had been installed
only a few weeks ago. Two men and two women were intent on
this game. The goal was to build a universe of galaxies, solar
systems, star clusters, and other objects within the space of the
room. The universe was built of metallic spheres and particles
suspended in a modified magnetic field within the ten-meter
high room. Any instability in-traduced by new elements would
cause the whole thing to collapse with a clatter on the floor. The
player who caused the collapse was the loser, heavily ridiculed
for his awkwardness.

The players worked intently with computers to determine
where they could place a new cluster or galaxy without upsetting
the equilibrium of the entire system. Free liked this game. He
played it often with his father, and often he won. He didn't use
the computers, of course. They were vast mysteries he would
never understand. But he could usually tell where to place the
items without all the intricate computations. By "feel" he said.

He stood in the doorway as one of the women players placed a
star cluster deep in the center of a galaxy. She withdrew the
tractors triumphantly and laughed in delight. "There! That puts
our side a hundred points ahead."

Her companion nodded smugly at his opponents, who were
already preparing their next moves.