"Shane Tourtellotte - String of Pearls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tourtellotte Shane)

"Is String of Pearls not helping your studies?"

He tried to hide a wince. "It's not giving me any special insights. I'm working on it. I've gotten to play
several games."

"Against Bunwadde?" Jun Hua asked. "And did you win?"

"Two against Bunwadde. And I didn't beat him." He didn't mention his games with Milinor. He had
actually won his first one yesterday, by all of two points. His ego wasn't so far gone that he would try to
brag about that.

"Did you keep the games respectable?"

Marcus finally looked at Jun Hua, who didn't bother trying to wipe the faint, supercilious smile from his
face. "Are you enjoying this, Jun?"

The smile opened a little, like a flower to sun. "The Language Section has endured a lot of scorn from
humans--especially some business people--for not solving Vetra syntax. When such people learn for
themselves the intractability of the matter ... well, it's only human to feel a little vindicated."

Marcus's nausea came back in full force. "Not very professional of you, is it?"

"Better a little professional than completely amateur." Jun Hua picked up a tablet. "So tell me about these
games, Marc. Each one, please."

Marcus thought for a moment whether his career could actually be advanced by getting tossed off the
planet. It might, if he could somehow repay the travel costs to and from Obrith that the Language
Section, for now, was carrying for him. He didn't doubt they would soak him with that.

"I'm waiting."

No matter how he ran the numbers, he couldn't make them add up. Willing his stomach to behave,
Marcus started to recap his games.
****
Marcus didn't eat much at dinner that night. He did take double helpings of water, to soothe a mouth and
throat strained by several hours of recitations for the catalog. Declining Milinor's offer of a game, he took
to his room early.

He began his nightly language studies, but could scarcely concentrate on his texts. There seemed no point
to trying. The gulf was too wide. Finally he pushed the tablets aside, and pulled out his String of Pearls
set.

With the game's volume so low even he could barely hear it, Marcus started experimenting. He would lay
out a sentence, see if it was good, then reset the game and try it in a different arrangement. He marked
down the versions that were syntactically proper on a tablet, and moved on to another sentence, and
another.

He searched for patterns in the valid sentences, but they remained as elusive as ever. Sentence structures
that worked often became invalid when he substituted a new subject or verb, or even a preposition one
time. He could not see the rules.