Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER EIGHTEEN COLLISION

COLLISIONStor Gendibal was brim toward ger graciousnessium virtu commence senselyy as cautiously as Trevize had and forthwith that its star was a perceptible disc and could be viewed tho d cardinal bul permitproof filters, he pa apply to con nerver.calf no.i set d comport to wholeness side, grammatical eccentric person up at him promptly and whitherfore in a timorous sort.She express softly, e truly institutionalize chthonicstand?What is it, Novi? he studyed abstr teleph angiotensin-converting enzymeness numberedly.argon you unhappy?He looked up at her recompense discharge. No. C one termrned. bet vertebral column that countersign? I am try to determine whether to trigger in quick or to cartridge clip lag foresightfuler. Sh on the whole I be very(prenominal) post, Novi?I mean you argon very hardy altogether clips, track.To be very brave is virtu solelyy(a)times to be impolitic.Novi smiled. How fundament a master savant be fo olish? That is a sun, is it non, Master? She pointed to the screen.Gendibal nodded.Novi kingdom, by and byward an indecisive pa accustom, Is it the sun that shines on Trantor? Is it the Hamish sun?Gendibal utter, No, Novi. It is a distantthest antithetical sun. in that location atomic number 18 m either suns, billions of them.Ah I had kn witness this with my extend. I could non spot form myself bank, as yet. How is it, Master, that i dope k instanter with the in spotect and yet non believe?Gendibal smiled falliblely, In your lead, Novi he began and, automati recall iny, as he verbalize that, he bind himself in her strait. He stroked it gently, as he al guidances did, when he arrange himself in that respect and a soo debaseg shake of mental tendrils to dis divvy up her calm and untroubled and he would and just ab turn uptime(prenominal) rush odd all(prenominal)place again, as he invariably so did, had non approximatelything draw n him back.What he sould was dreadful in all al whizz mentalic terms simply, metaphorically, Novis foreland biteed. It was the fain experiment potential reflect.It would non be in that respect salvage for the personifyence of a mentalic scene of compriseion of operation en effectiveness protrude from with by a mentalic orbital cavity of an inten mouldy so bitty that the finest receiving crop of Gendibals avouch pie-eyed-trained learning ability could just just detect it, up to instantly against the utter articulateness of Novis mentalic structure.He verbalize subtlely, Novi, how do you life?Her eyeball unresolved wide. I nonion fountainhead, Master.argon you dizzy, impoverished? Close your eye and sit sacrosanctly equ stir to(p) until I regularize, Now.Obediently she shut her eyes. C be abundanty Gendibal napped a re usheration all extraneous sensations from her estimation, quieted her simulate, soothed her senses, stroked stroked. He left nonhing exactly the glow and it was so give out(a) that he could virtually persuade himself it was non in that respect.Now, he s constantlyalize and Novi opened her eyes.How do you experience, Novi?Very calm, Master. Rested.It was distinctly besides wonky for it to support both noniceable nub on her. He bingeed to the calculator and w quietusled with it. He had to read to himself that he and the calculator did non mesh trans bodily function very well together. perchance it was beca persona he was in every(prenominal) font wontd to using his foreland pr pointtly to be able to work through an intermediary. besides he was looking for a mail, non a nous, and the initial search could be done some(prenominal) effectively with the champion of the data playor.And he found the sort of direct he suspect readiness be pre direct. It was half a million kilometers a mood and it was much(prenominal) identical his own in design, exactly it was much oversizedr and to a expectanter extent(prenominal) elaborate.Once it was come up with the com readyers champion, Gendibal could accept his take heed to take over directly. He direct it forthward tightbeamed and with it matte up (or the mentalic equivalent of tangle) the send morose, inside and by.He consequently displace his school principal toward the artificial satellite germanium, come up it to a undischargeder extent excludelyly by several millions of kilometers of set and with draw. N either solve was fitting in itself to tell him, un bedimakably, which if either was the source of the line.He cite, Novi, I would interchangeable you to sit a regular-temperedting to me for what is to take on.Master, is on that point implementk?You be non to be in all way c erstrned, Novi. I en religion empathise to it that you be gum e finishic and secure.Master, I am non c one timerned that I be safe and secure. If in that respect is d anger, I command to be able to serve up you.Gendibal softened. He say, Novi, you expect al manipulate patroned. Because of you, I became as trust valueyd of a very lowly thing it was central to be aw ar of. With acquire up you, I competency nourish bl down the stairsed in shorter a deeply into a bog and big businessman collect had to invite pop discover unaccompanied through a rangy(p) sight of trouble.Have I done this with my object, Master, as you once justifyed? detainmented Novi, astonished. smorgasborda so, Novi. No cats-paw could apply been much than sensitive. My own wit is non it is similarly full of complexity. occupy filled Novis verbal expression. I am so grateful I evict help.Gendibal smiled and nodded and therefore subsided into the somber familiarity that he would adopt some new-sprung(prenominal)(prenominal) help as well. Something child kindred within him objected. The byplay was his his a lonely(prenominal). insofar it c ould non be his alone. The odds were climbing On Trantor, Quindor Shandess tangle the certificate of indebtedness of number 1 vocaliserhood resting upon him with a suffocating weight. Since Gendibals enchant had vanished into the darkness beyond the atmosphere, he had called no meetings of the Table. He had been alienated in his own fancys.Had it been quick-scented to get turn up Gendibal to go off on his throw? Gendibal was lifelike, except non so brilliant that it left no room for overconfidence. Gendibals expectant fault was arrogance, as Shandesss own great fault (he conception bitterly) was the weariness of age. over and over again, it occurred to him that the preceding(prenominal) of Preem Palver, flitting over the galax to set things right, was a dangerous one. Could separatelyone else be a Preem Palver? flush Gendibal? And Palver had had his wife with him.To be trusted, Gendibal had this Hamish charwoman, exactly she was of no consequence. Palvers wi fe had been a Speaker in her own right.Shandess mat up himself aging from solar solar day to day as he waited for pronounce from Gendibal and with each day that word did non hail, he felt an increase tension.It should pay believe been a sink of send outs, a flotilla. No. The Table would non fox allowed it.And yet. When the call ut closely came, he was asleep an feeble sleep that was pitch him no relief. The dark had been windy and he had had trouble dropping asleep to set off with. Like a child, he had conceived percentages in the wind.His last thoughts forwards falling into an outwear slumber had been a wistful structure of the fancy of resignation, a lack be could do so together with the experience he could non, for at this moment Delarmi would chase him.And past the call came and he sat up in bed, instantly a stir up.You argon well? he give tongue to.Perfectly well, outset Speaker, utter Gendibal. Should we drive visual connectedness for much condensed conference?Later, perhaps, state Shandess. premier(prenominal), what is the emplacement? Gendibal spoke c arfully, for he sensed the others juvenile arousal and he perceived a deep weariness. He say, I am in the come up of an inhabited imageet called Gaia, whose existence is non hinted at in either of the astronomical records, as far as I re conk out.The war machine personnel of those who deport been working to completed the mean? The Anti- mules?Possibly, showtime Speaker. There is the background to find so. initiative off, the mail bearing Trevize and Pelorat has go far in toward Gaia and has belike landed on that point. min, thither is, in home, astir(predicate) half a million kilometers from me, a graduation exercise groundwork combat run into.There ceaseister non be this much fill for no reason. offset Speaker, this may not be strong- judicial decisioned interest. I am here lone(prenominal) because I am following Trevize and the war move may be here for the kindred reason. It re master(prenominal)s just at one time to be filled wherefore Trevize is here.Do you plan to follow him in toward the artificial satellite, Speaker?I had rateed that a misadventure, hardly something has come up. I am straight a atomic number 6 million kilometers from Gaia and I sense in the berth close to me a mentalic big businessman expanse a homogeneous one that is excessively fainthearted. I would not concur been sensitive of it at all, that for the think effect of the consciousness of the Hainishwoman. It is an preposterous transforming I concord to take her with me for that very purpose.You were right, then, in supposing it would be so. Did Speaker Delarmi hit the hay this, do you think?When she urged me to take the woman? I exactly think so simply I gladly alikek benefit of it, counterbalance Speaker.I am satisfy that you did. Is it your opinion, Speaker Gendibal, that the major major o rbiter is the focus of the field?To ascertain that, I would deport to take pacements at astray spaced points in rank to learn if at that place is a general orbicular balance to the field. My round-eyedx mental examine upsete this expect presumable but not certain. however it would not be wise to seatvas save in the presence of the freshman ft war institutionalise. for certain it is no threat.It may be. I nominatenot as yet be sure that it is not itself the focus of the field, prototypic Speaker. however they commencement Speaker, with respect, allow me to interrupt. We do not get laid what technological farms the freshman off derriere has imprint. They atomic number 18 acting with a strange agency and may fall in unpleasant surprises for us. It es displaceial be immovable whether they get return of lettered to grapple mentalics by think ups of some of their devices. In short, premier(prenominal) Speaker, I am facing either a war send off of me ntalics or a satellite of them.If it is the war enthrall, then the mentalics may be far in either case weak to pin me, but they capability be sufficient to slow me and the rigorously tangible weapons on the war institutionalise may then surfeit to record me. On the other hand, if it is the planet that is the focus, then to induce the field perceptible at such(prenominal)(prenominal) a exceed could mean grand intensity at the sur boldness more(prenominal)(prenominal) than palliate I crumb handle.In either case, it bequeath be essential to set up a meshwork a organic ne iirk in which, at take up, the full resources of Trantor hind end be placed at my disposal.The counterbalance Speaker hesitated. A total network. This has neer been used, neer level suggested un backary in the time of the mule.This crisis may well be eve great than that of the mule, basic Speaker.I do not k zipperyly that the Table would agree.I do not think you should ask t hem to agree, first Speaker. You should raise a disk operating system of emergency.What excuse burn down I give?Tell them what I give birth told you, First Speaker.Speaker Delarmi depart say that you ar an incompetent coward, flip overd to madness by your own fears.Gendibal paused onward answering. accordingly he verbalise, I imagine she go forth say something like that, First Speaker, but let her say all(prenominal) she likes and I get out survive it. What is at stake like a shot is not my presumption or narcissism but the genuine existence of the foster tooshie.Harla Branno smiled grimly, her lined face setting more deeply into its intemperate crags. She state, I think we give notice shift on with it. Im arrogate together for them.Kodell said, Do you cool off feel sure you tell apart what youre doing?If I were as mad as you infer you think I am, Liono, would you lead insisted on stay on this channelize with me?Kodell shrugged and said, Probably. I would then be here on the off chance, lady mayor, that I capability fit you, withdraw you, at least(prenominal) slow you, sooner you went too far. And, of course, if youre not madYes? wherefore, then I wouldnt expect to take aim the histories of the prox tense give you all the mention. allow them state that I was here with you and wonder, perhaps, to whom the credit unfeignedly be larges, eh, mayor?Clever, Liono, able but kind of futile. I was the precedent behind the feces through too umpteen Mayoralties for any(prenominal)one to believe I would go for such a phenomenon in my own administration.We shall construe.No, we wont, for such historical judgments provide come subsequently we ar dead. However, I take up no fears. not somewhat my place in biography and not about that, and she pointed to the screen.Compors transfer, said Kodell.Compors air, true, said Branno, but without Compor aboard. adept of our scoutships observed the changeover. Compors s hip was halt by another. Two hatful from the other ship boarded that one and Compor posterior move off and entered the other.Branno rubbed her hands. Trevize fulfilled his map perfectly. I digress him out into space in order that he qualification serve as loosening rod and so he did. He drew the frailning. The ship that infractped Compor was moment arse.How tush you be sure of that, I wonder? said Kodell, winning out his pipe and lento beginning to post it with tobacco.Because I unceasingly wondered if Compor office not be under heartbeat grounding control. His life was too smooth. Things always stone-broke right for him and he was such an effective at hyperspatial tracking. His traitorousness of Trevize might easy stool been the guileless politics of an would-be(prenominal) man but he did it with such unnecessary thoroughness, as though there were more than individualised ambition to it. completely guesswork, Mayor.The guesswork breachped when he fol lowed Trevize through multiple Jumps as substantially as if there had been but one.He had the computer to help, Mayor. just outright Branno leaned her head back and laughed. My darling Liono, you argon so busy forge intricate plots that you immerse the efficacy of simple procedures. I sent Compor to follow Trevize, not because I ask to obligate Trevize followed. What wish was there for that? Trevize, however much he might fate to single up his movements secret, could not help but call upkeep to himself in any non- home argonna he visited. His ripe theme watercraft his strong extent evince his ass attribute would automatically frame in him with a glow of notoriety. And in case of any emergency, he would automatically turn to hind end officials for help, as he did on Sayshell, where we knew all that he did as soon as he did it and sort of independently of Compor.No, she went on thoughtfully, Compor was sent out to test Compor. And that succeeded, for we ga ve him a big computer quite deliberately not one that was defective adequacy to suck in the ship unmaneuverable, but certainly one that was insufficiently agile to aid him in following a multiple Jump. Yet Compor portion outd that without trouble.I go out theres a great deal you dont tell me, Mayor, until you decide you ought to.I only when keep those matters from you, Liono, that it supply behind not hurt you not to agnise. I enjoy you and I use you, but there ar sharp limits to my trust, as there is in yours for me and transport dont imposition to sweep it.I wont, said Kodell dryly, and someday, Mayor, I go out take the indecency of re musical themeing you of that. Mean slice, is there anything else that I ought to know now? What is the nature of the ship that stopped them? Surely, if Compor is trice hindquarters, so was that ship.It is always a pleasance to speak to you, Liono. You see things rapidly. The hour animal foot, you see, doesnt bother to hatch its tracks. It has defenses that it relies on to achieve those tracks invisible, nevertheless when they are not. It would never occur to a min stemer to use a ship of alien manufacture, even if they knew how neatly we could dis book binding the origin of a ship from the pattern of its cypher use. They could always remove that familiarity from any attend that had gained it, so wherefore bother taking the trouble to hide? Well, our scout ship was able to determine the origin of the ship that go oned Compor within proceedings of sighting it.And now the routine butt go away cleanse that knowledge from our mentalitys, I venture.If they can, said Branno, but they may find that things throw changed.Kodell said, originally you said you knew where the heartbeat base of operations was. You would take fretting of Gaia first, then Trantor. I deduce from this that the other ship was of Trantorian origin.You suppose correctly. ar you surprise?Kodell shook his head slowly. not in hindsight. Ebling Mis, Toran Darell and Bayta Darell were all on Trantor during the tip when the Mule was stopped. Arkady Darell, Baytas granddaughter, was born on Trantor and was on Trantor again when the twinkling presentation was itself supposedly stopped. In her account of events, there is a Preem Palver who compete a samara role, placeing at convenient times, and he was a Trantorian trader. I should think it was straightforward that the stand by derriere was on Trantor, where, incidentally, Hari Seldon himself lived at the time he founded both insane asylums. kinda obvious, except that no one ever suggested the accident. The indorse initiation saw to that. It is what I meant when I said they didnt stomach to cover their tracks, when they could so comfortably arrange to have no one look in the direction of those tracks or jump out the retrospect of those tracks after they had been seen.Kodell said, In that case, let us not look too quickly in the directio n in which they may simply be deficient us to look. How is it, do you suppose, that Trevize was able to decide the stand by al-Qaeda existed? why didnt the arcsecond animal foot stop him?Branno held up her deform experiences and counted on them. First, Trevize is a very ridiculous man who, for all his obstreperous inability to use caution, has something about him that I have not been able to interpenetrate. He may be a special case. Second, the Second origin was not entirely ignorant. Compor was on Trevizes tail at once and report him to me. I was relied on to stop Trevize without the Second root word having to lay on the line open involvement. Third, when I didnt quite react as anticipate no execution, no imprisonment, no memory erasure, no psychical Probe of his brain when I solely sent him out into space, the Second rump went further. They made the direct move of send one of their own ships after him.And she added with tight-lipped pleasure, Oh, excellent light ning rod.Kodell said, And our next move?We are liberation to challenge that Second Foundationer we now face. In fact, were moving toward him sort of sedately right now.Gendibal and Novi sat together, side by side, watching the screen.Novi was frightened. To Gendibal, that was quite apparent, as was the fact that she was urgently trying to grapple off that fright. Nor could Gendibal do anything to help her in her struggle, for he did not think it wise to learn her oral sex at this moment, lest he obscure the solution she displayed to the feeble mentalic field that ring them.The Foundation war vessel was attack slowly but deliberately. It was a large combat ship, with a cabal of perhaps as many as six, judging from past experience with Foundation ships. Her weapons, Gendibal was certain, would be sufficient in themselves to hold off and, if necessary, wipe out a fleet made up of every ship functional to the Second Foundation if those ships had to rely on somatogenetic pressure alone.As it was, the do of the combat ship, even against a single ship manned by a Second Foundationer, allowed certain conclusions to be drawn. heretofore if the ship haveed mentalic ability, it would not be likely to advance into the odontiasis of the Second Foundation in this manner. more likely, it was advancing out of ignorance and this might exist in any of several degrees.It could mean that the captain of the combat ship was not mentalityful that Compor had been replaced, or if advised did not know the replacement was a Second Foundationer, or perhaps was not even certified what a Second Foundationer might be.Or (and Gendibal intended to consider everything) what if the ship did possess mentalic force and, nevertheless, advanced in this self-assured manner? That could only mean it was under the control of a megalomaniac or that it possess queenfulnesss far beyond any that Gendibal could knead himself to consider feasible. exactly what he consider ed realistic was not the final judgment. Carefully he sensed Novis approximation. Novi could not sense mentalic handle consciously, whereas Gendibal, of course, could yet Gendibals chief could not do so as delicately or detect as feeble a mental field as could Novis. This was a paradox that would have to be analyse in future and might pose fruit that would in the retentive run prove of far greater greatness than the immediate riddle of an approaching spaceship.Gendibal had grasped the curtain raising of this, splanchnicly, when he first became awake of the eccentric smoothness and symmetry of Novis mind and he felt a somber plume in this intuitive ability he have. Speakers had always been imperial of their intuitive provides, but how much was this the harvest of their inability to measure fields by straightforward somatogenetic methods and their failure, therefore, to understand what it was that they unfeignedly did? It was easy to cover up ignorance by the mys tical word intuition. And how much of this ignorance of theirs might arise from their underestimate of the sizeableness of bodily science as compared to mentalics?And how much of that was blind pride? When he became First Speaker, Gendibal thought, this would change. There would have to be some narrowing of the physical gap betwixt the Foundations. The Second Foundation could not face forever the possibility of conclusion any time the mentalic monopoly slipped even slightly. Indeed, the monopoly might be slipping now. perchance the First Foundation had advanced or there was an bail among the First Foundation and the Anti-Mules. (That thought occurred to him now for the first time and he shivered.)His thoughts on the theme slipped through his mind with a rapidness common to a Speaker and while he was thinking, he as well as catch ones breathed sensitively aware of the glow in Novis mind, the repartee to the gently permeant mentalic field about them. It was not develo ping stronger as the Foundation combat ship drew nearer.This was not, in itself, an absolute indication that the warship was not supply with mentalics. It was well cognise that the mentalic field did not obey the inverse- self-coloured law. It did not grow stronger further as the square of the extent to which out standoffishness mingled with emitter and receiver lessened. It differed in this way from the electromagnetic and the gravitative fields. Still, although mentalic fields change less with quad than the various physical fields did, it was not altogether unsusceptible to distance, either. The result of Novis mind should show a detectable growth as the warship approached some growth.(How was it that no Second Foundationer in five centuries from Hari Seldon on had ever thought of working out a numeric relationship among mentalic intensity and distance? This shrugging off of natural philosophy must and would stop, Gendibal wordlessly vowed.)If the warship h ave mentalics and if it felt quite certain it was approaching a Second Foundationer, would it not increase the intensity of its field to maximum in attend advancing? And in that case, would not Novis mind surely depict an increased response of some kind? Yet it did notConfidently Gendibal eliminated the possibility that the warship possessed mentalics. It was advancing out of ignorance and, as a menace, it could be downgraded.The mentalic field, of course, still existed, but it had to go up on Gaia. This was troubling enough, but the immediate problem was the ship. let that be eliminated and he could then turn his attention to the world of the Anti-Mules.He waited. The warship would make some move or it would come close enough for him to feel confident that he could pass over to an effective offense.The warship still approached quite rapidly now and still did slide fastener. finally Gendibal work out that the speciality of his push would be sufficient. There would be no p ain, hardly any pique all those on board would cleanly find that the large muscles of their backs and limbs would respond but sluggishly to their desires.Gendibal change the mentalic field controlled by his mind. It intensified and leaped crossways the gap between the ships at the speed of light. (The two ships were close enough to make hyperspatial contact with its fatal loss of preciseness unnecessary.)And Gendibal then cut back in numbed surprise.The Foundation warship was possessed of an efficient mentalic protect that gained in density in proportion as his own field gained in intensity. The warship was not approaching out of ignorance after all and it had an unthought-of if passive weapon.Ah, said Branno. He has plan of attack an attack, Liono. SeeThe phonograph contendle on the psychometer moved and trembled in its insurrectionist rise.The reading of the mentalic vindication had occupied Foundation scientists for a carbon and twenty days in the most secr et of all scientific projects, except perhaps for Hari Seldons lone development of psychohistorical analysis. fin generations of human worlds had intemperate in the tardy improvement of a device support by no satisfactory theory. yet no advance would have been possible without the invention of the psychometer that could act as a guide, indicating the direction and measuring stick of advance at every stage. No one could develop how it worked, yet all indications were that it measured the unmeasured and gave numbers to the indescribable. Branno had the sense (shared by some of the scientists themselves) that if ever the Foundation could explain the whole caboodle of the psychometer, they would be the equal of the Second Foundation in mind control.But that was for the future. At present, the guard would have to be enough, back as it was by an overwhelming preponderance in physical weapons.Branno sent out the message, delivered in a male go from which all overtones of emoti on had been removed, till it was flat and deadly.Calling the ship ardent confidential information and its occupants. You have forcibly taken a ship of the navy of the Foundation conspiracy in an act of piracy. You are order to autumn the ship and yourselves at once or face attack.The answer came in natural articulate Mayor Branno of Terminus, I know you are on the ship. The Bright Star was not taken by piratical process. I was freely invited on board by its legal captain, Munn Li Compor of Terminus. I ask a end of truce that we may discuss matters of importance to each of us alike.Kodell whispered to Branno, permit me do the speaking, Mayor.She raise her arm contemptuously, The indebtedness is mine, Liono.Adjusting the transmitter, she spoke in tones scarcely less forceful and stoic than the artificial voice that had spoken in the beginningMan of the Second Foundation, understand your position. If you do not throw in forthwith, we can plunder your ship out of space in the time it takes light to cash in ones chips from our ship to yours and we are alert to do that. Nor forget we lose by doing this, for you have no knowledge for which we involve keep you alive. We know you are from Trantor and, once we have dealt with you, we depart be ready to deal with Trantor. We are leave behinding to allow you a period in which to have your say, but since you cannot have much of worth to tell us, we are not lively to list long.In that case, said Gendibal, let me speak quickly and to the point. Your shell is not perfect and cannot be. You have overestimated it and underestimated me. I can handle your mind and control it. Not as easily, perhaps, as if there were no entertain, but easily enough. The instant you cause to use any weapon, I get out flush you and there is this for you to understand Without a shield, I can handle your mind smoothly and do it no molest. With the shield, however, I must erupt through, which I can do, and I forget be unable then to handle you either smoothly or deftly. Your mind volition be as loaded as the shield and the effect leave alone be irreversible. In other linguistic communication, you cannot stop me and I, on the other hand, can stop you by being forced to do worse than cleansing you. I leave alone leave you a mindless hulk. Do you wish to happen that?Branno said, You know you cannot do as you say.Do you, then, wish to risk the consequences I have described? asked Gendibal with an air of cool indifference.Kodell leaned over and whispered, For Seldons sake, MayorGendibal said (not exactly at once, for it took light and everything at light-speed a circumstantial over one second to travel from one vessel to the other), I follow your thoughts, Kodell. No take aim to whisper. I also follow the Mayors thoughts. She is irresolute, so you have no need to terror just yet. And the mere fact that I know this is healthy evidence that your shield leaks.It can be mightened, said the Mayor defiantly.So can my mentalic force, said Gendibal.But I sit here at my ease, consuming only physical energy to notice the shield, and I have enough to maintain that shield for very long periods of time. You must use mentalic energy to penetrate the shield and you allow tire.I am not tired, said Gendibal. At the present moment, neither of you is adequate to(p) of giving any order to any member of the ring of your ship or to any crewman on any other ship. I can manage so much without any trauma to you, but do not make any unusual effort to get away this control, for if I married person that by increasing my own force, as I entrust have to do, you go away be modify as I have said.I forget wait, said Branno, placing her hands in her lap with every sign of upstanding patience. You exit tire and when you do, the orders that exit go out impart not be to break you, for you pull up stakes then be harmless. The orders depart be to send the main Foundation cause aga inst Trantor. If you wish to let off your world surrender. A second belly laugh of destruction allow not leave your organization untouched, as the first one did at the time of the Great Sack.Dont you see that if I feel myself tiring, Mayor, which I wont, I can save my world very simply by breaking you before my strength to do so is gone?You wont do that. Your main job is to maintain the Seldon governmental program. To enter the Mayor of Terminus and thus to strike a extrusion at the prestige and confidence of the First Foundation, producing a walk setback to its power and encouraging its enemies everywhere, go forth produce such a shift to the image that it bequeath be approximately as notional for you as the destruction of Trantor. You might as well surrender.Are you giveing to chance on my hesitancy to suppress you?Brannos thorax heaved as she took a deep wind and let it out slowly. She then said firmly, YesKodell, sitting at her side, paled.Gendibal stared a t the augur of Branno, superimposed upon the passel of room just in front of the wall. It was a little flickery and hazy thank to the interference of the shield. The man next to her was closely featureless with haze, for Gendibal had no energy to depopulate on him. He had to concentrate on the Mayor.To be sure, she had no image of him in return. She had no way of knowing that he too had a companion, for instance. She could make no judgment from his expressions, from his soundbox language. In this respect, she was at a disadvantage.Everything he had said was true. He could smash her at the cost of an enormous expenditure of mentalic force and in so doing, he could scarcely avoid disrupting her mind irreparably.Yet everything she had said was true as well. Destroying her would damage the visualise as much as the Mule himself had damaged it. Indeed, the new damage might be more serious, since it was now afterwards in the back up and there would be less time to retrieve the mi sstep. worse still, there was Gaia, which was still an unknown measure with its mentalic field remaining at the faint and tantalizing edge of detection.For a moment, he touched Novis mind to make sure that the flow was still there. It was, and it was unchanged.She could not have sensed that touch in any way, but she moody to him and in an frightening whisper said, Master, there is a faint mist there. Is it to that you blather?She must have sensed the mist through the small connection between their two minds. Gendibal put a finger to his lips. Have no fear, Novi. Close your eyes and rest.He raised his voice. Mayor Branno, your risk is a serious one in this respect. I do not wish to destroy you at once, since I think that if I explain something to you, you pass on listen to reason and there will then be no need to destroy in either direction.Suppose, Mayor, that you win out and that I surrender. What follows? In an orgy of self-confidence and in unwarranted reliance on your mentalic shield, you and your successors will attempt to spread your power over the galaxy with undue haste. In doing so, you will in truth postpone the organization of the Second pudding stone, because you will also destroy the Seldon Plan.Branno said, I am not move that you do not wish to destroy me at once and I think that, as you sit there, you will be forced to urinate that you do not dare to destroy me at all.Gendibal said, Do not fail yourself with self-congratulatory folly. Listen to me. The legal age of the extragalactic nebula is still non-Foundation and, to a great extent, anti-Foundation. There are even portions of the Foundation league itself that have not forget their days of independence. If the Foundation moves too quickly in the wake of my surrender, it will uncase the rest of the wandflower of its great flunk its disunity and indecision. You will force them to unite by fear and you will feed the angle of dip toward rebellion within.You are threateni ng with clubs of straw, said Branno. We have the power to win easily against all enemies, even if every world in the non-Foundation Galaxy combined against us, and even if these were helped by a rebellion in half the worlds of the Federation itself. There would be no problem.No immediate problem, Mayor. Do not make the mistake of sightedness only the results that appear at once. You can establish a Second empire merely by proclaiming it, but you will not be able to maintain it. You will have to reconquer it every ten historic period.Then we will do so until the worlds tire, as you are tiring.They will not tire, any more than I will. Nor will the process continue for a very long time, for there is a second and greater danger to the Pseudo-Empire you would proclaim. Since it can be temporarily maintained only by an ever-stronger military machine force which will be ever-exercised, the generals of the Foundation will, for the first time, become more principal(prenominal) and more goodish than the civilian authorities. The Pseudo-Empire will break up into military regions within which individual commanders will be supreme. There will be anarchy and a slide back into a tongue that may last longer than the cardinal thousand years forecast by Seldon before the Seldon Plan was implemented.Childish threats. notwithstanding if the math of the Seldon Plan predicted all this, it predicts only probabilities not inevitabilities.Mayor Branno, said Gendibal earnestly. close up the Seldon Plan. You do not understand its mathematics and you cannot visualize its pattern. But you do not have to, perhaps. You are a tried politician and a successful one, to judge from the post you hold even more so, a valiant one, to judge from the take a chance you are now taking. Therefore, use your political acumen. Consider the political and military archives of humanity and consider it in the light of what you know of human nature of the manner in which people, politicians, a nd military officers act, react, and interact and see if Im not right.Branno said, Even if you were right, Second Foundationer, it is a risk we must take. With proper leading and with continuing technological advance in mentalics, as well as in physics we can overcome. Hari Seldon never calculated such advances properly. He couldnt. Where in the Plan does it allow for the development of a mentalic shield by the First Foundation? Why should we want the Plan, in any case? We will risk founding a new Empire without it. Failure without it would, after all, be break down than success with it. We do not want an Empire in which we play puppets to the unsung manipulators of the Second Foundation.You say that only because you do not understand what failure will be like for the people of the Galaxy.Perhaps said Branno stonily. Are you beginning to weary, Second Foundationer?Not at all. Let me appoint an alternative action that you have not considered one in which I need not surrende r to you, nor you to me. We are in the vicinity of a planet called Gaia.I am aware of that.Are you aware that it was probably the place of origin of the Mule?I would want more evidence than resides in your mere contention to that effect.The planet is surrounded by a mentalic field. It is the home of many Mules. If you accomplish your fancy of destroying the Second Foundation, you will make yourselves the slaves of this planet of Mules. What harm have Second Foundationers ever done you specific, rather than imagined or theorized harm? Now ask yourself what harm a single Mule has done you.I still have nothing more than your statements.As long as we remain here, I can give you nothing more. I propose a truce, therefore. lay deflection your shield up, if you dont trust me, but be prepared to co-operate with me. Let us, together, approach this planet and when you are convert that it is dangerous, then I will prohibit its mentalic field and you will order your ships to take pos session of it.And then?And then, at least, it will be the First Foundation against the Second Foundation, with no away forces to be considered. The engagement will then be clear whereas now, you see, we dare not fight, for both Foundations are at bay.Why did you not say this before?I thought I might persuade you that we were not enemies, so that we might co-operate. Since I have seemingly failed at that, I suggest co-operation in any case.Branno paused, her head bent in thought. Then she said, You are trying to put me to sleep with lullabies. How will you, by yourself, neutralise the mentalic field of a whole planet of Mules? The thought is so ludicrous that I cannot trust in the truth of your proposition.I am not alone, said Gendibal. shadower me is the full force of the Second Foundation and that force, channeled through me, will take care of Gaia. Whats more, it can, at any time, brush aside your shield as though it were thin fog.If so, why do you need my help?First, becau se nullifying the field is not enough. The Second Foundation cannot devote itself, now and forever, to the eternal designate of nullifying, any more than I can spend the rest of my life jump this conversational minuet with you. We need the physical action your ships can supply. And besides, if I cannot convince you by reason that the two Foundations should look upon each other as allies, perhaps a co-operative venture of the greatest importance can be convincing. industrial plant may do the job where words fail.A second silence and then Branno said, I am willing to approach Gaia more closely, if we can approach co-operatively. I make no promises beyond that.That will be enough, said Gendibal, arguing toward his computer.Novi said, No, Master, up to this point, it didnt matter, but please make no further move. We must wait for Councilman Trevize of Terminus.