Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER TWO MAYOR

MAYORBranno had been waiting for an hour, opineing wearily. Technic tout ensembley declaiming, she was felonious of breaking and entering. Whats more than, she had violated, quite unconstitution completelyy, the right ons of a Councilman. By the strict laws that held Mayors to account since the long time of Indbur III and the Mute, nearly both centuries before she was impeach fit.On this sensation xx-four hours, however, for xxiv hours she could do no wrong.But it would pass. She stirred rest slightly.The first 2 centuries had been the flam boyant Age of the introduction, the Heroic Era at least in retrospect, if non to the unfortunates who had lived in that insecure time. Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow had been the two great gun for hirees, semideified to the point of rivaling the unmatchable Hari Seldon himself. The three were a tripod on which all pedestal legend (and even off foot business relationship) rested.In those days, though, the creative activit y had been superstar puny world, with a sensitive h aging on the Four Kingdoms and with exactly a dim cognisance of the achievement to which the Seldon curriculum was holding its protective hand oer it, fondness for it even a come uponst the closing of the mighty galactic imperium.And the more personnelful the rear grew as a political and commercial entity, the less significant its witnessrs and fighters had get along with to realisem. Lathan Devers was almost forgotten. If he was remembered at all, it was for his tragic death in the knuckle d sustain mines, instead than for his unnecessary exactly successful fight against Bel Riose.As for Bel Riose, the noblest of the intros adversaries, he too was nearly forgotten, overshadowed by the scuff, who al unrivaled among enemies had bemused the Seldon invent and defeated and ruled the al-Qaida. He al iodine was the Great opposite indeed, the last of the Greats.It was microscopic remembered that the mule had bee n, in essence, defeated by superstar individual a woman, Bayta D bell and that she had accomplished the victory with out the help of any star, without even the plump for of the Seldon programme. So, too, was it almost forgotten that her son and granddaughter, Toran and Arkady Darrell, had defeated the atomic come in 16 moral institution, leaving the Foundation, the world-class Foundation, supreme.These latter-day victors were no longer heroic figures. The times had be take too expansive to do anything but shrink heroes into ordinary mortals. thus, too, Arkadys biography of her grannie had reduced her from a heroine to a figure of romance.And since whence t here(predicate) had been no heroes non even figures of romance. The Kalganian war had been the last moment of violence engulfing the Foundation and that had been a minor conflict. Nearly two centuries of virtual peace A vitamin C and twenty geezerhood without so much as a ship scratched.It had been a good peace Branno would non deny that a profitable peace. The Foundation had non established a s Galactic Empire it was and halfway there by the Seldon Plan but, as the Foundation Federation, it held a strong economic grip on over a third of the scattered political units of the coltsfoot, and influenced what it didnt tame. There were few places where I am of the Foundation was not met with respect. There was no one who graded higher in all the millions of inhabited worlds than the Mayor of store.That was still the title. It was inherit from the leader of a single small and almost disregarded city on a lonely world on the far sharpness of civilization, approximately quintuplet centuries before, but no one would dream of ever-changing it or of giving it one atom more glory-in-sound. As it was, only the all-but-forgotten title of Imperial Majesty could rival it in awe. Except on Terminus itself, where the powers of the Mayor were c befully limited. The memory of the Indburs st ill remained. It was not their totalitarianism that mess could not forget but the fact that they had lost to the mule.And here she was, Harla Branno, the strongest to rule since the Mules death (she knew that) and only the fifth woman to do so. On this day only had she been able to use her strength openly.She had fought for her interpretation of what was right and what should be against the dogged opposition of those who longed for the prestige filled Interior of the Galaxy and for the aura of Imperial power and she had won. non so far, she had give tongue to. Not however go too soon for the Interior and you go out lose far this spring and for that. And Seldon had appeared and had supported her in language almost identical with her own.It made her, for a time, in the eye of all fine Foundation, as wise as Seldon himself. She knew they could forget that any hour, however.And this junior man dared to challenge her on this day of days.And he dared to be right?That was the danger of it. He was right? And by being right, he might overthrow the FoundationAnd straight off she face up him and they were alone.She say sadly, Could you not stool come to see me privately? Did you defend to shout it all out in the Council Chamber in your loaded desire to make a fool of me? What bring forth you make, you mindless boy?Trevize felt himself flushing and fought to control his anger. The Mayor was an aging woman who would be sixty-three on her next birthday. He hesitated to engage in a yelling match with approximatelyone nearly twice his age.Besides, she was well practiced in the political wars and knew that if she could place her opponent off-balance at the start then the troth was half-won. But it took an audience to make such a tactic useful and there was no audience before whom one might be humiliated. There were just the two of them.So he ignored her voice communication and did his best to survey her dispassionately. She was an old woman wearing the unisex fashions which had prevailed for two generations now. They did not become her. The Mayor, the leader of the Galaxy if leader there could be was just a plain old woman who might good hasten been mistaken for an old man, except that her iron-gray hair was fix tightly back, instead of being worn bleak in the traditional male style.Trevize smiled engagingly. However much an aged opponent strove to make the surname boy sound desire an insult, this particular boy had the advantage of youthfulness and good take cares and the full sensitiveness of both.He express, Its true. Im thirty-two and, therefore, a boy in a manner of verbalizeing. And Im a Councilman and, therefore, ex officio, mindless. The first embodiment is unavoidable. For the second, I can only say Im sorry.Do you realise what youve through? Dont stand there and strive for wit. Sit down. Put your mind into gear, if you can, and attend me rationally.I dwell what Ive done. Ive told the truth as Ive seen it.And on this day you chastise to defy me with it? On this one day when my prestige is such that I could pluck you out of the Council Chamber and arrest you, with no one dauntless to protest?The Council will recover its breath and it will protest. They may be protesting now. And they will listen to me all the more for the persecution to which you are faceing me.No one will listen to you, because if I apprehension you would continue what you go for been doing, I would continue to treat you as a traitor to the full extent of the law.I would then absorb to be tried.. Id contribute my day in court.Dont count on that. A Mayors emergency powers are frightful, even if they are rarely used.On what grounds would you declare an emergency?Ill invent the grounds. I start out that much ingenuity go forth, and I do not up salvage taking the political risk. Dont push me, girlish man. We are going to come to an agreement here or you will never be free again. You will be imprisoned for the rest of your life. I guarantee it.They stared at each other Branno in gray, Trevize in multishade brown.Trevize said, What kind of an agreement?Ah. Youre curious. Thats better. Then we can engage in conversation instead of confrontation. What is your point of emplacement?You know it well. You sop up been crawling in the mud with Councilman Compor, have you not?I necessity to hear it from you in the light of the Seldon Crisis just passed. real well, if thats what you indispensability gentlewoman Mayor (He had been on the brink of saying old woman.) The count on of Seldon was too catch up with, too impossibly correct later(prenominal) five hundred years. Its the eighth time he has appeared, I believe. On some occasions, no one was there to hear him. On at least one occasion, in the time of Indbur III, what he had to say was utterly out of synchronization with reality but that was in the time of the Mule, wasnt it? But when, on any of those occasions, was he as corr ect as he was now?Trevize allowed himself a small smile. Never before, brothel keeper Mayor, as far as our arrangings of the past are concerned, has Seldon managed to describe the situation so absolutely, in all its smallest details.Branno said, Is it your suggestion that the Seldon appearance, the holographic image, is faked that the Seldon recordings have been prepared by a contemporaneous such as myself, perhaps that an actor was playing the Seldon role?Not im contingent, Madam Mayor, but thats not what I mean. The truth is far worse. I believe that it is Seldons image we see, and that his description of the present moment in explanation is the description he prepared five hundred years ago. I have said as much to your man, Kodell, who prudently guided me through and through a charade in which I searched to support the superstitions of the unthinking Foundationer.Yes. The recording will be used, if necessary, to allow the Foundation to see that you were never unfeignedly i n the opposition.Trevize spread his arms. But I am. There is no Seldon Plan in the sand that we believe there is, and there hasnt been for perhaps two centuries. I have suspected that for years now, and what we went through in the era Vault twelve hours ago proves it.Because Seldon was too right?Precisely. Dont smile. That is the final proof.Im not smiling, as you can see. Go on.How could he have been so accurate? Two centuries ago, Seldons analysis of what was then the present was completely wrong. Three hundred years had passed since the Foundation was set up and he was wide of the mark. allThat, Councilman, you yourself explained a few moments ago. It was because of the Mule. The Mule was a mutant with intense noetic power and there had been no way of allowing for him in the Plan.But he was there just the same allowed or not. The Seldon Plan was derailed. The Mule didnt rule for long and he had no successor. The Foundation regained its independence and its domination, but h ow could the Seldon Plan have gotten back on target after so enormous a tearing of its fabric?Branno looked grim and her aging hands clasped unneurotic tightly. You know the answer to that. There were one of two Foundations. Youve read the history books.Ive read Arkadys biography of her grandmother required reading in school, after all and Ive read her novels, too. Ive read the official view of the history of the Mule and afterward. Am I to be allowed to doubt them?In what way? officially we, the First Foundation, were to retain the noesis of the physical sciences and to advance them. We were to operate openly, our historical development following whether we knew it or not the Seldon Plan. There was, however, also the split second Foundation, which was to preserve and further develop the psychological sciences, including psychohistory, and their population was to be a secret even from us. The import Foundation was the fine-tuning agency of the Plan, acting to coif the cur rents of Galactic history, when they turned from the paths outlined by the Plan.Then you answer yourself, said the Mayor. Bayta Darell defeated the Mule, perhaps downstairs the inspiration of the atomic number 42 Foundation, although her granddaughter insists that was not so. It was the atomic number 16 Foundation without doubt, however, which labored to bring Galactic history back to the Plan after the Mule died and, quite obviously, they succeeded. What on Terminus, then, are you talking about, Councilman?Madam Mayor, if we follow Arkady Darells account, it is clear that the atomic number 16 Foundation, in making the attempt to correct Galactic history, on a lower floormined Seldons broad(a) scheme, since in their attempt to correct they destroyed their own secrecy. We, the First Foundation, realized that our mirror image, the Second Foundation, existed, and we could not live with the knowledge that we were being manipulated. We therefore labored to find the Second Foundati on and to destroy it.Branno nodded. And we succeeded, according to Arkady Darells account, but quite obviously, not until the Second Foundation had move Galactic history firmly on track again after its disruption by the Mule. It is still on track.Can you believe that? The Second Foundation, according to the account, was located and its various members behavet with. That was in 378 F. E., a hundred twenty years ago. For five generations, the have supposedly been operating without the Second Foundation, and yet have remained so close to target where the Plan is concerned that you and the image of Seldon spoke almost identically. This might be interpreted to mean that I have seen into the significance of developing history with neat insight exculpate me. I do not intend to cast doubt upon your keen insight, but to me it seems that the more obvious explanation is that the Second Foundation was never destroyed. It still rules us. It still manipulates us. And that is why we have brib eed to the track of the Seldon Plan.If the Mayor was take aback by the statement, she showed no sign of it.It was past 1 A. m. and she cherished desperately to bring an end to it, and yet could not hasten. The preteen man had to be played and she did not want to have him break the fishing line. She did not want to have to dispose of him uselessly, when he might first be made to serve a function.She said, Indeed? You say then that Arkadys history of the Kalganian war and the destruction of the Second Foundation was false? Invented? A granular? A lie?Trevize shrugged. It doesnt have to be. Thats beside the point. Suppose Arkadys account were completely true, to the best of her knowledge. Suppose all took place exactly as Arkady said it did that the nuzzle of Second Foundationers was discovered, and that they were disposed of. How can we possibly say, though, that we got every last one of them? The Second Foundation was dealing with the entire Galaxy. They were not manipulating the history of Terminus alone or even of the Foundation alone. Their responsibilities involved more than our ceiling world or our entire Federation. There were bound to be some Second Foundationers that were a thousand or more parsecs away. Is it likely we would have gotten them all?And if we failed to get them all, could we say we had won? Could the Mule have said it in his time? He took Terminus, and with it all the worlds it directly controlled but the breakaway Trading Worlds still stood. He took the Trading Worlds yet three fugitives remained Ebling Mis, Bayta Darell, and her husband. He kept both men under control and left Bayta only Bayta uncontrolled. He did this out of sentiment, if we are to believe Arkadys romance. And that was enough. According to Arkadys account, one person only Bayta was left to do as she pleased, and because of her actions the Mule was not able to locate the Second Foundation and was therefore defeated.One person left untouched, and all was Lost Thats the importance of one person, despite all the legends that ring Seldons Plan to the effect that the individual is cipher and the mass is all.And if we left not just one Second Foundationer behind, but several dozen, as seems perfectly likely, what then? Would they not gather together, rebuild their fortunes, take up their careers again, spawn their numbers by recruitment and training, and once mare make us all pawns?Branno said gravely, Do you believe that?I am authentic of it.But speciate me, Councilman? Why should they bother? Why should the pitiful remnant continue to cling desperately to a duty no one welcomes? What drives them to keep the Galaxy along its path to the Second Galactic Empire? And if the small band insists on fulfilling its mission, why should we care? Why not accept the path of the Plan and be thankful that they will see to it that we do not stray or lose our way?Trevize seat his hand over his eyes and rubbed them. Despite his youth, he seemed th e more pall of the two. He stared at the Mayor and said, I cant believe you. Are you under the impression that the Second Foundation is doing this for us? That they are some categorization of idealists? Isnt it clear to you from your knowledge of politics of the practical issues of power and manipulation that they are doing it for themselves?We are the cutting edge. We are the engine, the force. We labor and sweat and bleed and weep. They exclusively control-adjusting an amplifier here, closing a contact there, and doing it all with ease and without risk to themselves. Then, when it is all done and when, after a thousand years of heaving and straining, we have set up the Second Galactic Empire, the people of the Second Foundation will move in as the ruling elite.Branno said, Do you want to eliminate the Second Foundation then? Having moved halfway to the Second Empire, do you want to take the chance of completing the task on our own and serving as our own elite? Is that it? su re enough Certainly Shouldnt that be what you want, too? You and I wont live to see it, but you have grandchildren and someday I may, and they will have grandchildren, and so on. I want them to have the fruit of our labors and I want them to look back to us as the source, and to praise us for what we have accomplished. I dont want it all to fall to a hidden conspiracy devised by Seldon who is no hero of mine. I verbalise you he is a greater threat than the Mule if we allow his Plan to go through. By the Galaxy, I wish the Mule had disrupted the Plan altogether and forever. We would have survived him. He was one of a kind and very mortal. The Second Foundation seems to be immortal.But you would like to destroy the Second Foundation, is that not so?If I knew howSince you dont know how, dont you think it quite likely they will destroy you?Trevize looked contemptuous. I have had the thought that even you might be under their control. Your accurate guess as to what Seldons image woul d say and your subsequent treatment of me could be all Second Foundation. You could be a hollow shell with a Second Foundation content.Then why are you talking to me as you are?Because if you are under Second Foundation control, I am lost in any case and I might as well muster out some of the anger within me and because, in actual fact, I am gambling that you are not under their control, that you are merely oblivious(predicate) of what you do.Branno said, You win that gamble, at any rate. I am not under anyones control but my own. Still, can you be sure I am recounting the truth? Were I under control of the Second Foundation, would I admit it? Would I even myself know that I was under their control?But there is no profit in such questions. I believe I am not under control and you have no choice but to believe it, too. Consider this, however. If the Second Foundation exists, it is certain that their biggest need is to make sure that no one in the Galaxy knows they exist. The Seldo n Plan only works well if the pawns-we-are not aware of how the Plan works and of how we are manipulated. It was because the Mule focused the attention of the Foundation on the Second Foundation that the Second Foundation was destroyed in Arkadys time. Or should I say nearly destroyed, Councilman?From this we can deduce two corollaries. First, we can reasonably suppose that they interfere grossly as little as they can. We can assume it would be impossible to take us all over. Even the Second Foundation, if it exists, must have limits to its power. To take over some and allow others to guess the fact would introduce distortions to the Plan. Consequently, we come to the expiry that their interference is as delicate, as indirect, as sparse as is possible and therefore I am not controlled. Nor are you.Trevize said, That is one corollary and I tend to accept it out of wishful thinking, perhaps. What is the other?A simpler and more inevitable one. If the Second Foundation exists and w ishes to guard the secret of that existence, then one thing is sure. Anyone who thinks it still exists, and talks about it, and announces it, and shouts it to all the Galaxy must, in some subtle way, be removed by them at once, wiped out, done away with. Wouldnt that be your conclusion, too?Trevize said, Is that why you have taken me into custody, Madam Mayor? To protect me from the Second Foundation?In a way. To an extent. Liono Kodells careful recording of your beliefs will be publicized not only in order to keep the people of Terminus and the Foundation from being unduly disturbed by your silly talk but to keep the Second Foundation from being disturbed. If it exists, I do not want to have its attention drawn to you.Imagine that, said Trevize with heavy irony. For my sake? For my kind brown eyes?Branno stirred and then, quite without warning, laughed quietly. She said, I am not so old, Councilman, that I am not unaware that you have gentle brown eyes and, thirty years ago, tha t might have been antecedent enough. At this time, however, I wouldnt move a millimeter to save them or all the rest of you if only your eyes were involved. But if the Second Foundation exists, and if their attention, is drawn to you, they may not stop with you. Theres my life to consider, and that of a number of others far mare intelligent and valuable than you and all the plans we have made.Oh? Do you believe the Second Foundation exists, then, that you react so carefully to the incident of their response?Branno brought her fist down upon the table before her. Of course I do, you consummate fool If I didnt know the Second Foundation exists, and if I werent fighting them as hard and as effectively as I could, would I care what you say about such a subject? If the Second Foundation did not exist, would it matter that you are announcing they do? Ive wanted for months to shut you up before you went public, but lacked the political power to deal roughly with a Councilman. Seldons appearance made me look good and gave me the power if only temporarily and at that moment, you did go public. I moved at once, and now I will have you killed without a twinge of conscience or a microsecond of hesitation if you dont do exactly as youre told.Our entire conversation now, at an hour in which I would much rather be in bed and asleep, was designed to bring you to the point of accept me when I tell you this. I want you to know that the problem of the Second Foundation, which I was careful to have you outline, gives me reason enough and inclination to have you brainstopped without trial.Trevize half-rose from his seat.Branno said, Oh, dont make any moves. Im only an old woman, as youre undoubtedly telling yourself, but before you could place a hand on me, youd be dead. We are under observation, foolish young man, by my people.Trevize sat down. He said, just a bit shakily, You make no sense. If you believed the Second Foundation existed, you wouldnt be speaking of it so freely. You wouldnt expose yourself to the dangers to which you say I am exposing myself.You recognize, then, that I have a bit more good sense than you do. In other words, you believe the Second Foundation exists, yet you speak freely about it, because you are foolish. I believe it exists, and I speak freely, too but only because I have taken precautions. Since you seem to have read Arkadys history carefully, you may recall that she speaks of her father having invented what she called a Mental Static ruse. It serves as a shield to the kind of mental power the Second Foundation has. It still exists and has been improved on, too, under conditions of the greatest secrecy. This house is, for the moment, reasonably safe against their prying. With that understood, let me tell you what you are to do.Whats that?You are to find out whether what you and I think is so is indeed so. You are to find out if the Second Foundation still exists and, if so, where. That means you will have to leav e Terminus and go I know not where even though it may in the end turn out, as in Arkadys day, that the Second Foundation exists among us. It means you will not bring back till you have something to tell us and if you have nothing to tell us, you will never return, and the population of Terminus will be less one fool.Trevize found himself stammering. How on Terminus can I look for them without giving away the fact? They will simply arrange a death for me, and you will be none the wiser.Then dont look for them, you straightforward child. Look for something else. Look for something else with all your heart and mind, and if, in the process, you come crosswise them because they have not bothered to pay you any attention, then goods You may, in that case, send us the information by shielded and coded hyperwave, and you may then return as a reward.I suppose you have something in mind that I should look for.Of course I do. Do you know Janov Pelorat?Never heard of him.You will meet him to morrow. He will tell you what you are looking for and he will leave with you in one of our most advanced ships. There will be just the two of you, for two are quite enough to risk. And if you ever try to return without satisfying us that you have the knowledge we want, then you will be blown out of space before you come within a parsec of Terminus. Thats all. This conversation is over.She arose, looked at her bare hands, then slowly draw on her gloves. She turned toward the door, and through it came two guards, weapons in hand. They stepped apart to let her pass.At the doorway she turned. There are other guards outside. Do nothing that disturbs them or you will save us all the trouble of your existence.You will also then lose the benefits I might bring you, said Trevize and, with an effort, lie managed to say it lightly.Well chance that, said Branno with an unamused smile.Outside Liono Kodell was waiting for her. He said, I listened to the whole thing, Mayor. You were extraordinari ly patient.And I am extraordinarily tired. I think the day has been seventy-two hours long. You take over now.I will, but tell me. Was there really a Mental Static Device about the house?Oh, Kodell, said Branno wearily. You know better than that. What was the chance anyone was observance? Do you imagine the Second Foundation is watching everything, everywhere, alship canal? Im not the romantic young Trevize is he might think that, but I dont. And even if that were the case, if Second Foundational eyes and ears were everywhere, would not the presence of an MSD have assumption us away at once? For that matter, would not its use have shown the Second Foundation a shield against its powers existed once they detected a region that was mentally opaque? Isnt the secret of such a shields existence until we are quite ready to use it to the full something worth not only more than Trevize, but more than you and I together? And yetThey were in the ground-car, with Kodell driving. And yet s aid Kodell.And yet what? said Branno. Oh yes. And yet that young man is intelligent. I called him a fool in various ways half a dozen times just to keep him in his place, but he isnt one. Hes young and hes read too many of Arkady Darells novels, and they have made him think that thats the way the Galaxy is but he has a quick insight about him and it will be a compassionate to lose him.You are sure then that he will be lost?Quite sure, said Branno sadly. Just the same, it is better that way. We dont need young romantics charging about blindly and smashing in an instant, perhaps, what it has taken us years to build. Besides, he will serve a purpose. He will surely attract the attention of the Second Foundationers always assuming they exist and are indeed concerning themselves with us. And while they are attracted to him, they will, perchance, ignore us. Perhaps we can gain even more than the good fortune of being ignored. They may, we can hope, inadvertently give themselves away to us in their concern with Trevize, and let us have an opportunity and time to devise countermeasures.Trevize, then, draws the lightning.Brannos lips twitched. Ah, the metaphor Ive been looking for. He is our lightning rod, absorbing the stroke and protecting us from harm.And this Pelorat, who wilt also be in the path of the lightning bolt?He may suffer, too. That cant be helped.Kodell nodded. Well, you know what Salvor Hardin used to say. Never let your sense of morals keep you from doing what is right.At the moment, I havent got a sense of morals, muttered Branno. I have a sense of bone-weariness. And yet I could name a number of people I would sooner lose than Golan Trevize. He is a handsome young man. And, of course, he knows it. Her tact words slurred as she closed her eyes and fell into a light sleep.