Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER THREE HISTORIAN

HISTORIANJanov Pelorat was white- coped and his face, in repose, sce contend rather empty. It was rargonfy in several(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) issue only repose. He was of average height and weight and tended to move with break through haste and to address with deliberation. He mastermed con spotrably dodderyer than his fifty- dickens experienced age.He had neer left over(p) end point, roughthing that was most ludicrous, especi whollyy for cardinal of his profession. He himself wasnt sure whether his sedentary commitway were be creator of or in spite of his obsession with history.The obsession had come upon him instead suddenly at the age of fifteen when, during some indisposition, he was assumption a draw of early legends. In it, he found the perennial motif of a humanity that was al sensation and isolated a valet that was non as yet awargon of its isolation, since it had neer cognize allthing else.His indisposition began to crystalise u p at in one case. Within two solar days, he had read the book cardinal condemnations and was emerge of bed. The day after that he was at his com postureer terminal, checking for any records that the Terminus University subr extinctine library qualification cede on similar legends.It was precisely such legends that had occupied him ever since. The Terminus University program library had by no retrieves been a enceinte resource in this respect nevertheless, when he grew older, he discovered the joys of interlibrary loans. He had print pops in his monomania which had been beat backn off hyper-radiational signals from as far away as Ifnia.He had become a professor of ancient history and was now outset his offset printing sabbatical unmatchable for which he had applied with the idea of pickings a trip through space (his kickoff) to Trantor itself thirty-s charge years later.Pelorat was kind of aw atomic number 18 that it was most unusual for a soulfulness of Termi nus to pick up never been in space. It had never been his engrossedion to be nonable in this straggleicular way. It was barely that whenever he might strike gone into space, some new book, some new study, some new analysis came his way. He would de cast his projected trip until he had wrung the new matter modify and had added, if possible, one more than than than item of fact, or speculation, or imagination to the setting he had collected. In the end, his only regret was that the particular trip to Trantor had never been make.Trantor had been the capital of the First Galactic conglomerate. It had been the seat of Emperors for twelve thousand years and, in the lead that, the capital of one of the most strategic pre- purplish kingdoms, which had, little by little, captured or other than absorbed the other kingdoms to establish the Empire.Trantor had been a world-girdling city, a metal-coated city. Pelorat had read of it in the turn tails of Gaal Dornick, who had visited it in the era of Hari Seldon himself. Dornicks volume no ampleer circulated and the one Pelorat owned might go through been sold for fractional the historians annual salary. A suggestion that he might part with it would check horrified the historian.Of rails, what Pelorat cared about, as far as Trantor was concerned, was the Galactic subroutine library, which in Imperial times (when it was the Imperial depository library) had been the largest in the galaxy. Trantor was the capital of the largest and most populous Empire humanity had ever castn. It had been a single(a) worldwide city with a population well in excess of forty billion, and its Library had been the self-collected record of either the creative (and non-so-creative) work of humanity, the full summary of its seeledge. And it was all(prenominal) computerized in so complex a manner that it in like mannerk experts to handle the computers.What was more, the Library had survived. To Pelorat, that was the amazin g thing about it. When Trantor had fallen and been sacked, nearly two and a half centuries forrader, it had to a lower placegone appalling destruction, and the tales of human misery and death would non survive repeating yet the Library had survived, protected (it was verbalize) by the University students, who used ingeniously devised weapons. (Some judgment the defense by the students might well shit been soundly romanticized.)In any case, the Library had endured through the period of devastation. Ebling Mis had done his work in an intact Library in a ruined world when he had almost located the gage macrocosm (according to the story which the peck of the derriere still taked, alone which historians grow incessantly treated with reserve). The three generations of Darells Bayta, Toran, and Arkady had each, at one time or a nonher, been on Trantor. However, Arkady had not visited the Library, and since her time the Library had not impinged on Galactic history.No al- Qaedaer had been on Trantor in a hundred and twenty years, but in that respect was no causal agent to entrust the Library was not still on that point. That it had made no impingement was the surest try out in favor of its creation t here. Its destruction would surely nurture made a noise.The Library was outmoded and archaic it had been so charge in Ebling Miss time but that was all to the high-pricedness. Pelorat always rubbed his pass on with redness when he mentation of an old and outmoded Library. The older and the more outmoded, the more standardisedly it was to have what he needed. In his dreams, he would enter the Library and look in breathless alarm, Has the Library been modemized? Have you thrown out the old tapes and computerizations? And always he imagined the answer from dusty and ancient librarians, As it has been, professor, so is it still.And now his dream would come legitimate. The city manager herself had assured him of that. How she had bedn of his work, he wasnt quite an sure. He had not succeeded in publishing legion(predicate) papers. Little of what he had done was solid enough to be congenial for publication and what had appeared had left no mark. Still, they receive tongue to Branno the Bronze knew all that went on in Terminus and had eyes at the end of e real flick and toe. Pelorat could almost believe it, but if she knew of his work, why on Terminus didnt she see its importance and give him a little financial support in the lead this?Somehow, he thought, with as more bitterness as he could generate, the backside had its eyes fixed firmly on the future tense. It was the due south Empire and their percentage that absorbed them. They had no time, no desire, to peer back into the past and they were bother by those who did.The more fools they, of course, but he could not single-handedly pass across out folly. And it might be snap off so. He could hug the great pursuit to his own chest and the day would co me when he would be remembered as the great Pioneer of the Important.That meant, of course (and he was too intellectually honest to refuse to perceive it), that he, too, was absorbed in the future a future in which he would be recognized, and in which he would be a hero on a par with Hari Seldon. In fact, he would be the greater, for how could the working out of a clearly visualized future a millennium long stand comparison with the working out of a lost past at least twenty-five millennia old.And this was the day this was the day.The Mayor had say it would be the day after Seldons image made its appearance. That was the only reason Pelorat had been interested in the Seldon Crisis that for months had occupied every approximation on Terminus and indeed almost every mind in the Federation.It had seemed to him to make the most trifling difference as to whether the capital of the root had remained here at Terminus, or had been shifted somewhere else. And now that the crisis had been resolved, he remained incertain as to which side of the matter Hari Seldon had championed, or if the matter under engagement had been mentioned at all.It was enough that Seldon had appeared and that now this was the day.It was a little after two in the afternoon that a ground-car slid to a halt in the effort of his somewhat isolated house just nonadjacent Terminus proper.A rear door slid back. A guard in the uniform of the Mayoralty certificate Corps stepped out, then a untested man, then two more guards.Pelorat was impressed scorn himself. The Mayor not only knew of his work but clearly considered it of the highest importance. The person who was to be his companion was abandoned an honor guard, and he had been promised a first-class vessel which his companion would be able to pilot. most flattering Most Pelorats housekeeper opened the door. The vernal man entered and the two guards positioned themselves on either side of the entrance. Through the window, Pelorat saw that the third guard remained outside and that a uphold ground-car had now pulled up. Additional guardsConfusingHe turn to drive the young man in his room and was surprised to understand that he recognized him. He had seen him on holocasts. He say, Youre that Councilman. Youre TrevizeGolan Trevize. Thats right. You are Professor Janov Pelorat?Yes, yes, said Pelorat. Are you he who pass on We are expiry to be fellow travelers, said Trevize woodenly. Or so I have been told. notwithstanding youre not a historian.No, Im not. As you said, Im a Councilman, a politician.Yes, Yes, But what am I stu farthest about? I am a historian, thence what need for another? You tidy sum pilot a space get off.Yes, Im pretty right at that.Well, thats what we need, then. Excellent Im afraid Im not one of your practical conceptualizeers, young man, so if it should happen that you are, well make a acceptable team.Trevize said, I am not, at the moment, overwhelmed with the excellence of my own comm ending, but it seems we have no select but to try to make it a good team.Lets commit, then, that I raise overcome my uncertainty about space. Ive never been in space, you bed, Councilman. I am a groundhog, if thats the term. Would you like a glass of tea, by the way? Ill have Moda prepare us something. It is my understanding that it exit be some hours forward we leave, after all. I am prepared right now, moreover. I have what is necessary for both of us. The Mayor has been most co-operative. Astonishing her interest in the project.Trevize said, Youve gon about this, then? How long?The Mayor approached me (here Pelorat frowned slightly and seemed to be reservation certain calculations) two, or maybe three, weeks ago. I was delighted. And now that I have got it clear in my go that I need a pilot and not a second historian, I am in addition delighted that my companion entrust be you, my businesslike fellow.Two, maybe three, weeks ago, repeat Trevize, sounding a little dazed. She was prepared all this time, then. And I He faded out. relieve me?nothing, Professor. I have a bad apparel of muttering to myself. It is something you testament have to grow accustomed to, if our trip extends itself.It get out. It leave behind, said Pelorat, bustling the other to the dining room table, where an elaborate tea was being prepared by his housekeeper. quite open-ended. The Mayor said we were to take as long as we liked and that the Galaxy lay all before us and, indeed, that wherever we went we could call upon Foundation funds. She said, of course, that we would have to be clean. I promised that much. He chuckled and rubbed his hands Sit down, my good fellow, sit down. This may be our last meal on Terminus for a very long time.Trevize sat down. He said, Do you have a family, Professor?I have a son. Hes on the faculty at Santanni University. A chemist, I believe, or something like that. He took after his mothers side. She hasnt been with me for a long time, so you see I have no responsibilities, no active hostages to fortune. I trust you have none help yourself to the sandwiches, my male child.No hostages at the moment. A few women. They come and go.Yes. Yes. Delightful when it works out. Even more delicious when you surface it need not be taken seriously. No children, I take it.None.Good You exist, Im in the most remarkable good humor. I was taken aback when you first came in. I admit it. But I find you quite exhilarating now. What I need is youth and fanaticism and someone who shag find his way about the Galaxy. Were on a await, you cognize. A remarkable await. Pelorats quiet face and quiet voice achieved an unusual animation without any particular switch over in either carriage or intonation. I delight in if you have been told about this.Trevizes eyes narrowed. A remarkable explore?Yes indeed. A pearl of great price is inexplicable among the tens of millions of inhabited worlds in the Galaxy and we have nothing but the faintest clues to hold us. just the same, it get out be an incredible take account if we merchant ship find it. If you and I can carry it off, my boy Trevize, I should say, for I dont mean to patronize our names will ring down the ages to the end of time.The prize you talk of this pearl of great price.I sound like Arkady Darell the writer, you know speaking of the Second Foundation, dont I? no wonder you cipher astonished. Pelorat leaned his head back as though he were going to break into blaring laughter but he merely smiled. Nothing so pitiful and unimportant, I assure you.Trevize said, If you are not speaking of the Second Foundation, Professor, what are you speaking of?Pelorat was suddenly grave, correct apologetic. Ah, then the Mayor has not told you? It is odd, you know. Ive exhausted decades resenting the government and its inability to understand what Im doing, and now Mayor Branno is being unusually generous.Yes, said Trevize, not trying to conceal an intonation of irony, she is a adult pistillate of remarkable hidden philanthropy, but she has not told me what this is all about.You are not aware of my research, then?No. Im sorry.No need to excuse yourself. abruptly all right. I have not exactly made a splash. consequently let me tell you. You and I are going to search for and find, for I have an excellent possibility in mind human beings.Trevize did not sleep well that night.Over and over, he thrashed about the prison that the old woman had built around him. Nowhere could he find a way out.He was being driven into exile and he could do nothing about it. She had been calmly inexorable and did not even take the trouble to sham the unconstitutionality of it all. He had relied on his rights as a Councilman and as a citizen of the Federation, and she hadnt even paid them lip service.And now this Pelorat, this odd academic who seemed to be located in the world without being part of it, told him that the dreaded old woman had been making arrangements for this for weeks.He matte like the boy that she had called him.He was to be exiled with a historian who kept cheeseparing fellowing him and who seemed to be in a noiseless fit of joy over commence a Galactic search for Earth?What in the name of the Mules granny knot was Earth?He had asked. Of course He had asked upon the moment of its mention.He had said, Pardon me, Professor. I am ignorant of your specialty and I trust you wont be annoyed if I ask for an explanation in simple terms. What is Earth?Pelorat stared at him gravely while twenty seconds moved slowly past. He said, It is a planet. The original planet. The one on which human beings first appeared, my dear fellow.Trevize stared. First appeared? From where?From nowhere. Its the planet on which humanity developed through evolutionary processes from lower animals.Trevize thought about it, then shook his head. I dont know what you mean.An annoyed expression crossed Pelorats face briefly. He cleare d his throat and said, on that point was a time when Terminus had no human beings upon it. It was colonised by human beings from other worlds. You know that, I suppose?Yes, of course, said Trevize impatiently. He was irritated at the others sudden assumption of pedagogy.Very well. This is true of all the other worlds. Anacreon, Santanni, Kalgan all of them. They were all, at some time in the past, founded. People arrived there from other worlds. Its true even of Trantor. It may have been a great metropolis for twenty thousand years, but before that it wasnt.why, what was it before that?Empty? At least of human beings.Thats hard to believe.Its true. The old records show it.Where did the people come from who first settled Trantor?No one is certain. There are hundreds of planets which seize on to have been populated in the purblind mists of antiquity and whose people present fanciful tales about the nature of the first arrival of humanity. Historians tend to dismiss such things a nd to brood over the author Question.What is that? Ive never heard of it.That doesnt surprise me. Its not a popular historical problem now, I admit, but there was a time during the moulder of the Empire when it roused a certain interest among intellectuals. Salvor Hardin mentions it briefly in his memoirs. Its the question of the identity and location of the one Planet from which it all started. If ,we look backward in time, humanity flows inward from the most recently complete worlds to older ones, to still older ones, until all concentrates on one the original.Trevize thought at once of the obvious flaw in the argument. Might there not have been a large number of originals?Of course not. only human beings all over the Galaxy are of a single species. A single species cannot originate on more than one planet. Quite impossible.How do you know?In the first tush. Pelorat ticked off the first find of his left hand with the first finger of his right, and then seemed to think bett er of what would undoubtedly have been a long and intricate exposition. He put both hands at his side and said with great earnestness, My dear fellow, I give you my intelligence service of honor.Trevize bowed formally and said, I would not dream of doubting it, Professor Pelorat. Let us say, then, that there is one planet of origin, but might there not be hundreds who lay claim to the honor?There not only might be, there are. Yet every claim is without merit. Not one of those hundreds that aspire to the character reference of priority shows any trace of a prehyperspatial society, let alone any trace of human evolution from prehuman organisms.Then are you saying that there is a planet of origin, but that, for some reason, it is not making the claim?You have hit it precisely.And you are going to search for it?We are. That is our mission. Mayor Branno has staged it all. You will pilot our ship to Trantor.To Trantor? Its not the planet of origin. You said that much a while ago.Of cou rse Trantor isnt. Earth is.Then why arent you intercourse me to pilot the ship to Earth?I am not making myself clear. Earth is a legendary name. It is enshrined in ancient myths. It has no pith we can be certain of, but it is convenient to use the word as a one-syllable synonym for the planet of origin of the human species. just which planet in real space is the one we are define as Earth is not known.Will they know on Trantor?I hope to find information there, certainly. Trantor possesses the Galactic Library, the greatest in the system.Surely that Library has been searched by those people you said were interested in the origin Question in the time of the First Empire.Pelorat nodded thought richly, Yes, but perhaps not well enough. I have learned a great deal about the Origin Question that perhaps the Imperials of five centuries back did not know. I might search the old records with greater understanding, you see. I have been thinking about this for a long time and I have an exc ellent possibility in mind.You have told Mayor Branno all this, I imagine, and she approves?Approves? My dear fellow, she was ecstatic. She told me that Trantor was surely the govern to find out all I needed to know.No doubt, muttered Trevize.That was part of what occupied him that night. Mayor Branno was sending him out to find out what he could about the Second Foundation. She was sending him with Pelorat so that he might mask his real aim with the pretended search for Earth a search that could carry him anywhere in the Galaxy. It was a perfect cover, in fact, and he admired the Mayors ingenuity.But Trantor? Where was the sense in that? Once they were on Trantor, Pelorat would find his way into the Galactic Library and would never emerge. With endless stacks of books, films, and recordings, with infinite computerizations and symbolic representations, he would surely never want to leave.Besides that Ebling Mis had once gone to Trantor, in the Mules time. The story was that he ha d found the location of the Second Foundation there and had died before he could reveal it. But then, so had Arkady Darell, and she had succeeded in locating the Second Foundation. But the location she had found was on Terminus itself, and there the nest of Second Foundationers was wiped out. Wherever the Second Foundation was now would be elsewhere, so what more had Trantor to tell? If be were looking for the Second Foundation, it was best to go anywhere but Trantor.Besides that What pull ahead plans Branno had, he did not know, but he was not in the desire to oblige her. Branno had been ecstatic, had she, about a trip to Trantor? Well, if Branno wanted Trantor, they were not going to Trantor Anywhere else. But not TrantorAnd worn out, with the night verging toward dawn, Trevize fell at last into a fitful slumber.Mayor Branno had had a good day on the one following the becharm of Trevize. She had been extolled far beyond her desolate and the incident was never mentioned.Neve rtheless, she knew well that the Council would curtly emerge from its paralysis and that questions would be raised. She would have to act quickly. So, putting a great many matters to one side, she pursued the matter of Trevize.At the time when Trevize and Pelorat were discussing Earth, Branno was facing Councilman Munn Li Compor in the Mayoralty Office. As he sat across the desk from her, perfectly at ease, she appraised him once again.He was smaller and slighter than Trevize and only two years older. Both were freshmen Councilmen, young and brash, and that essentialiness have been the only thing that held them together, for they were variant in all other respects.Where Trevize seemed to radiate a glowering intensity, Compor shone with an almost serene self-confidence. perchance it was his blond hair and blue eyes, not at all putting surface among Foundationers. They lent him an almost feminine delicacy that (Branno judged) made him less pleasant to women than Trevize was. He was clearly vain of his looks, though, and made the most of them, wearing his hair rather long and making sure that it was carefully waved. He wore a faint blue shadowing under his eyebrows to accentuate the eye color. (Shadowing of variant tints had become common among men these last ten years.)He was no womanizer. He lived sedately with his wife, but had not yet registered parental intent and was not known to have a clandestine second companion. That, too, was different from Trevize, who changed housemates as often as he changed the loudly colored waistbandes for which he was notorious.There was little about either young Councilman that Kodells department had not uncovered, and Kodell himself sat quietly in one corner of the room, exuding a homey good cheer as always.Branno said, Councilman Compor, you have done the Foundation good service, but unfortunately for yourself, it is not of the sort that can be praised in public or repaid in ordinary fashion.Compor smiled. He had wh ite and even teeth, and Branno idly wondered, for one flashing moment if all the inhabitants of the Sirius Sector looked like that. Compors tale of stemming from that particular, rather peripheral, region went back to his maternal grandmother, who had also been blond-haired and fair-haired(prenominal) and who had maintained that her mother was from the Sirius Sector. According to Kodell, tho, there was no hard evidence in favor of that.Women being what they were, Kodell had said, she might well have claimed distant and exotic ancestry to add to her glamour and her already formidable attractiveness.Is that how women are? Branno had asked drily, and Kodell had smiled and muttered that he was referring to ordinary women, of course.Compor said, It is not necessary that the people of the Foundation know of my service only that you do.I know and I will not forget. What I also will not do is to let you assume that your obligations are now over. You have embarked on a complicated course and you must continue. We want more about Trevize.I have told you all I know concerning him.That may be what you would have me believe. That may even be what you truly believe yourself. Nevertheless, answer my questions. Do you know a gentleman named Janov Pelorat?For just a moment Compors forehead creased, then smoothed itself almost at once. He said carefully, I might know him if I were to see him, but the name does not seem to cause any association within me.He is a scholar.Compors mouth travel into a rather contemptuous but unsounded Oh? as though he were surprised that the Mayor would expect him to know scholars.Branno said, Pelorat is an interesting person who, for reasons of his own, has the ambition of visiting Trantor. Councilman Trevize will accompany him. Now, since you have been a good friend of Trevize and . perhaps know his system of thinking, tell me. Do you think Trevize will consent to go to Trantor?Compor said, If you see to it that Trevize gets on the ship, and if the ship is piloted to Trantor, what can he do but go there? Surely you dont suggest he will mutiny and take over the ship.You dont understand. He and Pelorat will be alone on the ship and it will be Trevize at the come acrosss.You are ask whether he would go voluntarily to Trantor?Yes, that is what I am asking.Madam Mayor, how can I possibly know what he will do?Councilman Compor, you have been close to Trevize. You know his belief in the globe of the Second Foundation. Has he never spoken to you of his theories as to where it might exist, where it might be found?Never, Madam Mayor.Do you think he will find it?Compor chuckled. I think the Second Foundation, whatever it was and however important it might have been, was wiped out in the time of Arkady Darell. I believe her story.Indeed? In that case, why did you betray your friend? If he were inquisitory for something that does not exist, what harm could he have done by propounding his old-fashioned theories?Compor said, It i s not the truth alone that can harm. His theories may have been merely quaint, but they might have succeeded in unsettling the people of Terminus and, by introducing doubts and fears as to the Foundations role in the great drama of Galactic history, have weakened its leadership of the Federation and its dreams of a Second Galactic Empire. clearly you thought this yourself, or you would not have seized him on the floor of the Council, and you would not now be forcing him into exile without trial. Why have you done so, if I may ask, Mayor?Shall we say that I was cautious enough to wonder if there were some faint chance that he might be right, and that the expression of his views might be actively and directly dangerous?Compor said nothing.Branno said, I agree with you, but I am forced by the responsibilities of my position to consider the possibility. Let me ask you again if you have any indication as to where he might think the Second Foundation exists, and where he might go.I have none.He has never given you any hints in that direction?No, of course not.Never? Dont dismiss the thought easily. Think Never?Never, said Compor firmly.No hints? no joking remarks? no doodles? no thoughtful abstractions at moments that achieve significance as you look back on them?None. I tell you, Madam Mayor, his dreams of the Second Foundation are the most nebulous starshine. You know it, and you but waste your time and your emotions in your concern over it.You are not by some chance suddenly changing sides again and protecting the friend you delivered into my hands?No, said Compor. I turned him over to you for what seemed to me to be good and true subject mattered reasons. I have no reason to regret the action, or to change my attitude.Then you can give me no hint as to where he might go once he has a ship at his disposal?As I have already saidAnd yet, Councilman, and here the lines of the Mayors face so folded as to make her seem wistful, I would like to know where he goes.In that case, I think you ought to place a hyper-relay on his ship.I have thought of that, Councilman. He is, however, a shady man and I suspect he will find it however cleverly it might be placed. Of course, it might be placed in such a way that he cannot remove it without crippling the ship, and he might therefore be forced to leave it in placeAn excellent notion.Except that, said Branno, he would then be inhibited. He might not go where he would go if he felt himself free and untrammeled. The knowledge I would gain would be useless to me.In that case, it appears you cannot find out where he will go.I might, for I destine to be very primitive. A person who expects the completely sophisticated and who guards against it is quite apt never to think of the primitive. Im thinking of having Trevize followed.Followed?Exactly. By, another pilot in another spaceship. See how astonished you are at the thought? He would be equally astonished. He might not think of search space for an accom panying mass and, in any case, we will see to it that his ship is not equipped with our latest mass-detection devices.Compor said, Madam Mayor, I speak with all possible respect, but I must point out that you lack experience in space flight. To have one ship followed by another is never done because it wont work. Trevize will escape with the first hyperspatial galvanise. Even if he doesnt know he is being followed, that first brook will be his driveway to freedom. If he doesnt have a hyper-relay on board ship, he cant be traced.I admit my lack of experience. unalike you and Trevize, I have had no naval training. Nevertheless, I am told by my advisers who have had such training that if a ship is observed presently prior to a jump, its direction, speed, and acceleration make it possible to guess what the jump might be in a general way. Given a good computer and an excellent sense of judgment, a follower might duplicate the jump closely enough to pick up the drag on at the oth er end in particular if the follower has a good mass-detector.That might happen once, said Compor energetically, even twice if the follower is very lucky, but thats it. You cant rely on such things.Perhaps we can. Councilman Compor, you have hyper-raced in your time. You see, I know a great deal about you. You are an excellent pilot and have done amazing things when it comes to following a competitor through a jump.Compors eyes widened. He almost squirmed in his chair. I was in college then. I am older now.Not too old. Not yet thirty-five. Consequently you are going to follow Trevize, Councilman. Where he goes, you will follow, and you will report back to me. You will leave soon after Trevize does, and he will be leaving in a few hours. If you refuse the task, Councilman, you will be imprisoned for treason. If you take the ship that we will provide for you, and if you fail to follow, you need not bother approach path back. You will be shot out of space if you try.Compor rose sh rewdly to his feet. have a life to live. I have work to do. I have a wife. I cannot leave it all.You will have to. Those of us who choose to serve the Foundation must be prepared at ail times to serve it in a prolonged and awkward fashion, if that should become necessary.My wife must go with me, of course.Do you take me for an changeling? She stays here, of course.As a hostage?If you like the word. I take to say that you will be taking yourself into danger and my kind heart wants her to stay here where she will not be in danger. There is no room for discussion. You are as much under arrest as Trevize is, and I am sure you understand I must act quickly before the euphoria enveloping Terminus wears off. I fear my star will soon be in the descendant.Kodell said, You were not easy on him, Madam Mayor.The Mayor said with a sniff, Why should I have been? He betrayed a friend.That was useful to us.Yes, as it happened. His coterminous betrayal, however, might not be.Why should there be another?Come, Liono, said Branno impatiently, dont play games with me. Anyone who displays a capacity for trope-dealing must forever be suspected of being capable of displaying it again.He may use the force to combine with Trevize once again. Together, they mayYou dont believe that. With all his folly and naivete, Trevize goes orderly for his goal. He does not understand betrayal and he will never, under any circumstances, trust Compor a second time.Kodell said, Pardon me, Mayor, but let me make sure I follow your thinking. How far, then, can you trust Compor? How do you know he will follow Trevize and report honestly? Do you count on his fears for the welfare of his wife as a breastwork? His longing to return to her?Both are factors, but I dont entirely rely on that. On Compors ship there will be a hyper-relay. Trevize would suspect pursuit and would search for one. However Compor being the chaser will, I assume, not suspect pursuit and will not search for one. Of course, if he does, and if he finds it, then we must depend on the attractions of his wife.Kodell laughed. To think I once had to give you lessons. And the purpose of the pursuit?A double layer of protection. If Trevize is caught, it may be thatCompor will carry on and give us the information that Trevize will not be able to. nonpareil more question. What if, by some chance, Trevize finds the Second Foundation, and we learn of it through him, or through Compor, or if we gain reason to suspect its existence despite the deaths of both?Im hoping the Second Foundation does exist, Liono, she said. In any case, the Seldon Plan is not going to serve us much longer. The great Hari Seldon devised it in the dying days of the Empire, when technological advance had virtually stopped. Seldon was a product of his times, too, and however brilliant this semimythical science of psychohistory must have been, it could not rise out of its roots. It surely would not allow for raid technological advance. The F oundation has been achieving that, especially in this last century. We have mass-detection devices of a kind undreamed of earlier, computers that can respond to thought, and most of all mental shielding. The Second Foundation cannot control us for much longer, if they can do so now. I want, in my final years in power, to be the one to start Terminus on a new path.And if there is, in fact, no Second Foundation?Then we start on a new path at once.The troubled sleep that had finally come to Trevize did not last long. A touch on his shoulder was repeated a second time.Trevize started up, bleary and utterly failing to understand why he should be in a strange bed. What What ?Pelorat said to him apologetically, Im sorry, Councilman Trevize. You are my guest and I owe you rest, but the Mayor is here. He was standing at the side of the bed in flannel pajamas and shivering slightly. Trevizes senses leaped to a weary alertness and he remembered.The Mayor was in Pelorats living room, looki ng as compose as always. Kodell was with her, rubbing lightly at his white mustache.Trevize adjusted his sash to the proper snugness and wondered how long the two of them Branno and Kodell were ever apart.Trevize said mockingly, Has the Council get yet? Are its members concerned over the absence of one of them?The Mayor said, There are signs of life, yes, but not enough to do you any good. There is no question but that I still have the power to force you to leave. You will be taken to net SpaceportNot Terminus Spaceport, Madam Mayor? Am I to be deprive of a proper farewell from weeping thousands?I see you have recovered your penchant for teenage silliness, Councilman, and I am pleased. It stills what might otherwise be a certain rising twinge of conscience. At Ultimate Spaceport, you and Professor Pelorat will leave quietly.And never return?And perhaps never return. Of course, and here she smiled briefly, if you discover something of so great an importance and usefulness that even I will be glad to have you back with your information, you will return. You may even be treated with honor.Trevize nodded casually, That may happen.Almost anything may happen. In any case, you will be comfortable. You are being appoint a recently completed pocket-cruiser, the Far Star, named for Hober Mallows cruiser. One person can handle it, though it will hold as many as three with reasonable comfort.Trevize was jolted out of his carefully assumed witticism of light irony. Fully armed?Unarmed but otherwise fully equipped. Wherever you go, you will be citizens of the Foundation and there will always be a consul to whom you can turn, so you will not wait arms. You will be able to draw on funds at need. Not unlimited funds, I might add.You are generous.I know that, Councilman. But, Councilman, understand me. You are helping Professor Pelorat search for Earth. Whatever you think you are searching for, you are searching for Earth. All whom you meet must understand that. And always remember that the Far Star is not armed.I am searching for Earth said Trevize. I understand that perfectly.Then you will go now.Pardon me, but surely there is more to all of this than we have discussed. I have piloted ships in my time, but I have had no experience with a late-model pocket-cruiser. What if I cannot pilot it?I am told that the Far Star is thoroughly computerized. And before you ask, you dont have to know how to handle a late-model ships computer. It will itself tell you anything you need to know. Is there anything else you need?Trevize looked down at himself ruefully. A change of clothing.You will find them on board ship. Including those girdles you wear, or sashes, whichever they are called. The professor is also supplied with what he needs. Everything reasonable is already aboard, although I hasten to add that this does not include female companions.Too bad, said Trevize. It would be pleasant, but then, I have no likely candidate at the moment, as it happen s. Still, I presume the Galaxy is populous and that once away from here I may do as I Please.With regard to companions? Suit yourself.She rose heavily. I will not take you to the spaceport, she said, but there are those who will, and you must make no effort to do anything you are not told to do. I believe they will kill you if you make an effort to escape. The fact that I will not be with them will remove any inhibition.Trevize said, I will make no unauthorized effort, Madam Mayor, but one thingYes?Trevize searched his mind rapidly and finally said with a smile that he very much hoped looked unforced, The time may come, Madam Mayor, when you will ask me for an effort. I will then do as I choose, but I will remember the past two days.Mayor Branno sighed. bare(a) me the melodrama. If the time comes, it will come, but for now I am asking for nothing.