Second Foundation Part 22

Finally, Anthor shrugged and tossed the control box back into Darell's lap. "Well, I suppose we can take your word for it. But it's certainly hard to imagine that anything was happening when I turned the k.n.o.b."

"But naturally, Pelleas Anthor," said Darell, with a tight smile. "The one I gave you was a dummy. You see I have another." He tossed his jacket aside and seized a duplicate of the control box that Anthor had been investigating, which swung from his belt.

"You see," said Darell, and in one gesture turned the intensity k.n.o.b to maximum.

And with an unearthly shriek, Pelleas Anthor sank to the floor. He rolled in his agony; whitened, gripping fingers clutching and tearing futilely at his hair.

Munn lifted his feet hastily to prevent contact with the squirming body, and his eyes were twin depths of horror. Semic and Turbor were a pair of plaster casts; stiff and white.

Darell, somber, turned the k.n.o.b back once more. And Anthor twitched feebly once or twice and lay still. He was alive, his breath racking his body.

"Lift him on to the couch," said Darell, grasping the young man's head. "Help me here."

Turbor reached for the feet. They might have been lifting a sack of flour. Then, after long minutes, the breathing grew quieter, and Anthor's eyelids fluttered and lifted. His face was a horrid yellow; his hair and body was soaked in perspiration, and his voice, when he spoke, was cracked and unrecognizable.

"Don't," he muttered, "don't! Don't do that again! You don't know You don't know Oh-h-h." It was a long, trembling moan.

"We won't do it again," said Darell, "if you will tell us the truth. You are a member of the Second Foundation?"

"Let me have some water," pleaded Anthor.

"Get some, Turbor," said Darell, "and bring the whiskey bottle."

He repeated the question after pouring a jigger of whiskey and two gla.s.ses of water into Anthor. Something seemed to relax in the young man "Yes," he said, wearily. "I am a member of the Second Foundation."

"Which," continued Darell, "is located on Terminus here?"

"Yes, yes. You are right in every particular, Dr. Darell."

"Good! Now explain what's been happening this past half year. Tell us!"

"I would like to sleep," whispered Anthor.

"Later! Speak now!"

A tremulous sigh. Then words, low and hurried. The others bent over him to catch the sound, "The situation was growing dangerous. We knew that Terminus and its physical scientists were becoming interested in brain-wave patterns and that the times were ripe for the development of something like the Mind Static device. And there was growing enmity toward the Second Foundation. We had to stop it without ruining SeIdon's Plan.

"We ... we tried to control the movement. We tried to join it. It would turn suspicion and efforts away from us. We saw to it that Kalgan declared war as a further distraction. That's why I sent Munn to Kalgan. Stettin's supposed mistress was one of us. She saw to it that Munn made the proper moves"

"Callia is" cried Munn, but Darell waved him silent.

Anthor continued, unaware of any interruption, "Arcadia followed. We hadn't counted on that can't foresee everything so Callia maneuvered her to Trantor to prevent interference. That's all. Except that we lost."

"You tried to get me to go to Trantor, didn't you?" asked Darell.

Anthor nodded, "Had to get you out of the way. The growing triumph in your mind was clear enough. You were solving the problems of the Mind Static device."

"Why didn't you put me under control?"

"Couldn't ... couldn't. Had my orders. We were working according to a Plan. If I improvised, I would have thrown everything off. Plan only predicts probabilities ... you know that ... like Seldon's Plan." He was talking in anguished pants, and almost incoherently. His head twisted from side to side in a restless fever. "We worked with individuals ... not groups ... very low probabilities involved ... lost out. Besides ... if control you ... someone else invent device ... no use ... had to control times times ... more subtle ... First Speaker's own plan ... don't know all angles ... except ... didn't work a-a-a" He ran down. ... more subtle ... First Speaker's own plan ... don't know all angles ... except ... didn't work a-a-a" He ran down.

Darell shook him roughly, "You can't sleep yet. How many of you are there?"

"Huh? Whatjasay ... oh ... not many ... be surprised fifty ... don't need more."

"All here on Terminus?"

"Five ... six out in s.p.a.ce ... like Callia ... got to sleep."

He stirred himself suddenly as though to one giant effort, and his expressions gained in clarity. It was a last attempt at self-justification, at moderating his defeat.

"Almost got you at the end. Would have turned off defenses and seized you. Would have seen who was master. But you gave me dummy controls ... suspected me all along"

And finally he was asleep.

Turbor said, in awed tones, "How long did you suspect him, Darell?"

"Ever since he first came here," was the quiet response. "He came from Kleise, he said. But I knew Kleise; and I knew on what terms we parted. He was a fanatic on the subject of the Second Foundation and I had deserted him. My own purposes were reasonable, since I thought it best and safest to pursue my own notions by myself. But I couldn't tell Kleise that; and he wouldn't have listened if I had. To him, I was a coward and a traitor, perhaps even an agent of the Second Foundation. He was an unforgiving man and from that time almost to the day of his death he had no dealings with me. Then, suddenly, in his last few weeks of life, he writes me as an old friend to greet his best and most promising pupil as a co-worker and begin again the old investigation.

"It was out of character. How could he possibly do such a thing without being under outside influence, and I began to wonder if the only purpose might not be to introduce into my confidence a real agent of the Second Foundation. Well, it was so"

He sighed and closed his own eyes for a moment.

Semic put in hesitantly, "What will we do with all of them ... these Second Foundation fellas?"

"I don't know," said Darell, sadly. "We could exile them, I suppose. There's Zoranel, for instance. They can be placed there and the planet saturated with Mind Static. The s.e.xes can be separated, or, better still, they can be sterilized and in fifty years, the Second Foundation will be a thing of the past. Or perhaps a quiet death for all of them would be kinder."

"Do you suppose," said Turbor, "we could learn the use of this sense of theirs. Or are they born with it, like the Mule."

"I don't know. I think it is developed through long training, since there are indications from encephalography that the potentialities of it are latent in the human mind. But what do you want that sense for? It hasn't helped them." them."

He frowned.

Though he said nothing, his thoughts were shouting.

It had been too easy too easy. They had fallen, these invincibles, fallen like book-villains, and he didn't like it.

Galaxy! When can a man know he is not a puppet? How How can a man know he is not a puppet? can a man know he is not a puppet?

Arcadia was coming home, and his thoughts shuddered away from that which he must face in the end.

She was home for a week, then two, and he could not loose the tight check upon those thoughts. How could he? She had changed from child to young woman in her absence, by some strange alchemy. She was his link to life; his fink to a bittersweet marriage that scarcely outlasted his honeymoon.

And then, late one evening, he said as casually as he could, "Arcadia, what made you decide that Terminus contained both Foundations?"

They had been to the theater; in the best seats with private trimensional viewers for each; her dress was new for the occasion, and she was happy.

She stared at him for a moment, then tossed it off. "Oh, I Don't know, Father. It just came to me."

A layer of ice thickened about Dr. Darell's heart.

"Think," he said, intensely. "This is important. What made you decide both Foundations were on Terminus."

She frowned slightly. "Well, there was Lady Callia. I knew she she was a Second Foundationer. Anthor said so, too." was a Second Foundationer. Anthor said so, too."

"But she was on Kalgan," insisted Darell. "What made you decide on Terminus?" "What made you decide on Terminus?"

And now Arcadia waited for several minutes before she answered. What had had made her decide? What had made her decide? made her decide? What had made her decide?

She had the horrible sensation of something slipping just beyond her grasp.

She said, "She knew about things Lady Callia did and must have had her information from Terminus. Doesn't that sound right, Father?

But he just shook his head at her.

"Father," she cried, "I knew. knew. The more I thought, the surer I was. It just made The more I thought, the surer I was. It just made sense." sense."

There was that lost look in her father's eyes, "It's no good, Arcadia. Its no good. Intuition is suspicious when concerned with the Second Foundation. You see that, don't you? It might might have been intuition and it might have been control!" have been intuition and it might have been control!"

"Control! You mean they changed me? Oh, no. No, they couldn't." She was backing away from him. "But didn't Anthor say I was right? He admitted it. He admitted everything. And you've found the whole bunch right here on Trantor. Didn't you? Didn't you?" She was breathing quickly.

"I know, but Arcadia, will you let me make an encephalographic a.n.a.lysis of your brain?'

She shook her head violently, "No, no! I'm too scared."

"Of me, Arcadia? There's nothing to be afraid of. But we must know. You see that, don't you?"

She interrupted him only once, after that. She clutched at his arm just before the last switch was thrown. "What if I am am different, Father? What will you have to do?" different, Father? What will you have to do?"

"I won't have to do anything, Arcadia. If you're different, well leave. Well go back to Trantor, you and I, and ... and we won't care about anything else in the Galaxy."

Never in Darell's life had an a.n.a.lysis proceeded so slowly, cost him so much, and when it was over, Arcadia huddled down and dared not look. Then she heard him laugh and that was information enough. She jumped up and threw herself into his opened arms.

He was babbling wildly as they squeezed one another, "The house is under maximum Mind Static and your brain-waves are normal. We really have trapped them, Arcadia, and we can go back to living."

"Father," she gasped, "can we let them give us medals now?"

"How did you know I'd asked to be left out of it?" He held her at arm's mind; you know everything. All right, you can have your medal on a platform, with speeches."

"And Father?"

"Yes?"

"Can you call me Arkady from now on."

"But Very well, Arkady."

Slowly the magnitude of the victory was soaking into him and saturating him. The Foundation the First Foundation now the only Foundation was absolute master of the Galaxy. No further barrier stood between themselves and the Second Empire the final fulfillment of Seldon's Plan.

They had only to reach for it Thanks to

22

The Answer That Was True

An unlocated room on an unlocated world!

And a man whose plan had worked.

The First Speaker looked up at the Student, "Fifty men and women," he said. "Fifty martyrs! They knew it meant death or permanent imprisonment and they could not even be oriented to prevent weakening since orientation might have been detected. Yet they did not weaken. They brought the plan through, because they loved the greater Plan."

"Might they have been fewer?" asked the Student, doubtfully.

The First Speaker slowly shook his head, "It was the lower limit. Less could not possibly have carried conviction. In fact, pure objectivism would have demanded seventy-five to leave margin for error. Never mind. Have you studied the course of action as worked out by the Speakers' Council fifteen years ago?"

"Yes, Speaker."

"And compared it with actual developments?"

"Yes, Speaker." Then, after a pause "I was quite amazed, Speaker."

"I know. There is always amazement. If you knew how many men labored for how many months years, in fact to bring about the polish of perfection, you would be less amazed. Now tell me what happened in words. I want your translation of the mathematics."

"Yes, Speaker." The young man marshaled his thoughts. "Essentially, it was necessary for the men of the First Foundation to be thoroughly convinced that they had located and destroyed and destroyed the Second Foundation. In that way, there would be reversion to the intended original. To all intents, Terminus would once again know nothing about us; include us in none of their calculations. We are hidden once more, and safe at the cost of fifty men." the Second Foundation. In that way, there would be reversion to the intended original. To all intents, Terminus would once again know nothing about us; include us in none of their calculations. We are hidden once more, and safe at the cost of fifty men."

"And the purpose of the Kalganian war?"

"To show the Foundation that they could beat a physical enemy to wipe out the damage done to their self-esteem and self-a.s.suredness by the Mule."

"There you are insufficient in your a.n.a.lysis. Remember, the population of Terminus regarded us with distinct ambivalence. They hated and envied our supposed superiority; yet they relied on us implicitly for protection. If we had been 'destroyed' before the Kalganian war, it would have meant panic throughout the Foundation. They would then never have had the courage to stand up against Stettin, when he then then attacked; and he would have. Only in the full flush of victory could the 'destruction' have taken place with minimum ill-effects. Even waiting a year, thereafter, might have meant a too-great cooling off spirit for success." attacked; and he would have. Only in the full flush of victory could the 'destruction' have taken place with minimum ill-effects. Even waiting a year, thereafter, might have meant a too-great cooling off spirit for success."

The Student nodded. "I see. Then the course of history will proceed without deviation in the direction indicated by the Plan."

"Unless," pointed out the First Speaker, "further accidents, unforeseen and individual, occur."

"And for that," said the Student, "we still exist. Except Except One facet of the present state of affairs worries me, Speaker. The First Foundation is left with the Mind Static device a powerful weapon against us. That, at least, is not as it was before." still exist. Except Except One facet of the present state of affairs worries me, Speaker. The First Foundation is left with the Mind Static device a powerful weapon against us. That, at least, is not as it was before."

"A good point. But they have no one to use it against. It has become a sterile device; just as without the spur of our own menace against them, encephalographic a.n.a.lysis will become a sterile science. Other varieties of knowledge will once again bring more important and immediate returns. So this first generation of mental scientists among the First Foundation will also be the last and, in a century, Mind Static will be a nearly forgotten item of the past."

"Well" The Student was calculating mentally. "I suppose you're right."