Foundation's Edge Part 32

"That he was sent into exile."

"Why not?"

"When in history has any citizen of the Foundation been sent into exile?" demanded Thoobing. "He is arrested or not arrested. If he is arrested, he is tried or not tried. If he is tried, he is convicted or not convicted. If he is convicted, he is fined, demoted, disgraced, imprisoned, or executed. No one is sent into exile."

"There is always a first time."

"Nonsense. In an advanced naval vessel? What fool can fail to see that he is on a special mission for your old woman? Whom can she possibly expect to deceive?"

"What would the mission be?"

"Supposedly to find the planet Gaia."

Some of the cheerfulness left Kodell's face. An unaccustomed hardness entered his eyes. He said, "I know that you feel no overwhelming impulse to believe my statements, Mr. Amba.s.sador, but I make a special plea that you believe me in this one case. Neither the Mayor nor I had ever heard of Gaia at the time that Trevize was sent into exile. We have heard of Gaia, for the first time, just the other day. If you believe that, this conversation may continue."

"I will suspend my tendency toward skepticism long enough to accept that, Director, though it is difficult to do so."

"it is quite true, Mr. Amba.s.sador, and if I have suddenly adopted a formal note to my statements it is because when this is done, you will find that you have questions to answer and that you will not find the occasion joyful. You speak as though Gaia is a world familiar to you. How is it that you know something we did not know? Is it not your duty to see to it that we know everything that you know about the political unit to which you are a.s.signed?"

Thoobing said softly, "Gaia is not part of the Saysh.e.l.l Union. It, in fact, probably does not exist. Am I to transmit to Terminus all the fairy tales that the superst.i.tious lower orders of Saysh.e.l.l tell of Gaia? Some of them say that Gaia is located in hypers.p.a.ce. According to others, it is a world that supernaturally protects Saysh.e.l.l. According to still others, it sent forth the Mule to prey on the Galaxy. If you are planning to tell the Saysh.e.l.lian government that Trevize has been sent out to find Gaia and that five advanced s.h.i.+ps of the Foundation Navy have been sent out to back him in this search, they will never believe you. The people may believe fairy tales about Gaia, but the government does not-and they will not be convinced that the Foundation does. They will feel that you intend to force Saysh.e.l.l into the Foundation Federation."

"And what if we do plan that?"

"It would be fatal. Come, Kodell, in the five-century history of the Foundation, when have we fought a war of conquest? We have fought wars to prevent our own conquest-and failed once-but no war has ended with an extension of our territory. Accessions to the Federation have been through peaceful agreements. We have been joined by those who saw benefits in joining."

"Isn't it possible that Saysh.e.l.l may see benefits in joining?"

"They will never do so while our s.h.i.+ps remain on their borders. Withdraw them."

"It can't be done."

"Kodell, Saysh.e.l.l is a marvelous advertis.e.m.e.nt for the benevolence of the Foundation Federation. It is nearly enclosed by our territory, it is in an utterly vulnerable position, and yet until now it has been safe, has gone its own way, has even been able to maintain an anti-Foundation foreign policy freely. How better can we show the Galaxy that we force no one, that we come in friends.h.i.+p to all? -If we take over Saysh.e.l.l, we take that which, in essence, we already have. After all, we dominate it economically-if quietly. But if we take it over by military force, we advertise to all the Galaxy that we have become expansionist."

"And if I tell you that we are really interested only in Gaia?"

"Then I will believe it no more than the Saysh.e.l.l Union will. This man, Trevize, sends me a message that he is on his way to Gaia and asks me to transmit it to Terminus. Against my better judgment, I do so because I must and, almost before the hyperspatial line is cool, the Foundation Navy is in motion. How will you get to Gaia, without penetrating Saysh.e.l.lian s.p.a.ce?"

"My dear Thoobing, surely you are not listening to yourself. Did you not tell me just a few minutes ago that Gaia, if it exists at all, is not part of the Saysh.e.l.l Union? And I presume you know that hypers.p.a.ce is free to all and is part of no world's territory. How then can Saysh.e.l.l complain if we move from Foundation territory (where our s.h.i.+ps stand right now), through hypers.p.a.ce, into Gaian territory, and never in the process occupy a single cubic centimeter of Saysh.e.l.lian territory?"

"Saysh.e.l.l will not interpret events like that, Kodell. Gaia, if it exists at all, is totally enclosed by the Saysh.e.l.l Union, even if it is not a political part of it, and there are precedents that make such enclaves virtual parts of the enclosing territory, as far as enemy wars.h.i.+ps are concerned."

"Ours are not enemy wars.h.i.+ps. We are at peace with Saysh.e.l.l."

"I tell you that Saysh.e.l.l may declare war. They won't expect to win such a war through military superiority, but the fact is, war will set off a wave of anti-Foundation activity throughout the Galaxy. The new expansionist policies of the Foundation will encourage the growth of alliances against us. Some of the members of the Federation will begin to rethink their ties to us. We may well lose the war through internal disarray and we will then certainly reverse the process of growth that has served the Foundation so well for five hundred years."

"Come, come, Thoobing," said Kodell indifferently, "You speak as though five hundred years is nothing, as though we are still the Foundation of Salvor Hardin's time, fighting the pocket-kingdom of Anacreon. We are far stronger now than the Galactic Empire ever was at its very height. A squadron of our s.h.i.+ps could defeat the entire Galactic Navy, occupy any Galactic sector, and never know it had been in a fight."

"We are not fighting the Galactic Empire. We fight planets and sectors of our own time."

"Who have not advanced as we have. We could gather in all the Galaxy now."

"According to the Seldon Plan, we can't do that for another five hundred years."

"The Seldon Plan underestimates the speed of technological advance. We can do it now! -Understand me, I don't say we will do it now or even should do it now. I merely say we can do it now."

"Kodell, you have lived all your life on Terminus. You don't know the Galaxy. Our Navy and our technology can beat down the Armed Forces of other worlds, but we cannot yet govern an entire rebellions, hate-ridden Galaxy-and that is what it will be if we take it by force. Withdraw the s.h.i.+ps!"

"It can't be done, Thoobing. Consider- What if Gaia is not a myth?"

Thoobing paused, scanning the other's face as though anxious to read his mind. "A world in hypers.p.a.ce not a myth?"

"A world in hypers.p.a.ce is superst.i.tion, but even superst.i.tions may be built around kernels of truth. This man, Trevize, who was exiled, speaks of it as though it were a real world in real s.p.a.ce. What if he is right?"

"Nonsense. I don't believe it."

"No? Believe it for just a moment. A real world that has lent Saysh.e.l.l safety against the Mule and against the Foundation!"

"But you refute yourself. How is Gaia keeping the Saysh.e.l.lians safe from the Foundation? Are we not sending s.h.i.+ps against it?"

"Not against it, but against Gaia, which is so mysteriously unknown-which is so careful to avoid notice that while it is in real s.p.a.ce it somehow convinces its neighbor worlds that it is in hypers.p.a.ce-and which even manages to remain outside the computerized data of the best and most unabridged of Galactic maps."

"It must be a most unusual world, then, for it must be able to manipulate minds."

"And did you not say a moment ago that one Saysh.e.l.lian tale is that Gaia sent forth the Mule to prey upon the Galaxy? And could not the Mule manipulate minds?"

"And is Gaia a world of Mules, then?"

"Are you sure it might not be?"

"Why not a world of a reborn Second Foundation, in that case."

"Why not indeed? Should it not be investigated?"

Thoobing grew sober. He had been smiling scornfully during the last exchanges, but now he lowered his head and stared up from under his eyebrows. "If you are serious, is such an investigation not dangerous?"

"Is it?"

"You answer my questions with other questions because you have no reasonable answers. Of what use will s.h.i.+ps be against Mules or Second Foundationers? Is it not likely, in fact, that if they exist they are luring you into destruction? See here, you tell me that the Foundation can establish its Empire now, even though the Seldon Plan has reached only its midway point, and I have warned you that you would be racing too far ahead and that the intricacies of the Plan would slow you down by force. Perhaps, if Gaia exists and is what you say it is, all this is a device to bring about that slowdown. Do voluntarily now what you may soon be constrained to do. Do peacefully and without bloodshed now what you may be forced to do by woeful disaster. Withdraw the s.h.i.+ps."

"It can't be done. In fact, Thoobing, Mayor Branno herself plans to join the s.h.i.+ps, and scouts.h.i.+ps have already flitted through hypers.p.a.ce to what is supposedly Gaian territory."

Thoobing's eyes bulged. "There will surely be war, I tell you."

"You are our amba.s.sador. Prevent that. Give the Saysh.e.l.lians whatever a.s.surances they need. Deny any ill will on our part. Tell them, if you have to, that it will pay them to sit quietly and wait for Gaia to destroy us. Say anything you want to, but keep them quiet."

He paused, searching Thoobing's stunned expression, and said, "Really, that's all. As far as I know, no Foundation s.h.i.+p will land on any world of the Saysh.e.l.l Union or penetrate any point in real s.p.a.ce that is part of that Union. However, any Saysh.e.l.lian s.h.i.+p that attempts to challenge us outside Union territory-and therefore inside Foundation territory-will promptly be reduced to dust. Make that perfectly clear, too, and keep the Saysh.e.l.lians quiet. You will be held to strict account if you fail. You have had an easy job so far, Thoobing, but hard times are upon you and the next few weeks decide all. Fail us and no place in the Galaxy will be safe for you."

There was neither merriment nor friendliness in Kodell's face as contact was broken and as his image disappeared.

Thoobing stared open-mouthed at the place where he had been.

Golan Trevize clutched at his hair as though he were trying, by feel, to judge the condition of his thinking. He said to Pelorat abruptly, "What is your state of mind?"

"State of mind?" said Pelorat blankly.

"Yes. Here we are, trapped-with our s.h.i.+p under outside control and being drawn inexorably to a world we know nothing about. Do you feel panic?"

Pelorat's long face registered a certain melancholia. "No," he said.

"I don't feel joyful. I do feel a little apprehensive, but I'm not panicky."

"Neither am I. Isn't that odd? Why aren't we more upset than we are?"

"This is something we expected, Golan. Something like this."

Trevize turned to the screen. It remained firmly focused on the s.p.a.ce station. It was larger now, which meant they were closer.

It seemed to him that it was not an impressive s.p.a.ce station in design. There was nothing to it that bespoke superscience. In fact, it seemed a bit primitive. -Yet it had the s.h.i.+p in its grip.

He said, "I'm being very a.n.a.lytical, Janov. Cool! -I like to think that I am not a coward and that I can behave well under pressure, but I tend to flatter myself. Everyone does. I should be jumping up and down right now and sweating a little. We may have expected something, but that doesn't change the fact that we are helpless and that we may be killed."

Pelorat said, "I don't think so, Golan. If the Gaians could take over the s.h.i.+p at a distance, couldn't they kill us at a distance? If we're still alive-"

"But we're not altogether untouched. We're too calm, I tell you. I think they've tranquilized us."

"Why?"

"To keep us in good shape mentally, I think. It's possible they wish to question us. After that, they may kill us."

"If they are rational enough to want to question us, they may be rational enough not to kill us for no good reason."

Trevize leaned back in his chair (it bent back at least-they hadn't deprived the chair of its functioning) and placed his feet on the desk where ordinarily his hands made contact with the computer. He said, "They may be quite ingenious enough to work up what they consider a good reason. -Still, if they've touched our minds, It hasn't been by much. If it were the Mule, for instance, he would have made us eager to go-exalted, exultant, every fiber of ourselves crying out for arrival there." He pointed to the s.p.a.ce station. "Do you feel that way, Janov?"

"Certainly not."

"You see that I'm still in a state where I can indulge in cool, a.n.a.lytical reasoning. Very odd! Or can I tell? Am I in a panic, incoherent, mad-and merely under the illusion that I am indulging in cool, a.n.a.lytical reasoning?"

Pelorat shrugged. "You seem sane to me. Perhaps I am as insane as you and am under the same illusion, but that sort of argument gets us nowhere. All humanity could share a common insanity and be immersed in a common illusion while living in a common chaos. That can't be disproved, but we have no choice but to follow our senses." And then, abruptly, he said, "In fact, I've been doing some reasoning myself."

"Yes?"

"Well, we talk about Gaia as a world of Mules, possibly, or as the Second Foundation reborn. Has it occurred to you that a third alternative exists, one that is more reasonable than either of the first two."

"What third alternative?"

Pelorat's eyes seemed concentrating inward. He did not look at Trevize and his voice was low and thoughtful. "We have a world- Gaia-that has done its best, over an indefinite period of time, to maintain a strict isolation. It has in no way attempted to establish contact with any other world-not even the nearby worlds of the Saysh.e.l.l Union. It has an advanced science, in some ways, if the stories of their destruction of fleets is true and certainly their ability to control us right now bespeaks it-and yet they have made no attempt to expand their power. They ask only to be left alone."

Trevize narrowed his eyes. "So?"

"It's all very inhuman. The more than twenty thousand years of human history in s.p.a.ce has been an uninterrupted tale of expansion and attempted expansion. Just about every known world that can be inhabited is inhabited. Nearly every world has been quarreled over in the process and nearly every world has jostled each of its neighbors at one time or another. If Gaia is so inhuman as to be so different in this respect, it may be because it really is-inhuman."

Trevize shook his head. "Impossible."

"Why impossible?" said Pelorat warmly. "I've told you what a puzzle it is that the human race is the only evolved intelligence in the Galaxy. What if it isn't? Might there not be one more-on one planet-that lacked the human expansionist drive? In fact," Pelorat grew more excited, "what if there are a million intelligences in the Galaxy, but only one that is expansionist-ourselves? The others would all remain at home, un.o.btrusive, hidden-"

"Ridiculous!" said Trevize. "We'd come across them. We'd land on their worlds. They would come in all types and stages of technology and most of them would be unable to stop us. But we've never come across any of them. s.p.a.ce! We've never even come across the ruins or relies of a nonhuman civilization, have we? You're the historian, so you tell me. Have we?"

Pelorat shook his head. "We haven't. -But Golan, there could be one! This one!"

"I don't believe it. You say the name is Gaia, which is some ancient dialectical version of the name 'Earth.' How can that be nonhuman?"

"The name 'Gaia' is given the planet by human beings-and who knows why? The resemblance to an ancient word might be coincidental. -Come to think of it, the very fact that we've been lured to Gaia-as you explained in great detail some time ago-and are now being drawn in against our will is an argument in favor of the nonhumanity of the Gaians."

"Why? What has that to do with nonhumanity?"

"They're curious about us-about humans."

Trevize said, "Janov, you're mad. They've been living in a Galaxy surrounded by humans for thousands of years. Why should they be curious right now? Why not long before? And if right now, why us? If they want to study human beings and human culture, why not the Saysh.e.l.l worlds? Why would they reach all the way to Terminus for us?"

"They may be interested in the Foundation."

"Nonsense," said Trevize violently. "Janov, you want a nonhuman intelligence and you will have one. Right now, I think that if you thought you were going to encounter nonhumans, you wouldn't worry about having been captured, about being helpless, about being killed even-if they but gave you a little time to sate your curiosity."

Pelorat began to stutter an indignant negative, then stopped, drew a deep breath, and said, "Well, you may be right, Golan, but I'll hold to my belief for a while just the same. I don't think we'll have to wait very long to see who's right. -Look!"

He pointed to the screen. Trevize-who had, in his excitement, ceased watching-now looked back. "What is it?" he said.

"Isn't that a s.h.i.+p taking off from the station?"

"It's something," admitted Trevize reluctantly. "I can't make out the details yet and I can't magnify the view any further. It's at maximum magnification." After awhile he said, "It seems to be approaching us and I suppose it's a s.h.i.+p. Shall we make a bet?"

"What sort of bet?"

Trevize said sardonically, "If we ever get back to Terminus, let's have a big dinner for ourselves and any guests we each care to invite, up to, say, four-and it will be on me if that s.h.i.+p approaching us carries nonhumans and on you if it carries humans."

"I'm willing," said Pelorat.

"Done, then," and Trevize peered at the screen, trying to make out details and wondering if any details could reasonably be expected to give away, beyond question, the nonhumanity (or humanity) of the beings on board.

Branno's iron-gray hair lay immaculately in place and she might have been in the Mayoral Palace, considering her equanimity. She showed no sign that she was deep in s.p.a.ce for only the second time in her life. (And the first time-when she accompanied her parents on a holiday tour to Kalgan-could scarcely count. She had been only three at the time.) She said to Kodell with a certain weary heaviness, "It is Thoobing's job, after all, to express his opinion and to warn me. Very well, he has warned me. I don't hold it against him."

Kodell, who had boarded the Mayor's s.h.i.+p in order to speak to her without the psychological difficulty of imaging, said, "He's been at his post too long. He's beginning to think like a Saysh.e.l.lian."

"That's the occupational hazard of an amba.s.sadors.h.i.+p, Liono. Let us wait till this is over and we'll give him a long sabbatical and then send him on to another a.s.signment elsewhere. He's a capable man.

-After all, he did have the wit to forward Trevize's message without delay."