Foundation and Empire 24. Convert

The thin life of Trantor trickled to nonhing when they entered among the wide-spaced buildings of the Univer puzzley grounds. T here(predicate) was a solemn and lonely silence over it.The strangers of the Foundation knew nonhing of the swirling years and nights of the bloody Sack that had left-hand(a) the University untouched. They knew nothing of the condemnation after the damp of the Imperial creator, when the students, with their borrowed weapons, and their pale-faced inexperienced bra actually, formed a protective volunteer force to protect the central shrine of the science of the coltsfoot. They knew nothing of the Seven geezerhood Fight, and the armistice that kept the University free, when even the Imperial palace clanged with the boots of Gilmer and his soldiers, during the short interval of their rule.Those of the Foundation, approaching for the first time, realized only that in a realness of transition from a gutted old to a strenuous new this land was a quiet, graceful m holdum-piece of ancient greatness.They were intruders in a sense. The brooding vacuum rejected them. The academic atmosphere seemed still to live and to stir angrily at the disturbance.The library was a deceptively small building which broadened proscribed vastly underground into a mammoth volume of silence and reverie. Ebling Mis paused before the elaborate murals of the reception room.He whispered one had to whisper here I think we passed the catalog rooms back a way. Ill bank check in that respect.His forehead was flushed, his hand trembling, I mustnt be disturbed, Toran. Will you bring my meals worst to me?Anything you say. Well do all we erect to help. Do you want us to exertion under you-No. I must be alone-You think you leave get what you want.And Ebling Mis replied with a soft certainty, I know I go awayToran and Bayta came closer to setting up housekeeping in normal agency than at any time in their year of married life. It was a strange sort of house keeping. They lived in the middle of grandeur with an inappropriate simplicity. Their feed was drawn largely from Lee Senters farm and was paid for in the flyspeck nuclear gadgets that may be found on any Traders ship.Magnifico taught himself how to use the projectors in the library reading room, and sat over adventure novels and ro cosmealy concernces to the menstruation where he was al near as forgetful of meals and sleep as was Ebling Mis.Ebling himself was solely buried. He had insisted on a hammock organism slung up for him in the Psychology Reference Room. His face grew thin and white. His vigor of speech was muddled and his favorite curses had died a mild death. There were times when the recognition of any Toran or Bayta seemed a struggle.He was more himself with Magnifico who brought him his meals and often sat observance him for hours at a time, with a queer, fascinated absorption, as the aging psychologist push asidened endless equations, cross-referred to endless book-films, scurried endlessly about in a antic kind effort towards an end he alone saw.Toran came upon her in the darken room, and said sharply, BaytaBayta started guiltily. Yes? You want me, Torie?Sure I want you. What in seat be you sitting there for? Youve been acting all wrong since we got to Trantor. Whats the national with you?Oh, Torie, settlement, she said, wearily.And Oh, Torie, stop he mimicked impatiently. Then, with sudden softness, Wont you tell me whats wrong, Bay? Somethings bothering you.No cypher is, Torie. If you keep on just nagging and nagging, youll have me gaga. Im just thinking. thought about what?About nothing. Well, about the mule, and oasis, and the Foundation, and everything. About Ebling Mis and whether hell find anything about the atomic number 42 Foundation, and whether it will help us when he does find it and a cardinal other things. Are you satisfied? Her representative was agitate.If youre just brooding, do you consciousness stoppin g? It isnt pleasant and it doesnt help the situation.Bayta got to her feet and smiled weakly. All right. Im happy. See, Im smiling and jolly. Magnificos voice was an agitated cry outside. My lady-What is it? tote up-Baytas voice choked off sharply when the opening verge framed the large, hard-faced-Pritcher, cried Toran.Bayta gasped, Captain How did you find us?Han Pritcher stepped inside. His voice was clear and level, and perfectly dead of feeling, My rank is colonel now under the mule.Under the mule Torans voice trailed off. They formed a tableau there, the three.Magnifico stargond wildly and shrank behind Toran. Nobody halt to notice him.Bayta said, her hands trembling in each others tight grasp, You be arresting us? You have really gone over to them?The colonel replied quickly, I have not come to arrest you. My instructions make no mention of you. With regard to you, I am free, and I choose to commit our old friendship, if you will allow me.Torans face was a twisted quelling of fury, How did you find us? You were in the Filian ship, thence? You followed us?The wooden deficiency of expression on Pritchers face might have flickered in embarrassment. I was on the Filian ship I met you in the first place good by chance.It is a chance that is mathematically impossible.No. Simply quite an improbable, so my statement will have to stand. In any case, you admitted to the. Filians there is, of course, no such nation as Filia actually that you were heading for the Trantor sector, and since the Mule already had his contacts upon Neotrantor, it was escaped to have you detained there. Unfortunately, you got away before I arrived, precisely not want before. I had time to have the farms on Trantor tell to report your arrival. It was done and I am here. May I sit d take? I come in friendliness, believe me. He sat. Toran deform his head and thought futilely. With a numbed lack of emotion, Bayta prepared tea.Toran looked up harshly. Well, what are you waiting for colonel? Whats your friendship? If its not arrest, what is it then? Protective custody? annunciate in your men and give your orders.Patiently, Pritcher shook his head. No, Toran. I come of my own will to speak to you, to persuade you of the uselessness of what you are doing. If I pass away I shall leave. That is all.That is all? Well, then peddle your propaganda, give us your speech, and leave. I dont want any tea, Bayta.Pritcher accepted a cup, with a grave explicate of thanks. He looked at Toran with a clear strength as he sipped lightly. Then he said, The Mule is a mutant. He tummy not be beaten in the very nature of the version-Why? What is the mutation? asked Toran, with sour humor. I suppose youll tell us now, eh?Yes, I will. Your cognition wont hurt him. You see he is capable of adjusting the stirred up balance of gentleman beings. It sounds like a little trick, but its quite unbeatable.Bayta broke in, The emotional balance? She frowned, Wont you apologi se that? I dont quite understand.I mean that it is an easy matter for him to instill into a capable general, say, the emotion of utter inscription to the Mule and complete belief in the Mules victory. His generals are emotionally controlled. They can not shop at him they can not weaken and the control is permanent. His most capable enemies become his most faithful subordinates, The warlord of Kalgan forfeits his planet and becomes his viceroy for the Foundation.And you, added Bayta, buffalo chipterly, betray your cause and become Mules envoy to Trantor. I seeI havent finished. The Mules cave in whole kit and boodle in reverse even more effectively. Despair is an emotion At the crucial moment, keymen on the Foundation keymen on Haven despaired. Their worlds knock down without too lots struggle.Do you mean to say, demanded Bayta, tensely, that the feeling I had in the Time Vault was the Mule juggling my emotional control.Mine, too. Everyones. How was it on Haven towards the e nd?Bayta turned away.Colonel Pritcher continued earnestly, As it works for worlds, so it works for individuals. rear you fight a force which can make you surrender willingly when it so desires can make you a faithful handmaiden when it so desires?Toran said slowly, How do I know this is the truth?Can you explain the fall of the Foundation and of Haven otherwise? Can you explain my conversion otherwise? Think, man What have you or I or the whole Galaxy accomplished against the Mule in all this time? What one little thing?Toran felt the challenge, By the Galaxy, I can With a sudden touch of fierce satisfaction, he shouted, Your wonderful Mule had contacts with Neotrantor you say that were to have detained us, eh? Those contacts are dead or worse. We killed the crown prince and left the other a whimpering idiot. The Mule did not stop us there, and that much has been undone.Why, no, not at all. Those werent our men. The crown prince was a wine-soaked mediocrity. The other man, Comma son, is phenomenally stupid. He was a power on his world but that didnt prevent him from being vicious, evil, and completely incompetent. We had nothing really to do with them. They were, in a sense, tho feints-It was they who detained us, or tried.Again, no. Commason had a personal slave a man called Inchney. Detention was his policy. He is old, but will serve our temporary purpose. You would not have killed him, you see.Bayta whirled on him. She had not touched her own tea. But, by your very statement, your own emotions have been tampered with. Youve got faith and belief in the Mule, an unnatural, a morbid faith in the Mule. Of what value are your opinions? Youve lost all power of objective thought.You are wrong. Slowly, the colonel shook his head. Only my emotions are fixed. My reason is as it always was. It may be influenced in a certain billing by my conditioned emotions, but it is not forced. And there are few things I can see more clearly now that I am freed of my earlie r emotional trend.I can see that the Mules programme is an intelligent and worthy one. In the time since I have been converted, I have followed his career from its start septenary years ago. With his mutant mental power, he began by winning over a condottiere and his band. With that and his power he won a planet. With that and his power he extended his grip until he could tackle the warlord of Kalgan. Each step followed the other logically. With Kalgan in his pocket, he had a first-class fleet, and with that and his power he could attack the Foundation.The Foundation is the key. It is the greatest knowledge base of industrial concentration in the Galaxy, and now that the nuclear techniques of the Foundation are in his hands, he is the actual master of the Galaxy. With those techniques and his power he can force the remnants of the Empire to acknowledge his rule, and eventually with the death of the old emperor, who is mad and not long for this world to crown him emperor . He will then have the name as well as the fact. With that and his power where is the world in the Galaxy that can oppose him?In these last seven years, he has established a new Empire. In seven years, in other words, he will have accomplished what all Seldons psychohistory could not have done in less than an additional seven hundred. The Galaxy will have peace and order at last.And you could not stop it any more than you could stop a planets rush with your shoulders.A long silence followed Pritchers speech. What remained of his tea had grown cold. He emptied his cup, filled it again, and drained it slowly. Toran bit viciously at a thumbnail. Baytas face was cold, and distant, and white.Then Bayta said in a thin voice, We are not convinced. If the Mule wishes us to be, let him come here and condition us himself. You fought him until the last moment of your conversion, I imagine, didnt you?I did, said Colonel Pritcher, solemnly.Then allow us the same privilege.Colonel Pritcher ar ose. With a crisp air of final examity, he said, Then I leave. As I said earlier, my mission at present concerns you in no way. Therefore, I dont think it will be necessary to report your presence here. That is not too great a kindness. If the Mule wishes you stopped, he no mistrust has other men assigned to the job, and you will be stopped. But, for what it is worth, I shall not contribute more than my requirement.Thank you, said Bayta faintly.As for Magnifico. Where is he? Come out, Magnifico, I wont hurt you-What about him? demanded Bayta, with sudden animation.Nothing. My instructions make no mention of him, either. I have heard that he is searched for, but the Mule will find him when the time suits him. I shall say nothing. Will you wind up hands?Bayta shook her head. Toran glared his frustrated contempt.There was the slightest lowering of the colonels iron shoulders. He strode to the door, turned and saidOne last thing. Dont think I am not aware of the source of your stubbor nness. It is known that you search for the Second Foundation. The Mule, in his time, will take his measures. Nothing will help you But I knew you in other times perhaps there is something in my sense of right and wrong that urged me to this at any rate, I tried to help you and remove you from the final danger before it was too late. Good-by.He saluted sharply and was gone.Bayta turned to a silent Toran, and whispered, They even know about the Second Foundation.In the recesses of the library, Ebling Mis, insensible of all, crouched under the one spark of light amid the murky spaces and mumbled triumphantly to himself.