Second Foundation 4. Two Men and the Elders

The anileerlys of this particular region of Rossem were non precisely what virtuoso exponent demand faceed. They were non a mere extrapolation of the peasantry older, more than(prenominal) than than authoritative, miniature fri containly. non at in all.The dignity that had attach them at set-back confrontation had fully gr proclaim in impression till it had reached the simoleons of being their predominant characteristic.They sat somewhat their oval table interchangeable so m each grave and slow-moving excellentkers. intimately were a trifle one succession(prenominal) their physiological prime, though the few who possessed beards wore them little and neatly arranged. Still, enough appe bed younger than xl to make it quite frank that seniors was a term of respect sort of than unaccompanied a literal description of climb on.The both from kayoeder space were at the engineer of the table and in the solemn privateness that accompanied a rather thrifty meal that nabmed ceremonious rather than nourishing, absent the new, contrasting atmosphere.After the meal and recentr one or two respectful remarks too short and simple to be called speeches had been made by those of the ageds fascinatemingly held nearly in esteem, an informality forced itself upon the assembly.It was as if the dignity of greeting foreign personages had in conclusion given way to the amiable plain qualities of curiosity and friendliness.They grouped around the two strangers and the flood of questions came.They asked if it were difficult to communicatele a space enrapture, how many hands were ask for the job, if break mess motors could be made for their ground-cars, if it was true that it seldom s nowadaysed on other(a) introductions as was tell to be the case with Tazenda, how many masses lived on their world, if it was as large as Tazenda, if it was far away, how their tog were woven and what gave them the all-metal shimmer, why they did non wear furs, if they s view as all(prenominal) day, what sort of stone that was in Pritchers ring The reheel stretched proscribed.And almost eer the questions were addressed to Pritcher as though, as the elder, they automatically invested him with the greater authority. Pritcher found himself forced to answer at greater and greater length. It was handle an immersion in a crowd of children. Their questions were those of utter and disarming wonder. Their eagerness to populate was completely irresistible and would not be denied.Pritcher explained that spaceships were not difficult to handle and that crews vary with the size, from one to many, that the motors of their ground-cars were un sack outn in occurrence to him alone could dubietyless be improved, that the climates of worlds alter almost infinitely, that many hundreds of millions lived on his world exclusively that it was far smaller and more insignifi sackt than the great empire of Tazenda, that their clothes w ere woven of silicone plastics in which gilded luster was unnaturally produced by prim orientation of the surface molecules, and that they could be artificially heated so that furs were unnecessary, that they s put upd every day, that the stone in his ring was an amethyst. The list stretched out. He found himself thawing to these guileless provincials against his will.And always as he answered on that point was a fast chatter among the Elders, as though they debated the information gained. It was difficult to pro enormous these inner discussions of theirs for they lapsed into their own emphasise version of the customary astronomical terminology that, through foresighted separation from the currents of brio speech, had be be archaic.Almost, one capability say, their snappy comments among themselves hovered on the edge of understanding, however meet managed to elude the clutching tendrils of comprehension.Until finally Channis interrupted to say, acceptable sirs, you must answer us for a while, for we argon strangers and would be very ofttimes interested to know all we can of Tazenda.And what happened indeed was that a great tranquilize fell and each of the hitherto prolix Elders grew silent. Their hands, which had been moving in such rapid and delicate accompaniment to their words as though to give them greater field and varied shades of meaning, fell all at erst limp. They stared furtively at one another, manifestly quite willing each to let the other eat up all the floor.Pritcher interposed quickly, My chap asks this in friendliness, for the fame of Tazenda fills the Galaxy and we, of course, shall inform the regulator of the loyalty and love of the Elders of Rossem.No sigh of relief was heard precisely faces brightened. An Elder stroked his beard with thumb and forefinger, straightening its lemony bankroll with a gentle haul, and say We are faithful servants of the Lords of Tazenda.Pritchers annoyance at Channis audacious question sub side of meatd. It was apparent, at least, that the age that he had felt up creeping over him of late had not yet deprived him of his own capacity for making smooth the blunders of others.He continued We do not know, in our far part of the universe, more of the past history of the Lords of Tazenda. We presume they set out control benevolently here for a hanker time.The same Elder who round to begin with, answered. In a soft, automatic way he had be watch uttersman. He state non the grandfather of the oldest can recall a time in which the Lords were absent.It has been a time of quiescence?It has been a time of peace He veerd. The governor is a vigorous and powerful Lord who would not hesitate to punish traitors. none of us are traitors, of course.He has punished some in the past, I imagine, as they deserve.Again hesitation, None here go for ever been traitors, or our fathers or our fathers fathers. barely on other worlds, in that respect have been such, an d death followed for them quickly. It is not good to imagine of for we are miserable men who are poor farmers and not c formerlyrned with matters of politics.The anxiety in his voice, the universal concern in the look of all of them was obvious.Pritcher said smoothly Could you inform us as to how we can arrange an audition with your governor.And instantly an element of sudden confusion entered the situation.For aft(prenominal)(prenominal) a long moment, the elder said why, did you not know? The governor will be here tomorrow. He has expected you. It has been a great approve for us. We we hope earnestly that you will theme to him satisfactorily as to our loyalty to him.Pritchers pull a face scarcely twitched. Expected us?The Elder looked wonderingly from one to the other. Why it is now a week since we have been postponement for you.Their quarters were undoubtedly luxurious for the world. Pritcher had lived in worse. Channis showed nothing but in expiration to externals. ex actly there was an element of tension among them of a disparate nature than hitherto. Pritcher, felt the time approaching for a decisive decision and yet there was clam up the desirability of additional waiting. To see the governor first would be to increase the take a chance to dangerous dimensions and yet to win that guess might multi- forficate the winnings. He felt a surge of anger at the s vindicated crease amid Channis eyebrows, the delicate dubiousness with which the young mans lower lip presented itself to an upper tooth. He detested the useless play-acting and yearned for an end to it.He said We seem to be anticipated.Yes, said Channis, simply.Just that? You have no contribution of greater pith to make. We come here and find that the governor expects us. presumptively we shall find from the governor that Tazenda itself expects us. Of what value then is our entire mission?Channis looked up, without endeavoring to blot out the frighten away note in his voice To ex pect us is one thing to know who we are and what we came for, is another.Do you expect to conceal these things from men of the Second Foundation?Perhaps. Why not? Are you ready to cerebrovascular accident your hand in? Suppose our ship was detected in space. Is it unusual for a realm to maintain frontier musing posts? Even if we were ordinary strangers, we would be of interest. equal interest for a governor to come to us rather than the reverse?Channis shrugged Well have to meet that problem later. Let us see what this governor is like.Pritcher bared his odontiasis in a bloodless harming of scowl. The situation was becoming ridiculous.Channis go forwarded with an artificial life history At least we know one thing. Tazenda is the Second Foundation or a million shreds of evidence are nemine contradicente pointing the wrong way. How do you interpret the obvious menace in which these natives hold Tazenda? I see no signs of political domination. Their groups of Elders patently meet freely and without interference of any sort. The taxation they speak of doesnt seem at all extensive to me or efficiently carried through. The natives speak practically of poverty but seem sturdy and rise up-fed. The houses are unskilful and their villages rude, but are obviously comme il faut for the purpose.In fact, the world fascinates me. I have never seen a more moody one, yet I am convince there is no suffering among the macrocosm and that their uncomplicated lives manage to contain a well-balanced happiness lacking in the sophisticated populations of the advanced centers.Are you an suspensor of peasant virtues, then?The stars forbid. Channis seemed am utilize at the idea. I merely point out the significance of all this. Apparently, Tazenda is an efficient executive efficient in a sniff out far different from the efficiency of the old Empire or of the First Foundation, or even of our own Union. All these have brought mechanical efficiency to their subjects at t he follow of more intangible values. Tazenda brings happiness and sufficiency. Dont you see that the whole orientation of their domination is different? It is not animal(prenominal), but psychological.Really? Pritcher, allowed himself irony. And the terror with which the Elders spoke of the penalty of treason by these kind hearted psychologist administrators? How does that suit your thesis?Were they the objects of the punishment? They speak of punishment lonesome(prenominal) of others. It is as if knowledge of punishment has been so well implanted in them that punishment itself pauperisation never be used. The proper moral military positions are so inserted into their masterminds that I am certain that not a Tazendian soldier exists on the planet. Dont you see all this?Ill see perhaps, said Pritcher, coldly, when I see the governor. And what, by the way, if our mentalities are handled?Channis replied with brutal contempt You should be accustomed to that.Pritcher whitened per ceptibly, and, with an effort, turn away. They spoke to one another no more that day.It was in the silent windlessness of the gelid night, as he listened to the soft, sleeping motions of the other, that Pritcher silently adjusted his wrist-transmitter to the ultra jounce region for which Channis was unadjustable and, with quiet touches of his fingernail, contacted the ship.The answer came in little periods of noiseless vibration that barely lifted themselves supra the sensory threshold. in two ways Pritcher asked Any communications at all yet?Twice the answer came None. We wait always.He got out of bed. It was cold in the room and he pulled the furry blanket around him as he sat in the go and stared out at the crowding stars so different in the brightness and complexness of their arrangement from the even fog of the Galactic Lens that dominated the night cast out of his native Periphery.Somewhere there between the stars was the answer to the complications that overwhelmed him, and he felt the hungriness for that solution to arrive and end things.For a moment he wondered again if the scuff were right if Conversion had robbed him of the firm sharp edge of self-reliance. Or was it simply age and the fluctuations of these last eld?He didnt in reality care.He was tired.***The governor of Rossem arrived with minor ostentation. His completely companion was the uniformed man at the controls of the ground-car.The ground-car itself was of lush design but to Pritcher it appeared inefficient. It turned clumsily more than once it apparently balked at what might have been a too-rapid change of gears. It was obvious at once from its design that it ran on chemical, and not on atomic, fuel.The Tazendian governor stepped softly on to the thin layer of snow and advanced between two lines of respectful Elders. He did not look at them but entered quickly. They followed after him.From the quarters assigned to them, the two men of the scuffs Union watched. He the governo r was thickset, rather stocky, short, unimpressive. simply what of that?Pritcher cursed himself for a disaster of nerve. His face, to be sure, remained icily calm. in that respect was no humiliation before Channis but he knew very well that his blood pressure had heightened and his throat had become dry.It was not a case of physical fear. He was not one of those blunt-witted, unimaginative men of debile meat who were too stupid ever to be afraid but physical fear he could account for and discount.But this was different. It was the other fear.He glanced quickly at Channis. The young man glanced idly at the nails of one hand and poked leisurely at some trifling unevenness.Something inside Pritcher became vastly indignant. What had Channis to fear of mental handling?Pritcher caught a mental breath and tried to think back. How had he been before the Mule had reborn him from the die- baffling Democrat that he was. It was hard to remember. He could not place himself mentally. He could not break the clinging wires that bound him emotionally to the Mule. Intellectually, he could remember that he had once tried to assassinate the Mule but not for all the straining he could endure, could he remember his emotions at the time. That might be the self-defense of his own mind, however, for at the intuitive thought of what those emotions might have been not realizing the details, but merely comprehending the bollix up of it his stomach grew queasy.What if the governor tampered with his mind?What if the ethereal mental tendrils of a Second Foundationer insinuated itself down the emotional crevices of his makeup and pulled them apart and rejoined them? in that location had been no sensation the first time. There had been no pain, no mental electrical shock not even a whole tone of discontinuity. He had always love the Mule. If there had ever been a time long before as long before as five short years when he had thought he hadnt loved him, that he had hated him that was just a horrid illusion. The thought of that illusion abashed him.But there had been no pain.Would meeting the governor duplicate that? Would all that had bypast before all his service for the Mule all his lifes orientation join the hazy, other-life breathing in that held the word, Democracy. The Mule also a dream, and only to Tazenda, his loyalty-Sharply, he turned away.There was that salutary desire to retch.And then Channis voice clashed on his ear, I think this is it, general.Pritcher turned again. An Elder had opened the door silently and stood with a dignified and calm respect upon the threshold.He said, His Excellency, Governor of Rossem, in the name of the Lords of Tazenda, is satisfy to present his permission for an audience and demand your appearance before him.Sure thing, and Channis tightened his bam with a jerk and adjusted a Rossemian hood over his head.Pritchers jaw set. This was the opening of the real gamble.The governor of Rossem was not of tr emendous appearance. For one thing, he was bareheaded, and his thinning hair, light brown, tending to gray, lent him mildness. His purposeless eye-ridges bring down at them, and his eyes, set in a fine network of surrounding wrinkles, seemed calculating, but his fresh-cropped chin was soft and small and, by the universal convention of followers of the pseudoscience of practice character by facial bony structure, seemed weak.Pritcher, avoided the eyes and watched the chin. He didnt know whether that would be effective if anything would be.The governors voice was high-pitched, indifferent agreeable to Tazenda. We greet you in peace. You have eaten?His hand long fingers, gnarled veins waved almost regally at the U-shaped table.They bowed and sat down. The governor sat at the outer side of the base of the U, they on the inner on both arms sat the double row of silent Elders.The governor spoke in short, abrupt sentences praising the pabulum as Tazendian importations and it had indeed a pure tone different if, somehow, not so more better, than the rougher food of the Elders disparaging Rossemian weather, referring with an attempt at casualness to the intricacies of space travel.Channis talked little. Pritcher not at all.Then it was over. The small, stewed fruits were finished the napkins used and discarded, and the governor leaned back.His small eyes sparkled.I have inquired as to your ship. Naturally, I would like to see that it receives due care and overhaul. I am told its whereabouts are unknown.True. Channis replied lightly. We have left(a) it in space. It is a large ship, suitable for long journeys in sometimes contrasted regions, and we felt that landing it here might give rise to doubts as to our peaceful intentions. We preferred to land alone, unarmed.A loving act, commented the governor, without conviction. A large ship, you say?Not a vessel of war, excellency.Ha, hum. Where is it you come from?A small world of the Santanni sector, your exc ellency. It whitethorn be you are not aware of its founding for it lacks importance. We are interested in establishing trade in relationships.Trade, eh? And what have you to sell?Machines of all sorts, excellency. In return, food, wood, ores.***Ha, hum. The governor seemed doubtful. I know little of*** these matters. Perhaps mutual profit may be arranged. Perhaps, after I have examined your credentials at length for much information will be required by my government before matters may proceed, you understand and after I have looked over your ship, it would be advisable for you to proceed to Tazenda.There was no answer to that, and the governors attitude iced perceptibly.It is necessary that I see your ship, however.Channis said distantly The ship, unfortunately, is undergoing repairs at the moment. If your excellency would not object giving us cardinal hours, it will be at your service.I am not accustomed to waiting.For the first time, Pritcher met the glare of the other, eye to eye, and his breath detonate softly inside him. For a moment, he had the sensation of drowning, but then his eyes tore away.Channis did not waver. He said The ship cannot be landed for 48 hours, excellency. We are here and unarmed. Can you doubt our frank intentions?There was a long silence, and then the governor said gruffly, show me of the world from which you come.That was all. It passed with that. There was no more unpleasantness. The governor, having fulfilled his official duty, apparently muddled interest and the audience died a dull death.And when it was all over, Pritcher found himself back in their quarters and took stock of himself.Carefully place his breath he felt his emotions. sure he seemed no different to himself, but would he feel any difference? Had he felt different after the Mules Conversion? Had not everything seemed natural? As it should have been?He experimented.With cold purpose, he call offed inside the silent caverns of his mind, and the shout w as, The Second Foundation must be discovered and destroyed.And the emotion that accompanied it was honest hate. There was not as much as a hesitation involve in it.And then it was in his mind to substitute the word Mule for the style Second Foundation and his breath caught at the mere emotion and his tongue clogged.So far, good.But had he been handled otherwise more subtly? Had tiny changes been made? Changes that he couldnt detect because their very existence belie his judgment.There was no way to tell.But he still felt despotic loyalty to the Mule If that were unchanged, nothing else authentically mattered.He turned his mind to movement again. Channis was busy at his end of the room. Pritchers thumbnail idled at his wrist communicator.And then at the chemical reaction that came he felt a wave of relief surge over him and countenance him weak.The quiet muscles of his face did not roll him, but inside he was shouting with joy and when Channis turned to face him, he knew that the farce was about over.