Foundation Read Free Page B

longer and at its end, Gaal said, humbly, “Yes, I see now.”
    Finally, Seldon stopped. “This is Trantor three centuries from now. How do you interpret that? Eh?” He put his head to one side and waited.
    Gaal said, unbelievingly, “Total destruction! But—but that is impossible. Trantor has never been—”
    Seldon was filled with the intense excitement of a man whose body only had grown old, “Come, come. You saw how the result was arrived at. Put it into words. Forget the symbolism for a moment.”
    Gaal said, “As Trantor becomes more specialized, it becomes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative center of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears.”
    “Enough. And what of the numerical probability of total destruction within three centuries?”
    “I couldn’t tell.”
    “Surely you can perform a field-differentiation?”
    Gaal felt himself under pressure. He was not offered the calculator pad. It was held a foot from his eyes. He calculated furiously and felt his forehead grow slick with sweat.
    He said, “About 85%?”
    “Not bad,” said Seldon, thrusting out a lower lip, “but not good. The actual figure is 92.5%.”
    Gaal said, “And so you are called Raven Seldon? I have seen none of this in the journals.”
    “But of course not. This is unprintable. Do you suppose the Imperium could expose its shakiness in this manner? That is a very simple demonstration in psychohistory. But some of our results have leaked out among the aristocracy.”
    “That’s bad.”
    “Not necessarily. All is taken into account.”
    “But is that why I’m being investigated?”
    “Yes. Everything about my project is being investigated.”
    “Are you in danger, sir?”
    “Oh, yes. There is probability of 1.7% that I will be executed, but of course that will not stop the project. We have taken that into account as well. Well, never mind. You will meet me, I suppose, at the University tomorrow?”
    “I will,” said Gaal.

COMMISSION OF PUBLIC SAFETY — . . . The aristocratic coterie rose to power after the assassination of Cleon I, last of the Entuns. In the main, they formed an element of order during the centuries of instability and uncertainty in the Imperium. Usually under the control of the great families of the Chens and the Divarts, it degenerated eventually into a blind instrument for maintenance of the status quo. . . . They were not completely removed as a power in the state until after the accession of the last strong Emperor, Cleon II. The first Chief Commissioner. . . .
    . . . In a way, the beginning of the Commission’s decline can be traced to the trial of Hari Seldon two years before the beginning of the Foundational Era. That trial is described in Gaal Dornick’s biography of Hari Seldon. . . .
    ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA
    5
    Gaal did not carry out his promise. He was awakened the next morning by a muted buzzer. He answered it, and the voice of the desk clerk, as muted, polite and deprecating as it well might be, informed him that he was under detention at the orders of the Commission of Public Safety.
    Gaal sprang to the door and found it would no longer open. He could only dress and wait.
    They came for him and took him elsewhere, but it was still detention. They asked him questions most politely. It was all very civilized. He explained that he was a provincial of Synnax; that he had attended such and such schools and obtained a Doctor of Mathematics degree on such and such a date. He had applied for a position on Dr. Seldon’s staff and had been accepted. Over and over again, he gave these details; and over and over again, they returned to the question of his joining the Seldon Project. How had he heard of it; what were to be his duties; what secret instructions had he received; what was it all