Prelude to Foundation

by Isaac Asimov

  "A form of degeneration," said Seldon, remembering Hummin's complaints.

  "What?" said Davan.

  "Nothing," said Seldon. "Go on."

  "The Imperial forces must keep their hands off, but they find that they can do much even so. Each sector is encouraged to be suspicious of its neighbors. Within each sector, economic and social classes are encouraged to wage a kind of war with each other. The result is that all over Trantor it is impossible for the people to take united action. Everywhere, the people would rather fight each other than make a common stand against the central tyranny and the Empire rules without having to exert force."

  "And what," said Dors, "do you think can be done about it?"

  "I've been trying for years to build a feeling of solidarity among the peoples of Trantor."

  "I can only suppose," said Seldon dryly, "that you are finding this an impossibly difficult and largely thankless task."

  "You suppose correctly," said Davan, "but the party is growing stronger. Many of our knifers are coming to the realization that knives are best when they are not used on each ocher. Those who attacked you in the corridors of Billibotton are examples of the unconverted. However, those who support you now, who are ready to defend you against the agent you thought was a newsman, are my people. I live here among them. It is not an attractive way of life, but I am safe here. We have adherents in neighboring sectors and we spread daily."

  "But where do we come in?" asked Dors.

  "For one thing," said Davan, "both of you are Outworlders, scholars. We need people like you among our leaders. Our greatest strength is drawn from the poor and the uneducated because they suffer the most, but they can lead the least. A person like one of you two is worth a hundred of them."

  "That's an odd estimate from someone who wishes to rescue the oppressed," said Seldon.

  "I don't mean as people," said Davan hastily. "I mean as far as leadership is concerned. The party must have among its leaders men and women of intellectual power."

  "People like us, you mean, are needed to give your party a veneer of respectability."

  Davan said, "You can always put something noble in a sneering fashion if you try. But you, Master Seldon, are more than respectable, more than intellectual. Even if you won't admit to being able to penetrate the mists of the future--"

  "Please, Davan," said Seldon, "don't be poetic and don't use the conditional. It's not a matter of admitting. I can't foresee the future. Those are not mists that block the view but chrome steel barriers."

  "Let me finish. Even if you can't actually predict with-what do you call it?-psychohistorical accuracy, you've studied history and you may have a certain intuitive feeling for consequences. Now, isn't that so?"

  Seldon shook his head. "I may have a certain intuitive understanding for mathematical likelihood, but how far I can translate that into anything of historical significance is quite uncertain. Actually, I have not studied history. I wish I had. I feel the loss keenly."

  Dors said evenly, "I am the historian, Davan, and I can say a few things if you wish."

  "Please do," said Davan, making it half a courtesy, half a challenge.

  "For one thing, there have been many revolutions in Galactic history that have overthrown tyrannies, sometimes on individual planets, sometimes in groups of them, occasionally in the Empire itself or in the pre-Imperial regional governments. Often, this has only meant a change in tyranny. In other words, one ruling class is replaced by anothersometimes by one that is more efficient and therefore still more capable of maintaining itself-while the poor and downtrodden remain poor and downtrodden or become even worse off."

  Davan, listening intently, said, "I'm aware of that. We all are. Perhaps we can learn from the past and know better what to avoid. Besides, the tyranny that now exists is actual. That which may exist in the future is merely potential. If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice."

  Dors said, "A second point you must remember is that even if you have right on your side, even if justice thunders condemnation, it is usually the tyranny in existence that has the balance of force on its side. There is nothing your knife handlers can do in the way of rioting and demonstrating that will have any permanent effect as long as, in the extremity, there is an army equipped with kinetic, chemical, and neurological weapons that is willing to use them against your people. You can get all the downtrodden and even all the respectables on your side, but you must somehow win over the security forces and the Imperial army or at least seriously weaken their loyalty to the rulers."

  Davan said, "Trantor is a multigovernmental world. Each sector has its own rulers and some of them are themselves anti-Imperial. If we can have a strong sector on our side, that would change the situation, would it not? We would then not be merely ragamuffins fighting with knives and stones."

  "Does that mean you do have a strong sector on your side or merely that it is your ambition to have one?"

  Davan was silent.

  Dors said, "I shall assume that you are thinking of the Mayor of Wye. If the Mayor is in the mood to make use of popular discontent as a way of improving the chance of toppling the Emperor, doesn't it strike you that the end the Mayor would have in view would be that of succeeding to the Imperial throne? Why should the Mayor risk his present not-inconsiderable position for anything less? Merely for the blessings of justice and the decent treatment of people, concerning whom he can have little interest?"

  "You mean," said Davan, "that any powerful leader who is willing to help us may then betray us."

  "It is a situation that is all too common in Galactic history."

  "If we are ready for that, might we not betray him?"

  "You mean, make use of him and then, at some crucial moment, subvert the leader of his forces-or a leader, at any race-and have him assassinated?"

  "Not perhaps exactly tike that, but some way of getting rid of him might exist if that should prove necessary."

  "Then we have a revolutionary movement in which the principal players must be ready to betray each other, with each simply waiting for the opportunity. h sounds like a recipe for chaos."

  "You will not help us, then?" said Davan.

  Seldon, who had been listening to the exchange between Davan and Dors with a puzzled frown on his face, said, "We can't put it that simply. We would like to help you. We are on your side. It seems to me that no sane man wants to uphold an Imperial system that maintains itself by fostering mutual hatred and suspicions. Even when it seems to work, it can only be described as metastable; that is, as too apt to fall into instability in one direction or another. But the question is: How can we help? If I had psychohistory, if I could tell what is most likely to happen, or if I could tell what action of a number of alternative possibilities is most likely to bring on an apparently happy consequence, then I would put my abilities at your disposal. -But I don't have is I can help you best by trying to develop psychohistory."

  "And how long will that take?"

  Seldon shrugged. "I cannot say."

  "How can you ask us to wait indefinitely?"

  "What alternative do I have, since I am useless to you as I am? But I will say this: I have until very recently been quite convinced that the development of psychohistory was absolutely impossible. Now I am not so certain of that."

  "You mean you have a solution in mind?"

  "No, merely an intuitive feeling that a solution might be possible. I have not been able to pin down what has occurred to make me have that feeling. It may be an illusion, but I am trying. Let me continue to try. -Perhaps the will meet again."

  "Or perhaps," said Davan, "if you return to where you are now staying, you will eventually find yourself in an Imperial trap. You may think that the Empire will leave you alone white you struggle with psychohistory, but I am certain the Emperor and his toady Demerzel are in no mood to wait forever, any more than I am."

  "
It will do them no good to hasten," said Seldon calmly, "since I am not on their side, as I am on yours. -Come, Dors."

  They turned and left Davan, sitting alone in his squalid room, and found Raych waiting for them outside.

  76.

  Raych was eating, licking his fingers, and crumpling the bag in which the food-whatever it was-had been. A strong smell of onions pervaded the air-different somehow, yeast-based perhaps.

  Dors, recreating a little from the odor, said, "Where did you get the food from, Raych?"

  "Davan's guys. They brought it to me. Davan's okay."

  "Then we don't have to buy you dinner, do we?" said Seldon, conscious of his own empty stomach.

  "Ya owe me somethin'" said Raych, looking greedily in Dors's direction. "How about the lady's knife? One of 'em."

  "No knife," said Dors. "You get us back safely and I'll give you five credits."

  "Can't get no knife for five credits," grumbled Raych.

  "You're not getting anything but five credits," said Dors.

  "You're a lousy dame, lady," said Raych.

  "I'm a lousy dame with a quick knife, Raych, so get moving."

  "All right. Don't get all perspired." Raych waved his hand. "This way."

  It was back through the empty corridors, but this time Dors, looking this way and that, stopped. "Hold on, Raych. We're being followed."

  Raych looked exasperated. "Ya ain't supposed to hear 'em."

  Seldon said, bending his head to one side, "I don't hear anything."

  "I do," said Dors. "Now, Raych, I don't want any fooling around. You tell me right now what's going on or I'll rap your head so that you won't see straight for a week. I mean it."

  Raych held up one arm defensively. "You try it, you lousy dame. You try it. -It's Davan's guys. They're just taking care of us, in case any knifers come along."

  "Davan's guys?"

  "Yeah. They're goin' along the service corridors."

  Dors's right hand shot out and seized Raych by the scruff of his upper garment. She lifted and he dangled, shouting, "Hey, lady. Hey!"

  Seldon said, "Dors! Don't be hard on him."

  "I'll be harder still if I think he's lying. You're my charge, Hari, not he."

  "I'm not lyin'," said Raych, struggling. "I'm not."

  "I'm sure he isn't," said Seldon.

  "Well, we'll see. Raych, tell them to come out where we can see them." She let him drop and dusted her hands.

  "You're some kind of nut, lady," said Raych aggrievedly. Then he raised his voice. "Yay, Davan! Come out here, some of ya guys!"

  There was a wait and then, from an unlit opening along the corridor, two dark-mustached men came out, one with a scar running the length of his cheek. Each held the sheath of a knife in his hand, blade withdrawn.

  "How many more of you are there?" asked Dors harshly.

  "A few," said one of the newcomers. "Orders. We're guarding you. Davan wants you safe."

  "Thank you. Try to be even quieter. Raych, keep on moving."

  Raych said sulkily, "Ya toughed me up when I was telling the truth."

  "You're right," said Dors. "At least, I think you're right . . . and I apologize."

  "I'm not sure I should accept," said Raych, trying to stand tall. "But awright, just this once." He moved on.

  When they reached the walkway, the unseen corps of guards vanished. At least, even Dors's keen ears could hear them no more. By now, though, they were moving into the respectable part of the sector.

  Dors said thoughtfully, "I don't think we have clothes that would fit you, Raych."

  Raych said, "Why do ya want clothes to fit me, Missus?" (Respectability seemed to invade Raych once they were out of the corridors.) "I got clothes."

  "I thought you'd like to come into our place and take a bath."

  Raych said, "What for? I'll wash one o' these days. And I'll put on my other shirt." He looked up at Dors shrewdly. "You're sorry ya roughed me up. Right? Ya tryin' to make up?"

  Dors smiled. "Yes. Sort of."

  Raych waved a hand in lordly fashion. "That's all right. Ya didn't hurt. Listen. You're strong for a lady. Ya lifted me up like I was nothin'."

  "I was annoyed, Raych. I have to be concerned about Master Seldon."

  "Ya sort of his bodyguard?" Raych looked at Seldon inquiringly. "Ya got a lady for a bodyguard?"

  "I can't help it," said Seldom smiling wryly. "She insists. And she certainly knows her job."

  Dors said, "Think again, Raych. Are you sure you won't have a bath? A nice warm bath."

  Raych said, "I got no chance. Ya think that lady is gonna let me in the house again?"

  Dors looked up and saw Casilia Tisalver outside the front door of the apartment complex, staring first at the Outworld woman and then at the slum-bred boy. h would have been impossible to tell in which case her expression was angrier.

  Raych said, "Well, so long, Mister and Missus. I don't know if she'll let either of ya in the house." He placed his hands in his pocket and swaggered off in a fine affectation of carefree indifference.

  Seldon said, "Good evening, Mistress Tisalver. It's rather late, isn't it?"

  "It's very late," she replied. "There was a near riot today outside this very complex because of chat newsman you pushed the street vermin at."

  "We didn't push anyone on anyone," said Dors.

  "I was there," said Mistress Tisalver intransigently. "I saw it."

  She stepped aside to let them enter, but delayed long enough to make her reluctance quite plain.

  "She acts as though that was the last straw," said Dors as she and Seldon made their way up to their rooms.

  "So? What can she do about it?" asked Seldon.

  "I wonder," said Dors.

  * * *

  Officers

  RAYCH- . . . According to Hari Seldon, the original meeting with Raych was entirely accidental. He was simply a gutter urchin from whom Seldon had asked directions. But his life, from that moment on, continued to be intertwined with that of the great mathematician until .

  ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA

  77.

  The next morning, dressed from the waist down, having washed and shaved, Seldon knocked on the door that led to Dors's adjoining room and said in a moderate voice, "Open the door, Dors."

  She did. The short reddish-gold curls of her hair were still wet and she too was dressed only from the waist down.

  Seldon stepped back in embarrassed alarm. Dors looked down at the swell of her breasts indifferently and wrapped a towel around her head. "What is it?" she asked.

  Seldon said, looking off to his right, "I was going to ask you about Wye."

  Dors said very naturally, "About why in connection with what? And for goodness sake, don't make me talk to your ear. Surely, you're not a virgin."

  Seldon said in a hurt tone, "I was merely trying to be polite. If you don't mind, I certainly don't. And it's not why about what. I'm asking about the Wye Sector."

  "Why do you want to know? Or, if you prefer: Why Wye?"

  "Look, Dors, I'm serious. Every once in a while, the Wye Sector is mentioned-the Mayor of Wye, actually. Hummin mentioned him, you did, Davan did. I don't know anything about either the sector or the Mayor."

  "I'm not a native Trantorian either, Hari. I know very little, but you're welcome to what I do know. Wye is near the south polequite large, very populous-"

  "Very populous at the south pole?"

  "We're not on Helicon, Hari. Or on Cinna either. This is Trantor. Everything is underground and underground at the poles or underground at the equator is pretty much the same. Of course, I imagine they keep their day-night arrangements rather extreme -- long days in their summer, long nights in their winter-almost as it would be on the surface. The extremes are just affectation; they're proud of being polar."

  "But Upperside they must be cold, indeed."

  "Oh yes. The Wye Upperside is snow and ice, but it doesn't lie as thickly there as you might think. If it did, it might crush the do
me, but it doesn't and that is the basic reason for Wye's power."

  She turned to her mirror, removed the towel from her head, and threw the dry-net over her hair, which, in a matter of five seconds, gave it a pleasant sheen. She said, "You have no idea how glad I am not to be wearing a skincap," as she put on the upper portion of her clothing.

  "What has the ice layer to do with Wye's power?"

  "Think about it. Forty billion people use a great deal of power and every calorie of it eventually degenerates into heat and has to be gotten rid of. It's piped to the poles, particularly to the south pole, which is the more developed of the two, and is discharged into space. It metes most of the ice in the process and I'm sure chat accounts for Trantor's clouds and rains, no matter how much the meteorology boggins insist that things are more complicated than that."

  "Does Wye make use of the power before discharging it?"

  "They may, for all I know. I haven't the slightest idea, by the way, as to the technology involved in discharging the heat, but I'm talking about political power. If Dahl were to stop producing usable energy, that would certainly. inconvenience Trantor, but there are other sectors that produce energy and can up their production and, of course, there is stored energy in one form or another. Eventually, Dahl would have to be dealt with, but there would be time. Wye, on the other hand-'

  "Yes?"

  "Well, Wye gets rid of at least 90 percent of all the heat developed on Trantor and there is no substitute. If Wye were to shut down its heat emission, the temperature would start going up all over Trantor."

  "In Wye too."

  "Ate, but since Wye is at the south pole, it can arrange an influx of cold air. h wouldn't do much good, but Wye would last longer than the rest of Trantor. The point is, then, that Wye is a very touchy problem for the Emperor and the Mayor of Wye is-or at least can be-extremely powerful."

  "And what kind of a person is the present Mayor of Wye?"

  "That I don't know. What I've occasionally heard would make it seem that he is very old and pretty much a recluse, but hard as a hypership hull and still cleverly maneuvering for power."