Flux Tales Of Human Futures

by Card, Orson Scott

  Trantor to maintain contact with Terminus up to the moment of Hari's death. Leyel

  should have known better. Even alive, Hari wouldn't have cared who came to his

  funeral. And now, dead, he cared even less. Leyel didn't believe his friend lived on

  in some ethereal plane, watching carefully and taking attendance at the services.

  No, Leyel simply felt he had to be there, felt he had to speak. Not for Hari,

  really. For himself. To continue to be himself, Leyel had to make some kind of

  public gesture toward Hari Seldon and all he had stood for.

  Who heard? Not many. Deet, who thought his eulogy was too mild by half. Hari's

  staff, who were quite aware of the danger and winced at each of Leyel's list of

  Hari's accomplishments. Naming them-- and emphasizing that only Seldon had the

  vision to do these great works-- was, inherently a criticism of the level of

  intelligence and integrity in the Empire. The Pubs were listening, too. They noted

  that Leyel clearly agreed with Hari Seldon about the certainty of the Empire's

  fall-- that in fact as a galactic empire it had probably already fallen, since its

  authority was no longer coextensive with the Galaxy.

  If almost anyone else had said such things, to such a small audience, it would

  have been ignored, except to keep him from getting any job requiring a security

  clearance. But when the head of the Forska family came out openly to affirm the

  correctness of the views of a man who had been tried before the Commission of Public

  Safety-- that posed a greater danger to the Commission than Hari Seldon.

  For, as head of the Forska family, if Leyel Forska wanted, he could be one of the

  great players on the political stage, could have a seat on the Commission along with

  Rom Divart and Linge Chen. Of course, that would also have meant constantly watching

  for assassins-- either to avoid them or to hire them-- and trying to win the

  allegiance of various military strongmen in the far-flung reaches of the Galaxy.

  Leyel's grandfather had spent his life in such pursuits, but Leyel's father had

  declined, and Leyel himself had thoroughly immersed himself in science and never so

  much as inquired about politics.

  Until now. Until he made the profoundly political act of paying for Hari Seldon's

  funeral and then speaking at it. What would he do next? There were a thousand

  would-be warlords who would spring to revolt if a Forska promised what would-be

  emperors so desperately needed: a noble sponsor, a mask of legitimacy, and money.

  Did Linge Chen really believe that Leyel meant to enter politics at his advanced

  age? Did he really think Leyel posed a threat?

  Probably not. If he had believed it, he would surely have had Leyel killed, and no

  doubt all his children as well, leaving only one of his minor grandchildren, whom

  Chen would carefully control through the guardians he would appoint, thereby

  acquiring control of the Forska fortune as well as his own.

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  Instead, Chen only believed that Leyel might cause trouble. So he took what were,

  for him, mild steps.

  That was why Rom came to visit Leyel again, a week after the funeral.

  Leyel was delighted to see him. "Not on somber business this time, I hope," he

  said. "But such bad luck-- Deet's at the library again, she practically lives there

  now, but she'd want to-"

  "Leyel." Rom touched Leyel's lips with his fingers.

  So it was somber business after all. Worse than somber. Rom recited what had to be

  a memorized speech.

  "The Commission of Public Safety has become concerned that in your declining

  years--"

  Leyel opened his mouth to protest, but again Rom touched his lips to silence him.

  "That in your declining years, the burdens of the Forska estates are distracting

  you from your exceptionally important scientific work. So great is the Empire's need

  for the new discoveries and understanding your work will surely bring us, that the

  Commission of Public Safety has created the office of Forska Trustee to oversee all

  the Forska estates and holdings. You will, of course, have unlimited access to these

  funds for your scientific work here on Trantor, and funding will continue for all

  the archives and libraries you have endowed. Naturally, the Commission has no desire

  for you to thank us for what is, after all, our duty to one of our noblest citizens,

  but if your well-known courtesy required you to make a brief public statement of

  gratitude it would not be inappropriate."

  Leyel was no fool. He knew how things worked. He was being stripped of his fortune

  and being placed under arrest on Trantor. There was no point in protest or

  remonstrance, no point even in trying to make Rom feel guilty for having brought him

  such a bitter message. Indeed, Rom himself might be in great danger-- if Leyel so

  much as hinted that he expected Rom to come to his support, his dear friend might

  also fall. So Leyel nodded gravely, and then carefully framed his words of reply.

  "Please tell the Commissioners how grateful I am for their concern on my behalf.

  It has been a long long time since anyone went to the trouble of easing my burdens.

  I accept their kind offer. I am especially glad because this means that now I can

  pursue my studies unencumbered."

  Rom visibly relaxed. Leyel wasn't going to cause trouble. "My dear friend, I will

  sleep better knowing that you are always here on Trantor, working freely in the

  library or taking your leisure in the parks."

  So at least they weren't going to confine him to his apartment. No doubt they

  would never let him off-planet, buit it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Perhaps I'll even

  have time now to visit my grandchildren now and then."

  "Oh, Leyel, you and I are both too old to enjoy hyperspace any more. Leave that

  for the youngsters-- they can come visit you whenever they want. And sometimes they

  can stay home, while their parents come to see you."

  Thus Leyel learned that if any of his children came to visit him, their children

  would be held hostage, and vice versa. Leyel himself would never leave Trantor

  again.

  "So much the better," said Leyel. "I'll have time to write several books I've been

  meaning to publish."

  "The Empire waits eagerly for every scientific treatise you publish." There was a

  slight emphasis on the word "scientific." "But I hope you won't bore us with one of

  those tedious autobiographies."

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  Leyel agreed to the restriction easily enough. "I promise, Rom. You know better

  than anyone else exactly how boring my life has always been."

  "Come now. My life's the boring one, Leyel, all this government claptrap and

  bureaucratic bushwa. You've been at the forefront of scholarship and learning.

  Indeed, my friend, the Commission hopes you'll honor us by giving us first look at

  every word that comes out of your scriptor."

  "Only if you promise to read it carefully and point out any mistakes I might

  make." No doubt the Commission intended only to censor his work to remove political

  material-- which Leyel had never included anyway. But Leyel had already resolved

  never to publish anythin
g again, at least as long as Linge Chen was Chief

  Commissioner. The safest thing Leyel could do now was to disappear, to let Chen

  forget him entirely-- it would be egregiously stupid to send occasional articles to

  Chen, thus reminding him that Leyel was still around.

  But Rom wasn't through yet. "I must extend that request to Deet's work as well. We

  really want first look at it-- do tell her so."

  "Deet?" For the first time Leyel almost let his fury show. Why should Deet be

  punished because of Leyel's indiscretion? "Oh, she'll be too shy for that, Rom-- she

  doesn't think her work is important enough to deserve any attention from men as busy

  as the Commissioners. They'll think you only want to see her work because she's my

  wife-- she's always annoyed when people patronize her."

  "You must insist, then, Leyel," said Rom. "I assure you, her studies of the

  functions of the Imperial bureaucracy have long been interesting to the Commission

  for their own sake."

  Ah. Of course. Chen would never have allowed a report on the workings of

  government to appear without making sure it wasn't dangerous. Censorship of Deet's

  writings wouldn't be Leyel's fault after all. Or at least not entirely.

  "I'll tell her that, Rom. She'll be flattered. But won't you stay and tell her

  yourself? I can bring you a cup of peshat, we ran talk about old times--"

  Leyel would have been surprised if Rom had stayed. No, this interview had been at

  least as hard on Rom as it had been on him. The very fact that Rom had been forced

  into being the Commission's messenger to his childhood friend was a humiliating

  reminder that the Chens were in the ascendant over the Divarts. But as Rom bowed and

  left, it occuffed to Leyel that Chen might have made a mistake. Humiliating Rom this

  way, forcing him to place his dearest friend under arrest like this-- it might be

  the straw to break the camel's back. After all, though no one had ever been able to

  find out who hired the assassin who killed Rom's father, and no one had ever learned

  who denounced Rom's grandfather, leading to his execution by the paranoid Emperor

  Wassiniwak, it didn't take a genius to realize that the House of Chen had profited

  most from both events.

  "I wish I could stay," said Rom. "But duty calls. Still, you can be sure I'll

  think of you often. Of course, I doubt I'll think of you as you are now, you old

  wreck. I'll remember you as a boy, when we used to tweak our tutor-- remember the

  time we recoded his lector, so that for a whole week explicit pornography kept

  coming up on the display whenever the door of his room opened?"

  Leyel couldn't help laughing. "You never forget anything, do you!"

  "The poor fool. He never figured out that it was us! Old times. Why couldn't we

  have stayed young forever?" He embraced Leyel and then swiftly left.

  Linge Chen, you fool, you have reached too far. Your days are numbered. None of

  the Pubs who were listening in on their conversation could possibly know that Rom

  and Leyel had never teased their tutor-- and that they had never done anything to

  his lector. It was just Rom's way of letting Leyel know that they were still allies,

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  still keeping secrets together-- and that someone who had authority over both of

  them was going to be in for a few nasty surprises.

  It gave Leyel chills, thinking about what might come of all this. He loved Rom

  Divart with all his heart, but he also knew that Rom was capable of biding his time

  and then killing swiftly, efficiently, coldly. Linge Chen had just started his

  latest six-year term of office, but Leyel knew he'd never finish it. And the next

  Chief Commissioner would not be a Chen.

  Soon, though, the enormity of what had been done to him began to sink in. He had

  always thought that his fortune meant little to him-- that he would be the same man

  with or without the Forska estates. But now he began to realize that it wasn't true,

  that he'd been lying to himself all along. He had known since childhood how

  despicable rich and powerful men could be-- his father had made sure he saw and

  understood how cruel men became, when their money persuaded them they had a right to

  use others however they wished. So Leyel had learned to despise his own birthright,

  and, starting with his father, had pretended to others that he could make his way

  through the world solely by wit and diligence, that he would have been exactly the

  same man if he had grown up in a common family, with a common education. He had done

  such a good job of acting as if he didn't care about his wealth that he came to

  believe it himself.

  Now he realized that Forska estates had been an invisible part of himself all

  along, as if they were extensions of his body, as if he could flex a muscle and

  cargo ships would fly, he could blink and mines would be sunk deep into the earth,

  he could sigh and all over the Galaxy there would be a wind of change that would

  keep blowing until everything was exactly as he wanted it. Now all those invisible

  limbs and senses had been amputated. Now he was crippled-- he had only as many arms

  and legs and eyes as any other human being.

  At last he was what he had always pretended to be. An ordinary, powerless man. He

  hated it.

  For the flrst hours after Rom left, Leyel pretended he could take all this in

  stride. He sat at the lector and spun through the pages smoothly-- without

  anythifig,on the pages registering in his memory. He kept wishing Deet were there so

  he could laugh with her about how little this hurt him; then he would be glad that

  Deet was not there, because one sympathetic touch of her hand would push him over

  the edge, make it impossible to contain his emotion.

  Finally he could not help himself. Thinking of Deet, of their children and

  grandchildren, of all that had been lost to them because he had made an empty

  gesture to a dead friend, he threw himself to the softened floor and wept bitterly.

  Let Chen listen to recordings of what the spy beam shows of this! Let him savor his

  victory! I'll destroy him somehow, my staff is still loyal to me, I'll put together

  an army, I'll hire assassins of my own, I'll make contact with Admiral Sipp, and

  then Chen will be the one to sob, crying out for mercy as I disfigure him the way he

  has mutilated me--

  Fool.

  Leyel rolled over onto his back, dried his face on his sleeve, then lay there,

  eyes closed, calming himself. No vengeance. No politics. That was Rom's business,

  not Leyel's. Too late for him to enter the game now-- and who would help him,

  anyway, now that he had already lost his power? There was nothing to be done.

  Leyel didn't really want to do anything, anyway. Hadn't they guaranteed that his

  archives and libraries would continue to be funded? Hadn't they guaranteed him

  unlimited research funds? And wasn't that all he had cared about anyway? He had long

  since turned over all the Forska operations to his subordinates-- Chen's trustee

  would simply do the same job. And Leyel's children wouldn't suffer much-- he had

  raised them with the same values that he had grown up with, and so they all pursued

  careers unrelated to the Forska holdings. They were true chil
dren of their father

  and mother-- they wouldn't have any self-respect if they didn't earn their own way

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  in the world. No doubt they'd be disappointed by having their inheritance snatched

  away. But they wouldn't be destroyed.

  I am not ruined. All the lies that Rom told are really true, only they didn't

  realize it. All that matters in my life, I still have. I really don't care about my

  fortune. It's just the way I lost it that made me so furious. I can go on and be the

  same person I always was. This will even give me an opportunity to see who my true

  friends are-- to see who still honors me for my scientific achievements, and who

  despises me for my poverty.

  By the time Deet got home from the library-- late, as was usual these days-- Leyel

  was hard at work, reading back through all the research and speculation on

  protohuman behavior, trying to see ff there was anything other than half-assed

  guesswork and pompous babble. He was so engrossed in his reading that he spent the

  first fifteen minutes after she got home telling her of the hilarious stupidities he

  had found in the day's reading and then sharing a wonderful, impossible thought he

  had had.

  "What if the human species isn't the only branch to evolve on our family tree?

  What if there's some other primate species that looks exactly like us, but can't

  interbreed with us, that functions in a completely different way, and we don't even

  know it, we all think everybody's just like us, but here and there all over the

  Empire there are whole towns, cities, maybe even worlds of people who secretly

  aren't human at all."

  "But Leyel, my overwrought husband, if they look just like us and act just like

  us, then they are human."

  "But they don't act exactly like us. There's a difference. A completely different

  set of rules and assumptions. Only they don't know that we're different, and we

  don't know that they're different. Or even if we suspect it, we're never sure. Just

  two different species, living side by side and never guessing it."

  She kissed him. "You poor fool, that isn't speculation, it already exists. You

  have just described the relationship between males and females. Two completely

  different species, completely unintelligible to each other, living side by side and