Asimov’s Future History Volume 14

by Isaac Asimov

  2. It is instructed that AdHQ-Ceph18 make use of all methods of appeasing non-Humans’ dissatisfaction, consistent with the necessities of obedience to Imperial proclamations.

  C. Morily, Chief, BuOuProv,

  283/977 G. E.

  V.

  The dinner was over, the wine had been brought in, and the cigars were out. The groups of talkers had formed, and the captain of the merchant fleet was the center of the largest. His brilliant white uniform quite outsparkled his listeners.

  He was almost complacent in his speech. “The trip was nothing. I’ve had more than three hundred ships under me before this. Still, I’ve never had a cargo quite like this. What do you want with five thousand fluoro-globes on this desert, by the Galaxy!”

  Loodun Antyok laughed gently. He shrugged, “For the non-Humans. It wasn’t a difficult cargo, I hope.”

  “No, not difficult. But bulky. They’re fragile, and I couldn’t carry more than twenty to a ship, with all the government regulations concerning packing and precautions against breakage. But it’s the government’s money, I suppose.”

  Zammo smiled grimly. “Is this your first experience with government methods, captain?”

  “Galaxy, no,” exploded the spaceman. “I try to avoid it, of course, but you can’t help getting entangled on occasion. And it’s an abhorrent thing when you are, and that’s the truth. The red tape! The paper work! It’s enough to stunt your growth and curdle your circulation. It’s a tumor, a cancerous growth on the Galaxy. I’d wipe out the whole mess.”

  Antyok said, “You’re unfair, captain. You don’t understand.”

  “Yes? Well, now, as one of these bureaucrats,” and he smiled amiably at the word,” suppose you explain your side of the situation, administrator.”

  “Well, now,” Antyok seemed confused, “government is a serious and complicated business. We’ve got thousands of planets to worry about in this Empire of ours and billions of people. It’s almost past human ability to supervise the business of governing without the tightest sort of organization. I think there are something like four hundred million men today in the Imperial Administrative Service alone, and in order to co-ordinate their efforts and to pool their knowledge, you must have what you call red tape and paper work. Every bit of it, senseless though it may seem, annoying though it may be, has its uses. Every piece of paper is a thread binding the labors of four hundred million humans. Abolish the Administrative Service and you abolish the Empire; and with it, interstellar peace, order, and civilization.”

  “Come–” said the captain.

  “No. I mean it.” Antyok was earnestly breathless. “The rules and system of the Administrative set-up must be sufficiently all-embracing and rigid so that in case of incompetent officials, and sometimes one is appointed-you may laugh, but there are incompetent scientists, and newsmen, and captains, too-in case of incompetent officials, I say, little harm will be done. For, at the worst, the system can move by itself.”

  “Yes,” grunted the captain, sourly, “and if a capable administrator should be appointed? He is then caught by the same rigid web and is forced into mediocrity.”

  “Not at all, “replied Antyok, warmly. “A capable man can work within the limits of the rules and accomplish what he wishes.”

  “How?” asked Bannerd.

  “Well... well-” Antyok was suddenly ill at ease. “One method is to get yourself an A-priority project, or double-A, if possible.”

  The captain leaned his head back for laughter, but never quite made it, for the door was flung open and frightened men were pouring in. The shouts made no sense at first. Then:

  “Sir, the ships are gone. These non-Humans have taken them by force.”

  “What? All?”

  “Every one. Ships and creatures–”

  It was two hours later that the four were together again, alone in Antyok’s office now.

  Antyik said coldly, “They’ve made no mistakes. There’s not a ship left behind, not even your training ship, Zammo. And there isn’t a government ship available in this entire half of the Sector. By the time we organize a pursuit they’ll be out of the Galaxy and halfway to the Magellanic Clouds. Captain, it was your responsibility to maintain an adequate guard.”

  The captain cried, “It was our first day out of space. Who could have known–”

  Zammo interrupted fiercely, “Wait a while, captain. I’m beginning to understand. Antyok, “his voice was hard, “you engineered this.”

  “I?” Antyok’s expression was strangely cool, almost indifferent.

  “You told us this evening that a clever administrator got an A-priority project assigned to accomplish what he wished. You got such a project in order to help the non-Humans escape.”

  “I did? I beg your pardon, but how could that be? It was you yourself in one of your reports that brought up the problem of the failing birth rate. It was Bannerd, here, whose sensational articles frightened the Bureau into making a double A-priority project out of it. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “You suggested that I mention the birth rate,” said Zammo, violently.

  “Did I?” said Antyok, composedly.

  “And for that matter,” roared Bannerd, suddenly, “you suggested that I mention the birth rate in my articles.”

  The three ringed him now and hemmed him in. Antyok leaned back in his chair and said easily, “I don’t know what you mean by suggestions. If you are accusing me, please stick to evidence-legal evidence. The laws of the Empire go by written, filmed, or transcribed material, or by witnessed statements. All my letters as administrator are on me here, at the Bureau, and at other places. I never asked for an A-priority project. The Bureau assigned it to me, and Zammo and Bannerd are responsible for that. In print, at any rate.”

  Zammo’s voice was an almost inarticulate growl, “You hoodwinked me into teaching the creatures how to handle a spaceship.”

  “It was your suggestion. I have your report proposing they be studied in their reaction to human tools on file. So has the Bureau. The evidence-the legal evidence, is plain. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “Nor with the globes?” demanded Bannerd.

  The captain howled suddenly, “You had my ships brought here purposely. Five thousand globes! You knew it would require hundreds of craft.”

  “I never asked for globes,” said Antyok, coldly. “That was the Bureau’s idea, although I think Bannerd’s friends of The Philosophy helped that along.”

  Bannerd fairly choked. He spat out, “You were asking that Cepheid leader if he could read minds. You were telling him to express interest in the globes.”

  “Come, now. You prepared the transcript of the conversation yourself, and that, too, is on file. You can’t prove it.” He stood up, “You’ll have to excuse me. I must prepare a report for the Bureau.”

  At the door, Antyok turned. “In a way, the problem of the non-Humans is solved, even if only to their own satisfaction. They’ll breed now, and have a world they’ve earned themselves. It’s what they wanted.

  “Another thing. Don’t accuse me of silly things. I’ve been in the Service for twenty-seven years, and I assure you that my paper work is proof enough that I have been thoroughly correct in everything I have done. And captain, I’ll be glad to continue our discussion of earlier this evening at your convenience and explain how a capable administrator can work through red tape and still get what he wants.”

  It was remarkable that such a round. smooth baby-face could wear a smile quite so sardonic.

  From: BuOuProv

  To: Loodun Antyok, Chief Public Administrator, A-8

  Subject: Administrative Service, Standing in.

  Reference:

  (a) AdServ Court Decision 22874-Q, dated 1/978 G. E.

  1. In view of the favorable opinion handed down in reference

  (a) you are hereby absolved of all responsibility for the flight of non-Humans on Cepheus 18. It is requested that you hold yourself in readiness for your next appoi
ntment.

  R. Horpritt, Chief, AdServ,

  15/978 G. E.

  Prelude to Foundation

  12020 G.E.

  Mathematician

  CLEON I–... THE LAST GALACTIC EMPEROR OF THE ENTUN DYNASTY. HE WAS BORN IN THE YEAR 11, 988 OF THE GALACTIC ERA, THE SAME YEAR IN WHICH HARI SELDON WAS BORN. (IT IS THOUGHT THAT SELDON’S BIRTHDATE, WHICH SOME CONSIDER DOUBTFUL, MAY HAVE BEEN ADJUSTED TO MATCH THAT OF CLEON, WHOM SELDON, SOON AFTER HIS ARRIVAL ON TRANTOR, IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE ENCOUNTERED.)

  HAVING SUCCEEDED TO THE IMPERIAL THRONE IN 12, 010 AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-TWO, CLEON I’S REIGN REPRESENTED A CURIOUS INTERVAL OF QUIET IN THOSE TROUBLED TIMES. THIS IS UNDOUBTEDLY DUE TO THE SKILLS OF HIS CHIEF OF STAFF, ETO DEMERZEL, WHO SO CAREFULLY OBSCURED HIMSELF FROM PUBLIC RECORD THAT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT HIM.

  CLEON HIMSELF...

  ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA

  (All quotations from the Encyclopedia Galactica here reproduced are taken from the 116th Edition, published 1, 020 FE by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus, with permission of the publishers.)

  1.

  Suppressing a small yawn, Cleon said, “Demerzel, have you by any chance ever heard of a man named Hari Seldon?”

  Cleon had been Emperor for just over ten years and there were times at state occasions when, dressed in the necessary robes and regalia, he could manage to look stately. He did so, for instance, in the holograph of himself that stood in the niche in the wall behind him. It was placed so that it clearly dominated the other niches holding the holographs of several of his ancestors.

  The holograph was not a totally honest one, for though Cleon’s hair was light brown in hologram and reality alike, it was a bit thicker in the holograph. There was a certain asymmetry to his real face, for the left side of his upper lip raised itself a bit higher than the right side, and this was somehow not evident in the holograph. And if he had stood up and placed himself beside the holograph, he would have been seen to be 2 centimeters under the 1.83-meter height that the image portrayed–and perhaps a bit stouter.

  Of course, the holograph was the official coronation portrait and he had been younger then. He still looked young and rather handsome, too, and when he was not in the pitiless grip of official ceremony, there was a kind of vague good nature about his face.

  Demerzel said, with the tone of respect that he carefully cultivated, “Hari Seldon? It is an unfamiliar name to me, Sire. Ought I to know of him?”

  “The Minister of Science mentioned him to me last night. I thought you might.”

  Demerzel frowned slightly, but only very slightly, for one does not frown in the Imperial presence. “The Minister of Science, Sire, should have spoken of this man to me as Chief of Staff. If you are to be bombarded from every side–”

  Cleon raised his hand and Demerzel stopped at once. “Please, Demerzel, one can’t stand on formality at all times. When I passed the Minister at last night’s reception and exchanged a few words with him, he bubbled over. I could not refuse to listen and I was glad I had, for it was interesting.”

  “In what way interesting, Sire?”

  “Well, these are not the old days when science and mathematics were all the rage. That sort of thing seems to have died down somehow, perhaps because all the discoveries have been made, don’t you think? Apparently, however, interesting things can still happen. At least I was told it was interesting.”

  “By the Minister of Science, Sire?”

  “Yes. He said that this Hari Seldon had attended a convention of mathematicians held here in Trantor–they do this every ten years, for some reason–and he said that he had proved that one could foretell the future mathematically.”

  Demerzel permitted himself a small smile. “Either the Minister of Science, a man of little acumen, is mistaken or the mathematician is. Surely, the matter of foretelling the future is a children’s dream of magic.”

  “Is it, Demerzel? People believe in such things.”

  “People believe in many things, Sire.”

  “But they believe in such things. Therefore,. it doesn’t matter whether the forecast of the future is true or not. If a mathematician should predict a long and happy reign for me, a time of peace and prosperity for the Empire–Eh, would that not be well?”

  “It would be pleasant to hear, certainly, but what would it accomplish, Sire?”

  “But surely if people believe this, they would act on that belief. Many a prophecy, by the mere force of its being believed, is transmuted to fact. These are ‘self-fulfilling prophecies.’ Indeed, now that I think of it, it was you who once explained this to me.”

  Demerzel said, “I believe I did, Sire.” His eyes were watching the Emperor carefully, as though to see how far he might go on his own. “Still, if that be so, one could have any person make the prophecy.”

  “Not all persons would be equally believed, Demerzel. A mathematician, however, who could back his prophecy with mathematical formulas and terminology, might be understood by no one and yet believed by everyone.”

  Demerzel said, “As usual, Sire, you make good sense. We live in troubled times and it would be worthwhile to calm them in a way that would require neither money nor military effort–which, in recent history, have done little good and much harm.”

  “Exactly, Demerzel,” said the Emperor with excitement. “Reel in this Hari Seldon. You tell me you have your strings stretching to every part of this turbulent world, even where my forces dare not go. Pull on one of those strings, then, and bring in this mathematician. Let me see him.”

  “I will do so, Sire,” said Demerzel, who had already located Seldon and who made a mental note to commend the Minister of Science for a job well done.

  2.

  Hari Seldon did not make an impressive appearance at this time. Like the Emperor Cleon I, he was thirty-two years old, but he was only 1.73 meters tall. His face was smooth and cheerful, his hair dark brown, almost black, and his clothing had the unmistakable touch of provinciality about it.

  To anyone in later times who knew of Hari Seldon only as a legendary demigod, it would seem almost sacrilegious for him not to have white hair, not to have an old lined face, a quiet smile radiating wisdom, not to be seated in a wheelchair. Even then, in advanced old age, his eyes had been cheerful, however. There was that.

  And his eyes were particularly cheerful now, for his paper had been given at the Decennial Convention. It had even aroused some interest in a distant sort of way and old Osterfith had nodded his head at him and had said, “Ingenious, young man. Most ingenious.” Which, coming from Osterfith, was satisfactory. Most satisfactory.

  But now there was a new–and quite unexpected–development and Seldon wasn’t sure whether it should increase his cheer and intensify his satisfaction or not.

  He stared at the tall young man in uniform–the Spaceship-and-Sun neatly placed on the left side of his tunic.

  “Lieutenant Alban Wellis,” said the officer of the Emperor’s Guard before putting away his identification. “Will you come with me now, sir?”

  Wellis was armed, of course. There were two other Guardsmen waiting outside his door. Seldon knew he had no choice, for all the other’s careful politeness, but there was no reason he could not seek information. He said, “To see the Emperor?”

  “To be brought to the Palace, sir. That’s the extent of my instructions.”

  “But why?”

  “I was not told why, sir. And I have my strict instructions that you must come with me–one way or another.”

  “But this seems as though I am being arrested. I have done nothing to warrant that.”

  “Say, rather, that it seems you are being given an escort of honor–if you delay me no further.”

  Seldon delayed no further. He pressed his lips together, as though to block of further questions, nodded his head, and stepped forward. Even if he was going to meet the Emperor and to receive Imperial commendation, he found no joy in it. He was for the Empire–that is, for the world
s of humanity in peace and union but he was not for the Emperor.

  The lieutenant walked ahead, the other two behind. Seldon smiled at those he passed and managed to look unconcerned. Outside the hotel they climbed into an official ground-car. (Seldon ran his hand over the upholstery; he had never been in anything so ornate.)

  They were in one of the wealthiest sections of Trantor. The dome was high enough here to give a sensation of being in the open and one could swear–even one such as Hari Seldon, who had been born and brought up on an open world–that they were in sunlight. You could see no sun and no shadows, but the air was light and fragrant.

  And then it passed and the dome curved down and the walls narrowed in and soon they were moving along an enclosed tunnel, marked periodically with the Spaceship-and-Sun and so clearly reserved (Seldon thought) for official vehicles.

  A door opened and the ground-car sped through. When the door closed behind them, they were in the open–the true, the real open. There were 250 square kilometers of the only stretch of open land on Trantor and on it stood the Imperial Palace. Seldon would have liked a chance to wander through that open land–not because of the Palace, but because it also contained the Galactic University and, most intriguing of all, the Galactic Library.

  And yet, in passing from the enclosed world of Trantor into the open patch of wood and parkland, he had passed into a world in which clouds dimmed the sky and a chill wind rued his shirt. He pressed the contact that closed the ground-car’s window.

  It was a dismal day outside.

  3.

  Seldon was not at all sure he would meet the Emperor. At best, he would meet some official in the fourth or fifth echelon who would claim to speak for the Emperor.