by Isaac Asimov
“Who’s Sisyphus?”
“A character in a primitive myth. Yugo, you must do more reading.”
Amaryl shrugged. “So I can learn about Sisyphus? Not important. Perhaps psychohistory will show us a path to an entirely new society, one altogether different from anything we have seen, one that would be stable and desirable.”
“I hope so,” sighed Seldon. “I hope so, but there’s no sign of it yet. For the near future, we will just have to labor to let the Periphery go. That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.”
4
“And so I said,” said Hari Seldon. “ ‘that will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.’ And so it will, Dors.”
Dors listened, tight-lipped. She accepted Seldon’s First Ministership as she accepted everything—calmly. Her only mission was to protect him and his psychohistory, but that task, she well knew, was made harder by his position. The best security was to go unnoticed and, as long as the Spaceship-and-Sun, the symbol of the Empire, shone down upon Seldon, all of the physical barriers in existence would be unsatisfactory.
The luxury in which they now lived—the careful shielding from spy beams, as well as from physical interference; the advantages to her own historical research of being able to make use of nearly unlimited funds—did not satisfy her. She would gladly have exchanged it all for their old quarters at Streeling University. Or, better yet, for a nameless apartment in a nameless sector where no one knew them.
“That’s all very well, Hari dear,” she said, “but it’s not enough.”
“What’s not enough?”
“The information you’re giving me. You say we might lose the Periphery. How? Why?”
Seldon smiled briefly. “How nice it would be to know, Dors, but psychohistory is not yet at the stage where it could tell us.”
“In your opinion, then. Is it the ambition of local faraway governors to declare themselves independent?”
“That’s a factor, certainly. It’s happened in past history—as you know far better than I—but never for long. Maybe this time it will be permanent.”
“Because the Empire is weaker?”
“Yes, because trade flows less freely than it once did, because communications are stiffer than they once were, because the governors in the Periphery are, in actual fact, closer to independence than they have ever been. If one of them arises with particular ambitions—”
“Can you tell which one it might be?”
“Not in the least. All we can force out of psychohistory at this stage is the definite knowledge that if a governor of unusual ability and ambition arises, he would find conditions more suitable for his purposes than he would have in the past. It could be other things, too—some great natural disaster or some sudden civil war between two distant Outer World coalitions. None of that can be precisely predicted as of now, but we can tell that anything of the sort that happens will have more serious consequences than it would have had a century ago.”
“But if you don’t know a little more precisely what will happen in the Periphery, how can you so guide actions as to make sure the Periphery goes, rather than Trantor?”
“By keeping a close eye on both and trying to stabilize Trantor and not trying to stabilize the Periphery. We can’t expect psychohistory to order events automatically without much greater knowledge of its workings, so we have to make use of constant manual controls, so to speak. In days to come, the technique will be refined and the need for manual control will decrease.”
“But that,” said Dors, “is in days to come. Right?”
“Right. And even that is only a hope.”
“And just what kind of instabilities threaten Trantor—if we hang on to the Periphery?”
“The same possibilities—economic and social factors, natural disasters, ambitious rivalries among high officials. And something more. I have described the Empire to Yugo as being overheated—and Trantor is the most overheated portion of all. It seems to be breaking down. The infrastructure—water supply, heating, waste disposal, fuel lines, everything—seems to be having unusual problems and that’s something I’ve been turning my attention to more and more lately.”
“What about the death of the Emperor?”
Seldon spread his hands. “That happens inevitably, but Cleon is in good health. He’s only my age, which I wish was younger, but he isn’t too old. His son is totally inadequate for the succession, but there will be enough claimants. More than enough to cause trouble and make his death distressing, but it might not prove a total catastrophe—in the historic sense.”
“Let’s say his assassination, then.”
Seldon looked up nervously. “Don’t say that. Even if we’re shielded, don’t use the word.”
“Hari, don’t be foolish. It’s an eventuality that must be reckoned with. There was a time when the Joranumites might have taken power and, if they had, the Emperor, one way or another—”
“Probably not. He would have been more useful as a figurehead. And in any case, forget it. Joranum died last year on Nishaya, a rather pathetic figure.”
“He had followers.”
“Of course. Everyone has followers. Did you ever come across the Globalist party on my native world of Helicon in your studies of the early history of the Kingdom of Trantor and of the Galactic Empire?”
“No, I haven’t. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Hari, but I don’t recall coming across any piece of history in which Helicon played a role.”
“I’m not hurt, Dors. Happy the world without a history, I always say. —In any case, about twenty-four hundred years ago, there arose a group of people on Helicon who were quite convinced that Helicon was the only inhabited globe in the Universe. Helicon was the Universe and beyond it there was only a solid sphere of sky speckled with tiny stars.”
“How could they believe that?” said Dors. “They were part of the Empire, I presume.”
“Yes, but Globalists insisted that all evidence to the effect that the Empire existed was either illusion or deliberate deceit, that Imperial emissaries and officials were Heliconians playing a part for some reason. They were absolutely immune to reason.”
“And what happened?”
“I suppose it’s always pleasant to think that your particular world is the world. At their peak, the Globalists may have persuaded 10 percent of the population of the planet to be part of the movement. Only 10 percent, but they were a vehement minority that drowned out the indifferent majority and threatened to take over.”
“But they didn’t, did they?”
“No, they didn’t. What happened was that Globalism caused a diminishing of Imperial trade and the Heliconian economy slid into the doldrums. When the belief began to affect the pocketbooks of the population, it lost popularity rapidly. The rise and fall puzzled many at the time, but psychohistory, I’m sure, would have shown it to be inevitable and would have made it unnecessary to give it any thought.”
“I see. But, Hari, what is the point of this story? I presume there’s some connection with what we were discussing.”
“The connection is that such movements never completely die, no matter how ridiculous their tenets may seem to sane people. Right now, on Helicon, right now there are still Globalists. Not many, but every once in a while seventy or eighty of them get together in what they call a Global Congress and take enormous pleasure in talking to each other about Globalism. —Well, it is only ten years since the Joranumite movement seemed such a terrible threat on this world and it would not be at all surprising if there weren’t still some remnants left. There may still be some remnants a thousand years from now.”
“Isn’t it possible that a remnant may be dangerous?”
“I doubt it. It was Jo-Jo’s charisma that made the movement dangerous—and he’s dead. He didn’t even die a heroic death or one that was in any way remarkable; he just withered away and died in exile, a broken man.”
Dors stood up and walked the length of
the room quickly, swinging her arms at her sides and clenching her fists. She returned and stood before the seated Seldon.
“Hari,” she said, “let me speak my mind. If psychohistory points to the possibility of serious disturbances on Trantor, then if there are Joranumites still left, they may still be plotting the Emperor’s death.”
Seldon laughed nervously. “You jump at shadows, Dors. Relax.”
But he found that he could not dismiss what she had said quite that easily.
5
The Wye Sector had a tradition of opposition to the Entun Dynasty of Cleon I that had been ruling the Empire for over two centuries. The opposition dated back to a time when the line of Mayors of Wye had contributed members who had served as Emperor. The Wyan Dynasty had neither lasted long nor had it been conspicuously successful, but the people and rulers of Wye found it difficult to forget that they had once been—however imperfectly and temporarily—supreme. The brief period when Rashelle, as the self-appointed Mayor of Wye, had challenged the Empire, eighteen years earlier, had added both to Wye’s pride and to its frustration.
All this made it reasonable that the small band of leading conspirators should feel as safe in Wye as they would feel anywhere on Trantor.
Five of them sat around a table in a room in a rundown portion of the sector. The room was poorly furnished but well shielded.
In a chair which, by its marginal superiority in quality to the others, sat the man who might well be judged to be the leader. He had a thin face, a sallow complexion, and a wide mouth with lips so pale as to be nearly invisible. There was a touch of gray in his hair, but his eyes burned with an inextinguishable anger.
He was staring at the man seated exactly opposite him—distinctly older and softer, his hair almost white, his plump cheeks tending to quiver when he spoke.
The leader said sharply, “Well? It is quite apparent that you have done nothing. Explain that!”
The older man said, “I am an old Joranumite, Namarti. Why do I have to explain my actions?”
Gambol Deen Namarti, once the right-hand man of Laskin “Jo-Jo” Joranum, said, “There are many old Joranumites. Some are incompetent, some are soft, some have forgotten. Being an old Joranumite may mean no more than that one is an old fool.”
The older man sat back in his chair. “Are you calling me an old fool? Me? Kaspal Kaspalov? I was with Jo-Jo when you had not yet joined the party, when you were a ragged nothing in search of a cause.”
“I am not calling you a fool,” said Namarti sharply. “I say simply that some old Joranumites are fools. You have a chance now to show me that you are not one of them.”
“My association with Jo-Jo—”
“Forget that. He’s dead!”
“I should think his spirit lives on.”
“If that thought will help us in our fight, then his spirit lives on. But to others—not to us. We know he made mistakes.”
“I deny that.”
“Don’t insist on making a hero out of a mere man who made mistakes. He thought he could move the Empire by the strength of oratory alone, by words—”
“History shows that words have moved mountains in the past.”
“Not Joranum’s words, obviously, because he made mistakes. He hid his Mycogenian origins far too clumsily. Worse, he let himself be tricked into accusing First Minister Eto Demerzel of being a robot. I warned him against that accusation, but he wouldn’t listen—and it destroyed him. Now let’s start fresh, shall we? Whatever use we make of Joranum’s memory for outsiders, let us not ourselves be transfixed by it.”
Kaspalov sat silent. The other three transferred their gaze from Namarti to Kaspalov and back, content to let Namarti carry the weight of the discussion.
“With Joranum’s exile to Nishaya, the Joranumite movement fell apart and seemed to vanish,” said Namarti harshly. “It would, indeed, have vanished—but for me. Bit by bit and rubble by rubble, I rebuilt it into a network that extends over all of Trantor. You know this, I take it.”
“I know it, Chief,” mumbled Kaspalov. The use of the title made it plain that Kaspalov was seeking reconciliation.
Namarti smiled tightly. He did not insist on the title, but he always enjoyed hearing it used. He said, “You’re part of this network and you have your duties.”
Kaspalov stirred. He was clearly debating with himself internally and finally he said slowly, “You tell me, Chief, that you warned Joranum against accusing the old First Minister of being a robot. You say he didn’t listen, but at least you had your say. May I have the same privilege of pointing out what I think is a mistake and have you listen to me as Joranum listened to you, even if, like him, you don’t take the advice given you?”
“Of course you can speak your piece, Kaspalov. You are here in order that you might do so. What is your point?”
“These new tactics of ours, Chief, are a mistake. They create disruption and do damage.”
“Of course! They are designed to do that.” Namarti stirred in his seat, controlling his anger with an effort. “Joranum tried persuasion. It didn’t work. We will bring Trantor down by action.”
“For how long? And at what cost?”
“For as long as it takes—and at very little cost, actually. A power stoppage here, a water break there, a sewage backup, an air-conditioning halt. Inconvenience and discomfort—that’s all it means.”
Kaspalov shook his head. “These things are cumulative.”
“Of course, Kaspalov, and we want public dismay and resentment to be cumulative, too. Listen, Kaspalov. The Empire is decaying. Everyone knows that. Everyone capable of intelligent thought knows that. The technology will fail here and there, even if we do nothing. We’re just helping it along a little.”
“It’s dangerous, Chief. Trantor’s infrastructure is incredibly complicated. A careless push may bring it down in ruins. Pull the wrong string and Trantor may topple like a house of cards.”
“It hasn’t so far.”
“It may in the future. And what if the people find out that we are behind it? They would tear us apart. There would be no need to call in the security establishment or the armed forces. Mobs would destroy us.”
“How would they ever learn enough to blame us? The natural target for the people’s resentment will be the government—the Emperor’s advisers. They will never look beyond that.”
“And how do we live with ourselves, knowing what we have done?”
This last was asked in a whisper, the old man clearly moved by strong emotion. Kaspalov looked pleadingly across the table at his leader, the man to whom he had sworn allegiance. He had done so in the belief that Namarti would truly continue to bear the standard of freedom passed on by Jo-Jo Joranum; now Kaspalov wondered if this is how Jo-Jo would have wanted his dream to come to pass.
Namarti clucked his tongue, much as a reproving parent does when confronting an errant child.
“Kaspalov, you can’t seriously be turning sentimental on us, are you? Once we are in power, we will pick up the pieces and rebuild. We will gather in the people with all of Joranum’s old talk of popular participation in government, with greater representation, and when we are firmly in power we will establish a more efficient and forceful government. We will then have a better Trantor and a stronger Empire. We will set up some sort of discussion system whereby representatives of other worlds can talk themselves into a daze—but we will do the governing.”
Kaspalov sat there, irresolute.
Namarti smiled joylessly. “You are not certain? We can’t lose. It’s been working perfectly and it will continue working perfectly. The Emperor doesn’t know what’s going on. He hasn’t the faintest notion. And his First Minister is a mathematician. He ruined Joranum, true, but since then he has done nothing.”
“He has something called—called—”
“Forget it. Joranum attached a great deal of importance to it, but it was a part of his being Mycogenian, like his robot mania. This mathematician has nothing—”
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“Historical psychoanalysis or something like that. I heard Joranum once say—”
“Forget it. Just do your part. You handle the ventilation in the Anemoria Sector, don’t you? Very well, then. Have it misfunction in a manner of your choosing. It either shuts down so that the humidity rises or it produces a peculiar odor or something else. None of this will kill anyone, so don’t get yourself into a fever of virtuous guilt. You will simply make people uncomfortable and raise the general level of discomfort and annoyance. Can we depend on you?”
“But what would only be discomfort and annoyance to the young and healthy may be more than that to infants, the aged, and the sick.…”
“Are you going to insist that no one at all must be hurt?”
Kaspalov mumbled something.
Namarti said, “It’s impossible to do anything with a guarantee that no one at all will be hurt. You just do your job. Do it in such a way that you hurt as few as possible—if your conscience insists upon it—but do it!”
Kaspalov said, “Look! I have one thing more to say, Chief.”
“Then say it,” said Namarti wearily.
“We can spend years poking at the infrastructure. The time must come when you take advantage of gathering dissatisfaction to seize the government. How do you intend to do that?”
“You want to know exactly how we’ll do it?”
“Yes. The faster we strike, the more limited the damage, the more efficiently the surgery is performed.”
Namarti said slowly, “I have not yet decided on the nature of this ‘surgical strike.’ But it will come. Until then, will you do your part?”
Kaspalov nodded his head in resignation. “Yes, Chief.”
“Well then, go,” said Namarti with a sharp gesture of dismissal.
Kaspalov rose, turned, and left. Namarti watched him go. He said to the man at his right, “Kaspalov is not to be trusted. He has sold out and it’s only so that he can betray us that he wants to know my plans for the future. Take care of him.”
The other nodded and all three left, leaving Namarti alone in the room. He switched off the glowing wall panels, leaving only a lonely square in the ceiling to provide the light that would keep him from being entirely in the darkness.
