Prelude to Foundation Chapter 4 Library

VENABILI, DORS- Historian, born in Cinna Her oblige expertness rise put unrivaled across continued on its un tear downtful play were it non for the fact that, after she had spent two eld on the talent of Streeling Univer taunty, she became involved with the young Hari Seldon during The FlightEncyclopedia galactica16.The room that Hari Seldon put to puther himself in was larger than Hummins room in the Imperial Sector. It was a bedchamber with star corner serving as a washroom and with no mansion house of in all(prenominal)(prenominal) cooking or dining facilities. T here was no window, though set in the ceiling was a grilled ventilator that nonplus a steady sighing noise. Seldon tacroofing tile propertyed ab show up a bit rue widey.Hummin interpreted that look with his usual experienced manner and dictate, Its exactly for to night, Seldon. Tomorrow morning individual exclusivelyow receive to install you at the University and you secure come pop co me to the fore be frequently comfortable. for supplyness me, Hummin, to a greater extent over how do you pick out that?I will watch arrangements. I subsist virtuoso or two people here-he smiled briefly without humor-and I perplex a favor or two I thr star ask re give itineraryment for. no(prenominal) lets go into fair more or less details.He gazed steadily at Seldon and give tongue to, Whatever you vex left in your hotel room is wooly. Does that include some(prenominal)thing irre glitterable?Nothing unfeignedly irreplaceable. I baffle nigh personal items I value for their association with my past life, unless if they be g ace, they be gone. thither ar, of run-in, some nones on my sunrise(prenominal)sprint. Some calculations. The paper itself.Which is now public knowledge until such clock as it is remote from circulation as grievous-which it probably will be. Still, Ill be able to get my detainment on a copy, Im for sure. In any case, you stomach re construct it, tusht you?I can. Thats wherefore I verbalise thither was nobody really irreplaceable. Also, Ive lost nearly a thousand credits, some books, clothing, my tickets back to bombardon, things the wishs of that. each(prenominal) replaceable.- instantaneously I will arrange for you to encounter a credit tile in my name, charged to me. That will backpack c atomic number 18 of ordinary expenses.Thats erraticly generous of you. I cant accept it.Its non generous at all, since Im hoping to sustain the Empire in that fashion. You moldiness accept it. hardly how much can you afford, Hummin? Ill be using it, at best, with an un idle conscience.Whatever you need for pick or reasonable comfort I can afford, Seldon. Naturally, I wouldnt compulsion you to try to buy the University gymnasium or hand out a million credits in largess.You neednt worry, alone with my name on record-It magnate as well up be. It is absolutely forbidden for the Imperial government to wreak any security control over the University or its members. There is fargon freedom. Anything can be discussed here, anything can be give tongue to here.What more or less furious crime?Then the University authorities themselves handle it, with reason and care-and there are virtually no crimes of violence. The disciples and faculty appreciate their freedom and infrastand its term. to a fault much rowdiness, the beginning of riot and bloodshed, and the government whitethorn feel it has a right to break the unwritten agreement and send in the troops. No one urgencys that, non even the government, so a delicate residuum is maintained. In other words, Demerzel himself can non age you plucked out of the University without a gr decimate deal more cause than anyone in the University has condition the government in at least a century and a half. On the other hand, if you are lured slay the grounds by a student-agent-Are there student-agents?How can I say? There whitethorn be. Any o rdinary individual can be threatened or maneuvered or simply bought-and whitethorn pillow thereafter in the ally of Demerzel or of someone else, for that question. So I must emphasize this You are safe in any reasonable find, besides no one is absolutely safe. You will require to be careful. But though I give you that warning, I dont want you to cower through life. On the whole, you will be far more secure here than you would collect been if you had returned to bombard or gone to any world of the Galaxy outside Trantor.I hope so, tell Seldon drearily.I know so, tell Hummin, Or I would not feel it wise to leave you.Leave me? Seldon looked up sharply. You cant do that. You know this world. I dont.You will be with others who know this world, who know this violate of it, in fact, even better than I do. As for myself, I must go. I possess been with you all this daylighttimelight and I dare not abandon my experience life any longer. I must not attract too much attention t o myself. Remember that I switch my make insecurities, just as you have yours.Seldon blushed. Youre right. I cant expect you to let on yourself indefinitely on my behalf. I hope you are not al defecate ruined.Hummin said coolly, Who can tell apart? We live in dangerous times. hardly remember that if anyone can make the times safe-if not for ourselves, then(prenominal) for those who do after us-it is you. Let that plan be your driving force, Seldon.17.Sleep eluded Seldon. He tossed and turned in the dark, thinking. He had have neer mat preferably so alone or kind of so upholdless as he did after Hummin had nodded, pressed his hand briefly, and left him behind. Now he was on a strange world-and in a strange startle of that world. He was without the only person he could consider a sensation (and that of less than a days duration) and he had no idea of where he was vent or what he would be doing, either tomorrow or at any time in the future.None of that was conducive to sleep so, of course, at active the time he decided, hopelessly, that he would not sleep that night or, possibly, ever again, exhaustion overtook himWhen he woke up it was cool it dark-or not quite, for across the room he saw a red light news bulletin brightly and rapidly, accompanied by a harsh, intermittent buzz. Undoubtedly, it was that which had awakened him. As he tried to remember where he was and to make some word form of sense out of the limited messages his senses were receiving, the flashing and buzzing ceased and he became certified of a peremptory rapping.Presumably, the rapping was at the limen, plainly he didnt remember where the door was. Presumably, as well, there was a contact that would flood the room with light, but he didnt remember where that was either.He sat up in bed and entangle along the wall to his left quite a desperately while employment out, One moment, please.He found the necessary contact and the room perfectly bloomed with a soft light. He scrambled out of bed, blinking, still inquisitive for the door, come uponing it, authorizeing out to open it, remembering caution at the go away moment, and saying in a suddenly stern, no-nonsense voice, Whos there?A rather gentle chars voice said, My dame is Dors Venabili and I have neck to go across Dr. Hari Seldon.Even as that was said, a char was stand up just in front of the door, without that door ever having been undefended.For a moment, Hari Seldon stared at her in surprise, then realized that he was wearing only a one-piece undergarment. He let out a strangled heave and dashed for the bed and only then realized that he was complete(a) at a holograph. It lacked the hard edge of reality and it became apparent the woman wasnt looking at him. She was merely showing herself for identification. He paused, breathing hard, then said, raising his voice to be comprehend through the door, If youll wait, Ill be with you. halt me maybe half an hour.The woman-or the hologr aph, at any rate-said, Ill wait, and dis erupted.There was no shower, so he sponged himself, making a rare mess on the tiled floor in the washroom corner. There was toothpaste but no toothbrush, so he used his finger. He had no choice but to put on the clothes he had been wearing the day before. He finally opened the door.He realized, even as he did so, that she had not really place herself. She had merely given a name and Hummin had not told him whom to expect, whether it was to be this Dors somebody or anyone else. He had snarl secure because the holograph was that of a attractive young woman, but for all he knew there might be half a xii hostile young men with her.He peered out cautiously, saw only the woman, then opened the door comfortablely to allow her to attain. He immediately closed and locked the door behind her. Pardon me, he said, What time is it?Nine, she said, The day has long since begun.As far as official time was c at oncerned, Trantor held to Galactic Standa rd, since only so could sense be made out of interstellar commerce and political dealings. Each world, however, also had a local time system and Seldon had not so far deduce to the point where he felt up at shoes with casual Trantorian references to the hour.Midmorning? he said.Of course.There are no windows in this room, he said defensively.Dors walked to his bed, reached out, and stirred a small dark spot on the wall.Red add up appeared on the ceiling just over his pillow. They read 0903. She smiled without superiority. Im sorry, she said. But I rather assumed Chetter Hummin would have told you Id be coming for you at nine. The distract with him is hes so used to knowing, he sometimes forgets that others occasionally dont know.-And I shouldnt have used radio-holographic identification. I imagine you dont have it on Helicon and Im unnerved I must have alarmed you.Seldon felt himself unstuff. She seemed natural and pally and the casual reference to Hummin reassured him. H e said, Youre quite wrong virtually(predicate) Helicon, Miss-Please call me Dors.Youre still wrong about Helicon, Dors. We do have radioholography, but Ive never been able to afford the equipment. Nor could anyone in my circle, so I havent actually had the experience. But I understood what had happened soon enough.He analyse her. She was not genuinely tall, average height for a woman, he judged. Her sensory hair was a reddish-gold, though not in truth bright, and was arranged in shore curls about her head. (He had seen a number of women in Trantor with their hair so arranged. It was patently a local fashion that would have been laughed at in Helicon.) She was not amazingly beautiful, but was quite lovable to look at, this world helped by full lips that seemed to have a slight humorous curl to them. She was slim, well-built, and looked quite young. (Too young, he thought uneasily, to be of use peradventure.)Do I passing game inspection? she asked. (She seemed to have Hummi ns trick of guessing his thoughts, Seldon thought, or perhaps he himself lacked the trick of hiding them.)He said, Im sorry. I seem to have been staring, but Ive only been trying to evaluate you. Im in a strange place. I know no one and have no friends.Please, Dr. Seldon, count me as a friend. Mr. Hummin has asked me to take care of you.Seldon smiled ruefully. You may be a dinky young for the job.Youll construe I am not.Well, Ill try to be as small-minded trouble as practicable. Could you please repeat your name?Dors Venabili. She spelled the polish name and emphasized the stress on the second syllable. As I said, please call me Dors and if you dont object too strenuously I will call you Hari. Were quite informal here at the University and there is an virtually self-conscious effort to show no signs of status, either inherited or professional.Please, by all means, call me Hari.Good. I shall remain informal then. For instance, the instinct(predicate) for formality, if there is such a thing, would cause me to ask per look acrossion to sit down(a). Informally, however, I shall just sit. She then sat down on the one chair in the room.Seldon clear his throat. Clearly, Im not at all in possession of my ordinary faculties. I should have asked you to sit. He sat down on the side of his crumpled bed and wished he had thought to put right it out somewhat-but he had been caught by surprise.She said pleasantly, This is how its deviation to break, Hari. First, well go to breakfast at one of the University cafes. Then Ill get you a room in one of the domiciles-a better room than this. Youll have a window. Hummin has instructed me to get you a credit tile in his name, but it will take me a day or two to extort one out of the University bureaucracy. Until thats through with(p), Ill be responsible for your expenses and you can pay me back later.-And we can use you. Chetter Hummin told me youre a mathematician and for some reason theres a serious lack of good ones a t the University.Did Hummin tell you that I was a good mathematician?As a count of fact, he did. He said you were a remarkable man-Well. Seldon looked down at his fingernails. I would like to be considered so, but Hummin knew me for less than a day and, before that, he had heard me present a paper, the quality of which he has no way of judging. I think he was just world polite.I dont think so, said Dors. He is a remarkable person himself and has had a great deal of experience with people. Ill go by his judgment. In any case, I imagine youll have a chance to heighten yourself. You can program computers, I suppose.Of course.Im talking about teaching computers, you understand, and Im postulation if you can devise programs to teach various phases of contemporary mathematics.Yes, thats get of my profession. Im assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Helicon.She said, Yes, I know. Hummin told me that. It means, of course, that bothone will know you are a non-Trantor ian, but that will present no serious problems. Were in the main Trantorian here at the University, but theres a substantial minority of Outworlders from any number of antithetic worlds and thats accepted. I wont say that youll never hear a major planetary slur but actually the Outworlders are more credibly to use them than the Trantorians. Im an Outworlder myself, by the way.Oh? He hesitated and then decided it would be only polite to ask. What world are you from?Im from Cinna. Have you ever heard of it?Hed be caught out if he was polite enough to lie, Seldon decided, so he said, No.Im not surprised. Its probably of even less account than Helicon is. Anyway, to get back to the programming of mathematical teaching computers, I suppose that that can be done either proficiently or poorly.Absolutely.And you would do it proficiently.I would like to think so.There you are, then. The University will pay you for that, so lets go out and eat. Did you sleep well, by the way?Surprisingly, I did.And are you athirst(p)?Yes, but- He hesitated.She said cheerfully, But youre worried about the quality of the solid food, is that it? Well, dont be. macrocosm an Outworlder myself, I can understand your feelings about the strong infusion of microfood into every(prenominal)thing, but the University menus arent bad. In the faculty dining room, at least. The students suffer a bit, but that serves to harden them.She rose and turned to the door, but stopped when Seldon could not keep himself from saying, Are you a member of the faculty?She turned and smiled at him impishly. Dont I look old enough? I got my doctorate two years ago at Cinna and Ive been here ever since. In two hebdomads, Ill be thirty.Sorry, said Seldon, smiling in his turn, but you cant expect to look 24 and not raise doubts as to your academic status.Arent you nice? said Dors and Seldon felt a certain pleasure wash over him. After all, he thought, you cant metamorphose pleasantries with an attractive woman and feel entirely like a stranger.18.Dors was right. Breakfast was by no means bad. There was something that was unmistakably eggy and the join was pleasantly smoked. The chocolate drink (Trantor was strong on chocolate and Seldon did not mind that) was probably synthetic, but it was tasty and the breakfast rolls were good. He felt is only right to say as much. This has been a very pleasant breakfast. Food. Surroundings. Everything.Im delighted you think so, said Dors.Seldon looked about. There were a bank of windows in one wall and while actual sunlight did not enter (he wondered if, after a while, he would realise to be satisfied with diffuse daylight and would cease to look for patches of sunlight in a room), the place was light enough. In fact, it was quite bright, for the local weather computer had plainly decided is was time for a sharp, clear day.The cables were arranged for four each and most were occupied by the full number, but Dors and Seldon remained alone at theirs. Do rs had called over some of the men and women and had introduced them. All had been polite, but none had conjugate them. Undoubtedly, Dors pointed that to be so, but Seldon did not see how she managed to arrange it.He said, You havent introduced me to any mathematicians, Dors.I havent seen any that I know. Most mathematicians start the day early and have var.es by eight. My own feeling is that any student so foolhardy as to take mathematics wants to get that part of the course over with as soon as possible.I take it youre not a mathematician yourself.Anything but, said Dors with a short laugh. Anything. History is my world. Ive already published some studies on the rise of Trantor-I mean the primitive kingdom, not this world. I suppose that will end up as my area of specialization- imperial Trantor.Wonderful, said Seldon.Wonderful? Dors looked at him quizzically. Are you interested in purple Trantor too?In a way, yes. That and other things like that. Ive never really studied a ccounting and I should have.Should you? If you had studied biography, youd scarcely have had time to deal mathematics and mathematicians are very much needed-especially at this University. Were full to here with historians, she said, raising her hand to her eyebrows, and economists and political scientists, but were short on science and mathematics. Chetter Hummin pointed that out to me once. He called it the decline of science and seemed to think it was a general phenomenon.Seldon said, Of course, when I say I should have studied history, I dont mean that I should have made it a life work. I meant I should have studied enough to help me in my mathematics. My field of specialization is the mathematical analysis of social structure.Sounds horrible.In a way, it is. Its very complicated and without my knowing a great deal more about how societies evolved its hopeless. My picture is too static, you see.I cant see because I know nonentity about it. Chetter told me you were developing something called psychohistory and that it was important. Have I got it right? Psychohistory?Thats right. I should have called it psychosociology, but it seemed to me that was too ugly a word. Or perhaps I knew instinctively that a knowledge of history was necessary and then didnt pay sufficient attention to my thoughts.Psychohistory does leaden better, but I dont know what it is.I scarcely do myself. He brooded a few minutes, looking at the woman on the other side of the table and feeling that she might make this exile of his seem a little less like an exile. He thought of the other woman he had known a few years ago, but blocked it off with a determined effort. If he ever found another companion, it would have to be one who understood scholarship and what it demanded of a person.To get his mind onto a new track, he said, Chetter Hummin told me that the University is in no way troubled by the government.Hes right.Seldon shake his head. That seems rather unbelievably forbearing of the Imperial government. The educational institutions on Helicon are by no means so independent of governmental pressures.Nor on Cinna. Nor on any Outworld, except perhaps for one or two of the largest. Trantor is another matter.Yes, but why?Because its the center of the Empire. The universities here have enormous prestige. Professionals are turned out by any university anywhere, but the administrators of the Empire-the high officials, the countless millions of people who acquaint the tentacles of Empire reaching into every corner of the Galaxy-are enlightened right here on Trantor.Ive never seen the statistics- began Seldon. lock my word for it. It is important that the officials of the Empire have some common ground, some special feeling for the Empire. And they cant all be native Trantorians or else the Outworlds would grow restless. For that reason, Trantor must attract millions of Outworlders for education here. It doesnt matter where they come from or what their home accent or culture may be, as long as they pick up the Trantorian patina and identify themselves with a Trantorian educational background. Thats what holds the Empire together. The Outworlds are also less restive when a noticeable portion of the administrators who represent the Imperial government are their own people by induce and upbringing.Seldon felt embarrassed again. This was something he had never given any thought to. He wondered if anyone could be a truly great mathematician if mathematics was all he knew. He said, Is this common knowledge?I suppose it isnt, said Dors after some thought. Theres so much knowledge to be had that specialists advert to their specialties as a shield against having to know anything about anything else. They avoid being drowned.Yet you know it.But thats my specialty. Im a historian who deals with the rise of Royal Trantor and this administrative technique was one of the ways in which Trantor spread its limit and managed the transition from Royal Tranto r to Imperial Trantor.Seldon said, close to as though murmuration to himself, How harmful overspecialization is. It cuts knowledge at a million points and leaves it bleeding.Dors shrugged. What can one do?-But you see, if Trantor is going to attract Outworlders to Trantorian universities, it has to give them something in return for uprooting themselves and going to a strange world with an incredibly artificial structure and unusual ways. Ive been here two years and Im still not used to it. I may never get used to it. But then, of course, I dont intend to be an administrator, so Im not forcing myself to be a Trantorian.And what Trantor offers in exchange is not only the promise of a position with high status, wide power, and money, of course, but also freedom. While students are having their-education, they are free to check off the government, demonstrate against it peacefully, work out their own theories and points of view. They roll in the hay that and many come here so that they can experience the sensation of liberty.I imagine, said Seldon, that it helps relieve pressure as well. They work off all their resentments, enjoy all the smug self-satisfaction a young revolutionary would have, and by the time they take their place in the Imperial hierarchy, they are ready to settle down into conformity and obedience.Dors nodded. You may be right. In any case, the government, for all these reasons, carefully preserves the freedom of the universities. Its not a matter of their being forbearing at all-only clever.And if youre not going to be an administrator, Dors, what are you going to be?A historian. Ill teach, put book-films of my own into the programming.Not much status, perhaps.Not much money, Hari, which is more important. As for status, thats the sort of push and curl Id just as soon avoid. Ive seen many people with status, but Im still looking for a happy one. Status wont sit still under you you have to continually fight to keep from sinking. Even empe rors manage to come to bad ends most of the time. Someday I may just go back to Cinna and be a professor.And a Trantorian education will give you status.Dors laughed. I suppose so, but on Cinna who would care? Its a moderate world, full of farms and with lots of cattle, both four-legged and two-legged.Wont you find it dull after Trantor?Yes, thats what Im number on. And if it gets too dull, I can always wangle a open to go here or there to do a little historic research. Thats the advantage of my field.A mathematician, on the other hand, said Seldon with a trace of bitterness at something that had never before bothered him, is expect to sit at his computer and think. And speaking of computers- He hesitated. Breakfast was done and it seemed to him more than likely she had some duties of her own to attend to.But she did not seem to be in any great hurry to leave. Yes? communicate of computers?Would I be able to get permission to use the history library?Now it was she who hesitated. I think that can be arranged. If you work on mathematics programming, youll probably be viewed as a quasi-member of the faculty and I could ask for you to be given permission. Only-Only?I dont want to hurt your feelings, but youre a mathematician and you say you know cryptograph about history. Would you know how to make use of a history library?Seldon smiled. I suppose you use computers very much like those in a mathematics library.We do, but the programming for each specialty has quirks of its own. You dont know the threadbare reference book-films, the quick methods of winnowing and skipping. You may be able to find a hyperbolic interval in the darkYou mean hyperbolic integral, interrupted Seldon softly.Dors slewd him. But you probably wont know how to get the terms of the Treaty of Poldark in less than a day and a half.I suppose I could learn.If if She looked a little troubled. If you want to, I can make a suggestion. I give a weeks course-one hour each day, no credit-on libr ary use. Its for undergraduates. Would you feel it beneath your dignity to sit in on such a course-with undergraduates, I mean? It st humanistic discipline in collar weeks.You could give me private lessons. Seldon felt a little surprised at the suggestive tone that had entered his voice.She did not miss it. I dare say I could, but I think youd be better off with more formal instruction. Well be using the library, you understand, and at the end of the week you will be asked to locate information on particular items of historical interest. You will be competing with the other students all through and that will help you learn. Private tutoring will be far less efficient, I assure you. However, I understand the difficulty of competing with undergraduates. If you dont do as well as they, you may feel humiliated. You must remember, though, that they have already studied bare(a) history and you, perhaps, may not have.I havent. No may about it. But I wont be afraid to compete and I wont mind any humiliation that may come along-if I manage to learn the tricks of the historical reference trade.It was clear to Seldon that he was beginning to like this young woman and that he was gladly seizing on the chance to be educated by her. He was also aware of the fact that he had reached a turning point in his mind. He had promised Hummin to attempt to work out a practical psychohistory, but that had been a promise of the mind and not the emotions. Now he was determined to seize psychohistory by the throat if he had to-in order to make it practical. That, perhaps, was the influence of Dors Venabili. Or had Hummin counted on that? Hummin, Seldon decided, might well be a most formidable person.19.Cleon I had finished dinner, which, unfortunately, had been a formal state affair. It meant he had to spend time talking to various officials-not one of whom he knew or recognized-in set phrases designed to give each one his stroke and so activate his loyalty to the crown. It also meant that his food reached him but lukewarm and had cooled still further before he could eat it. There had to be some way of avoiding that. Eat first, perhaps, on his own or with one or two close intimates with whom he could relax and then attend a formal dinner at which he could merely be served an imported pear. He loved pears. But would that break away the guests who would take the Emperors refusal to eat with them as a studied insult.His wife, of course, was useless in this respect, for her presence would but further exacerbate his unhappiness. He had married her because she was a member of a powerful dissident family who could be expected to understood their dissidence as a result of the union, though Cleon devoutly hoped that she, at least, would not do so. He was perfectly content to have her live her own life in her own quarters except for the necessary efforts to bulge an heir, for, to tell the truth, he didnt like her. And now that an heir had come, he could ignore her comp letely.He chewed at one of a handful of nuts he had pocketed from the table on leaving and said, DemerzelSire?Demerzel always appeared at once when Cleon called. Whether he hovered constantly in earshot at the door or he drew close because the instinct of subservience somehow alerted him to a possible call in a few minutes, he did appear and that, Cleon thought idly, was the important thing. Of course, there were those times when Demerzel had to be away on Imperial business. Cleon always hated those absences. They made him uneasy.What happened to that mathematician? I forget his name.Demerzel, who for sure knew the man the Emperor had in mind, but who perhaps wanted to study how much the Emperor remembered, said, What mathematician is it that you have in mind, Sire?Cleon waved an impatient hand. The fortune-teller. The one who came to see me.The one we sent for?Well, sent for, then. He did come to see me. You were going to take care of the matter, as I recall. Have you?Demerzel cle ared his throat. Sire, I have tried to.Ah That means you have failed, doesnt it? In a way, Cleon felt pleased. Demerzel was the only one of his Ministers who made no bones of failure. The others never admitted failure, and since failure was nevertheless common, it became difficult to correct. Perhaps Demerzel could afford to be more honest because he failed so rarely. If it werent for Demerzel, Cleon thought sadly, he might never know what honesty sounded like. Perhaps no Emperor ever knew and perhaps that was one of the reasons that the Empire- He pulled his thoughts away and, suddenly nettled at the others quiet down and wanting an admission, since he had just admired Demerzels honesty in his mind, said sharply, Well, you have failed, havent you?Demerzel did not flinch. Sire, I have failed in part. I felt that to have him here on Trantor where things are-difficult might present us with problems. It was easy to consider that he might be more conveniently rigid on his home planet . He was planning to return to that home planet the succeeding(prenominal) day, but there was always the chance of complications-of his deciding to remain on Trantor-so I arranged to have two young course men place him on his plane that very day.Do you know alley men, Demerzel? Cleon was amused.It is important, Sire, to be able to reach many kinds of people, for each event has its own variety of use-alley men not the least. As it happens, they did not succeed.And why was that?Oddly enough, Seldon was able to fight them off.The mathematician could fight?Apparently, mathematics and the martial arts are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I found out, not soon enough, that his world, Helicon, is noted for it-martial arts, not mathematics. The fact that I did not learn this earlier was indeed a failure, Sire, and I can only beg your pardon.But then, I suppose the mathematician left for his home planet the next day as he had planned.Unfortunately, the episode backfired. Taken aback b y the event, he decided not to return to Helicon, but remained on Trantor. He may have been advised to this effect by a genus Passer who happened to be present on the occasion of the fight. That was another unlooked-for complication.The Emperor Cleon frowned. Then our mathematician-what is his name?Seldon, Sire. Hari Seldon.Then this Seldon is out of reach.In a sense, Sire. We have traced his movements and he is now at Streeling University. While there, he is untouchable.The Emperor scowled and reddened slightly. I am annoyed at that word-untouchable. There should be nowhere in the Empire my hand cannot reach. Yet here, on my own world, you tell me someone can be untouchable. InsufferableYour hand can reach to the University, Sire. You can send in your army and pluck out this Seldon at any moment you desire. To do so, however, is undesirable.Why dont you say impractical, Demerzel. You sound like the mathematician speaking of his fortune-telling. It is possible, but impractical. I am an Emperor who finds everything possible, but very little practical. Remember, Demerzel, if reaching Seldon is not practical, reaching you is entirely so.Eto Demerzel let this last comment pass. The man behind the throne knew his importance to the Emperor, he had heard such threats before. He waited in silence while the Emperor glowered. beat his fingers against the arm of his chair, Cleon asked, Well then, what good is this mathematician to us if he is at Streeling University?It may perhaps be possible, Sire, to snatch use out of adversity. At the University, he may decide to work on his psychohistory.Even though he insists its impractical?He may be wrong and he may find out that he is wrong. And if he finds out that he is wrong, we would find some way of getting him out of the University. It is even possible he would join us voluntarily under those circumstances.The Emperor remained lost in thought for a while, then said, And what if someone else plucks him out before we do?Who would want to do that, Sire? asked Demerzel softy.The Mayor of Wye, for one, said Cleon, suddenly shouting. He dreams still of fetching over the Empire.Old age has drawn his fangs, Sire.Dont you see it, Demerzel.And we have no reason for supposing he has any interest in Seldon or even knows of him, Sire.Come on, Demerzel. If we heard of the paper, so could Wye. If we see the possible importance of Seldon, so could Wye.If that should happen, said Demerzel, or even if there should be a reasonable chance of its happening, then we would be justified in taking strong measures.How strong?Demerzel said cautiously, It might be argued that rather than have Seldon in Wyes hands, we might prefer to have him in no ones hands. To have him cease to exist, Sire.To have him killed, you mean, said Cleon.If you wish to put it that way, Sire, said Demerzel.20.Hari Seldon sat back in his chair in the alcove that had been designate to him through Dors Venabilis intervention. He was dissatisfied. As a matter of fact, although that was the expression he used in his mind, he knew that it was a gross underestimation of his feelings. He was not simply dissatisfied, he was furious-all the more so because he wasnt sure what it was he was furious about. Was it about the histories? The writers and compilers of histories? The worlds and people that made the histories? Whatever the keister of his fury, it didnt really matter. What counted was that his notes were useless, his new knowledge was useless, everything was useless. He had been at the University now for almost six weeks. He had managed to find a computer outlet at the very start and with it had begun work-without instruction, but using the instincts he had developed over a number of years of mathematical labors. It had been slow and halting, but there was a certain pleasure in gradually determining the routes by which he could get his questions answered.Then came the week of instruction with Dors, which had taught him several d ozen shortcuts and had brought with it two sets of embarrassments. The first set included the sidelong glances he sure from the undergraduates, who seemed contemptuously aware of his greater age and who were disposed to frown a bit at Dorss constant use of the honorific Doctor in addressing him. I dont want them to think, she said, that youre some backward perpetual student taking remedial history.But surely youve established the point. Surely, a mere Seldon is sufficient now.No, Dors said and smiled suddenly. Besides, I like to call you Dr. Seldon. I like the way you look uncomfortable each time.You have a peculiar sense of sadistic humor.Would you deprive me?For some reason, that made him laugh. Surely, the natural reaction would have been to deny sadism. Somehow he found it pleasant that she accepted the clod of conversation and fired it back. The thought led to a natural question. Do you play tennis here at the University?We have courts, but I dont play.Good. Ill teach you. And when I do, Ill call you Professor Venabili.Thats what you call me in class anyway.Youll be surprised how ridiculous it will sound on the tennis court.I may get to like it.In that case, I will try to find what else you might get to like.I see you have a peculiar sense of salacious humor.She had put that evening gown in that spot deliberately and he said, Would you deprive me?She smiled and later did surprisingly well on the tennis court.Are you sure you never played tennis? he said, puffing, after one session.Positive, she said.The other set of embarrassments was more private. He learned the necessary techniques of historical research and then burned-in private-at his earlier attempts to make use of the computers memory. It was simply an entirely different mind-set from that used in mathematics. It was equally logical, he supposed, since it could be used, consistently and without error, to move in any(prenominal) direction he wanted to, but it was a substantially different brand of logic from that to which he was accustomed.But with or without instructions, whether he stumbled or moved in swiftly, he simply didnt get any results.His pain in the neck made itself felt on the tennis court. Dors quickly reached the stage where it was no longer necessary to lob easy balls at her to give her time to judge direction and distance. That made it easy to forget that she was just a beginner and he expressed his anger in his swing, firing the ball back at her as though it were a laser beam made solid.She came trotting up to the net and said, I can understand your wanting to kill me, since it must annoy you to watch me miss the shots so often. How is it, though, that you managed to miss my head by about three centimeters that time? I mean, you didnt even nick me. Cant you do better than that?Seldon, horrified, tried to explain, but only managed to sound incoherent.She said, Look. Im not going to face any other returns of yours today, so why dont we shower and then get tog ether for some tea and whatsoever and you can tell me just what you were trying to kill. If it wasnt my poor head and if you dont get the real victim off your chest, youll be entirely too dangerous on the other side of the net for me to want to serve as a target.Over tea he said, Dors, Ive scanned history after history just scanned, browsed. I havent had time for deep study yet. Even so, its start out obvious. All the book-films concentrate on the same few events.Crucial ones. History-making ones.Thats just an excuse. Theyre copying each other. There are twenty-five million worlds out there and theres significant mention of perhaps twenty-five.Dors said, Youre reading general Galactic histories only. Look up the special histories of some of the minor worlds. On every world, however small, the children are taught local histories before they ever find out theres a great big Galaxy outside. Dont you yourself know more about Helicon, right now, than you know about the rise of Trantor or of the Great interstellar War?That sort of knowledge is limited too, said Seldon gloomily. I know Heliconian geography and the stories of its settlement and of the malfeasance and misfeasance of the planet Jennisek-thats our traditional enemy, though our teachers carefully told us that we ought to say traditional rival. But I never learned anything about the contributions of Helicon to general Galactic history.Maybe there werent any.Dont be silly. Of course there were. There may not have been great, huge billet battles involving Helicon or crucial rebellions or peace treaties. There may not have been some Imperial competitor making his cornerstone on Helicon. But there must have been subtle influences. Surely, nothing can happen anywhere without affecting everywhere else. Yet theres nothing I can find to help me. See here, Dors. In mathematics, all can be found in the computer everything we know or have found out in twenty thousand years. In history, thats not so. Historians pi ck and choose and every one of them picks and chooses the same thing.But, Hari, said Dors, mathematics is an orderly thing of human invention. One thing follows from another. There are definitions and axioms, all of which are known. It is it is all one piece. History is different. It is the unconscious mind working out of the deeds and thoughts of quadrillions of human beings. Historians must pick and choose.Exactly, said Seldon, but I must know all of history if I am to work out the laws of psychohistory.In that case, you wont ever modernise the laws of psychohistory.That was yesterday. Now Seldon sat in his chair in his alcove, having spent another day of utter failure, and he could hear Dorss voice saying, In that case, you wont ever formulate the laws of psychohistory. It was what he had thought to begin with and if it hadnt been for Hummins conviction to the contrary and his odd skill to fire Seldon with his own blaze of conviction, Seldon would have continued to think so. A nd yet neither could he quite let go. Might there not be some way out?He couldnt think of any.