Second Foundation 9. The Conspirators

For Dr. Dargonll and Pelleas Anthor, the even outs passed in friendly intercourse the eld in pleasant unimportance. It might suck been an ordinary visit. Dr. D bell introduced the young art object as a cousin from across space, and interest was dulled by the clich.Somehow, how eer, among the sm alone gurgle, a name might be manpowertioned. at that place would be an easy feelingfulness. Dr. Dargonll might say, No, or he might say, Yes. A prognosticate on the open Communi-wave issued a casual invitation, Want you to meet my cousin.And Arcadias preparations passed in their aver objet dartner. In fact, her actions might be considered the least straightforward of all.For instance, she induce Olynthus Dam at school to donate to her a home-built, self-contained sound-receiver by methods which indicated a future for her that promised peril to all males with whom she might tell apart into contact. To eliminate details, she still exhibited much(prenominal) an interest in Olynt hus self-publicized hobby he had a home workshop-combined with such a strong-modulated transfer of this interest to Olynthus own fat features, that the unfortunate youth found himself 1) discoursing at great and animated space upon the principles of the hyperwave motor 2) becoming dizzyingly aware of the great, absor fanny eyeball that rested so lightly upon his and 3) forcing into her willing strives his own superlative creation, the afore verbalise sound-receiver.Arcadia civil Olynthus in diminishing degree on that pointafter for save long decorous to remove all suspicion that the sound-receiver had been the ca single-valued function of the friendship. For months after, Olynthus snarl the reminiscence of that laconic period in his life over and over a realize with the tendrils of his nous, until finally, for deficiency of further addition, he gave up and let it slip a trend.When the seventh evening came, and five men sit in the Darell living room with provender wi thin and tobacco without, Arcadias desk upstairs was occupied by this quite unrecognisable home-product of Olynthus ingenuity.Five men historical. Dr. Darell, of course, with graying hair and meticulous clothing, looking somewhat one-time(a) than his forty-two long time. Pelleas Author, serious and quick-eyed at the moment looking young and unsure of himself. And the three new men Jole Turbor, visicastor, bulky and plump-lipped Dr. Elvett Semic, professor-emeritus of physics at the University, tightly fitting and wrinkled, his clothes more thanover half-filled Homir Munn, librarian, lanky and terribly ill-at-ease.Dr. Darell spoke easily, in a normal, matter-of-fact tone This gathering has been arranged, gentlemen, for a trifle more than merely social reasons. You may collapse guessed this. Since you arrive at been deliberately chosen because of your backgrounds, you may also guess the danger involved. I wont minimize it, save I will point out that we are all condemned men , in either case.You will nonice that none of you admit been invited with every(prenominal) attempt at secrecy. None of you have been asked to come here unseen. The windows are not adjust to non-insight. No screen of any sort is about the room. We have just to attract the attention of the enemy to be ruined and the best way to attract that attention is to assume a false and theatrical secrecy.(Hah, supposition Arcadia, bending over the voices coming a bit screechily out of the subaltern box.)Do you understand that?Elvett Semic twitched his lower lip and bared his teeth in the screwup, wrinkled gesture that preceded his all(prenominal) directence. Oh, germinate on with it. Tell us about the youngster.Dr. Darell maintain, Pelleas Anthor is his name. He was a student of my old colleague, Kleise, who died last year. Kleise sent me his brain-pattern to the fifth sublevel, before he died, which pattern has been now checked against that of the man before you. You get laid, o f course, that a brain-pattern dissolvenot be duplicated that far, even by men of the erudition of Psychology. If you dont know that, youll have to clear my word for it.Turbor verbalize, purse-lipped, We might as well make a beginning somewheres. Well take your word for it, especially since youre the greatest electroneurologist in the Galaxy now that Kleise is dead. At least, that is the way Ive described you in my visicast comment, and I even gestate it myself. How old are you, Anthor?Twenty-nine, Mr. Turbor.Hm-m-m. And are you an electroneurologist, excessively? A great one?Just a student of the science. save I work hard, and Ive had the benefit of Kleises training.Munn broke in. He had a comminuted stammer at periods of tension. I I wish youd g get started. I look at everyones t talking also practically.Dr. Darell lifted an forehead in Munns direction. youre right, Homir. Take over, Pelleas. non for a while, said Pelleas Anthor, slowly, because before we can get start ed although I appreciate Mr. Munns sentiment I must(prenominal) collect brain-wave tuition.Darell frowned. What is this, Anthor? What brain-wave data do you refer to?The patterns of all of you. You have taken mine, Dr. Darell. I must take yours and those of the rest of you. And I must take the measurements myself.Turbor said, Theres no reason for him to trust us, Darell. The young man is within his rights.Thank you, said Anthor. If youll lead the way to your laboratory then, Dr. Darell, well proceed. I took the liberty this good morning of checking your apparatus.The science of electroencephalography was at once new and old. It was old in the adept that the knowledge of the microcurrents generated by nerve cells of living beings belonged to that immense category of humankind knowledge whose origin was completely lost. It was knowledge that stretched back as far as the earliest remnants of human history-And yet it was new, too. The fact of the institution of microcurrents slumbered by dint of the tens of potassiums of years of Galactic Empire as one of those vivid and whimsical, but quite useless, items of human knowledge. Some had attempted to form classifications of waves into waking and sleeping, settle down and excited, well and ill but even the broadest conceptions had had their hordes of vitiating exceptions.Others had tried to show the existence of brain-wave groups, analogous to the well-known blood groups, and to show that external environment was the defining factor. These were the race-minded hoi polloi who claimed that manhood could be divided into subspecies. notwithstanding such a philosophy could make no headway against the overwhelming ecumenical occupy involved in the fact of Galactic Empire one policy-making unit covering twenty million stellar systems, involving all of Man from the central world of Trantor now a gorgeous and impossible memory of the great past to the loneliest asteroid on the periphery.And then again, in a society given over, as that of the First Empire was, to the physical sciences and dyspneal technology, in that respect was a vague but mighty sociological shake absent from the study of the mind. It was less respectable because less immediately utile and it was poorly financed since it was less profitable.After the disintegration of the First Empire, there came the atomization of organized science, back, back past even the fundamentals of atomic send office staff into the chemical power of coal and oil. The one exception to this, of course, was the First stern where the spark of science, revitalized and grown more intense was fight downed and cater to flame. Yet there, too, it was the physical that ruled, and the brain, except for surgery, was neglected ground.Hari Seldon was the premiere to express what afterwards came to be accepted as truth.Neural microcurrents, he once said, bleed within them the spark of every varying impulse and response, conscious and unco nscious. The brain-waves save on neatly squared paper in trembling peaks and troughs are the mirrors of the combined thought-pulses of billions of cells. Theoretically, analysis should reveal the thoughts and emotions of the subject, to the last and least. Differences should be detected that are due not only to gross physical defects, inherited or acquired, but also to shifting states of emotion, to advancing education and experience, even to something as subtle as a change in the subjects philosophy of life.But even Seldon could approach no further than speculation.And now for fifty years, the men of the First prat had been tearing at that incredibly vast and obscure storehouse of new knowledge. The approach, naturally, was made done new techniques as, for example, the use of electrodes at skull sutures by a newly-developed means which enabled contact to be made presently with the gray cells, without even the necessity of shaving a patch of skull. And then there was a recordi ng device which automatically recorded the brain-wave data as an overall total, and as separate functions of six independent variables.What was more or less significant, perhaps, was the growing respect in which encephalography and the encephalographer was held. Kleise, the greatest of them, sat at scientific conventions on an equal basis with the physicist. Dr. Darell, though no longer combat-ready in the science, was known for his brilliant advances in encephalographic analysis almost as much as for the fact that he was the son of Bayta Darell, the great heroine of the past generation.And so now, Dr. Darell sat in his own chair, with the delicate touch of the feathery electrodes scarcely hinting at pressure upon his skull, while the vacuum-incased trainles wavered to and fro. His back was to the recorder new(prenominal)wise, as was well known, the sight of the moving curves induced an unconscious effort to halt them, with noticeable resolutenesss but he knew that the cent ral dial was expressing the strongly chantlike and little-varying Sigma curve, which was to be expected of his own powerful and disciplined mind. It would be alter and purified in the subsidiary dial dealing with the Cerebellar wave. There would be the sharp, near-discontinuous leaps from the frontal lobe, and the subdued shakiness from the subsur vitrine regions with its narrow range of frequencies-He knew his own brain-wave pattern much as an artist might be dead aware of the color of his eye.Pelleas Anthor made no comment when Darell uprise from the reclining chair. The young man abstracted the seven recordings, glanced at them with the quick, all-embracing eyes of one who knows exactly what tiny facet of near- vigorness is being looked for.If you dont mind, Dr. Semic.Semics age-yellowed face was serious. Electroencephalography was a science of his old age of which he knew little an upstart that he faintly resented. He knew that he was old and that his wave-pattern would show it. The wrinkles on his face showed it, the stoop in his walk, the shaking of his hand but they spoke only of his body. The brain-wave patterns might show that his mind was old, too. An embarrassing and unwarranted invasion of a mans last protecting stronghold, his own mind.The electrodes were adjusted. The process did not hurt, of course, from beginning to end. There was just that tiny tingle, far below the threshold of sensation.And then came Turbor, who sat quietly and unemotionally through the fifteen minute process, and Munn, who jerked at the jump touch of the electrodes and then spent the session rolling his eyes as though he wished he could turn them backwards and watch through a hole in his occiput.And now- said Darell, when all was done.And now, said Anthor, apologetically, there is one more person in the house.Darell, frowning, said My daughter?Yes. I suggested that she stay home tonight, if youll remember.For encephalographical analysis? What in the Galaxy for?I canno t proceed without it.Darell shrugged and climbed the stairs. Arcadia, amply warned, had the sound-receiver off when he entered then followed him down with mild obedience. It was the first time in her life except for the taking of her elementary mind pattern as an infant, for identification and registration purposes that she found herself under the electrodes. whitethorn I see, she asked, when it was over, holding out her hand.Dr. Darell said, You would not understand, Arcadia. Isnt it time for you to go to bed?Yes, father, she said, demurely. Good night, all.She ran up the stairs and plumped into bed with a minimum of basic preparation. With Olynthus sound-receiver propped beside her pillow, she felt like a character out of a book-film, and hugged every moment of it close to her chest in an ecstasy of Spy-stuff.The first haggle she heard were Anthors and they were The analyses, gentlemen, are all satisfactory. The childs as well.Child, she thought disgustedly, and bristled at An thor in the darkness.Anthor had opened his briefcase now, and out of it, he took several dozen brain-wave records. They were not originals. Nor had the briefcase been fitted with an ordinary lock. Had the key been held in any hand other than his own, the content thereof would have silently and instantly oxidized to an indecipherable ash. at once removed from the briefcase, the records did so anyway after half an hour.But during their unforesightful lifetime, Anthor spoke quickly. I have the records here of several minor organization officials at Anacreon. This is a psychologist at Locris University this an industrialist at Siwenna. The rest are as you see.They crowded closely. To all but Darell, they were so many quivers on parchment. To Darell, they yelled with a million tongues.Anthor pointed lightly, I call your attention, Dr. Darell, to the plateau region among the secondhand Tauian waves in the frontal lobe, which is what all these records have in common. Would you use my uninflected Rule, sir, to check my statement?The Analytical Rule might be considered a distant relation as a skyscraper is to a shack of that kindergarten toy, the logarithmic Slide Rule. Darell utilize it with the wristflip of long practice. He made freehand drawings of the result and, as Anthor stated, there were featureless plateaus in frontal lobe regions where strong swings should have been expected.How would you interpret that, Dr. Darell? asked Anthor.Im not sure. Offhand, I dont see how its possible. Even in cases of amnesia, there is suppression, but not removal. Drastic brain surgery, perhaps?Oh, somethings been cut out, cried Anthor, impatiently, yes Not in the physical sense, however. You know, the Mule could have done just that. He could have suppressed completely all capacity for a accredited emotion or attitude of mind, and leave nothing but just such a flatness. Or else-Or else the befriend asylum could have done it. Is that it? asked Turbor, with a slow smile .There was no real need to answer that thoroughly rhetorical question.What made you suspicious, Mr. Anthor? asked Munn.It wasnt I. It was Dr. Kleise. He collected brain-wave patterns much as the Planetary Police do, but along different lines. He specialized in intellectuals, government officials and business leaders. You see, its quite obvious that if the reciprocal ohm Foundation is directing the historical course of the Galaxy of us that they must do it subtly and in as minimal a style as possible. If they work through minds, as they must, it is the minds of people with influence culturally, industrially, or politically. And with those he guardianshiped himself.Yes, objected Munn, but is there corroboration? How do these people act I mean the ones with the plateau. Maybe its all a perfectly normal phenomenon. He looked hopelessly at the others out of his, somehow, childlike no-good eyes, but met no encouraging return.I leave that to Dr. Darell, said Anthor. remove him how many times hes seen this phenomenon in his general studies, or in account cases in the literature over the past generation. Then ask him the chances of it being detect in almost one out of every thousand cases among the categories Dr. Kleise studied.I suppose that there is no doubt, said Darell, thoughtfully, that these are arranged mentalities. They have been tampered with. In a way, I have suspected this-I know that, Dr. Darell, said Author. I also know you once worked with Dr. Kleise. I would like to know why you halt.There wasnt actually hostility in his question. Perhaps nothing more than caution but, at any rate, it resulted in a long pause. Darell looked from one to another of his guests, then said brusquely, Because there was no point to Kleises battle. He was competing with an adversary too strong for him. He was detecting what we he and I knew he would detect that we were not our own masters. And I didnt want to know I had my self-respect. I liked to entail that ou r Foundation was captain of its collective soul that our forefathers had not quite fought and died for nothing. I thought it would be most simple to turn my face away as long as I was not quite sure. I didnt need my position since the Government pension awarded to my mothers family in perpetuity would take care of my uncomplicated needs. My home laboratory would suffice to keep ennui away, and life would some day end Then Kleise died-Semic showed his teeth and said This fellow Kleise I dont know him. How did he die?Anthor cut in He died. He thought he would. He told me half a year before that he was getting too close-Now were too c close, too, arent we? suggested Munn, dry-mouthed, as his Adams apple jiggled.Yes, said Anthor, flatly, but we were, anyway all of us. Its why youve all been chosen. Im Kleises student. Dr. Darell was his colleague. Jole Turbor has been denouncing our blind faith in the saving hand of the twinkling Foundation on the air, until the government shut him off through the agency, I might mention, of a powerful financier whose brain shows what Kleise used to call the Tamper Plateau. Homir Munn has the largest home allurement of Muliana if I may use the phrase to signify collected data concerning the Mule in existence, and has published some papers containing speculation on the nature and function of the sulphur Foundation. Dr. Semic has contributed as much as anyone to the mathematics of encephalographic analysis, though I dont believe he realized that his mathematics could be so applied.Semic opened his eyes wide and chuckled gaspingly, No, young fellow. I was analyzing intranuclear motions the n-body problem, you know. Im lost in encephalography.Then we know where we stand. The government can, of course, do nothing about the matter. Whether the mayor or anyone in his administration is aware of the seriousness of the situation, I dont know. But this I do know we five have nothing to lose and stand to gain much. With every incr ease in our knowledge, we can widen ourselves in estimable directions. We are but a beginning, you understand.How widespread, put in Turbor, is this Second Foundation infiltration?I dont know. Theres a flat answer. All the infiltrations we have discovered were on the outer fringes of the nation. The capital world may yet be clean, though even that is not certain else I would not have tested you. You were particularly suspicious, Dr. Darell, since you abandoned research with Kleise. Kleise never forgave you, you know. I thought that perhaps the Second Foundation had corrupted you, but Kleise always insisted that you were a coward. Youll forgive me, Dr. Darell, if I explain this to make my own position clear. I, personally, think I understand your attitude, and, if it was cowardice, I consider it venial.Darell drew a glimmer before replying. I ran away Call it what you wish. I tried to maintain our friendship, however, yet he never wrote nor called me until the day he sent me your perceptiveness data, and that was scarcely a week before he died-If you dont mind, interrupted Homir Munn, with a flash of nervous eloquence, I d dont see what you think youre doing. Were a p poor bunch of conspirators, if were just going to talk and talk and t talk. And I dont see what else we can do, anyway. This is v very childish. B brain-waves and mumbo jumbo and all that. Is there just one thing you cerebrate to do?Pelleas Authors eyes were bright, Yes, there is. We need more information on the Second Foundation. Its the prime necessity. The Mule spent the first five years of his rule in just that quest for information and failed or so we have all been led to believe. But then he stopped looking. Why? Because he failed? Or because he succeeded?M more talk, said Munn, bitterly. How are we ever to know?If youll listen to me The Mules capital was on Kalgan. Kalgan was not part of the Foundations commercial sphere of influence before the Mule and it is not part of it now. Kalg an is ruled, at the moment, by the man, Stettin, unless theres another palace revolution by tomorrow. Stettin calls himself First Citizen and considers himself the successor of the Mule. If there is any tradition in that world, it rests with the super-humanity and magnificence of the Mule a tradition almost superstitious in intensity. As a result, the Mules old palace is maintained as a shrine. No unauthorized person may enter nothing within has ever been touched.Well?Well, why is that so? At times like these, nothing happens without a reason. What if it is not superstition only that makes the Mules palace inviolate? What if the Second Foundation has so arranged matters? In short what if the results of the Mules five-year search are within-Oh, p poppycock.Why not? demanded Anthor. Throughout its history the Second Foundation has hidden itself and interfered in Galactic affairs in minimal look only. I know that to us it would seem more logical to exterminate the Palace or, at the least, to remove the data. But you must consider the psychology of these master psychologists. They are Seldons they are Mules and they work by indirection, through the mind. They would never destroy or remove when they could achieve their ends by creating a state of mind. Eh?No immediate answer, and Anthor continued, And you, Munn, are just the one to get the information we need.I?*** It was an astounded yell. Munn looked from one to the other rapidly, I cant do such a thing. Im no man of action no hero of any teleview. Im a librarian. If I can help you that way, all right, and Ill risk the Second Foundation, but Im not going out into space on any qu quixotic thing like that.Now, look, said Anthor, patiently, Dr. Darell and I have both agreed that youre the man. Its the only way to do it naturally. You say youre a librarian. finely What is your main field of interest? Muliana You already have the greatest collection of material on the Mule in the Galaxy. It is natural for you to want more more natural for you than for anyone else. You could request entrance to the Kalgan Palace without arousing suspicion of later(a) motives. You might be refused but you would not be suspected. Whats more, you have a one-man cruiser. Youre known to have visited foreign planets during your annual vacation. Youve even been on Kalgan before. Dont you understand that you need only act as you always have?But I cant just say, W wont you kindly let me in to your most sacred shrine, M Mr. First Citizen? Why not?Because, by the Galaxy, he wont let meAll right, then. So he wont Then youll come home and well think of something else.Munn looked about in helpless rebellion. He felt himself being talked into something he hated. No one offered to help him extricate himself.So in the end two decisions were made in Dr. Darells house. The first was a reluctant one of agreement on the part of Munn to take off into space as soon as his summer vacation began.The other was a highly unauthorized decision on the part of a thoroughly unofficial member of the gathering, made as she clicked off a sound-receiver and composed herself for a belated sleep. This second decision does not concern us just yet.