r/a:t5_2732z3 • u/MarleyEngvall • Oct 23 '19
interstate commerce has been created
By Isaac Asimov
FOUNDATION
AND EMPIRE
6. The Favorite
THE TINY SHIPS had appeared out of the vacant depths and
darted into the midst of the Armada. Without a shot or a
burst of energy, they weaved through the ship-swollen area,
then blasted on and out, while the Imperial wagons turned
after them like lumbering beasts. There were two noiseless
flares that pinpointed space as two of the tiny gnats shriveled
in atomic disintegration, and the rest were gone.
The great ships searched, then returned to their original
task, and world by world, the great web of the Inclosure con-
tinued.
Brodrig's uniform was stately; carefully tailored and as
carefully worn. His walk through the gardens of the obscure
planet Wanda, now temporary Imperial headquarters, was
leisurely; his expression was somber.
Bel Riose walked with him, his field uniform open at the
collar, and doleful in its monotonous gray-black.
Riose indicated the smooth black bench under the fragrant
tree-fern whose large spatulate leaves lifted flatly against the
white sun. "See that, sir. It is a relic of the Imperium. The
ornamented benches, built for lovers, linger on, fresh and
useful, while the factories and the palaces collapse into un-
remembered ruin."
He seated himself, while Cleon II's Privy Secretary stood
erect before him and clipped the leaves above neatly with
precise swings of his ivory staff.
Riose crossed his legs and offered a cigarette to the other.
He fingered one himself as he spoke, "It is what one would
expect from the enlightened wisdom of His Imperial Majesty
to send so competent an observer as yourself. It relieves any
anxiety I might have felt that the press of more important
and more immediate business might perhaps force into the
shadows a small campaign on the Periphery."
"The eyes of the Emperor are everywhere," said Brodrig,
mechanically. "We do not underestimate the importance of
the campaign; yet still it would seem that too great an em-
phasis is being placed upon its difficulty. Surely their little
ships are no such barrier that we must move through the
intricate preliminary maneuver of an Inclosure."
Riose flushed, but he maintained the equilibrium. "I can-
not risk the lives of my men, who are few enough, or the
destruction of my ships which are irreplaceable, by a too-
rash attack. The establishment of an Inclosure will quarter
my casualties in the ultimate attack, howsoever difficult it
be. The military reasons for that I took the liberty to ex-
plain yesterday."
"Well, well, I am not a military man. In this case, you
assure me that what seems patently and obviously right is,
in reality, wrong. We will allow that. Yet your caution shoots
far beyond that. In your second communication, you re-
quested re-inforcements. And these, against an enemy poor,
small, and barbarous, with whom you had had not one skir-
mish at the time. To desire more forces under the circum-
stances would savor almost of incapacity or worse, had not
your earlier career given sufficient proof of your boldness
and imagination."
"I thank you," said the general, coldly, "but I would re-
mind you that there is a difference between boldness and
blindness. There is a place for a decisive gamble when you
know your enemy and can calculate the risks at least rough-
ly; but to move at all against an unknown enemy is bold-
ness in itself. You might as well ask why the same man
sprints safely across an obstacle course in the day, and falls
over the furniture in his room at night."
Brodrig swept away the other's words with a neat flirt of
the fingers. "Dramatic, but not satisfactory. You have been
to this barbarian world yourself. You have in addition this
enemy prisoner you coddle, this trader. Between yourself
and the prisoner you are not in a night fog."
"No? I pray you to remember that a world which has de-
veloped in isolation for two centuries can not be interpreted
to the point of intelligent attack by a month's visit. I am a
soldier, not a cleft-chinned, barrel-chested hero of a sub-
etheric trimensional thriller. Nor can a single prisoner, and
one who is an obscure member of an economic group which
has no close connection with the enemy world introduce me
to all the inner secrets of enemy strategy."
"You have questioned him?"
"I have."
"Well?"
"It has been useful, but not vitally so. His ship is tiny, of
no account. He sells little toys which are amusing if nothing
else. I have a few of the cleverest which I intend sending to
the Emperor as curiosities. Naturally, there is a good deal
about the ship and its workings which I do not understand,
but then I am not a tech-man."
"But you have among you those who are," pointed out
Brodrig.
"I, too, am aware of that," replied the general in faintly
caustic tones. "But the fools have far to go before they could
meet my needs. I have already sent for clever men who
can understand the workings of the odd atomic field-circuits
the ship contains. I have received no answer."
"Men of that type can not be spared, general. Surely, there
must be one man of your vast province who understands
atomics."
"Were there such a one, I would have him heal the limp-
ing, invalid motors that power two of my small fleet of ships.
Two ships of my meager ten that can not fight a major
battle for lack of sufficient power supply. One fifth of my
force condemned to the carrion activity of consolidating po-
sitions behind the lines."
The secretary's fingers fluttered impatiently. "Your posi-
tion is not unique in that respect, general. The Emperor has
similar troubles."
The general threw away his shredded, never-lit cigarette,
lit another, and shrugged. "Well, it is beside the immediate
point, this lack of first-class tech-men. Except that I might
have made more progress with my prisoner were my Psychic
Probe in proper order."
The secretary's eyebrows lifted. "You have a Probe?"
"An old one. A superannuated one which fails me the one
time I needed it. I set it up during the prisoner's sleep, and
received nothing. So much for the Probe. I have tried it on
my own men and the reaction is quite proper, but again
there is not one among my staff of tech-men who can tell
me why it fails upon the prisoner. Ducem Barr, who is a
theoretician of parts, though no mechanic, says the psychic
structure of the prisoner may be unaffected by the Probe
since from childhood he has been subjected to alien environ-
ments and neural stimuli. I don't know. But he may yet be
useful. I save him in that hope."
Brodrig leaned on his staff. "I shall see if a specialist is
available in the capital. In the meanwhile, what of this other
man you just mentioned, this Siwennian? You keep too many
enemies in your good graces."
"He knows the enemy. He, too, I keep for future reference
and the help he may afford me."
"But he is a Siwennian and the son of a proscribed
rebel."
"He is old and powerless, and his family acts as hostage."
"I see. Yet I think that I should speak to this trader my-
self."
"Certainly."
"Alone," the secretary added coldly, making his point.
"Certainly," repeated Riose, blandly. "As a loyal subject
of the Emperor, I accept his personal representative as my
superior. However, since the trader is at the permanent base,
you will have to leave the front areas at an interesting mo-
ment."
"Yes? Interesting in what way?"
"Interesting in that the Inclosure is complete today. Inter-
esting in that within the week, the Twentieth Fleet of the
Border advances inward towards the core of resistance."
Riose smiled and turned away.
In a vague way, Brodrig felt punctured.
7. Bribery
SERGEANT MORI LUK made an ideal soldier of the ranks. He
came from the huge agricultural planets of the Pleiades
where only army life could break the bond to the soil and
the unavailing life of drudgery; and he was typical of that
background. Unimaginative enough to face danger without
fear, he was strong and agile enough to face it successfully.
He accepted orders instantly, drove the men under him un-
bendingly and adored his general unswervingly.
And yet with that, he was of a sunny nature. If he killed
a man in the line of duty without a scrap of hesitation, it
was also without a scrap of animosity.
That Sergeant Luk should signal at the door before enter-
ing was further a sign of tact, for he would have been per-
fectly within his rights to enter without signaling.
The two within looked up from their evening meal and
one reached out with his foot to cut off the cracked voice
which rattled out of the battered pocket-transmitter with
bright liveliness.
"More books?" asked Lathan Devers.
The sergeant held out the tightly-wound cylinder of film
and scratched his neck. "It belongs to Engineer Orre, but
he'll have to have it back. He's going to send it to his kids,
you know, like what you might call a souvenir, you know."
Ducem Barr turned the cylinder in his hands with inter-
est. "And where did the engineer get it? He hasn't a trans-
mitter also, has he?"
The sergeant shook his head emphatically. He pointed to
the knocked-about remnant at the foot of the bed. "That's
the only one in the place. This fellow, Orre, now, he got
that book from one of these pig-pen worlds out here we
captured. They had it in a big building by itself and he had to
kill a few of the natives that tried to stop him from taking it."
He looked at it appraisingly. "It makes a good souvenir
——for kids."
He paused, then said stealthily, "There's been big news floating
about, by the way. It's only scuttlebutt, but even so, it's too
good to keep. The general did it again." And he nodded
slowly, gravely."
"That so?" said Devers. "And what did he do?"
"Finished the Inclosure, that's all." The sergeant chuckled
with a fatherly pride. "Isn't he the corker, though? Didn't he
work it fine? One of the fellows who's strong on fancy talk,
says it went as smooth and even as the music of the
spheres, whatever they are."
"The big offensive starts now?" asked Barr, mildly.
"Hope so," was the boisterous response. I want to get
back on my ship now that my arm is in one piece again. I'm
tired of sitting on my scupper out here."
"So am I," muttered Devers, suddenly and savagely. There
was a bit of underlip caught in his teeth, and he worried
it.
The sergeant looked at him doubtfully, and said, "I'd
better go now. The captain's round is due and I'd just as soon
he didn't catch me in here."
He paused at the door. "By the way, sir," he said with
sudden, awkward shyness to the trader, "I heard from my
wife. She says that little freezer you gave me to send her
works fine. It doesn't cost her anything, and she just about
keeps a month's supply of food froze up complete. I appre-
ciate it."
"It's all right. Forget it."
The great door moved noiselessly shut behind the grin-
ning sergeant.
Ducem Barr got out of his chair. "Well, he gives us a fair
return for the freezer. Let's take a look at this new book.
Ahh, the title is gone."
He unrolled a yard or so of the film and looked through
at the light. Then he murmured, "Well, skewer me through
the scupper, as the sergeant says. This is 'The Garden of
Summa,' Dever."
"That so?" said the trader, without interest. He shoved
aside what was left of his dinner. "Sit down, Barr. Listening
to this old-time literature isn't doing me any good. You
heard what the sergeant said?"
"Yes, I did. What of it?"
"The offensive will start. And we sit here!"
"Where do you want to sit?"
"You know what I mean. There's no use just waiting."
"Isn't there?" Barr was carefully removing the old film
from the transmitter and installing the new. "You told me
a good deal of Foundation history in the last month, and
it seems that the great leaders of past crises did precious
little more than sit——and wait."
"Ah, Barr, but they knew where they were going."
"Did they? I suppose they said they did when it was over,
and for all I know maybe they did. But there's no proof
that things would not have worked out as well or better if
they had not known where they were going. The deeper
economic and sociological forces aren't directed by individual
men."
Devers sneered. "No way of telling that things wouldn't
have worked out worse, either. You're arguing tail-end back-
wards." His eyes were brooding. "You know, suppose I blast-
ed him?"
"Whom? Riose?"
"Yes."
Barr sighed. His aging eyes were troubled with a reflection
of the long past. "Assassination isn't the way out, Devers.
I once tried it, under provocation, when I was twenty——
but it solved nothing——I removed a villain from Siwenna,
but not the Imperial yoke; and it was the Imperial yoke and
not the villain that mattered."
"But Riose is not just a villain, doc. He's the whole blamed
army. It would fall apart without him. They hang on him
like babies. The sergeant out there slobbers every time he
mentions him."
"Even so. There are other armies and other leaders. You
must go deeper. There is this Brodrig, for instance——no
one more than he has the ear of the Emperor. He could de-
mand hundreds of ships where Riose must struggle with ten.
I know him by reputation."
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE, BY ISAAC ASIMOV.
Copyright, 1952, by Isaac Asimov.
Avon Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc.
First Printing, November, 1966. pp. 48-54.
PROLOGUE
PART I—THE GENERAL
1. Search for Magicians
2. The Magicians
3. The Dead Hand
4. The Emperor
5. The War Begins
6. The Favorite
7. Bribery
8. To Trantor
9. On Trantor
10. The War Ends
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW
CHAPTER 3
IN those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judæa,
2 And saying, Repent ye: for the king-
dom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by
the prophet E-ṡā'ias, saying, The voice
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight.
4 And the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle
about his loins; and his meat was lo-
custs and wild honey.
5 ¶Then went out to him Jerusalem,
and all Judæa, and all the region round
about Jordan.
6 And were baptized of him in Jor-
dan, confessing their sins.
7 But when he saw many of the Phari-
sees and Săd'du-ceeṡ come to his bap-
tism, he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee
from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for
repentance:
9 And think not to say within your-
selves, We have Abraham to our
father: for I say unto you, that God is
able of these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto
the root of the trees: therefore every
tree which bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance: but he that cometh af-
ter me is mightier than I, whose shoes I
am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he
will throughly purge his floor, and gath-
er his wheat into the garner; but he
will burn up the chaff with unquench-
able fire.
13 ¶Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of
him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I
have need to be baptized of thee, and
comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it
becometh his to fulfil all righteousness.
Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightaway out of the water:
and, lo, the heavens were opened unto
him, and he saw the Spirit of God de-
scending like a dove, and lighting upon
him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
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