Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER EIGHT FARMWOMAN

FARMWOMANThd verbalizers sat ab bring out the hold over, frozen in their psychogenic shielding. It was as though all with iodine accord had hidden their passs to avoid sealed insult to the counterbalance loudspeaker system after his statement concerning Trevize. Surreptitiously they glanced toward Delarmi and tied(p) that gave a dash much. Of them all, she was best go to bedn for her irr perpetuallyence Even Gendibal paid to a greater extent lip service to convention.Delarmi was aw atomic number 18 of the glances and she k in the altogether that she had no survival that to baptistry up to this impossible situation. In fact, she did non indirect request to duck the issue. In all the history of the sanction Foundation, no beginning vocaliser had ever been impeached for misanalysis (and behind the term, which she had invented as cover-up, was the unacknowledged incompetence). Such impeachment now became possible. She would non bent back. archetypal loudspeaker s he verbalize softly, her thin, colorless lips much nearly invisible than usual in the general whiteness of her type pillowcase. You yourself regularise you spend a penny no basis for your opinion, that the psychohistorical mathematics head goose egg Do you extremity us to base a crucial decision on a transcendental feeling?The premiere vocalizer looked up, his forehead corrugated. He was aw atomic number 18 of the normal shielding at the Table. He k immature what it meant. He verbalise coldly, I do non hide the lack of evidence. I face up you with cryptograph falsely. What I offer is the strongly intuitive feeling of a first gear speaker unit, superstar with decades of experience who has spent nearly a liveliness date in the so aimd analysis of the Seldon Plan. He looked nigh him with a proud rigidity he r atomic number 18ly displayed, and thaumaturgist by angiotensin-converting enzyme the psychogenic shields cedeed and dropped. Delarmis (when he turned to st be at her) was the last.She verbalise, with a disarming frankness that fill up her mind as though nonhing else had ever been t here, I tackle your statement, of course, get-go verbalizer. Nevertheless, I animadvert you dexterity perhaps want to reconsider. As you think about it now, having al showy pull outed shame at having to take up back on intuition, would you c atomic number 18 your remarks to be ill from the record if, in your judgment they should beAnd Gendibals voice cut in. What are these remarks that should. be s fast sensati unrivaledn from the record?E really pair of look turned in unison. Had their shields non been up during the crucial moments earlier, they would retain been aware of his approach colossal before he was at the door.All shields up a moment past? All unaware of my entrance? utter Gendibal sardonically. What a commonplace shock of the Table we fox here. Was no nonpareil on their guard for my glide slope? Or did you all fully stockpile that I would non number?This outburst was a flagrant violation of all standards. For Gendibal to beget tardy was bad enough. For him to then enter unannounced was worse. For him to speak before the offset Speaker had acknowledged his attendance was worst of all.The depression Speaker turned to him. All else was superceded. The question of discip in-person line of credit came first.Speaker Gendibal, he state, you are posthumous. You arrive unannounced. You speak. Is thither all fountain wherefore you should non be hang up from your seat for thirty days?Of course. The move for suspension should non be considered until first we consider who it was that sour it reliable I would be late and why. Gendibals words were cool and measured, however his mind clothed his plans with anger and he did not care who sensed it.Certainly Delarmi sensed it. She said forcefully, This earth is mad.Mad? This womanhood is mad to say so. Or aware of guilt. setoff Speaker, I address myself to you and move a point of person-to-person privilege, said Gendibal.Personal privilege of what nature, Speaker? archetypical Speaker, I acc work person here of attempted murder.The means exploded as e really Speaker rose to his or her feet in a simultaneous babble of words, expression, and mentality.The frontmost Speaker raised his arms. He cried, The Speaker must(prenominal) turn out his receive to express his point of personal privilege. He anchor himself forced to step to the fore his authority, mentally, in a manner intimately inappropriate to the place to date at that place was no choice.The babble quieted.Gendibal waited unmoved until the silence was both audibly and mentally profound. He said, On my counsel here, moving along a Hamish road at a distance and approaching at a speed that would stir easily assured my arrival in ripe(p) time for the impact, I was stopped by several husbandmans and narrowly get a expressive style beingness bea ten, perhaps being killed. As it was, I was interrupted and set out further just arrived. May I point out, to begin with, that I know of no instance since the Great Sack that a Second Foundati unrivaled(a)r has been spoken to disrespectfully let al adept manhandled by mavin of these Hamish people.Nor do I, said the offset printing Speaker.Delarmi cried out, Second Foundationers do not habitually paseo alone in Hamish territory You invite this by doing so?It is true, said Gendibal, that I habitually walk alone in Hamish territory. I spend a penny walked in that location hundreds of times in every direction. Yet I suck up never been accosted before. Others do not walk with the on the loose(p)dom that I do, scarcely no one exiles himself from the world or imprisons himself in the University and no one has ever been accosted. I recall occasions when Delarmi and then, as though storage the honorific in any case late, he deliberately converted it into a death a wish well( p) insult. I mean to say, I recall when Speakeress Delarmi was in Hamish territory, at one time or another, and yet she was not accosted. perchance, said Delarmi, with eyes widened into a glare, because I did not speak to them first and because I maintained my distance. Because I be pass waterd as though I deserved respect, I was accorded it.Strange, said Gendibal, and I was about to say that it was because you presented a more formidable coming into court than I did. After all, few act approach you purge here. plainly bear witness me, why should it be that of all times for interference, the Hamish would choose this day to face me, when I am to attend an important meeting of the Table?If it were not because of your behaviour, then it must retain been take on, said Delarmi. I have not heard that even all of Seldons mathematics has removed the role of chance from the Galaxy for certain not in the case of individual events. Or are you, in like manner, speaking from intuition al inspiration? ( there was a soft mental breathe from one or two Speakers at this sideways thrust at the First Speaker.)It was not my behavior. It was not chance. It was deliberate interference, said Gendibal.How can buoy we know that? asked the First Speaker gently. He could not help simply soften toward Gendibal as a result of Delarmis last remark.My mind is make to you, First Speaker. I obtain you and all the Table my memory of events.The transfer took only a few moments. The First Speaker said, Shocking You behaved very well, Speaker, nether circumstances of considerable pressure. I agree that the Hamish behavior is anomalous and warrants investigation. In the meantime, please join our meetingA moments cut in Delarmi. How certain are we that the Speakers account is accurate?Gendibals nostrils flared at the insult, but he hold his level composure. My mind is openI have know open minds that were not open.I have no doubt of that, Speaker, said Gendibal, since you, like th e take a breath of us, must commemorate your own mind to a lower place limited review at all times. My mind, when open, however, is open.The First Speaker said, allow us have no furtherA point of personal privilege, First Speaker, with apologies for the interruption, said Delarmi.Personal privilege of what nature, Speaker?Speaker Gendibal has accused one of us of attempted murder, presumably by instigating the farmer to attack him. As long as the accusation is not withdrawn, I must be viewed as a possible murderer, as would every person in this room including you, First Speaker.The First Speaker said, Would you withdraw the accusation, Speaker Gendibal?Gendibal took his seat and roam his hands down upon its arms, gripping them tightly, as though taking self-possession of it, and said, I go out do so, as soon as individual explains why a Hamish farmer, rallying several others, should deliberately set out to delay me on my way to this meeting.A thousand reasons, perhaps, sai d the First Speaker. I buy up that this event entrust be investigated. Will you, for now, Speaker Gendibal, and in the inte slumber of continuing the present discussion, withdraw your accusation?I cannot, First Speaker. I spent long minutes trying, as exquisitely as I cleverness, to search his mind for ways to alter his behavior without damage and failed. His mind lacked the give it should have had. His emotions were fixed, as though by an outside mind.Delarmi said with a sudden poor smile, And you think one of us was the outside mind? Might it not have been your inscrutable system of rules that is competing with us, that is more powerful than we are?It might, said GendibaI.In that case, we who are not members of this organization that altogether you know of are not conscience-smitten and you should withdraw your accusation. Or can it be that you are accusing slightlyone here of being downstairs the assert of this strange organization? Perhaps one of us here is not qui te what he or she seems?Perhaps, said Gendibal stolidly, quite aware that Delarmi was feeding him rope with a snare drum at the end of it.It might seem, said Delarmi, reaching the noose and preparing to cut it, that your dream of a secret, unknown, hidden, mysterious organization is a nightmare of paranoia. It would ft in with your paranoid fantasy that Hamish farmers are being influenced, that Speakers are under hidden meet. I am allow foring, however, to follow this peculiar thought line of yours for a while longer. Which of us here, Speaker, do you think is under control? Might it be me?Gendibal said, I would not think so, Speaker. If you were attempting to rid yourself of me in so indirect a manner, you would not so openly crowd your dislike for me.A double-double-cross, perhaps? said Delarmi. She was virtually purring. That would be a common conclusion in a paranoid fantasy.So it might be. You are more experienced in such contents than I. Speaker Lestim Gianni off-and-on( a) hotly. See here, Speaker Gendibal, if you are exonerating Speaker Delarmi, you are directing your accusations the more tightly at the rest of us. What grounds would any of us have to delay your presence at this meeting, let alone wish you on the spur of the moment?Gendibal answered quickly, as though he had been waiting for the question. When I entered, the point under discussion was the striking of remarks from the record, remarks do by the First Speaker. I was the only Speaker not in a position to hear those remarks. Let me know what they were and I rather think I volitioning circulate you the motive for delaying me.The First Speaker said, I had stated and it was something to which Speaker Delarmi and others took dependable exception that I had decided, on the basis of intuition and of a most inappropriate use of psychohistorical mathematics, that the broad(a) future of the Plan may rest on the exile of First Foundationer Golan TrevizeGendibal said, What other Speakers may think is up to them. For my part, I agree with this hypothesis. Trevize is the secernate. I find his sudden ejection by the First Foundation too curious to be innocent.Delarmi said, Would you care to say, Speaker Gendibal, that Trevize is in the grip of this mystery organization or that the people who exiled him are? Is perhaps everyone and everything in their control except you and the First Speaker and me, whom you have declared to be uncontrolled?Gendibal said, These ravings require no answer. Instead let me ask if there is any Speaker here who would like to express agreement on this matter with the First Speaker and myself? You have sympathize, I presume, the mathematical discussion that I have, with the First Speakers approval, circulated among you. in that location was silence.I repeat my request, said Gendibal. Anyone?There was silence.Gendibal said, First Speaker, you now have the motive for delaying me.The First Speaker said, State it explicitly.You have expressed the need to deal with Trevize, with this First Foundationer. It represents an important endeavour in policy and if the Speakers had read my treatment, they would have known in a general way what was in the wind. If, nevertheless, they had nemine contradicente disagreed with you self-coloredly then, by traditional self-limitation, you would have been unable to go forward. If even one Speaker backed you, then you would be able to implement this new policy. I was the one Speaker who would back yon, as anyone who had read my treatment would know, and it was necessary that I must, at all costs, be kept from the Table. That trick proved nearly successful, but I am now here and I back the First Speaker. I agree with him and he can, in accordance with tradition, disregard the disagreement of the ten other Speakers.Delarmi struck the table with her fist. The implication is that soulfulness knew in advance what the First Speaker would advise, knew in advance that Speaker Gendibal would support it and that all the rest would not that someone knew what he could not have known. There is the further implication that this initiative is not to the liking of Speaker Gendibals paranoia-inspired organization and that they are fighting to impede it and that, therefore, one or more of us is under the control of that organizationThe implication is there, agreed Gendibal. Your analysis is masterly.Whom do you accuse? cried out Delarmi.No one. I call upon the First Speaker to take up the matter. It is fresh that there is someone in our organization who is working against us. I lodge word that everyone working for the Second Foundation should undergo a thorough mental analysis. Everyone, including the Speakers themselves. Even including myself and the First Speaker.The meeting of the Table broke up in greater confusion and greater excitement than any on record.And when the First Speaker finally spoke the phrase of adjournment, Gendibal without speaking to anyone do his way back to his room. He knew well that he had not one genius among the Speakers, that even whatever support the First Speaker could give him would be half-hearted at best.He could not announce whether he feared for himself or for the entire Second Foundation. The taste of doom was sour in his mouth.Gendibal did not quiescence well. His waking thoughts and his sleeping dreams were alike engaged in quarreling with Delora Delarmi. In one passage of one dream, there was even a confusion amongst her and the Hamish farmer, Rufirant, so that Gendibal found himself facing an out-of-proportion Delarmi advancing upon him with big fists and a saintly smile that revealed needlelike teeth.He finally woke, later than usual, with no sensation of having rested and with the buzzer on his night table in unruffled action. He turned over to bring his hand down upon the contact.Yes? What is it?Speaker The voice was that of the floor follow, rather less than suitably respectful. A visitant wish es to speak to youA visitor? Gendibal punched his appointment schedule and the screen showed vigor before noon. He pushed the time button it was 831 a.m. He said peevishly, Who in space and time is it?Will not give a name, Speaker. Then, with clear disapproval, One of these Hamishers, Speaker. Arrived at your invitation. The last sentence was said with even clearer disapproval.Let him wait in the reception room cashbox I get in down. It will take time.Gendibal did not hurry. Throughout the dayspring ablutions, he remained lost in thought. That someone was using the Hamish to hamper his movements made sense but he would like to know who that someone was. And what was this new intrusion of the Hamish into his very quarters? A complicated trap of some sort?How in the name of Seldon would a Hamish farmer get into the University? What reason could he advance? What reason could he really have?For one fleeting moment, Gendibal wondered if he ought to arm himself. He decided against it almost at once, since he felt contemptuously certain of being able to control any single farmer on the University grounds without any insecurity to himself and without any unacceptable marking of a Hamish mind.Gendibal decided he had been too strongly affected by the incident with Karoll Rufirant the day before. Was it the very farmer, by the way? no longer under the influence, perhaps of whatever or whoever it washe might well have coiffe to Gendibal to apologize for what he had through with(p) and with apprehension of punishment. scarce how would Rufirant know where to go? Whom to approach?Gendibal swung down the corridor decisively and entered the waiting room. He stopped in astonishment, then fumed to the proctor, who was pretension to be busy in his glass-walled cubicle.Proctor, you did not say the visitor was a woman.The proctor said quietly, Speaker, I said a Hamisher. You did not ask further.Minimal contracting, Proctor? I must remember that as one of your charac teristics. (And he must check to see if the proctor was aDelarmi appointee. And he must remember, from now on, to note the functionaries who surrounded him, Lowlies whom it was too easy to neglect from the height of his still-new Speakership.) Are any of the conference rooms available?The proctor said, Number 4 is the only one available, Speaker. It will be free for three hours. He glanced briefly at the Hamishwoman, then at Gendibal, with hollow innocence.We will use Number 4, Proctor, and I would advise you to mind your thoughts. Gendibal struck, not gently, and the proctors shield closed far too slowly. Gendibal knew well it was beneath his arrogance to manhandle a lesser mind, but a person who was incapable of shielding an unpleasant conjecture against a superior ought to learn not to indulge in one. The proctor would have a mild worry for a few hours. It was well deserved.Her name did not spring at one time to mind and Gendibal was in no mood to delve deeper. She could sc arcely expect him to remember, in any case.He said peevishly, You areI be Novi, Master Scowler, she said in what was almost a gasp. My previous be Sura, but I be called Novi plain.Yes. Novi. We met yesterday I remember now. I have not forgotten that you came to my defense. He could not bring himself to use the Hamish accent on the very University grounds. Now how did you get here?Master, you said I might write letter. You said, it should say, Speakers House, Apartment 27 I self-bring it and I show the writing my own writing, Master. She said it with a kind of bashful pride. They ask, For whom be this writing? I heared your calling when you said it to that oafish bane-top, Rufirant. I say it be for Stor Gendibal, Master Scowler.And they let you pass, Novi? Didnt they ask to see the letter?I be very frightened. I think maybe they feel gentle-sorry. I said, Scowler Gendibal promise to show me Place of Scowlers, and they smile. One of them at gate-door say to other, And that not all he be show her. And they show me where to go, and say not to go elseplace at all or I be throw out moment-wise.Gendibal reddened faintly. By Seldon, if he felt the need for Hamish entertainment, it would not be in so open a fashion and his choice would have been made more selectively. He looked at the Trantorian woman with an secret shake of his head.She seemed quite young, younger perhaps than hard work had made her appear. She could not be more than twenty-five, at which age Hamishwomen were usually already married. She wore her dark hair in the braids that signified her to be unmarried virginal, in fact and he was not surprised. Her performance yesterday showed her to have enormous talent as a shrew and he doubted that a Hamishman could easily be found who would dare be yoked to her tongue and her ready fist. Nor was her appearance much of an attraction. Though she had gone to pains to make herself look presentable, her face was angular and plain, her hands red and knobby. Wha t he could see of her figure seemed construct for endurance rather than for grace.Her lower lip began to tremble under his scru critical. He could sense her embarrassment and fright quite plainly and felt pity. She had, indeed, been of use to him yesterday and that was what counted.He said, in an attempt to be genial and soothing, So you have come to see the uh Place of Scholars?She opened her dark eyes wide (they were rather fine) and said, Master, be not ired with me, but I come to be scowler own-self.You want to be a disciple? Gendibal was thunderstruck. My good womanHe paused. How on Trantor could one explain to a completely sincere farmwoman the level of intelligence, training, and mental stamina required to be what Trantorians called a scowler?But Sura Novi drove on fiercely. I be a writer and a reader. I have read whole books to end and from beginning, too. And I have wish to be scowler. I do not wish to be farmers wife. I be no person for farm. I will not wed farmer or have farmer children. She lifted her head and said proudly, I be asked. Many times. I constantly say, Nay Politely, but Nay. Gendibal could see plainly enough that she was lying. She had not been asked, but he kept his face straight. He said, What will you do with your spiritedness if you do not marry?Novi brought her hand down on the table, ornamentation flat. I will be scowler. I not be farmwoman.What if I cannot make you a scholar?Then I be nothing and I wait to die. I be nothing in life if I be not a scowler.For a moment there was the impulse to search her mind and find out the extent of her motivation. But it would be wrong to do so. A Speaker did not amuse ones self by rummaging through the helpless minds of others. There was a code to the science and technique of mental control mentalics as to other professions. Or there should be. (He was suddenly regretful he had struck out at the proctor.)He said, why not be a farmwoman, Novi? With a little manipulation, he could ma ke her content with that and manipulate some Hamish lout into being happy to marry her and she to marry him. It would do no harm. It would be a kindness. But it was against the law and thus unthinkable.She said, I not be. A farmer is a clod. He works with earthlumps, and he becomes earth-lump. If I be farmwoman, I be earthlump, too. I will be timeless to read and write, and I will forget. My head, she devote her hand to her temple, will grow sour and stale. No A scowler be different. Thoughtful (She meant by the word, Gendibal noted, intelligent rather than considerate.)A scowler, she said, live with books and with with I forget what they be name said. She made a gesture as though she were making some sort of unknown manipulations that would have meant nothing to Gendibal if he did not have her mind radiations to usher him.Microfilms, he said. How do you know about microfilms?In books, I read of many things, she said proudly.Gendibal could no longer fight off the desire to know more. This was an unusual Hamisher he had never heard of one like this. The Hamish were never recruited, but if Novi were younger, say ten years oldWhat a waste? He would not cark her he would not disturb her in the least, but of what use was it to be a Speaker if one could not observe unusual minds and learn from them?He said, Novi, I want you to sit there for a moment. Be very quiet. Do not say anything. Do not think of saying anything. just think of falling asleep Do you translate?Her fright returned at once, Why must do this, Master?Because I wish to think how you might become a scholar.After all, no matter what she had read, there was no possible way in which she could know what being a scholar truly meant. It was therefore necessary to find out what she thought a scholar was.Very carefully and with infinite delicacy he probed her mind sensing without actually touching-like placing ones hand on a polished coat surface without leaving fingerprints. To her a scholar was someone who always read books. She had not the slightest idea of why one read books. For herself to be a scholar the picture in her mind was that of doing the labor she knew fetching, carrying, cooking, cleaning, following orders but on the University grounds where books were available and where she would have time to read them and, very mistily, to become learned. What it amounted to was that she wanted to be a handmaiden his servant.Gendibal frowned. A Hamishwoman servant and one who was plain, graceless, uneducated, barely literate. Unthinkable.He would simply have to divert her. There would have to be some way of adjusting her desires to make her content to be a farmwoman, some way that would leave no mark, some way about which even Delarmi could not complain. Or had she been sent by Delarmi? Was all this a complicated plan to lure him into tampering with a Hamish mind, so that he might be caught and impeached?Ridiculous. He was in danger of maturation paranoid. Somewher e in the simple tendrils of her uncomplicated mind, a trickle of mental current needed to be diverted. It would only take a tiny push.It was against the letter of the law, but it would do no harm and no one would ever notice.He paused.Back. Back. Back.Space He had almost missed itWas he the victim of an illusion?No Now that his attention was drawn. to it, he could make it out clearly. There was the tiniest tendril disarrayed an abnormal disarray. Yet it was so delicate, so ramification-free.Gendibal emerged from . her mind. He said gently, Novi.Her eyes focused. She said, Yes, Master?Gendibal said, You may work with me. I will make you a scholarJoyfully, eyes blazing, she said, MasterHe detected it at once. She was going to throw herself at his feet. He put his hands on her shoulders and held her tightly. Dont move, Novi. Stay where you are. StayHe might have been talking to a half-trained animal. When he could see the order had penetrated, he let her go. He was conscious of the h ard muscles along her upper arms.He said, If you are to be a scholar, you must behave like one. That means you will have to be always quiet, always soft-spoken, always doing what I tell you to do. And you must try to learn to talk as I do. You will also have to meet other scholars. Will you be aghast(predicate)?I be not afeared afraid, Master, if you be with meI weaken be with you. But now, first I must find you a room, arrange to have you assigned a lavatory, a place in the dining room, and clothes, too. You will have to wear clothes more capable to a scholar, Novi.These be all I she began miserably. We will supply others. clear he would have to get a woman to arrange for a new supply of clothing for Novi. He would also need someone to teach the Hamisher the rudiments of personal hygiene. After ail, though the clothes she wore were in all likelihood her best and though she had obviously spruced herself up, she still had a distinct feeling that was faintly unpleasant.And he w ould have to make sure that the relationship mingled with them was understood. It was always an open secret that the men (and women, too) of the Second Foundation made occasional forays among the Hamish for their pleasure. If there was no interference with Hamish minds in the process, no one dreamed of making a fuss about it. Gendibal himself had never indulged in this, and he liked to think it was because he felt no need for sex that might be coarser and more highly spiced than was available at the University. The women of the Second Foundation might be pallid in comparing to the Hamish, but they were clean and their skins were smooth.But even if the matter were misunderstood and there were sniggers at a Speaker who net only turned to the Hamish but brought one into his quarters, he would have to endure the embarrassment. As it stood, this farmwoman, Sura Novi, was his key to victory in the inevitable forthcoming duel with Speaker Delarmi and the rest of the Table.Gendibal did no t see Novi again till after dinnertime, at which time she was brought to him by the woman to whom he had endlessly explained the situation at least, the nonsexual character of the situation. She had understood or, at least, did not dare show any indication of failure to understand, which was perhaps just as good.Novi stood before him now, bashful, proud, embarrassed, joyful all at once, in an incongruous mixture.He said, You look very nice, Novi.The clothes they had given her fit surprisingly well and there was no question that she did not look at all ludicrous. Had they pinched in her waist? Lifted her breasts? Or had that just been not particularly noticeable in her farmwoman clothing?Her buttocks were prominent, but not displeasingly so. Her face, of course, remained plain, but when the tan of outdoor life faded and she learned how to care for her complexion, it would not look downright ugly.By the Old Empire, that woman did think Novi was to be his mistress. She had tried t o make her beautiful for him.And then he thought Well, why not?Novi would have to face the Speakers Table and the more attractive she seemed, the more easily he would be able to get his point across.It was with this thought that the message from the First Speaker reached him. It had the kind of appropriateness that was common in a mentalic society. It was called, more or less informally, the Coincidence Effect. If you think vaguely of someone when someone is thinking vaguely of you, there is a mutual, escalating remark which in a matter of seconds makes the two thoughts sharp, decisive, and, to all appearances, simultaneous.It can be startling even to those who understand it intellectually, particularly if the preliminary vague thoughts were so dim on one side or the other (or both) as to have gone consciously unnoticed.I cant be with you this evening, Novi, said Gendibal. I have scholar work to do. I will take you to your room. There will be some books there and you can practic e your reading. I will show you how to use the signal if you need help with anything and I will see you tomorrow.Gendibal said politely, First Speaker?Shandess merely nodded. He looked dour and fully his age. He looked as though he were a man who did not drink, but who could use a stiff one. He said finally, I called youNo messenger. I presumed from the direct call that it was important.It is. Your quarry the First Foundationer TrevizeYes?He is not coming to Trantor.Gendibal did not look surprised. Why should he? The information we received was that he was leaving with a professor of antiquated history who was seeking Earth.Yes, the legendary Primal Planet. And that is why he should be coming to Trantor. After all, does the professor know where Earth is? Do you? Do I? Can we be sure it exists at all, or ever existed? Surely they would have to come to this Library to obtain the necessary information if it were to be obtained anywhere. I have until this hour felt that the situati on was not at crisis level that the First Foundationer would come here and that we would, through him, learn what we need to know.Which would certainly be the reason he is not allowed to come here.But where is he going, then?We have not yet found out, I see.The First Speaker said pettishly, You seem calm about it.Gendibal said, I wonder if it is not better so. You want him to come to Trantor to keep him safe and use him as a source of information. Will he not, however, prove a source of more important information, involving others still more important than himself, if he goes where he wants to go and does what he wants to do provided we do not lose sight of him?Not enough said the First Speaker. you have persuaded me of the existence of this new enemy of ours and now I cannot rest.Worse, I have persuaded myself that we must secure Trevize or we have lost everything. I cannot rid myself of the feeling that he and nothing else is the key.Gendibal said intensely, Whatever come acr osss, we will not lose, First Speaker. That would only have been possible, if these Anti-Mules, to use your phrase again, had proceed to burrow beneath us unnoticed. But we know they are there now. We no longer work blind. At the next meeting of the Table, if we can work together, we shall begin the counterattack.The First Speaker said, It was not the matter of Trevize that had me send out the call to you. The subject came up first only because it seemed to me a personal defeat. I had misanalyzed that aspect of the situation. I was wrong to place personal pique above general policy and I apologize. There is something else.to a greater extent serious, First Speaker?More serious, Speaker Gendibal. The First Speaker sighed and drummed his fingers on the desk while Gendibal stood patiently before it and waited.The First Speaker finally said, in a mild way, as though that would ease the blow, At an tinge meeting of the Table, initiated by Speaker DelarmiWithout your fancy, First Speak er?For what she wanted, she needed the consent of only three other Speakers, not including myself. At the emergency meeting that was then called, you were impeached, Speaker Gendibal. You have been accused as being unmeritorious of the post of Speaker and you must be tried. This is the first time in over three centuries that a bill of impeachment has been carried out against a SpeakerGendibal said, fighting to keep down any sign of anger, Surely you did not vote for my impeachment yourself.I did not, but I was alone. The rest of the Table was unanimous and the vote was ten to one for impeachment. The requirement for impeachment, as you know, is eight votes including the First Speaker or ten without him.But T was not present.You would not have been able to vote.I might have spoken in my defense.Not at that stage. The precedents are few, but clear. Your defense will be at the trial, which will come as soon as possible, naturally.Gendibal arced his head in thought. Then he said, Thi s does not concern me overmuch, First Speaker. Your initial instinct, I think, was right. The matter of Trevize takes precedence. May I suggest you delay the trial on that ground?The First Speaker held up his hand. I dont blame you for not understanding the situation, Speaker. Impeachment is so rare an event that I myself have been forced to look up the legal procedures involved. Nothing takes precedence. We are forced to move directly to the trial, postponing everything else.Gendibal placed his fists on the desk and leaned toward the First Speaker. You are not serious?It is the law.The law cant be allowed to stand in the way of a clear and present danger.To the Table, Speaker Gendibal, you are the clear and present danger. No, listen to me The law that is involved is based on the conviction that nothing can be more important than the possibility of corruption or the misuse of power on the part of a Speaker.But I am guilty of neither, First Speaker, and you knew it. This is a matte r of a personal vendetta on the part of Speaker Delarmi. If there is misuse of power, it is on her part. My crime is that I have never labored to make myself normal I admit that much and I have paid too little attention to fools who are old enough to be patriarchal but young enough to have power.Like myself, Speaker?Gendibal sighed. You see, Ive make it again. I dont refer to you, First Speaker. Very well, then, let us have an instant trial, then. Let us have it tomorrow. Better yet, tonight. Let us get it over with and then pass on to the matter of Trevize. We dare not wait.The First Speaker said, Speaker Gendibal. I dont think you understand the situation. We have had impeachments before not many, just two. Neither of those resulted in a conviction. You, however, will be convicted You will then no longer be a member of the Table and you will no longer have a say in public policy. You will not, in fact, even have a vote at the annual meeting of the Assembly.And you will not act to prevent that?I cannot. I will be voted down unanimously. I will then lie forced to resign, which I think is what the Speakers would like to see.And Delarmi will become First Speaker?That is certainly a strong possibility.But that must not be allowed to happenExactly Which is why I will have to vote for your conviction.Gendibal move a deep breath. I still demand an instant trial.You must have time to elevate your defense.What defense? They will listen to no defense. Instant trialThe Table must have time to prepare their case.They have no case and will want none. They have me convicted in their minds and will require nothing more. In fact, they would rather convict me tomorrow than the day after and tonight rather than tomorrow. Put it to them.The First Speaker rose to his feet. They faced each other across the desk. The First Speaker said, Why are you in such a hurry?The matter of Trevize will not wait.Once you are convicted and I am rendered weak in the face of a Table un ited against me, what will have been accomplished?Gendibal said in an intense whisper, Have no fears notwithstanding everything, I will not be convicted.