Foundation and Empire 24. Convert

The thin life of Trantor trickled to nothing when they entered among the wide-spaced buildings of the University grounds. There was a solemn and lonely silence over it.The strangers of the mental hospital knew nothing of the swirling days and nights of the bloody Sack that had left the University untouched. They knew nothing of the time after the collapse of the Imperial power, when the students, with their borrowed weapons, and their pale-faced inexperienced bravery, formed a protective extend army to protect the central shrine of the science of the Galaxy. They knew nothing of the Seven Days Fight, and the armistice that kept the University free, when even the Imperial palace clanged with the boots of Gilmer and his soldiers, during the short time interval of their rule.Those of the Foundation, approaching for the first time, realized only that in a world of transition from a gutted old to a strenuous new this bea was a quiet, graceful museum-piece of ancient bullyness.They we re intruders in a sense. The brooding emptiness rejected them. The academic atmosphere satisfymed still to live and to stir angrily at the disturbance.The subroutine library was a deceptively small building which broadened out vastly underground into a mammoth volume of silence and reverie. Ebling Mis paused before the elaborate murals of the reception room.He whispered one had to whisper here I think we passed the catalog rooms back a way. Ill pulley block there.His forehead was flushed, his hand trembling, I mustnt be disturbed, Toran. Will you bring my meals d let to me?Anything you say. Well do all we can to help. Do you want us to work under you-No. I must be merely-You think you will get what you want.And Ebling Mis replied with a soft certainty, I k this instant I willToran and Bayta came closer to setting up housekeeping in popular fashion than at any time in their year of married life. It was a strange sort of housekeeping. They lived in the middle of grandeur with an inappropriate simplicity. Their intellectual nourishment was drawn largely from Lee Senters farm and was paid for in the little nuclear gadgets that may be found on any Traders ship.Magnifico taught himself how to use the projectors in the library reading room, and sat over adventure novels and ro mankindces to the point where he was almost as forgetful of meals and sleep as was Ebling Mis.Ebling himself was completely buried. He had insisted on a hammock being slung up for him in the Psychology Reference Room. His face grew thin and white. His vigor of speech was lost and his favorite curses had died a whacky death. There were times when the recognition of either Toran or Bayta seemed a struggle.He was more himself with Magnifico who brought him his meals and often sat watching him for hours at a time, with a queer, spell-bound absorption, as the aging psychologist transcribed end little equations, cross-referred to endless book-films, scurried endlessly about in a wild mental effort towards an end he alone saw.Toran came upon her in the darkened room, and express sharply, BaytaBayta started guiltily. Yes? You want me, Torie?Sure I want you. What in Space are you sitting there for? Youve been acting all terms since we got to Trantor. Whats the matter with you?Oh, Torie, stop, she utter, wearily.And Oh, Torie, stop he mimicked impatiently. Then, with sudden softness, Wont you tell me whats wrong, Bay? Somethings b oppositeing you.No Nothing is, Torie. If you keep on just nagging and nagging, youll have me mad. Im just thinking. opinion about what?About nothing. Well, about the Mule, and harbor, and the Foundation, and everything. About Ebling Mis and whether hell find anything about the minute Foundation, and whether it will help us when he does find it and a million other things. Are you satisfied? Her component was agitated.If youre just brooding, do you mind stopping? It isnt pleasant and it doesnt help the situation.Bayta got to her feet and sm iled weakly. All right. Im happy. See, Im smiling and jolly. Magnificos voice was an agitated cry outside. My lady-What is it? Come-Baytas voice choked off sharply when the opening door framed the large, hard-faced-Pritcher, cried Toran.Bayta gasped, Captain How did you find us?Han Pritcher stepped inside. His voice was clear and level, and utterly dead of feeling, My rank is colonel now under the Mule.Under the Mule Torans voice trailed off. They formed a tableau there, the three.Magnifico stared wildly and shrank behind Toran. Nobody stopped to notice him.Bayta said, her hands trembling in each others tight grasp, You are arresting us? You have really gone over to them?The colonel replied quickly, I have not come to arrest you. My book of instructions make no mention of you. With regard to you, I am free, and I choose to exercise our old friendship, if you will let me.Torans face was a writhe suppression of fury, How did you find us? You were in the Filian ship, then? You follo wed us?The wooden wishing of expression on Pritchers face might have flickered in embarrassment. I was on the Filian ship I met you in the first place well by chance.It is a chance that is mathematically impossible.No. Simply rather improbable, so my statement will have to stand. In any case, you admitted to the. Filians there is, of course, no such nation as Filia actually that you were heading for the Trantor sector, and since the Mule already had his contacts upon Neotrantor, it was docile to have you detained there. Unfortunately, you got away before I arrived, only if not long before. I had time to have the farms on Trantor ordered to report your arrival. It was done and I am here. May I sit down? I come in friendliness, believe me. He sat. Toran bent his head and thought futilely. With a numbed lack of emotion, Bayta prepared tea.Toran looked up harshly. Well, what are you waiting for colonel? Whats your friendship? If its not arrest, what is it then? Protective custody? Call in your men and give your orders.Patiently, Pritcher shook his head. No, Toran. I come of my own will to speak to you, to persuade you of the uselessness of what you are doing. If I fail I shall leave. That is all.That is all? Well, then peddle your propaganda, give us your speech, and leave. I dont want any tea, Bayta.Pritcher accepted a cup, with a grave word of thanks. He looked at Toran with a clear strength as he sipped lightly. Then he said, The Mule is a mutant. He can not be beaten in the very nature of the mutation-Why? What is the mutation? asked Toran, with influence humor. I suppose youll tell us now, eh?Yes, I will. Your knowledge wont hurt him. You see he is capable of adjusting the emotional balance of human beings. It sounds like a little trick, but its quite unbeatable.Bayta broke in, The emotional balance? She frowned, Wont you explain that? I dont quite understand.I mean that it is an easy matter for him to instill into a capable general, say, the emotion of utter loyalty to the Mule and complete belief in the Mules victory. His generals are emotionally controlled. They can not betray him they can not weaken and the control is permanent. His most capable enemies become his most faithful subordinates, The warlord of Kalgan surrenders his planet and becomes his viceroy for the Foundation.And you, added Bayta, bitterly, betray your cause and become Mules envoy to Trantor. I seeI havent finished. The Mules gift works in reverse even more effectively. Despair is an emotion At the crucial moment, keymen on the Foundation keymen on haven despaired. Their worlds fell without too much struggle.Do you mean to say, demanded Bayta, tensely, that the feeling I had in the Time Vault was the Mule juggling my emotional control.Mine, too. Everyones. How was it on Haven towards the end?Bayta turned away.Colonel Pritcher continued earnestly, As it works for worlds, so it works for individuals. Can you fight a pull which can make you surrender will ingly when it so desires can make you a faithful servant when it so desires?Toran said slowly, How do I know this is the truth?Can you explain the smooth of the Foundation and of Haven otherwise? Can you explain my conversion otherwise? Think, man What have you or I or the whole Galaxy concluded against the Mule in all this time? What one little thing?Toran felt the challenge, By the Galaxy, I can With a sudden touch of fiery satisfaction, he shouted, Your wonderful Mule had contacts with Neotrantor you say that were to have detained us, eh? Those contacts are dead or worse. We killed the crown prince and left the other a whimpering idiot. The Mule did not stop us there, and that much has been undone.Why, no, not at all. Those werent our men. The crown prince was a wine-soaked mediocrity. The other man, Commason, is phenomenally stupid. He was a power on his world but that didnt forestall him from being vicious, evil, and completely incompetent. We had nothing really to do wit h them. They were, in a sense, merely feints-It was they who detained us, or tried.Again, no. Commason had a personal slave a man called Inchney. Detention was his policy. He is old, but will serve our temporary purpose. You would not have killed him, you see.Bayta whirled on him. She had not touched her own tea. But, by your very statement, your own emotions have been tampered with. Youve got faith and belief in the Mule, an unnatural, a diseased faith in the Mule. Of what value are your opinions? Youve lost all power of objective thought.You are wrong. Slowly, the colonel shook his head. Only my emotions are fixed. My reason is as it always was. It may be influenced in a certain direction by my conditioned emotions, but it is not forced. And there are some things I can see more clearly now that I am freed of my earlier emotional trend.I can see that the Mules program is an intelligent and worthy one. In the time since I have been converted, I have followed his career from its st art seven eld ago. With his mutant mental power, he began by winning over a condottiere and his band. With that and his power he won a planet. With that and his power he extended his handbag until he could tackle the warlord of Kalgan. Each step followed the other logically. With Kalgan in his pocket, he had a first-class fleet, and with that and his power he could attack the Foundation.The Foundation is the key. It is the greatest champaign of industrial concentration in the Galaxy, and now that the nuclear techniques of the Foundation are in his hands, he is the actual master of the Galaxy. With those techniques and his power he can force the remnants of the Empire to acknowledge his rule, and eventually with the death of the old emperor, who is mad and not long for this world to crown him emperor. He will then have the surname as well as the fact. With that and his power where is the world in the Galaxy that can oppose him?In these last seven years, he has establi shed a new Empire. In seven years, in other words, he will have accomplished what all Seldons psychohistory could not have done in less than an additional seven hundred. The Galaxy will have peace and order at last.And you could not stop it any more than you could stop a planets tidy sum with your shoulders.A long silence followed Pritchers speech. What remained of his tea had grown cold. He emptied his cup, filled it again, and drained it slowly. Toran bit viciously at a thumbnail. Baytas face was cold, and distant, and white.Then Bayta said in a thin voice, We are not convinced. If the Mule wishes us to be, let him come here and condition us himself. You fought him until the last moment of your conversion, I imagine, didnt you?I did, said Colonel Pritcher, solemnly.Then allow us the same privilege.Colonel Pritcher arose. With a crisp air of finality, he said, Then I leave. As I said earlier, my mission at present concerns you in no way. Therefore, I dont think it will be necessa ry to report your presence here. That is not too great a kindness. If the Mule wishes you stopped, he no doubt has other men assigned to the job, and you will be stopped. But, for what it is worth, I shall not contribute more than my requirement. give thanks you, said Bayta faintly.As for Magnifico. Where is he? Come out, Magnifico, I wont hurt you-What about him? demanded Bayta, with sudden animation.Nothing. My instructions make no mention of him, either. I have comprehend that he is searched for, but the Mule will find him when the time suits him. I shall say nothing. Will you shake hands?Bayta shook her head. Toran glared his frustrated contempt.There was the slightest weighed down of the colonels iron shoulders. He strode to the door, turned and saidOne last thing. Dont think I am not aware of the source of your stubbornness. It is known that you search for the Second Foundation. The Mule, in his time, will take his measures. Nothing will help you But I knew you in other tim es perhaps there is something in my moral sense that urged me to this at any rate, I tried to help you and remove you from the final danger before it was too late. Good-by.He saluted sharply and was gone.Bayta turned to a unplumbed Toran, and whispered, They even know about the Second Foundation.In the recesses of the library, Ebling Mis, unaware of all, crouched under the one spark of light amid the murky spaces and mumbled triumphantly to himself.