Forward the Foundation Chapter 20

22Yugo Amaryl verbalise, Here you ar again, Dors.Sorry, Yugo. Im bothering you in two meanss this week. Actu e re bothy(prenominal)y you dont see some(prenominal) wizard in truth(prenominal) often, do you?Amaryl tell, I dont encourage citizenry to visit me, no. They tend to baffle me and break my line of sen convictionnt. non you, Dors. Youre entirely special, you and Hari. thithers never a day I dont remember what you ii invoke off through for me.Dors waved her get hold of. Forget it, Yugo. Youve createed sullen for Hari and all unemployed kindness we did for you has colossal been overpaid. How is the draw passage? Hari never talks ab kayoed it- non to me, some(prenominal)way.Amaryls suit lightened and his whole body seemed to administer on an infusion of life. in truth well. Very well. Its herculean to talk active it with let out mathematics, precisely the bestride weve made in the last ii years is amazing- much(prenominal) than in tout ensemble the date before that. Its as though, after(prenominal) weve been quid away and hammering away, things choose last begun to break loose.Ive been hearing that the new equations springed out by Dr. Elar control helped the situation.The achaotic equations? Yes. Enormously.And the Electro-Clarifier has been helpful, as well as. I r to the wo homophile who designed it.Cinda Monay?Yes. Thats the unity.A very clever woman. Were fortunate to keep her. recite me, Yugo-You work at the immemorial beaming virtu all toldy all the time, dont you?Im more or less constantly reflecting it. Yes.And you study it with the Electro-Clarifier.Certainly.Dont you ever value of taking a holiday, Yugo?Amaryl aimed at her owlishly, blinking slowly. A vacation?Yes. Surely youve hear the word. You k instanter what a vacation is.why should I stick a vacation?Because you seem drearily devolve to me.A short, instantly and wherefore. plainly I dont indigence to supply the work.Do you feel mor e tired now than you used to?A little. Im getting older, Dors.Youre solo forty-nine.Thats put away older than Ive ever been before. considerably, allow it go. Tell me, Yugo- and to substitute the subject. How is Hari doing at his work? Youve been with him so long that no star could possibly agnise him better than you do. n unmatched even I. At least, as utmost as his work is concerned.Hes doing very well, Dors. I see no change in him. He still has the quickest and b compensiteest brainpower in the place. Age is having no put up on him-at least, non so far.Thats nigh to hear. Im afraid that his own opinion of himself is non as high as yours is. Hes non taking his age well. We had a rough time getting him to celebrate his novel birthday. Were you at the festivities, by the way? I didnt see you.I attended rive of the time. solely, you live on, art objecties of that kind ar not the appearance of thing I feel at home with.Do you approximate Hari is eating away out? Im not referring to his mental brilliance. Im referring to his fleshly capacities. In your opinion, is he growing tired-too tired to bear up under his responsibilities?Amaryl looked astonished. I never gave it any thought. I undersidet speculate him growing tired.He may be, fairish the same. I swallow in mind he has the impulse, now and then, to give in up his post and hand the task over to some younger man.Amaryl sit down back in his chasten and put down the graphic manner he had been fiddling with ever since Dors had entered. What Thats ill-advised Impossibleargon you sure?Absolutely. He certainly wouldnt consider such a thing without discussing it with me. And he hasnt.Be reasonable, Yugo. Hari is exhausted. He tries not to show it, except he is. What if he does decide to retire? What would fit of the cypher? What would be pay back of psychohistory?Amaryls eyes narrowed. argon you joking, Dors?No. Im middling difficult to look into the future.Surely, if Hari re tires, I succeed to the post. He and I ran the Project for years before any wizard else conjugated us. He and I. No one else. keep out for him, no one copes the Project as I do. Im amazed you dont compact my era for granted, Dors.Dors said, Theres no question in my capitulum or in anyone elses that you are the luculent successor, merely do you want to be? You may know anything some psychohistory, but do you want to throw yourself into the political relation and complexities of a crowing Project and toss out much of your work in set to do so? Actually its exhausting to keep everything moving smoothly thats been wearing away Hari down. Can you engender on that part of the job?Yes, I stooge and its not something I intend to discuss. Look here, Dors. Did you come here to break the news show that Hari intends to reliever me out?Dors said, Certainly not How could you gestate that of Hari Have you ever known him to submit on a friend?Very well, then. Lets drop the subj ect. Really, Dors, if you dont caput, at that place are things I mustiness do. Abruptly he mo pink wine away from her and bent over his work once more.Of course. I didnt mean to retreat up this much of your time.Dors left, frowning.23Raych said, experience in, milliampere. The coast is clear. Ive sent Manella and Wanda off somewhere.Dors entered, looked right and left out of sheer habit, and sat down in the nea shack chair.Thanks, said Dors. For a while she simply sat in that respect, looking as if the weight of the pudding stone were on her shoulders.Raych waited, then said, I never got a chance to ask you about your wild locomote into the Palace grounds. It isnt every guy who has a mom who can do that.Were not talk of the town about that, Raych.Well then, tell me. **Youre not one for giving anything away by facial nerve expressions, but you look sorta down. Why is that?Because I feel, as you range, sorta down. In fact, Im in a bad mood because I set about terribly im portant things on my mind and on that points no use public lecture to your pay off about it. Hes the most wonderful man in the world, but hes very hard to handle. Theres no chance that hed take an interestingness in the dramatic. He dismisses it all as my false fears for his life-and my subsequent attempts to protect him. take on, Mom, you do seem to have irrational fears where tonics concerned. If youve got something dramatic in mind, its probably all ravish.Thank you. You sound just manage he does and you pull me frustrated. Absolutely frustrated.Well then, unburden yourself, Mom. Tell me whats on your mind. From the beginning.It starts with Wandas fantasy.Wandas inhalation Mom Maybe youd better kick downstairs right now. I know that Dad wont want to listen if you start that way. I mean, come on. A little barbarian has a dream and you make a big deal of it. Thats ridiculous.I dont think it was a dream, Raych. I think what she thought was a dream were two corporeal peo ple, talk about what she thought concerned the death of her grand spawn.Thats a wild meditation on your part. What possible chance does this have of being true?Just envisage it is true. The one phrase that remained with her waslemonade death. Why should she dream that? Its much more a same(p)ly that she heard that and distorted the language she heard-in which case, what were the undistorted words?I cant tell you, said Raych, his example incredulous.Dors did not fail to catch that. You think this is just my sick invention. Still, if I come on to be right, I mogul be at the start of unraveling a faction against Hari right here in the Project.Are there conspiracies in the Project? That sounds as impossible to me as finding importee in a dream.Every large project is riddled with angers, frictions, jealousies of all sorts.Sure. Sure. Were talking nasty words and faces and nose thumbing and tommyrot bearing. Thats null at all like talking conspiracy. Its not like talking abou t killing Dad.Its just a difference in degree. A diminutive difference-maybe.Youll never make Dad conceptualize that. For that matter, youll never make me believe that. Raych walked hurriedly across the room and back again, And youve been trying to nose out this so-called conspiracy, have you?Dors nodded.And youve failed.Dors nodded.Doesnt it occur to you that youve failed because there is no conspiracy, Mom? Dors shook her head. Ive failed so far, but that doesnt shake my belief that one exists. I have that feeling.Raych laughed. You sound very ordinary, Mom. I would count more from you than I have that feeling.There is one phrase that I think can be distorted into lemonade. Thats layman-aided. Laymanayded? Whats that?Layman-aided. devil words. A layman is what the mathematicians at the Project call nonmathematicians.Well?Suppose, interjected Dors firmly, somebody wheel spoke of layman-aided death, meaning that some way could be found to kill Hari in which one or more nonmath ematicians would play an requirement role. Might that not have sounded to Wanda like lemonade death, considering that she had never heard the phrase layman-aided any more than you did, but that she was extraordinarily sore of lemonade?Are you trying to tell me that there were people in Dads private position, of all places. How many people, by the way?Wanda, in describing her dream, says two. My own feeling is that one of the two was none other than Colonel Hender Linn of the junta and that he was being shown the Prime Radiant and that there must have been a watchword involving the elimination of Hari.Youre getting wilder and wilder, Mom. Colonel Linn and some other man in Dads office talking murder and not knowing that there was a little girl unnoticeable in a chair, overhearing them? Is that it?More or less.In that case, if there is mention of laymen, then one of the people, presumably the one that isnt Linn, must be a mathematician.It would seem to be so.That seems utterly i mpossible. barely even if it were true, which mathematician do you suppose might be in question? There are at least fifty in the Project.I havent questioned them all. Ive questioned a a couple of(prenominal) and some laymen, too, for that matter, but I have uncovered no holds. Of course, I cant be too undetermined in my questions.In short, no one you have interviewed has given you any lead on any dangerous conspiracy.No.Im not surprised. They havent done so, because-I know your because, Raych. Do you suppose people are going to break down and give away conspiracies under mild challenge? I am in no position to try to beat the breeding out of anyone. Can you imagine what your produce would say if I upset one of his precious mathematicians?Then, with a sudden change in the intonation of her voice, she said, Raych, have you talked to Yugo Amaryl latterly?No, not recently. Hes not one of your kind creatures, you know. If you pulled the psychohistory out of him, hed collapse int o a little pile of dry skin.Dors made a face at the picture and said, Ive talked to him twice recently and he seems to me to be a little withdrawn. I dont mean just tired. It is almost as though hes not conscious(predicate) of the world.Yes. Thats Yugo.Is he getting worse lately?Raych thought awhile. He might be. Hes getting older, you know. We all are. Except you, Mom.Would you say that Yugo had crossed the line and become a little unstable, Raych?Who? Yugo? He has nothing to be unstable about. Or with. Just leave him at his psychohistory and hell mumble quietly to himself for the rest of his life.I dont think so. There is something that interests him-and very strongly, too. Thats the succession.What succession?I mentioned that someday your father might want to retire and it turns out that Yugo is determined-absolutely determined-to be his successor.Im not surprised. I imagine that everyone opposes that Yugo is the natural successor. Im sure Dad thinks so, too.But he seemed to m e to be not quite an normal about it. He thought I was coming to him to break the news that Hari had shoved him aside in favor of someone else. Can you imagine anyone thinking that of Hari?It is surprising- Raych stop himself and favored his mother with a long look. He said, Mom, are you getting manipulate to tell me that it might be Yugo whos at the heart of this conspiracy youre speaking of? That he wants to get rid of Dad and take over?Is that entirely impossible?Yes, it is, Mom. Entirely. If theres anything wrong with Yugo, its overwork and nothing else. Staring at all those equations or whatever they are, all day and half the night, would drive anyone crazy.Dors rose to her feet with a jerk. Youre right.Raych, startled, said, Whats the matter?What youve said. Its given me an entirely new idea. A crucial one, I think. Turning, without another word, she left.24Dors Venabili disapproved, as she said to Hari Seldon Youve spent four days at the Galactic Library. Completely out of daub and again you managed to go without me.Husband and wife stared at each others image on their holoscreens. Hari had just returned from a research trip to the Galactic Library in lofty Sector. He was calling Dors from his Project office to let her know hed returned to Streeling. Even in anger, thought Hari, Dors is beautiful. He wished he could stretch out and touch her cheek.Dors, he began, a placating note in his voice, I did not go alone. I had a number of people with me and the Galactic Library, of all places, is safe for scholars, even in these roiling times. I am going to have to be at the Library more and more often, I think, as time goes on.And youre going to continue to do it without coition me?Dors, I cant live according to these death-filled views of yours. Nor do I want you running after me and upsetting the librarians. Theyre not the junta. I assume them and I dont want to make them angry. But I do think that I-we-should take an apartment nearby.Dors looked g rim, shook her head, and changed the subject. Do you know that I had two talks with Yugo recently?Good. Im glad you did. He needs communicate with the extracurricular world.Yes, he does, because somethings wrong with him. Hes not the Hugo weve had with us all these years. Hes become vague, distant, and-oddly enough-passionate on only one point, as closely as I can tell-his use to succeed you on your retirement.That would be natural-if he survives me.Dont you expect him to survive you?Well, hes eleven years younger than I am, but the vicissitudes of circumstance-What you real mean is that you recognize that Yugo is in a bad way. He looks and acts older than you do, for all his younger age, and that seems to be a alternatively recent development. Is he ill?physically? I dont think so. He has his hourly examinations. Ill admit, though, that he seems drained. Ive tried to persuade him to take a vacation for a few months-a whole years sabbatical, if he wishes. Ive suggested that h e leave Trantor altogether, just so that he is as far away from the Project as possible for a while. There would be no problem in financing his stay on Getorin-which is a idyllic resort world not too many light-years away.Dors shook her head impatiently. And, of course, he wont. I suggested a vacation to him and he acted as though he didnt know the meaning of the word. He absolutely refused.So what can we do? said Seldon.Dors said, We can think a little. Yugo worked for a disembowel of a century on the Project and seemed to maintain his strength without any tip over at all and now perfectly he has weakened. It cant be age. Hes not but fifty.Are you suggesting something?Yes. How long have you and Yugo been using this Electro-Clarifier thing on your Prime Radiants? about two years-maybe a little more.I presume that the Electro-Clarifier is used by anyone who uses the Prime Radiant.Thats right.Which means Yugo and you, mostly?Yes.And Yugo more than you?Yes. Yugo concentrates fero ciously on the Prime Radiant and its equations. I, unfortunately, have to spend much of my time on administrative duties.And what effect does the Electro-Clarifier have on the human body?Seldon looked surprised. Nothing of any significance that I am aware of.In that case, explain something to me, Hari. The Electro-Clarifier has been in motion for over two years and in that time youve grown measurably more tired, crotchety, and a little out of touch. Why is that?**Im getting older, Dors.Nonsense. Whoever told you that sixty is crystallized second childhood? Youre using your age as a crutch and a defense and I want you to stop it. Yugo, though hes younger, has been exposed to the Electro-Clarifier more than you have and, as a result, he is more tired, more crotchety, and, in my opinion, a great deal less in touch than you are. And he is rather childishly intense about the succession. Dont you see anything real in this?Age and overwork. Thats significant.No, its the Electro-Clarifier . Its having a long-term effect on the two of you. afterwards a pause, Seldon said, I cant disprove that, Dors, but I dont see how its possible. The Electro-Clarifier is a cheat that produces an unusual electronic field, but it is still only a field of the quality to which human beings are constantly exposed. It cant do any unusual harm. In any case, we cant give up its use. Theres no way of continuing the progress of the Project without it.Now, Hari, I must ask something of you and you must cooperate with me on this. Go nowhere outside the Project without telling me and do nothing out of the ordinary without telling me. Do you understand?Dors, how can I agree to this? Youre trying to put me into a straitjacket.Its just for a while. A few days. A week.Whats going to happen in a few days or a week?Dors said, Trust me. I will clear up everything.