Forward the Foundation

Wanda was crying bitterly, her face wet with tears, her eyes red, her cheeks swollen.

Hari Seldon hovered over her, patting her on the back, not knowing quite how to comfort her.

“Grandpa, I’m a miserable failure. I thought I could push people—and I could when they didn’t mind being pushed too much, like Mom and Dad—and even then it took a long time. I even worked out a rating system of sorts, based on a ten-point scale—sort of a mental pushing power gauge. Only I assumed too much. I assumed that I was a ten, or at least a nine. But now I realize that, at most, I rate a seven.”

Wanda’s crying had stopped and she sniffed occasionally as Hari stroked her hand. “Usually—usually—I have no trouble. If I concentrate, I can hear people’s thoughts and when I want, I push them. But those muggers! I could hear them all right, but there was nothing I could do to push them away.”

“I thought you did very well, Wanda.”

“I didn’t. I had a fan—fantasy. I thought people would come up behind you and in one mighty push I’d send them flying. That way I was going to be your bodyguard. That’s why I offered to be your bod—bodyguard. Only I wasn’t. Those two guys came up and I couldn’t do a thing.”

“But you could. You made the first man hesitate. That gave me a chance to turn and clobber him.”

“No no. I had nothing to do with it. All I could do was warn you he was there and you did the rest.”

“The second man ran away.”

“Because you clobbered the first guy. I had nothing to do with it.” She broke out again in tears of frustration. “And then the magistrate. I insisted on the magistrate. I thought I would push and he would let you go at once.”

“He did let me go and it was practically at once.”

“No. He put you through a miserable routine and saw the light only when he realized who you were. I had nothing to do with it. I flopped everywhere. I could have gotten you into so much trouble.”

“No, I refuse to accept that, Wanda. If your pushing didn’t work quite as well as you had hoped it would, it was only because you were working under emergency conditions. You couldn’t have helped it. But, Wanda, look—I have an idea.”

Catching the excitement in his voice, she looked up. “What kind of idea, Grandpa?”

“Well, it’s like this, Wanda. You probably realize that I’ve got to have credits. Psychohistory simply can’t continue without it and I cannot bear the thought of having it all come to nothing after so many years of hard work.”

“I can’t bear it, either. But how can we get the credits?”

“Well, I’m going to request an audience with the Emperor again. I’ve seen him once already and he’s a good man and I like him. But he’s not exactly drowning in wealth. However, if I take you with me and if you push him— gently—it may be that he will find a source of credits, some source somewhere, and keep me going for a while, till I can think of something else.”

“Do you really think it will work, Grandpa?”

“Not without you. But with you—maybe. Come, isn’t it worth trying?”

Wanda smiled. “You know I’ll do anything you ask, Grandpa. Besides, it’s our only hope.”

21

It was not difficult to see the Emperor. Agis’s eyes sparkled as he greeted Hari Seldon. “Hello, old friend,” he said. “Have you come to bring me bad luck?”

“I hope not,” said Seldon.

Agis unhooked the elaborate cloak he was wearing and, with a weary grunt, threw it into the corner of the room, saying, “And you lie there.”

He looked at Seldon and shook his head. “I hate that thing. It’s as heavy as sin and as hot as blazes. I always have to wear it when I’m being smothered under meaningless words, standing there upright like a carved image. It’s just plain horrible. Cleon was born to it and he had the appearance for it. I was not and I don’t. It’s just my misery that I’m a third cousin of his on my mother’s side so that I qualified as Emperor. I’d be glad to sell it for a very small sum. Would you like to be Emperor, Hari?”

“No no, I wouldn’t dream of it, so don’t get your hopes up,” said Seldon, laughing.

“But tell me, who is this extraordinarily beautiful young woman you have brought with you today?”

Wanda flushed and the Emperor said genially, “You mustn’t let me embarrass you, my dear. One of the few perquisites an Emperor possesses is the right to say anything he chooses. No one can object or argue about it. They can only say, ‘Sire.’ However, I don’t want any ‘Sires’ from you. I hate that word. Call me Agis. That is not my birth name, either. It’s my Imperial name and I’ve got to get used to it. So .?.?. tell me what’s doing, Hari. What’s been happening to you since the last time we met?”

Seldon said briefly, “I’ve been attacked twice.”

The Emperor didn’t seem to be sure whether this was a joke or not. He said. “Twice? Really?”

The Emperor’s face darkened as Seldon told the story of the assaults. “I suppose there wasn’t a security officer around when those eight men threatened you.”

“Not one.”

The Emperor rose from his chair and gestured at the other two to keep theirs. He walked back and forth, as though he were trying to work off some anger. Then he turned and faced Seldon.

“For thousands of years,” he began, “whenever something like this happened, people would say, ‘Why don’t we appeal to the Emperor?’ or ‘Why doesn’t the Emperor do something?’ And, in the end, the Emperor can do something and does do something, even if it isn’t always the intelligent thing to do. But I .?.?. Hari, I’m powerless. Absolutely powerless.

“Oh yes, there is the so-called Commission of Public Safety, but they seem more concerned with my safety than that of the public. It’s a wonder we’re having this audience at all, for you are not at all popular with the Commission.

“There’s nothing I can do about anything. Do you know what’s happened to the status of the Emperor since the fall of the junta and the restoration of—hah!—Imperial power?”

“I think I do.”

“I’ll bet you don’t—fully. We’ve got democracy now. Do you know what democracy is?”

“Certainly.”

Agis frowned. He said, “I’ll bet you think it’s a good thing.”

“I think it can be a good thing.”

“Well, there you are. It isn’t. It’s completely upset the Empire.

“Suppose I want to order more officers onto the streets of Trantor. In the old days, I would pull over a piece of paper prepared for me by the Imperial Secretary and would sign it with a flourish—and there would be more security officers.

“Now I can’t do anything of the sort. I have to put it before the Legislature. There are seventy-five hundred men and women who instantly turn into uncounted gaggles of geese the instant a suggestion is made. In the first place, where is the funding to come from? You can’t have, say, ten thousand more officers without having to pay ten thousand more salaries. Then, even if you agreed to something of the sort, who selects the new security officers? Who controls them?

“The Legislature shouts at each other, argues, thunders, and lightens, and in the end—nothing is done. Hari, I couldn’t even do as small a thing as fix the broken dome lights you noticed. How much will it cost? Who’s in charge? Oh, the lights will be fixed, but it can easily take a few months to do it. That’s democracy.”

Hari Seldon said, “As I recall, the Emperor Cleon was forever complaining that he could not do what he wished to do.”

“The Emperor Cleon,” said Agis impatiently, “had two first-class First Ministers—Demerzel and yourself—and you each labored to keep Cleon from doing anything foolish. I have seventy-five hundred First Ministers, all of whom are foolish from start to finish. But surely, Hari, you haven’t come to complain to me about the attacks.”

“No, I haven’t. Something much worse. Sire— Agis—I need credits.”