Foundation and Empire 15. The Psychologist

T present was reason to the point t get into the element known as pure science was the freest form of career on the infrastructure. In a Galaxy where the p ruborominance and even excerption of the Foundation still rested upon the superiority of its technology even contempt its large access of physical power in the last degree Celsius and a half a certain immunity adhered to The Scientist. He was needed, and he knew it.Likewise, at that place was reason to the fact that Ebling Mis only those who did non know him added his titles to his line was the freest form of life in the pure science of the Foundation. In a world where science was respected, he was The Scientist with capital letters and no smile. He was needed, and he knew it.And so it happened, that when opposites bended their knee, he refused and added inexpensively that his ancestors in their metre bowing no knee to all stinking city manager. And in his ancestors succession the mayor was elected anyhow, an d kicked come expose at leave behind, and that the only people that contagious anything by right of birth were the congenital idiots.So it also happened, that when Ebling Mis discrete to allow Indbur to honor him with an audience, he did not wait for the usual fixed line of command to pass his demand up and the favored retort cut back, however, having thrown the less disre position satisfactory of his both formal jackets over his shoulders and pounded an odd hat of impossible design on 1 side of his foreland, and lit a forbidden cigar into the bargain, he barged past cardinal ineffectually bleating guards and into the mayors palace.The starting line rule his excellence received of the onset was when from his garden he heard the piecemeal nearing uproar of expostulation and the answering bull-roar of inarticulate swearing.Slowly, Indbur lay down his dig slowly, he stood up and slowly, he frowned. For Indbur allowed himself a daily vacation from take a shit, and for two hours in the early afternoon, weather permitting, he was in his garden. There in his garden, the blooms grew in squares and triangles, interlaced in a s incessantlye suppose of red and yellow, with bantam dashes of violet at the apices, and greenery b holy ordering the whole in slopped lines. There in his garden no wiz disturbed him no unmatchableIndbur peeled off his soil-stained gloves as he advanced toward the little garden door.Inevitably, he verbalize, What is the meaning of this?It is the precise question and the precise wording thereof that has been put to the atmosphere on such occasions by an incredible variety of men since humanity was invented. It is not recorded that it has ever been asked for any purpose other(a) than dignified effect. however the answer was material this judgment of conviction, for Miss body came plunging through with a bellow, and a shake of a clenched fist at the ones who were still holding tatters of his cloak.Indbur motioned them a way with a solemn, displeased frown, and Mis bent to pick up his impair of a hat, shake close to a quarter of the gathered dirt off it, thrust it under his axillary fossa and sayLook here, Indbur, those unprintable minions of yours will be charged for one good cloak. Lots of good wear left in this cloak. He puffed and wiped his forehead with just a trace of theatricality.The mayor stood pixilated with displeasure, and express haughtily from the peak of his five-foot-two, It has not been brought to my attention, Mis, that you hold requested an audience. You nourish certainly not been assigned one.Ebling Mis tinted down at his mayor with what was on the face of it shocked disbelief, Ga-LAX-y, Indbur, didnt you get my note yesterday? I handed it to a flunky in purple uniform day before. I would pass handed it to you direct, but I know how you like formality.Formality Indbur off-key up exasperated eyes. Then, strenuously, Have you ever heard of prissy government activity? A t all future times you are to submit your request for an audience, properly made out in triplicate, at the government single-valued function intended for the purpose. You are past to wait until the ordinary lead of events brings you placard of the time of audience to be granted. You are then to appear, properly intent properly clothed, do you deduce and with proper respect, too. You may present.Whats wrong with my garb? demanded Mis, hotly. Best cloak I had till those unprintable fiends got their claws on it. Ill leave just as soon as I deliver what I came to deliver. Ga-LAX-y, if it didnt involve a Seldon Crisis, I would leave right now.Seldon crisis Indbur exhibited first interest. Mis was a great psychologist a democrat, boor, and rebel certainly, but a psychologist, too. In his uncertainty, the mayor even failed to put into delivery the inner pang that stabbed explosively when Mis pluck a casual bloom, held it to his nostrils expectantly, then flipped it away with a wrinkled nose.Indbur said coldly, Would you follow me? This garden wasnt made for serious conversition.He matte up correct in his built-up chair behind his large desk from which he could look down on the few hairs that quite ineffectually hid Miss pink scalp-skin. He felt much better when Mis cast a series of automatic glances about him for a non-existent chair and then remained standing in uneasy shift fashion. He felt best of all when in response to a careful pressure of the correct contact, a liveried underling scurried in, bowed his way to the desk, and laid thereon a bulky, metal-bound volume.Now, in order, said Indbur, once more master of the situation, to make this unauthorized interview as all of a sudden as possible, make your statement in the fewest possible words.Ebling Mis said unhurriedly, You know what Im doing these days?I thrust your reports here, replied the mayor, with satisfaction, together with authorized summaries of them. As I understand it, your investi gations into the mathematics of psychohistory give birth been intended to duplicate Hari Seldons work and, eventually, trace the projected course of future history, for the use of the Foundation.Exactly, said Mis, dryly. When Seldon first established the Foundation, he was wise enough to include no psychologists among the scientists displace here so that the Foundation has always worked blindly a broad the course of historical necessity. In the course of my researches, I prepare based a good deal upon hints found at the m Vault.I am aware of that, Mis. It is a waste of time to repeat.Im not repeating, blared Mis, because what Im vent to rank you isnt in any of those reports.How do you mean, not in the reports? said Indbur, stupidly. How could-Ga-LAX-y, let me tell this my own way, you offensive little creature. Stop putting words into my mouth and questioning my every statement or Ill tramp out of here and let everything crumble around you. Remember, you unprintable fool, the Foundation will come through because it must, but if I walk out of here now you wont.Dashing his hat on the floor, so that clods of earth scattered, he sprang up the stairs of the dais on which the wide desk stood and shoving papers violently, sat down upon a comer of it.Indbur thought franti ejaculatey of summoning the guard, or using the built-in blasters of his desk. But Miss face was glaring down upon him and there was nothing to do but cringe the best face upon it.Dr. Mis, he began, with weak formality, you must-Shut up, said Mis, ferociously, and listen. If this thing here, and his palm came down heavy on the metal of the bound data, is a mess of my reports throw it out. both report I write goes up through some twenty-odd officials, gets to you, and then sort of winds down through twenty more. Thats fine if theres nothing you dont necessitate kept secret. Well, Ive got something confidential here. Its so confidential, even the boys working for me havent got wind of it. They did the work, of course, but each just a little unconnected piece and I put it together. You know what the Time Vault is?Indbur nodded his head, but Mis went on with loud enjoyment of the situation, Well, Ill tell you anyhow because Ive been sort of imagining this unprintable situation for a Ga-LAX-y, of a long time I can read your mind, you weak fraud. Youve got your hand right near a little knob thatll call in about five hundred or so build up men to finish me off, but youre afeard(predicate) of what I know youre afraid of a Seldon Crisis. Besides which, if you touch anything on your desk, Ill knock your unprintable head off before anyone gets here. You and your bandit father and pirate grandfather have been blood-sucking the Foundation long enough anyway.This is treason, gabbled Indbur.It certainly is, gloated Mis, but what are you going to do about it? Let me tell you about the Time Vault. That Time Vault is what Hari Seldon placed here at the beginning to help us over the rough spots. For every crisis, Seldon has prepared a personal simulacrum to help and explain. iv crises so far quaternity appearances. The first time he appeared at the height of the first crisis. The second time, he appeared at the moment just after the successful evolution of the second crisis. Our ancestors were there to listen to him both times. At the third and fourth crises, he was cut probably because he was not needed, but recent investigations not include in those reports you have indicate that he appeared anyway, and at the proper times. conquer it?He did not wait for any answer. His cigar, a tattered, dead ruin was finally disposed of, a new cigar groped for, and lit. The smoke puffed out violently.He said, Officially Ive been trying to rebuild the science of psychohistory. Well, no one man is going to do that, and it wont get done in any one century, either. But Ive made advances in the more simple elements and Ive been able to use it as an excuse to meddl e with the Time Vault. What I have done, involves the determination, to a pretty fair kind of certainty, of the exact date of the beside appearance of Hari Seldon. I can give you the exact day, in other words, that the coming Seldon Crisis, the fifth, will reach its climax. How far off? demanded Indbur, tensely.And Mis exploded his assail with cheerful nonchalance,Four months, he said. Four unprintable months, less two days.Four months, said Indbur, with uncharacteristic vehemence. Impossible.Impossible, my unprintable eye.Four months? Do you understand what that means? For a crisis to come to a head in four months would mean that it has been preparing for years.And why not? Is there a law of temperament that requires the process to mature in the well(p) light of day?But nothing impends. Nothing hangs over us. Indbur almost wrung his hands for anxiety. With a sudden spasmodic recrudescence of ferocity, he screamed, Will you get off my desk and let me put it in order? How do you expect me to think?Mis, startled, lifted heavily and moved aside.Indbur replaced objects in their appropriate niches with a feverish motion. He was speech quickly, You have no right to come here like this. If you had presented your theory-It is not a theory.I say it is a theory. If you had presented it together with your evidence and arguments, in appropriate fashion, it would have gone to the Bureau of Historical Sciences. There it could have been properly treated, the resulting analyses submitted to me, and then, of course, proper action would have been taken. As it is, youve vexed me to no purpose. Ah, here it is.He had a sheet of transparent, silvery paper in his hand which he shook at the bulbous psychologist beside him.This is a condensed summary I prepare myself weekly of foreign matters in progress. get wind we have completed negotiations for a commercial treaty with Mores, continue negotiations for one with Lyonesse, sent a delegation to some celebration or other on B onde, received some complaint or other from Kalgan and weve promised to look into it, protested some sharp trade practices in Asperta and theyve promised to look into it and so on and so on. The mayors eyes swarmed down the list of coded notations, and then he guardedly placed the sheet in its proper place in the proper folder in the proper pigeonhole.I tell you, Mis, theres not a thing there that breathes anything but order and peace-The door at the far, long end opened, and, in far too dramatically coincident a fashion to suggest anything but real life, a plainly-costumed notable stepped in.Indbur half-rose. He had the curiously swirling sensation of unreality that comes upon those days when too much happens. subsequently Miss intrusion and wild fumings there now came the equally improper, hence disturbing, intrusion unannounced, of his secretary, who at least knew the rules.The secretary kneeled low.Indbur said, sharply, WellThe secretary addressed the floor, Excellence, mait re d Han Pritcher of Information, returning from Kalgan, in disobedience to your orders, has according to prior instructions your order X20-513 been imprisoned, and awaits execution. Those accompanying him are being held for questioning. A full report has been filed.Indbur, in agony, said, A full report has been received. WellExcellence, Captain Pritcher has reported, vaguely, dangerous designs on the part of the new warlord of Kalgan. He has been given, according to prior instructions your order X20-651 no formal hearing, but his remarks have been recorded and a full report filed.Indbur screamed, A full report has been received. WellExcellence, reports have at heart the quarter-hour been received from the Salinnian frontier. Ships identified as Kalganian have been entering Foundation territory, unauthorized. The ships are armed. Fighting has occurred.The secretary was bent nearly double. Indbur remained standing. Ebling Mis shook himself, clumped up to the secretary, and tappe d him sharply on the shoulder.Here, youd better have them release this Captain Pritcher, and have him sent here. Get out.The secretary left, and Mis turned to the mayor, Hadnt you better get the machinery moving, Indbur? Four months, you know.Indbur remained standing, glaze-eyed. Only one finger seemed alive and it traced rapid jerky triangles on the smooth desk top before him.