The Answer That Was True
An unlocated room on an unlocated world!
And a man whose plan had worked.
The First Speaker looked up at the Student, "Fifty men and women," he said. "Fifty martyrs1! They knew it meant death or permanent imprisonment2 and they could not even be oriented to prevent weakening ?since orientation3 might have been detected. Yet they did not weaken. They brought the plan through, because they loved the greater Plan."
"Might they have been fewer?" asked the Student, doubtfully.
The First Speaker slowly shook his head, "It was the lower limit. Less could not possibly have carried conviction. In fact, pure objectivism would have demanded seventy-five to leave margin4 for error. Never mind. Have you studied the course of action as worked out by the Speakers' Council fifteen years ago?"
"Yes, Speaker."
"And compared it with actual developments?"
"Yes, Speaker." Then, after a pause?
"I was quite amazed, Speaker."
"I know. There is always amazement5. If you knew how many men labored6 for how many months ?years, in fact ?to bring about the polish of perfection, you would be less amazed. Now tell me what happened ?in words. I want your translation of the mathematics."
"Yes, Speaker." The young man marshaled his thoughts. "Essentially7, it was necessary for the men of the First Foundation to be thoroughly8 convinced that they had located and destroyed the Second Foundation. In that way, there would be reversion to the intended original. To all intents, Terminus would once again know nothing about us; include us in none of their calculations. We are hidden once more, and safe ?at the cost of fifty men."
"And the purpose of the Kalganian war?"
"To show the Foundation that they could beat a physical enemy ?to wipe out the damage done to their self-esteem and self-assuredness by the Mule9."
"There you are insufficient10 in your analysis. Remember, the population of Terminus regarded us with distinct ambivalence11. They hated and envied our supposed superiority; yet they relied on us implicitly12 for protection. If we had been 'destroyed' before the Kalganian war, it would have meant panic throughout the Foundation. They would then never have had the courage to stand up against Stettin, when he then attacked; and he would have. Only in the full flush of victory could the 'destruction' have taken place with minimum ill-effects. Even waiting a year, thereafter, might have meant a too-great cooling off spirit for success."
The Student nodded. "I see. Then the course of history will proceed without deviation13 in the direction indicated by the Plan."
"Unless," pointed14 out the First Speaker, "further accidents, unforeseen and individual, occur."
"And for that," said the Student, "we still exist. Except?Except?One facet15 of the present state of affairs worries me, Speaker. The First Foundation is left with the Mind Static device ?a powerful weapon against us. That, at least, is not as it was before."
"A good point. But they have no one to use it against. It has become a sterile16 device; just as without the spur of our own menace against them, encephalographic analysis will become a sterile science. Other varieties of knowledge will once again bring more important and immediate17 returns. So this first generation of mental scientists among the First Foundation will also be the last ?and, in a century, Mind Static will be a nearly forgotten item of the past."
"Well? The Student was calculating mentally. "I suppose you're right."
But what I want you most to realize, young man, for the sake of your future in the Council is the consideration given to the tiny intermeshings that were forced into our plan of the last decade and a half simply because we dealt with individuals. There was the manner in which Anthor had to create suspicion against himself in such a way that it would mature at the right time, but that was relatively18 simple.
"There was the manner in which the atmosphere was so manipulated that to no one on Terminus would it occur, prematurely20, that Terminus itself might be the center they were seeking. That knowledge had to be supplied to the young girl, Arcadia, who would be heeded21 by no one but her own father. She had to be sent to Trantor, thereafter, to make certain that there would be no premature19 contact with her father. Those two were the two poles of a hyperatomic motor; each being inactive without the other. And the switch had to be thrown ?contact had to be made ?at just the right moment. I saw to that!
"And the final battle had to be handled properly. The Foundation's fleet had to be soaked in self-confidence, while the fleet of Kalgan made ready to run. I saw to that, also!"
Said the Student, "It seems to me, Speaker, that you ... I mean, all of us ... were counting on Dr. Darell not suspecting that Arcadia was our tool. According to my check on the calculations, there was something like a thirty percent probability that he would so suspect. What would have happened then?"
"We had taken care of that. What have you been taught about Tamper22 Plateaus? What are they? Certainly not evidence of the introduction of an emotional bias23. That can be done without any chance of possible detection by the most refined conceivable encephalographic analysis. A consequence of Leffert's Theorem, you know. It is the removal, the cutting-out, of previous emotional bias, that shows. It must show.
"And, of course, Anthor made certain that Darell knew all about Tamper Plateaus.
"However?When can an individual be placed under Control without showing it? Where there is no previous emotional bias to remove. In other words, when the individual is a new-born infant with a blank slate24 of a mind. Arcadia Darell was such an infant here on Trantor fifteen years ago, when the first line was drawn25 into the structure of the plan. She will never know that she has been Controlled, and will be all the better for it, since her Control involved the development of a precocious26 and intelligent personality."
The First Speaker laughed shortly, "In a sense, it is the irony27 of it all that is most amazing. For four hundred years, so many men have been blinded by Seldon's words 'the other end of the Galaxy28.' They have brought their own peculiar29, physical-science thought to the problem, measuring off the other end with protractors and rulers, ending up eventually either at a point in the periphery30 one hundred eighty degrees around the rim31 of the Galaxy, or back at the original point.
"Yet our very greatest danger lay in the fact that there was a possible solution based on physical modes of thought. The Galaxy, you know, is not simply a flat ovoid of any sort; nor is the periphery a closed curve. Actually, it is a double spiral, with at least eighty percent of the inhabited planets on the Main Arm. Terminus is the extreme outer end of the spiral arm, and we are at the other ?since, what is the opposite end of a spiral? Why, the center.
"But that is trifling32. It is an accidental and irrelevant33 solution. The solution could have been reached immediately, if the questioners had but remembered that Hari Seldon was a social scientist not a physical scientist and adjusted their thought processes accordingly. What could 'opposite ends?mean to a social scientist? Opposite ends on the map? Of course not. That's the mechanical interpretation34 only.
"The First Foundation was at the periphery, where the original Empire was weakest, where its civilizing35 influence was least, where its wealth and culture were most nearly absent. And where is the social opposite end of the Galaxy? Why, at the place where the original Empire was strongest, where its civilizing influence was most, where its wealth and culture were most strongly present.
"Here! At the center! At Trantor, capital of the Empire of Seldon's time.
"And it is so inevitable36. Hari Seldon left the Second Foundation behind him to maintain, improve, and extend his work That has been known, or guessed at, for fifty years. But where could that best be done? At Trantor, where Seldon's group had worked, and where the data of decades had been accumulated. And it was the purpose of the Second Foundation to protect the Plan against enemies. That, too, was known! And where was the source of greatest danger to Terminus and the Plan?
"Here! Here at Trantor, where the Empire dying though it was, could, for three centuries, still destroy the Foundation, if it could only have decided37 to do so.
"Then when Trantor fell and was sacked and utterly38 destroyed, a short century ago, we were naturally able to protect our headquarters, and, on all the planet, the Imperial Library and the grounds about it remained untouched. This was well-known to the Galaxy, but even that apparently39 overwhelming hint passed them by.
"It was here at Trantor that Ebling Mis discovered us; and here that we saw to it that he did not survive the discovery. To do so, it was necessary to arrange to have a normal Foundation girl defeat the tremendous mutant powers of the Mule. Surely, such a phenomenon might have attracted suspicion to the planet on which it happened?It was here that we first studied the Mule and planned his ultimate defeat. It was here that Arcadia was born and the train of events begun that led to the great return to the Seldon Plan.
"And all those flaws in our secrecy40; those gaping41 holes; remained unnoticed because Seldon had spoken of 'the other end?in his way, and they had interpreted it in their way."
The First Speaker had long since stopped speaking to the Student. It was an exposition to himself, really, as he stood before the window, looking up at the incredible blaze of the firmament42, at the huge Galaxy that was now safe forever.
"Hari Seldon called Trantor, 'Star's End,? he whispered, "and why not that bit of poetic43 imagery. All the universe was once guided from this rock; all the apron44 strings45 of the stars led here. 'All roads lead to Trantor,' says the old proverb, 'and that is where all stars end.'"
Ten months earlier, the First Speaker had viewed those same crowding stars ?nowhere as crowded as at the center of that huge cluster of matter Man calls the Galaxy ?with misgivings46; but now there was a somber47 satisfaction on the round and ruddy face of Preem Palver ?First Speaker.
The End
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1
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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2
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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3
orientation
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| n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍 | |
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4
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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5
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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6
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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7
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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9
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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10
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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11
ambivalence
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| n.矛盾心理 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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13
deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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14
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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15
facet
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| n.(问题等的)一个方面；(多面体的)面 | |
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16
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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17
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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18
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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19
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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21
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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23
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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24
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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25
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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26
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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27
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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galaxy
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| n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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29
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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30
periphery
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| n.(圆体的)外面；周围 | |
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31
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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32
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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33
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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34
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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35
civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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36
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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37
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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38
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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39
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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40
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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41
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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42
firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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43
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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44
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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45
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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46
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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47
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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