Avakim approached,  nodded to Gaal,  leaned over to whisper  to Seldon. Thecry of adjournment¹ rang  out, and guards separated them. Gaal was led away.
The  next day's  hearings  were entirely  different. Hari  Seldon  and GaalDornick  were  alone with  the  Commission.  They were  seated  at a  tabletogether, with  scarcely a separation  between the five judges  and the twoaccused. They  were even  offered cigars from  a box of  iridescent² plasticwhich had the appearance  of water, endlessly flowing. The eyes were fooledinto seeing the motion although the fingers reported it to be hard and dry.
Seldon accepted one; Gaal refused.
Seldon said, "My lawyer is not present."A Commissioner³ replied, "This is no longer a trial, Dr. Seldon. We are hereto discuss the safety of the State."Linge Chen  said, "I will speak,"  and the other Commissioners  sat back intheir chairs, prepared to listen. A silence formed about Chen into which hemight drop his words.
Gaal held his breath. Chen, lean and hard, older in looks than in fact, wasthe actual  Emperor of all the Galaxy⁴. The child  who bore the title itselfwas only  a symbol  manufactured by Chen,  and not the  first such, either.
Chen said, "Dr. Seldon,  you disturb the peace of the Emperor's realm. Noneof the  quadrillions living now among  all the stars of  the Galaxy will beliving  a century  from now.  Why, then,  should we concern  ourselves withevents of three centuries distance?""I shall not  be alive half a decade hence," said Seldon,  and yet it is ofoverpowering concern to me.  Call it idealism. Call it an identification ofmyself with  that mystical  generalization⁵ to which  we refer by  the term,'humanity.'""I do not wish to take the trouble to understand mysticism. Can you tell mewhy I  may not rid myself  of you, and of  an uncomfortable and unnecessarythree-century  future  which  I  will  never  see by  having  you  executedtonight?""A week  ago," said  Seldon, lightly, "you  might have done  so and perhapsretained a  one in  ten probability of  yourself remaining alive  at year'send. Today,  the one in ten  probability is scarcely one  in ten thousand."There were expired breaths in the

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