Teru

power engine. People of high intelligence, too. I doubt if the

learned Commissioners–

At this point, one of the Commissioners leaned toward the Advocate. His words

were not heard but the hissing of the voice carried a certain asperity. The Advocate

flushed and interrupted Seldon.

Q. We are not here to listen to speeches, Dr. Seldon. Let us assume that you have

made your point. Let me suggest to you that your predictions of disaster might be

17

intended to destroy public confidence in the Imperial Government for purposes of

your own.

A. That is not so.

Q. Let me suggest that you intend to claim that a period of time preceding the socalled

ruin of Trantor will be filled with unrest of various types.

A. That is correct.

Q. And that by the mere prediction thereof, you hope to bring it about, and to have

then an army of a hundred thousand available.

A. In the first place, that is not so. And if it were, investigation will show you that

barely ten thousand are men of military age, and none of these has training in

arms.

Q. Are you acting as an agent for another?

A. I am not in the pay of any man, Mr. Advocate.

Q. You are entirely disinterested? You are serving science?

A. I am.

Q. Then let us see how. Can the future be changed, Dr. Seldon?

A. Obviously. This courtroom may explode in the next few hours, or it may not. If it

did, the future would undoubtedly be changed in some minor respects.

Q. You quibble, Dr. Seldon. Can the overall history of the human race be changed?

A. Yes.

Q. Easily?

A. No. With great difficulty.

Q. Why?

A. The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be

changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as

many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small,

enormous time for change must be allowed. Do you understand?

Q. I think I do. Trantor need not be ruined, if a great many people decide to act so

that it will not.

A. That is right.

Q. As many as a hundred thousand people?

A. No, sir. That is far too few.

Q. You are sure?

A. Consider that Trantor has a population of over forty billions. Consider further

that the trend leading to ruin does not belong to Trantor alone but to the Empire as

a whole and the Empire contains nearly a quintillion human beings.

18

Q. I see. Then perhaps a hundred thousand people can change the trend, if they

and their descendants labor for three hundred years.

A. I'm afraid not. Three hundred years is too short a time.

Q. Ah! In that case, Dr. Seldon, we are left with this deduction to be made from

your statements. You have gathered one hundred thousand people within the

confines of your project. These are insufficient to change the history of Trantor

within three hundred years. In other words, they cannot prevent the destruction of

Trantor no matter what they do.

A. You are unfortunately correct.

Q. And on the other hand, your hundred thousand are intended for no illegal

purpose.

A. Exactly.

Q. (slowly and with satisfaction) In that case, Dr. Seldon– Now attend, sir, most

carefully, for we want a considered answer. What is the purpose of your hundred

thousand?

The Advocate's voice had grown strident. He had sprung his trap; backed Seldon

into a comer; driven him astutely from any possibility of answering.

There was a rising buzz of conversation at that which swept the ranks of the peers

in the audience and invaded even the row of Commissioners. They swayed toward

one another in their scarlet and gold, only the Chief remaining uncorrupted.

Hari Seldon remained unmoved. He waited for the babble to evaporate.

A. To minimize the effects of that destruction.

Q. And exactly what do you mean by that?

A. The explanation is simple. The coming destruction of Trantor is not an event in

itself, isolated in the scheme of human development. It will be the climax to an

intricate drama which was begun centuries ago and which is accelerating in pace

continuously. I refer, gentlemen, to the developing decline and fall of the Galactic

Empire.

The buzz now became a dull roar. The Advocate, unheeded, was yelling, "You are

openly declaring that–" and stopped because the cries of "Treason" from the

audience showed that the point had been made without any hammering.

Slowly, the Chief Commissioner raised his gavel once and let it drop. The sound

was that of a mellow gong. When the reverberations ceased, the gabble of the

audience

...