“Professor Seldon, let me introduce Zorma and Cloudia. They have come a great distance, in order to witness tonight’s activities, and to assure themselves that you aren’t under any sort of coercion.”
Hari laughed. “My entire life has been guided by others. If I know more and see more than my fellow humans, it’s because that serves some long-range plan. So, tell me, what fashion of robots are you?” he asked the two newcomers. “Are you yet another sect of Calvinians? Or do you represent Daneel?”
The one called Zorma shook her head. “We’ve been disowned by Calviniansand Giskardians. Both groups call usperverts. Yet they still find us useful, whenever something important is about to take place.”
“Perverts, eh?” Hari nodded. It all fit. “So which of you is the human?”
Cloudia brought a hand to her chest. “I was born one of the masters, long ago. But this new body of mine is at least one-quarter robotic. Zorma, here, has many protoplasmic parts. So your question is a complicated one, Professor Seldon.”
Hari glanced at R. Gornon, whose face revealed nothing, even though it could simulate the whole range of emotions.
“I see why the other positronic sects find your approach disturbing,” Hari commented.
Zorma nodded. “We seek to heal the rift between our races by blurring the distinction. It has been a long and costly project, and not entirely successful. But we continue to hope. The other robots put up with us, because it would cause them serious mental dissonance if they tried to eliminate us.”
“Of course, if you are part human, you get some protection under the First Law.” Hari paused. “But that won’t suffice by itself. There must be something more.”
Cloudia agreed. “We also provide a service. We bear witness. We don’t take sides. We remember.”
Hari could not help being impressed. This small sect had maintained its existence for a long time, enduring the contempt of far greater forces, while maintaining some degree of independence in an age when human memory was shrouded by amnesia. It would take great discipline and patience to abide centuries this way, resisting the ever-present urge to act. In some ways, it required a spiritopposite to Mors Planch’s. In fact, it would take people almost exactly like
He turned, seeking one face amid the crowd of onlookers, scanning past Horis, Sybyl, the Earthlings, and Mors Planch.
Hari’s gaze settled on the nobleman from Rhodia, Biron Maserd, who stood back from the crowd, with his arms crossed, wearing an expression of indifference. Hari saw through the guise now.
“Come forth, my young friend,” he urged the tall lord. “Come join your comrades. Let us have no more secrets between us. It is a time for truth.”
8.
“Of course there had to be a spy,” Hari said, cutting off Maserd’s protestations. “Someone who knew about the Thu
martin Nebula, for instance. We didn’t stumble on the archives and terraformers by accident.
“And there were other clues. When Sybyl and the real Gornon Vlimt started accessing those ancient records, you already knew more about human history than any professor at an imperial university.”
“As I explained earlier, Seldon, noble families often have private libraries that might surprise members of the meritocracy. My family has a traditional interest in such matters as-”
“As the systems of government used on ancient Earth? That kind of knowledge is remarkable. Even incredible. Then there were thetilling machines that got Horis so excited… those vast devices used long ago to prepare worlds for human occupation. Your reaction to them was hardly indifferent… as if you were looking at an old, familiar enemy.”
This time Biron Maserd smiled, not bothering to refute Hari’s assertion. “Is it a crime to wish the universe had more diversity in it?”
Hari chuckled. “To a psychohistorian, it’s damn near blasphemy. The galaxy is already so complicated, the equations almost burst at their seams. And that’s with just humanity to deal with. We mathists would much rather simplify!
“No. I didn’t notice all the clues because I had become so fixated on chaos. Sybyl, Planch, and the others presented such a threat. When Kers Kantun told me you were an ally…that you hated chaos as much as anybody-”
“I do!”
“I took that to mean that you were a practical man of the empire, as you styled yourself. But now I see you are another utopian, Maserd. You think humanity can escape chaos, if only it experiences just the rightkind of renaissance!”
Biron Maserd stared at Hari for a long, drawn-out moment, before answering. “Isn’t that what the Seldon Plan is all about, Professor? Fostering a human society that will be strong enough to take on the ancient enemy lurking in our own souls?”
That was my old dream,Hari answered silently.Though until just the last few days, I had thought it obsolete.
Aloud he gave Maserd a different answer, aware that others were watching and listening.
“Like many gentry, you are ultimately a pragmatist, my lord. Lacking mathematical tools, you try one thing after another, abandoning each failed solution only when forced to concede that it is time to try another.” Hari gestured toward the two cyborg women-Zorma and Cloudia, one of whom had been born human and the other with a positronic brain tuned to the Laws of Robotics. Only now they had begun blurring the distinction.
“Are you involved in this radical project, or are you merely working together, as a matter of temporary convenience?”
Apparently accepting the inevitability of Hari’s conclusions, Maserd gave up with a sigh.
“Our groups have known about each other for a long time. My family-” He nodded grimly. “We were among those who cast forth the archives, long ago, fighting desperately against the spreading amnesia. And we waged war against the terraforming machines! It was futile, for the most part. But we won a few victories.”
It was Horis Antic who asked the next question in a hushed voice. “Whatkind of victories? You mean you battled robots and won?”
“How can you fight beings who are so much more powerful, and righteously certain they have your own best interests at heart? Still, we managed to stop the horrible machines a few times, by rushing ahead and landinghuman colonists on a world slated for terraforming. Several times that stymied the tillers, who could not blast a planet with human inhabitants.”
Mors Planch blinked. “Wouldn’t we all know about such places?”
“We struck a deal with Daneel Olivaw, after the robotic wars ended. We agreed to stop fighting the amnesia, and to let the protected worlds be put in quarantine. In return, he left us unaltered, with our memories intact. The ultimate price was passivity. To remain silent and inactive.” Maserd’s jaw clenched. “Still, as long as the Galactic Empire ran smoothly, it was a better alternative than ruin and chaos.”
“Your role in this affair could hardly be called passive,” Hari pointed out.
Maserd apparently agreed. “The empire is falling apart. All the old bargains appear forfeit. Everybody seems to be waiting for Daneel Olivaw to present a plan-even the Calvinians”-Maserd jerked a thumb toward R. Gornon Vlimt-”are too timid to oppose their old foe directly. All they want to do is throw Hari Seldon forward in time, as if that will ensure everything comes out all right.” Maserd barked a short laugh.
The robot who had replaced the eccentric Gornon Vlimt stepped forward. For the first time, its emulation programs mimicked a human wracked with uncertainty.
“Don’t you think Olivaw will come up with something beneficial to humanity’s long-range good?”
A woman’s voice chuckled.
“So it comes down to that?” Zorma asked. “Despite all your secret schemes, you really are a timorous bunch of little tiktoks. Listen to yourself, pinning your hopes on someone you’ve fought for so long. Why, you just cited Daneel’s Zeroth Law!”