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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN COLLISION

COLLISION

Stor Gendibal was edging toward Gaia almost as cautiously as Trevize had - and now that its star was a perceptible disc and could be viewed only through strong filters, he paused to consider

Sura Novi sat to one side, looking up at him now and then in a timorous manner

She said softly, "Master?"

"What is it, Novi?" he asked abstractedly

"Are you unhappy?"

He looked up at her quickly "No Concerned Re to decide whether to er Shall I be very brave, Novi?"

"I think you are very brave all times, Master"

"To be very brave is sometimes to be foolish"

Novi smiled "How can a master scholar be foolish? - That is a sun, is it not, Master?" She pointed to the screen

Gendibal nodded

Novi said, after an irresolute pause, "Is it the sun that shines on Trantor? Is it the Hamish sun?"

Gendibal said, "No, Novi It is a far different sun There are many suns, billions of them"

"Ah! I had known this with my head I could not make myself believe, however How is it, Master, that one can knoith the head - and yet not believe?"

Gendibal san and, automatically, as he said that, he found hiently, as he always did, when he found hi touch of mental tendrils to keep her calain, as he always did, had not so drawn him back

What he sensed was indescribable in any but lowed It was the faintest possible glow

It would not be there except for the existence of a mentalic field imposed from without - a mentalic field of an intensity so s function of Gendibal's oell-trained ainst the utter smoothness of Novi's mentalic structure

He said sharply, "Novi, how do you feel?"

Her eyes opened wide "I feel well, Master"

"Are you dizzy, confused? Close your eyes and sit absolutely still until I say, 'Now"

Obediently she closed her eyes Carefully Gendibal brushed away all extraneous sensations froht, soothed her elow and it was so faint that he could almost persuade himself it was not there

"Now," he said and Novi opened her eyes

"How do you feel, Novi?"

"Very calm, Master Rested"

It was clearly too feeble for it to have any noticeable effect on her He turned to the computer and wrestled with it He had to admit to hiether Perhaps it was because he was too used to using his h an inter for a ship, not a mind, and the initial search could be done more efficiently with the help of the computer

And he found the sort of ship he suspected ht be present It was half a n, but it was er and more elaborate

Once it was located with the computer's help, Gendibal could allow his htbeamed - and with it felt (or the mentalic equivalent of "felt") the ship, inside and out

He then sent hisit more closely by several millions of kilometers of space - and withdrew Neither process was sufficient in itself to tell him, unmistakably, which - if either - was the source of the field

He said, "Novi, I would like you to sit next to me for what is to follow"

"Master, is there danger?"

"You are not to be in any way concerned, Novi I will see to it that you are safe and secure"

"Master, I aer, I want to be able to help you"

Gendibal softened He said, "Novi, you have already helped Because of you, I beca it was iht have blundered rather deeply into a bog and reat deal of trouble"

"Have I done this with my mind, Master, as you once explained?" asked Novi, astonished

"Quite so, Novi No instrument could have been more sensitive My own mind is not; it is too full of complexity"

Delight filled Novi's face "I arateful I can help"

Gendibal se that he would need other help as well So childish within him objected The job was his - his alone

Yet it could not be his alone The odds were cli -

On Trantor, Quindor Shandess felt the responsibility of First Speakerhood resting upon hiht Since Gendibal's ship had vanished into the darkness beyond the ats of the Table He had been lost in his own thoughts

Had it been wise to allow Gendibal to go off on his Own? Gendibal was brilliant, but not so brilliant that it left no rooance, as Shandess's own great fault (he thought bitterly) was the weariness of age

Over and over again, it occurred to hi over the Galaxy to set things right, was a dangerous one Could anyone else be a Preem Palver? Even Gendibal? And Palver had had his ith him

To be sure, Gendibal had this Hamishwoman, but she was of no consequence Palver's wife had been a Speaker in her own right

Shandess felt hi from day to day as he waited for word from Gendibal - and with each day that word did not co tension

It should have been a fleet of ships, a flotilla No The Table would not have allowed it

And yet When the call finally ca hiht had been windy and he had had trouble falling asleep to begin with Like a child, he had iined voices in the wind

His last thoughts before falling into an exhausted slunation, a wish be could do so together with the knowledge he could not, for at this moment Delarmi would succeed him

And then the call came and he sat up in bed, instantly awake

"You are well?" he said

"Perfectly well, First Speaker," said Gendibal "Should we have visual connection for more condensed communication?"

"Later, perhaps," said Shandess "First, what is the situation?" Gendibal spoke carefully, for he sensed the other's recent arousal and he perceived a deep weariness He said, "I ahborhood of an inhabited planet called Gaia, whose existence is not hinted at in any of the Galactic records, as far as I know"

"The world of those who have been working to perfect the Plan? The Anti-Mules?"

"Possibly, First Speaker There is the reason to think so First, the ship bearing Trevize and Pelorat has moved far in toward Gaia and has probably landed there Second, there is, in space, about half a million kilometers from me, a First Foundation warship"

"There cannot be this much interest for no reason"

"First Speaker, this may not be independent interest I a Trevize - and the warship may be here for the same reason It remains only to be asked why Trevize is here"

"Do you plan to follow him in toward the planet, Speaker?"

"I had considered that a possibility, but so has come up I am now a hundred million kilometers from Gaia and I sense in the space about eneous one that is excessively faint I would not have been aware of it at all, but for the focusing effect of the reed to take her with me for that very purpose"

"You were right, then, in supposing it would be so Did Speaker Delarmi know this, do you think?"

"When she urged ladly took advantage of it, First Speaker"

"I am pleased that you did Is it your opinion, Speaker Gendibal, that the planet is the focus of the field?"

"To ascertain that, I would have to take measureeneral spherical symmetry to the field My unidirectional mental probe made this seeate further in the presence of the First Foundation warship"

"Surely it is no threat"

"It may be I cannot as yet be sure that it is not itself the focus of the field, First Speaker"

"But they"

"First Speaker, with respect, allow ical advances the First Foundation has e self-confidence and may have unpleasant surprises for us It must be decided whether they have learned to handle mentalics by means of so either a warship of mentalics or a planet of them

"If it is the warship, then the ht be enough to slow me - and the purely physical weapons on the warship may then suffice to destroy me On the other hand, if it is the planet that is the focus, then to have the field detectable at such a distance could mean enormous intensity at the surface - more than even I can handle

"In either case, it will be necessary to set up a network - a total network - in which, at need, the full resources of Trantor can be placed at my disposal"

The First Speaker hesitated "A total network This has never been used, never even suggested - except in the time of the Mule"

"This crisis reater than that of the Mule, First Speaker"

"I do not know that the Table would agree"

"I do not think you should ask theency"

"What excuse can I give?"

"Tell them what I have told you, First Speaker"

"Speaker Delarmi will say that you are an incompetent coward, driven to madness by your own fears"

Gendibal paused before answering Then he said, "I i like that, First Speaker, but let her say whatever she likes and I will survive it What is at stake now is not my pride or self-love but the actual existence of the Second Foundation"

Harla Branno s s She said, "I think we can push on with it I'm ready for them"

Kodell said, "Do you still feel sure you knohat you're doing?"

"If I were as mad as you pretend you think I a on this ship with me?"

Kodell shrugged and said, "Probably I would then be here on the off chance, Madaht stop you, divert you, at least slow you, before you went too far And, of course, if you're not mad"

"Yes?" -

"Why, then I wouldn't want to have the histories of the future give you all the mention Let them state that I was here with you and wonder, perhaps, to whos, eh, Mayor?"

"Clever, Liono, clever - but quite futile I was the power behind the throne through too many Mayoralties for anyone to believe I would permit such a phenomenon in my own administration"

"We shall see"

"No, on't, for such historical judgments will come after we are dead However, I have no fears Not about my place in history and not about that," and she pointed to the screen

"Compor's ship," said Kodell

"Compor's ship, true," said Branno, "but without Coeover Compor's ship was stopped by another Two people from the other ship boarded that one and Compor later moved off and entered the other"

Branno rubbed her hands "Trevize fulfilled his role perfectly I

cast hi rod and so he did He drew the lightning The ship that stopped Compor was Second Foundation"

"How can you be sure of that, I wonder?" said Kodell, taking out his pipe and slowly beginning to pack it with tobacco

"Because I alondered if Coht not be under Second Foundation control His life was too sht for hi His betrayal of Trevize ht easily have been the simple politics of an ahness, as though there were more than personal ambition to it"

"All guesswork, Mayor"

"The guesswork stopped when he followed Trevize through multiple Jumps as easily as if there had been but one"

"He had the computer to help, Mayor"

But Branno leaned her head back and laughed "My dear Liono, you are so busy devising intricate plots that you forget the efficacy of simple procedures I sent Compor to follow Trevize, not because I needed to have Trevize followed What need was there for that? Trevize, however ht want to keep his movements secret, could not help but call attention to himself in any non-Foundation world he visited His advanced Foundation vessel - his strong Terminus accent - his Foundation credits - would autolow of notoriety And in case of any eency, he would automatically turn to Foundation officials for help, as he did on Sayshell, where we knew all that he did as soon as he did it and quite independently of Compor

"No," she went on thoughtfully, "Coave him a defective coh to make the ship unile to aid hied that without trouble"

"I see there's a great deal you don't tell ht to"

"I only keep those matters from you, Liono, that it will not hurt you not to know I admire you and I use you, but there are sharp limits to my trust, as there is in yours for me - and please don't bother to deny it"

"I won't," said Kodell dryly, "and so you of that - Meanwhile, is there anything else that I ought to kno? What is the nature of the ship that stopped them? Surely, if Compor is Second Foundation, so was that ship"

"It is always a pleasure to speak to you, Liono You see things quickly The Second Foundation, you see, doesn't bother to hide its tracks It has defenses that it relies on to make those tracks invisible, even when they are not It would never occur to a Second Foundationer to use a ship of alien manufacture, even if they kne neatly we could identify the origin of a ship froy use They could always reained it, so why bother taking the trouble to hide? Well, our scout ship was able to deterin of the ship that approached Co it"