Kitabı oku: «The Foundation Trilogy», sayfa 3
7
Avakim approached, nodded to Gaal, leaned over to whisper to Seldon. The cry of adjournment rang out, and guards separated them. Gaal was led away.
The next day’s hearings were entirely different. Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick were alone with the Commission. They were seated at a table together, with scarcely a separation between the five judges and the two accused. They were even offered cigars from a box of iridescent plastic which had the appearance of water, endlessly flowing. The eyes were fooled into 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 Commissioner replied, ‘This is no longer a trial, Dr Seldon. We are here to discuss the safety of the State.’
Linge Chen said, ‘I will speak,’ and the other Commissioners sat back in their chairs, prepared to listen. A silence formed about Chen into which he might drop his words.
Gaal held his breath. Chen, lean and hard, older in looks than in fact, was the actual Emperor of all the Galaxy. The child who bore the title itself was 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. None of the quadrillions living now among all the stars of the Galaxy will be living a century from now. Why, then, should we concern ourselves with events of five centuries distance?’
‘I shall not be alive half a decade hence,’ said Seldon, ‘and yet it is of overpowering concern to me. Call it idealism. Call it an identification of myself with that of mystical generalization to which we refer by the term, “man”.’
‘I do not wish to take the trouble to understand mysticism. Can you tell me why I may not rid myself of yourself and of an uncomfortable and unneccessary five-century future which I will never see by having you executed tonight?’
‘A week ago,’ said Seldon, lightly, ‘you might have done so and perhaps retained a one in ten probability of yourself remaining alive at year’s end. Today, the one in ten probability is scarcely one in ten thousand.’
There were expired breaths in the gathering and uneasy stirrings. Gaal felt the short hairs prickle on the back of his neck. Chen’s upper eyelids dropped a little.
‘How so?’ he said.
‘The fall of Trantor,’ said Seldon, ‘cannot be stopped by any conceivable effort. It can be hastened easily, however. The tale of my interrupted trial will spread through the Galaxy. Frustration of my plans to lighten the disaster will convince people that the future holds no promise to them. Already they recall the lives of their grandfathers with envy. They will see that political revolutions and trade stagnations will increase. The feeling will pervade the Galaxy that only what a man can grasp for himself at that moment will be of any account. Ambitious men will not wait and unscrupulous men will not hang back. By their every action they will hasten the decay of the worlds. Have me killed and Trantor will fall not within five centuries but within fifty years and you, yourself, within a single year.’
Chen said, ‘These are words to frighten children, and yet your death is not the only answer which will satisfy us.’
He lifted his slender hand from the papers on which it rested, so that only two fingers touched lightly upon the topmost sheet.
‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘will your only activity be that of preparing this encyclopedia you speak of?’
‘It will.’
‘And need that be done on Trantor?’
‘Trantor, my lord, possesses the Imperial Library, as well as the scholarly resources of the University of Trantor.’
‘And yet if you were located elsewhere; let us say upon a planet where the hurry and distractions of a metropolis will not interfere with scholastic musings; where your men may devote themselves entirely and single-mindedly to their work – might not that have advantages?’
‘Minor ones, perhaps.’
‘Such a world has been chosen, then. You may work, doctor, at your leisure, with your hundred thousand about you. The Galaxy will know that you are working and fighting the Fall. They will even be told that you will prevent the Fall.’ He smiled. ‘Since I do not believe in so many things, it is not difficult for me to disbelieve in the Fall as well, so that I am entirely convinced I will be telling the truth to the people. And meanwhile, doctor, you will not trouble Trantor and there will be no disturbance of the Emperor’s peace.
‘The alternative is death for yourself and for as many of your followers as will seem necessary. Your earlier threats I disregard. The opportunity for choosing between death and exile is given you over a time period stretching from this moment to one five minutes hence.’
‘Which is the world chosen, my lord?’ said Seldon.
‘It is called, I believe, Terminus,’ said Chen. Negligently, he turned the papers upon his desk with his finger-tips so that they faced Seldon. ‘It is uninhabited, but quite habitable, and can be moulded to suit the necessities of scholars. It is somewhat secluded—’
Seldon interrupted, ‘It is at the edge of the Galaxy, sir.’
‘As I have said, somewhat secluded. It will suit your needs for concentration. Come, you have two minutes left.’
Seldon said, ‘We will need time to arrange such a trip. There are twenty thousand families involved.’
‘You will be given time.’
Seldon thought a moment, and the last minute began to die. He said, ‘I accept exile.’
Gaal’s heart skipped a beat at the words. For the most part, he was filled with a tremendous joy for who would not be, to escape death. Yet in all his vast relief, he found space for a little regret that Seldon had been defeated.
8
For a long while, they sat silently as the taxi whined through the hundreds of miles of worm-like tunnels toward the University. And then Gaal stirred. He said:
‘Was what you told the Commissioner true? Would your execution have really hastened the Fall?’
Seldon said, ‘I never lie about psychohistoric findings. Nor would it have availed me in this case. Chen knew I spoke the truth. He is a very clever politician and politicians by the very nature of their work must have an instinctive feeling for the truths of psychohistory.’
‘Then need you have accepted exile?’ Gaal wondered, but Seldon did not answer.
When they burst out upon the University grounds, Gaal’s muscles took action of their own; or rather, inaction. He had to be carried, almost, out of the taxi.
All the University was a blaze of light. Gaal had almost forgotten that a sun could exist. Nor was the University in the open. Its buildings were covered by a monstrous dome of glass-and-yet-not-glass. It was polarized; so that Gaal could look directly upon the blazing star above. Yet its light was undimmed and it glanced off the metal buildings as far as the eye could see.
The University structures themselves lacked the hard steel-grey of the rest of Trantor. They were silvery, rather. The metallic lustre was almost ivory in colour.
Seldon said, ‘Soldiers, it seems.’
‘What?’ Gaal brought his eyes to the prosaic ground and found a sentinel ahead of them.
They stopped before him, and a soft-spoken captain materialized from a near-by doorway.
He said, Dr Seldon?’
‘Yes.’
‘We have been waiting for you. You and your men will be under martial law henceforth. I have been instructed to inform you that six months will be allowed you for preparations to leave for Terminus.’
‘Six months!’ began Gaal, but Seldon’s fingers were upon his elbow with gentle pressure.
‘These are my instructions,’ repeated the captain.
He was gone, and Gaal turned to Seldon, ‘Why, what can be done in six months? This is but slower murder.’
‘Quietly. Quietly. Let us reach my office.’
It was not a large office, but it was quite spy-proof and quite undetectably so. Spy-beams trained upon it received neither a suspicious silence nor an even more suspicious static. They received, rather, a conversation constructed at random out of a vast stock of innocuous phrases in various tones and voices.
‘Now,’ said Seldon, at his ease, ‘six months will be enough.’
‘I don’t see how.’
‘Because, my boy, in a plan such as ours, the actions of others are bent to our needs. Have I not said to you already that Chen’s temperamental make-up has been subjected to greater scrutiny than that of any other single man in history. The trial was not allowed to begin until the time and circumstances were right for the ending of our own choosing.’
‘But could you have arranged—’
‘– to be exiled to Terminus? Why not?’ He put his fingers on a certain spot on his desk and a small section of the wall behind him slid aside. Only his own fingers could have done so, since only his particular print-pattern could have activated the scanner beneath.
‘You will find several microfilms inside,’ said Seldon. ‘Take the one marked with the letter T.’
Gaal did so and waited while Seldon fixed it within the projector and handed the young man a pair of eyepieces. Gaal adjusted them, and watched the film unroll before his eyes.
He said, ‘But then—’
Seldon said, ‘What surprises you?’
‘Have you been preparing to leave for two years?’
‘Two and a half. Of course, we could not be certain that it would be Terminus he would choose, but we hoped it might be and we acted upon that assumption—’
‘But why, Dr Seldon? If you arranged the exile, why? Could not events be far better controlled here on Trantor?’
‘Why, there are some reasons. Working on Terminus, we will have Imperial support without ever rousing fears that we would endanger Imperial safety.’
Gaal said, ‘But you aroused those fears only to force exile. I still do not understand.’
‘Twenty thousand families would not travel to the end of the Galaxy of their own will perhaps.’
‘But why should they be forced there?’ Gaal paused. ‘May I not know?’
Seldon said, ‘Not yet. It is enough for the moment that you know that a scientific refuge will be established on Terminus. And another will be established at the other end of the Galaxy, let us say,’ and he smiled, ‘at Star’s End. And as for the rest, I will die soon, and you will see more than I – no, no. Spare me your shock and good wishes. My doctors tell me that I cannot live longer than a year or two. But then, I have accomplished in life what I have intended and under what circumstances may one better die?’
‘And after you die, sir?’
‘Why, there will be successors – perhaps even yourself. And these successors will be able to apply the final touch in the scheme and instigate the revolt on Anacreon at the right time and in the right manner. Thereafter, events may roll unheeded.’
‘I do not understand.’
‘You will.’ Seldon’s lined face grew peaceful and tired, both at once. ‘Most will leave for Terminus, but some will stay. It will be easy to arrange. But as for me,’ and he concluded in a whisper, so that Gaal could scarcely hear him, ‘I am finished.’
Part II
1
TERMINUS … Its location (see map) was an odd one for the role it was called upon to play in Galactic history, and yet as many writers have never tired of pointing out, an inevitable one. Located on the very fringe of the Galactic spiral, an only planet of an isolated sun, poor in resources and negligible in economic value, it was never settled in the five centuries after its discovery, until the landing of the Encyclopedists …
It was inevitable that as a new generation grew, Terminus would become something more than an appendage of the psychohistorians of Trantor. With the Anacreonian revolt and the rise to power of Salvor Hardin, first of the great line of …
ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA
Lewis Pirenne was busily engaged at his desk in the one well-lit corner of the room. Work had to be co-ordinated. Effort had to be organized. Threads had to be woven into a pattern.
Fifty years now; fifty years to establish themselves and set up Encyclopedia Foundation Number One into a smoothly working unit. Fifty years to gather the raw material. Fifty years to prepare.
It had been done. Five more years would see the publication of the first volume of the most monumental work the Galaxy had ever conceived. And then at ten-year intervals – regularly – like clockwork – volume after volume. And with them there would be supplements; special articles on events of current interest, until—
Pirenne stirred uneasily, as the muted buzzer upon his desk muttered peevishly. He had almost forgotten the appointment. He shoved the door release and out of an abstracted corner of one eye saw the door open and the broad figure of Salvor Hardin enter. Pirenne did not look up.
Hardin smiled to himself. He was in a hurry, but he knew better than to take offence at Pirenne’s cavalier treatment of anything or anyone that disturbed him at his work. He buried himself in the chair on the other side of the desk and waited.
Pirenne’s stylus made the faintest scraping sound as it raced across paper. Otherwise, neither motion nor sound. And then Hardin withdrew a two-credit coin from his vest pocket. He flipped it and its stainless-steel surface caught flitters of light as it tumbled through the air. He caught it and flipped it again, watching the flashing reflections lazily. Stainless steel made good medium of exchange on a planet where all metal had to be imported.
Pirenne looked up and blinked. ‘Stop that!’ he said querulously.
‘Eh?’
‘That infernal coin tossing. Stop it.’
‘Oh.’ Hardin pocketed the metal disc. ‘Tell me when you’re ready, will you? I promised to be back at the City Council meeting before the new aqueduct project is put to a vote.’
Pirenne sighed and shoved himself away from the desk. ‘I’m ready. But I hope you aren’t going to bother me with city affairs. Take care of that yourself, please. The Encyclopedia takes up all my time.’
‘Have you heard the news?’ questioned Hardin, phlegmatically.
‘What news?’
‘The news that the Terminus City ultrawave set received two hours ago. The Royal Governor of the Prefect of Anacreon has assumed the title of king.’
‘Well? What of it?’
‘It means,’ responded Hardin, ‘that we’re cut off from the inner regions of the Empire. We’ve been expecting it but that doesn’t make it any more comfortable. Anacreon stands square across what was our last remaining trade route to Santanni and to Trantor and to Vega itself! Where is our metal to come from? We haven’t managed to get a steel or aluminium shipment through in six months and now we won’t be able to get any at all, except by grace of the King of Anacreon.’
Pirenne tch-tched impatiently. ‘Get them through him, then.’
‘But can we? Listen, Pirenne, according to the charter which established this Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Committee has been given full administrative powers. I, as Mayor of Terminus City, have just enough power to blow my own nose and perhaps to sneeze if you countersign an order giving me permission. It’s up to you and your Board then. I’m asking you in the name of the City, whose prosperity depends upon uninterrupted commerce with the Galaxy, to call an emergency meeting—’
‘Stop! A campaign speech is out of order. Now, Hardin, the Board of Trustees has not barred the establishment of a municipal government on Terminus. We understand one to be necessary because of the increase in population since the Foundation was established fifty years ago, and because of the increasing number of people involved in non-Encyclopedia affairs. But that does not mean that the first and only aim of the Foundation is no longer to publish the definitive Encyclopedia of all human knowledge. We are a State-supported, scientific institution, Hardin. We cannot – must not – will not interfere in local politics.’
‘Local politics! By the Emperor’s left big toe, Pirenne, this is a matter of life and death. The planet, Terminus, by itself cannot support a mechanized civilization. It lacks metals. You know that. It hasn’t a trace of iron, copper, or aluminium in the surface rocks, and precious little of anything else. What do you think will happen to the Encyclopedia if this watchamacallum King of Anacreon clamps down on us?’
‘On us? Are you forgetting that we are under the direct control of the Emperor himself? We are not part of the Prefect of Anacreon or of any other prefect. Memorize that! We are part of the Emperor’s personal domain, and no one touches us. The Empire can protect its own.’
‘Then why didn’t it prevent the Royal Governor of Anacreon from kicking over the traces? And only Anacreon? At least twenty of the outermost prefects of the Galaxy, the entire Periphery as a matter of fact, have begun steering things their own way. I tell you I feel darned uncertain of the Empire and its ability to protect us.’
‘Hokum! Royal Governors, Kings – what’s the difference? The Empire is always shot through with a certain amount of politics and with different men pulling this way and that. Governors have rebelled, and, for that matter, Emperors have been deposed, or assassinated before this. But what has that to do with the Empire itself? Forget it, Hardin. It’s none of our business. We are first of all and last of all – scientists. And our concern is the Encyclopedia. Oh, yes, I’d almost forgotten. Hardin!’
‘Well?’
‘Do something about that paper of yours!’ Pirenne’s voice was angry.
‘The Terminus City Journal? It isn’t mine; it’s privately owned. What’s it been doing?’
‘For weeks now it has been recommending that the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation be made the occasion for public holidays and quite inappropriate celebrations.’
‘And why not? The radium clock will open the First Vault in three months. I would call this a big occasion, wouldn’t you?’
‘Not for silly pageantry, Hardin. The First Vault and its opening concern the Board of Trustees alone. Anything of importance will be communicated to the people. That is final and please make it plain in the Journal.’
‘I’m sorry, Pirenne, but the City Charter guarantees a certain minor matter known as freedom of the press.’
‘It may. But the Board of Trustees does not. I am the Emperor’s representative on Terminus, Hardin, and have full powers in this respect.’
Hardin’s expression became that of a man counting to ten, mentally. He said, grimly: ‘In connection with your status as Emperor’s representative, then, I have a final piece of news to give you.’
‘About Anacreon?’ Pirenne’s lips tightened. He felt annoyed.
‘Yes. A special envoy will be sent to us from Anacreon. In two weeks.’
‘An envoy? Here? From Anacreon?’ Pirenne chewed that. ‘What for?’
Hardin stood up, and shoved his chair back up against the desk. ‘I give you one guess.’
And he left – quite unceremoniously.
2
Anselm haut Rodric – ‘haut’ itself signifying noble blood – Sub-prefect of Pluema and Envoy Extraordinary of his Highness of Anacreon – plus half a dozen other titles – was met by Salvor Hardin at the space-port with all the imposing ritual of a state occasion.
With a tight smile and a low bow, the sub-prefect had flipped his blaster from its holster and presented it to Hardin butt first. Hardin returned the compliment with a blaster specifically borrowed for the occasion. Friendship and goodwill were thus established, and if Hardin noted the barest bulge at haut Rodric’s shoulder, he prudently said nothing.
The ground car that received them then – preceded, flanked, and followed by the suitable cloud of minor functionaries – proceeded in a slow, ceremonious manner to Cyclopedia Square, cheered on its way by a properly enthusiastic crowd.
Sub-prefect Anselm received the cheers with the complaisant indifference of a soldier and a nobleman.
He said to Hardin, ‘And this city is all your world?’
Hardin raised his voice to be heard above the clamour. ‘We are a young world, your eminence. In our short history we have had but few members of the higher nobility visiting our poor planet. Hence our enthusiasm.’
It is certain that ‘higher nobility’ did not recognize irony when he heard it.
He said thoughtfully: ‘Founded fifty years ago. Hm-m-m! You have a great deal of unexploited land here, mayor. You have never considered dividing it into estates?’
‘There is no necessity as yet. We’re extremely centralized; we have to be, because of the Encyclopedia. Some day, perhaps, when our population has grown—’
‘A strange world! You have no peasantry?’
Hardin reflected that it didn’t require a great deal of acumen to tell that his eminence was indulging in a bit of fairly clumsy pumping. He replied casually: ‘No – nor nobility.’
Haut Rodric’s eyebrows lifted. ‘And your leader – the man I am to meet?’
‘You mean Dr Pirenne? Yes! He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees – and a personal representative of the Emperor.’
‘Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?’
‘Why, certainly,’ replied Hardin, amiably. ‘We’re all scholars more or less. After all, we’re not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor.’
There was a faint emphasis upon the last phrase that seemed to disconcert the sub-prefect. He remained thoughtfully silent during the rest of the slow way to Cyclopedia Square.
If Hardin found himself bored by the afternoon and evening that followed, he had at least the satisfaction of realizing that Pirenne and haut Rodric – having met with loud and mutual protestations of esteem and regard – were detesting each other’s company a good deal more.
Haut Rodric had attended with glazed eye to Pirenne’s lecture during the ‘inspection tour’ of the Encyclopedia Building. With polite and vacant smile, he had listened to the latter’s rapid patter as they passed through the vast storehouses of reference films and the numerous projection rooms.
It was only after he had gone down level by level into and through the composing departments, editing departments, publishing departments, and filming departments that he made the first comprehensive statement.
‘This is all very interesting,’ he said, ‘but it seems a strange occupation for grown men. What good is it?’
It was a remark, Hardin noted, for which Pirenne found no answer, though the expression of his face was most eloquent.
The dinner that evening was much the mirror image of the events of that afternoon, for haut Rodric monopolized the conversation by describing – in minute technical detail and with incredible zest – his own exploits as battalion head during the recent war between Anacreon and the neighbouring newly proclaimed Kingdom of Smyrno.
The details of the sub-prefect’s account were not completed until dinner was over and one by one the minor officials had drifted away. The last bit of triumphant description of mangled space-ships came when he had accompanied Pirenne and Hardin on to the balcony and relaxed in the warm air of the summer evening.
‘And now,’ he said, with a heavy joviality, ‘to serious matters.’
‘By all means,’ murmured Hardin, lighting a long cigar of Vegan tobacco – not many left, he reflected – and teetering his chair back on two legs.
The Galaxy was high in the sky and its misty lens shape stretched lazily from horizon to horizon. The few stars here at the very edge of the universe were insignificant twinkles in comparison.
‘Of course,’ said the sub-prefect, ‘all the formal discussions – the paper signing and such dull technicalities, that is – will take place before the— What is it you call your Council?’
‘The Board of Trustees,’ replied Pirenne, coldly.
‘Queer name! Anyway, that’s for tomorrow. We might as well clear some of the underbrush, man to man, right now, though. Hey?’
‘And this means—’ prodded Hardin.
‘Just this. There’s been a certain change in the situation out here in the Periphery and the status of your planet has become a trifle uncertain. It would be very convenient if we succeeded in coming to an understanding as to how the matter stands. By the way, mayor, have you another one of those cigars?’
Hardin started and produced one reluctantly.
Anselm haut Rodric sniffed at it and emitted a clucking sound of pleasure. ‘Vegan tobacco! Where did you get it?’
‘We received some last shipment. There’s hardly any left. Space knows when we’ll get more – if ever.’
Pirenne scowled. He didn’t smoke – and, for that matter, detested the odour. ‘Let me understand this, your eminence. Your mission is merely one of clarification?’
Haut Rodric nodded through the smoke of his first lusty puffs.
‘In that case, it is soon over. The situation with respect to Encyclopedia Foundation Number One is what it always has been.’
‘Ah! And what is it that it always has been?’
‘Just this: a State-supported scientific institution and part of the personal domain of his august majesty, the Emperor.’
The sub-prefect seemed unimpressed. He blew smoke rings. ‘That’s a nice theory, Dr Pirenne. I imagine you’ve got charters with the Imperial Seal upon it – but what’s the actual situation? How do you stand with respect to Smyrno? You’re not fifty parsecs from Smyrno’s capital, you know. And what about Konom and Daribow?’
Pirenne said: ‘We have nothing to do with any prefect. As part of the Emperor’s—’
‘They’re not prefects,’ reminded haut Rodric; ‘they’re kingdoms now.’
‘Kingdoms then. We have nothing to do with them. As a scientific institution—’
‘Science be dashed!’ swore the other, via a bouncing soldierly oath that ionized the atmosphere. ‘What the devil has that got to do with the fact that we’re liable to see Terminus taken over by Smyrno at any time?’
‘And the Emperor? He would just sit by?’
Haut Rodric calmed down and said: ‘Well, now, Dr Pirenne, you respect the Emperor’s property and so does Anacreon, but Smyrno might not. Remember, we’ve just signed a treaty with the Emperor – I’ll present a copy to that Board of yours tomorrow – which places upon us the responsibility of maintaining order within the borders of the old Prefect of Anacreon on behalf of the Emperor. Our duty is clear, then, isn’t it?’
‘Certainly. But Terminus is not part of the Prefect of Anacreon.’
‘And Smyrno—’
‘Nor is it part of the Prefect of Smyrno. It’s not part of any prefect.’
‘Does Smyrno know that?’
‘I don’t care what it knows.’
‘We do. We’ve just finished a war with her and she still holds two stellar systems that are ours. Terminus occupies an extremely strategic spot between the two nations.’
Hardin felt weary. He broke in: ‘What is your proposition, your eminence?’
The sub-prefect seemed quite ready to stop fencing in favour of more direct statements. He said briskly: ‘It seems perfectly obvious that, since Terminus cannot defend itself, Anacreon must take over the job for its own sake. You understand we have no desire to interfere with internal administration—’
‘Uh-huh,’ grunted Hardin dryly.
‘—but we believe that it would be best for all concerned to have Anacreon establish a military base upon the planet.’
‘And that is all you would want – a military base in some of the vast unoccupied territory – and let it go at that?’
‘Well, of course, there would be the matter of supporting the protecting forces.’
Hardin’s chair came down on all fours, and his elbows went forward on his knees. ‘Now we’re getting to the nub. Let’s put it into language. Terminus is to be a protectorate and to pay tribute.’
‘Not tribute. Taxes. We’re protecting you. You pay for it.’
Pirenne banged his hand on the chair with sudden violence. ‘Let me speak, Hardin. Your eminence, I don’t care a rusty half-credit coin for Anacreon, Smyrno, or all your local politics and petty wars. I tell you this is a State-supported tax-free institution.’
‘State-supported? But we are the State, Dr Pirenne, and we’re not supporting.’
Pirenne rose angrily. ‘Your eminence, I am the direct representative of—’
‘– his august majesty, the Emperor,’ chorused Anselm haut Rodric sourly, ‘and I am the direct representative of the King of Anacreon. Anacreon is a lot nearer, Dr Pirenne.’
‘Let’s get back to business,’ urged Hardin. ‘How would you take these so-called taxes, your eminence? Would you take them in kind; wheat, potatoes, vegetables, cattle?’
The sub-prefect stared. ‘What the devil? What do we need with those? We’ve got hefty surpluses. Gold, of course. Chromium or vanadium would be even better, incidentally, if you have it in quantity.’
Hardin laughed. ‘Quantity! We haven’t even got iron in quantity. Gold! Here, take a look at our currency.’ He tossed a coin to the envoy.
Haut Rodric bounced it and stared. ‘What is it? Steel?’
‘That’s right.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Terminus is a planet practically without metals. We import it all. Consequently, we have no gold, and nothing to pay unless you want a few thousand bushels of potatoes.’
‘Well – manufactured goods.’
‘Without metal? What do we make our machines out of?’
There was a pause and Pirenne tried again. ‘This whole discussion is wide of the point. Terminus is not a planet, but a scientific foundation preparing a great encyclopedia. Space, man, have you no respect for science?’
‘Encyclopedias don’t win wars.’ Haut Rodric’s brows furrowed. ‘A completely unproductive world, then – and practically unoccupied at that. Well, you might pay with land.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Pirenne.
‘This world is just about empty and the unoccupied land is probably fertile. There are many of the nobility on Anacreon that would like an addition to their estates.’
