"Welcome Friend Hari. Its been a long time." Daneel was about to continue
with his explanation when he was pushed out of the way by a rushing
Pelorat.
"Hari Seldon! What an honour. Sir, my names Janov Pelorat, I'm a historian and..."
"Come Janov, I think it has more important things to do than talk to us." Trevize gently pulled Pelorat back away from the robot. "Anyway, we don't even know if that really is Hari Seldon. Its a robot, it could be anything." Despite being a mechanical being the face of R.Hari Seldon displayed varying degress of confusion as the conversation went on around him.
"Robot? Daneel, whats going on?" Then Seldon seemed to notice two more familiar faces in the crowd. "Planch and Maserd. Maybe you could tell me whats going on?"
"You're in the future Seldon. Rouchgly 500 years. And you're a robot." Planch had beaten everyone else to the punch. "You just spewed out some crap on laws of robotics, Daneel did his think with the keyboard and look at you go! R.Hari Seldon to the rescue."
"Daneel?"
"What Mr.Planch has explained is technically correct. The year is 499 Foundation Era. I have brought you back to life so you could take my place until I am fully installed in a new body and can finish Galaxia."
"Galaxia? A new body. Daneel, you really should explain a bit more. I remember sitting in my study, thinking about the Encyclopedia Foundation, then I felt something in my chest, and Dors, and...then I was here." R.Olivaw nodded his understanding.
"You died. In your study you had a massive heart failure. But the heat failure did not affect the brain, which meant there was a good enough of a mental imprint, memories and so on, on it for roughly 10 minutes after you had died. This was more than enough time for me to go into your study and download your mental imprint into a positronic matrix which now consists of your brain. If you check your on-board data store it should answer any other questions you have." Seldons eyes seemed to go out of focus for a while, as he looked up the events leading on from his death. But had he really died? And being a robot, a mechanical being, was he really alive? Arising from his thoughts, he looked depressed.
"Daneel, I have failed."
"How is that Friend Seldon?"
"My lifes work, it is for nothing. A second Empire won't be created, the Foundations will be absorbed by this Galaxia. Psychohistory has failed, all because I forgot 2 minor details, which were staring at me in the face all along."
"What are these?"
"First my Foundation friends will know about: mentalics. Human civilisation needed to stay the same for psychohistory to work. I thought that my Second Foundation could counteract this, but events I have read from my data store about the Mule and Gaia show that the Second Foundation is not enough. And second, there was something I knew even before I started most of my work. You Daneel: robots. It cannot work."
"I am sorry to have used you this way Friend Hari. But the Foundation has bought precious time needed for the forming of Galaxia. Before I would of had to deal with 30 millenia of barbarism, now I can easily deal with a Second Empire. Which will be formed, Gaia cannot advance that quickly. And anyway, no one knows anything about robots, the only two bodies which could stop us are Gaia and the Foundation. We control Gaia, and the Foundation is predictable. We have your psychohistory to thank for that. Thanks to you Galaxia will be formed, and humanity will stand a better chance of surviving." After Daneels words Seldon seemed cheered up.
"Yes, I am happy. I believe this is that Zeroth Law of yours, it is good that humanity will be safe." But the third robot spoke up from the corner where it had quietly watched the proceedings. It was R.Gornon.
"There is one problem. There is still Dors Venabili and Lodovik Trema."
"Hari Seldon! What an honour. Sir, my names Janov Pelorat, I'm a historian and..."
"Come Janov, I think it has more important things to do than talk to us." Trevize gently pulled Pelorat back away from the robot. "Anyway, we don't even know if that really is Hari Seldon. Its a robot, it could be anything." Despite being a mechanical being the face of R.Hari Seldon displayed varying degress of confusion as the conversation went on around him.
"Robot? Daneel, whats going on?" Then Seldon seemed to notice two more familiar faces in the crowd. "Planch and Maserd. Maybe you could tell me whats going on?"
"You're in the future Seldon. Rouchgly 500 years. And you're a robot." Planch had beaten everyone else to the punch. "You just spewed out some crap on laws of robotics, Daneel did his think with the keyboard and look at you go! R.Hari Seldon to the rescue."
"Daneel?"
"What Mr.Planch has explained is technically correct. The year is 499 Foundation Era. I have brought you back to life so you could take my place until I am fully installed in a new body and can finish Galaxia."
"Galaxia? A new body. Daneel, you really should explain a bit more. I remember sitting in my study, thinking about the Encyclopedia Foundation, then I felt something in my chest, and Dors, and...then I was here." R.Olivaw nodded his understanding.
"You died. In your study you had a massive heart failure. But the heat failure did not affect the brain, which meant there was a good enough of a mental imprint, memories and so on, on it for roughly 10 minutes after you had died. This was more than enough time for me to go into your study and download your mental imprint into a positronic matrix which now consists of your brain. If you check your on-board data store it should answer any other questions you have." Seldons eyes seemed to go out of focus for a while, as he looked up the events leading on from his death. But had he really died? And being a robot, a mechanical being, was he really alive? Arising from his thoughts, he looked depressed.
"Daneel, I have failed."
"How is that Friend Seldon?"
"My lifes work, it is for nothing. A second Empire won't be created, the Foundations will be absorbed by this Galaxia. Psychohistory has failed, all because I forgot 2 minor details, which were staring at me in the face all along."
"What are these?"
"First my Foundation friends will know about: mentalics. Human civilisation needed to stay the same for psychohistory to work. I thought that my Second Foundation could counteract this, but events I have read from my data store about the Mule and Gaia show that the Second Foundation is not enough. And second, there was something I knew even before I started most of my work. You Daneel: robots. It cannot work."
"I am sorry to have used you this way Friend Hari. But the Foundation has bought precious time needed for the forming of Galaxia. Before I would of had to deal with 30 millenia of barbarism, now I can easily deal with a Second Empire. Which will be formed, Gaia cannot advance that quickly. And anyway, no one knows anything about robots, the only two bodies which could stop us are Gaia and the Foundation. We control Gaia, and the Foundation is predictable. We have your psychohistory to thank for that. Thanks to you Galaxia will be formed, and humanity will stand a better chance of surviving." After Daneels words Seldon seemed cheered up.
"Yes, I am happy. I believe this is that Zeroth Law of yours, it is good that humanity will be safe." But the third robot spoke up from the corner where it had quietly watched the proceedings. It was R.Gornon.
"There is one problem. There is still Dors Venabili and Lodovik Trema."