"Mule..."
Summary: My AU version of the Asimov tale from his collection of Foundation and Second Foundation tales.
Even as civil war threatens the mighty but flawed Foundation, the Galaxy's greatest power since the Fall of the great Galactic Empire, its road to eventual triumph as the reuniting force in the Galaxy yet (supposedly) guaranteed by the quasi-mystical Seldon Plan, a mysterious warlord of a new and rapidly rising power is maneuvering to seize domination of the Galaxy in defiance of Seldon.
Part XIV...
Paramecia is one of the closest habitable areas to the mammoth black hole of the Galactic core. A triple sun system, one a medium yellow, one a giant red in a dance with the yellow at about 25 billion miles, the last a brown dwarf which crashes between the other two as if to try to cut in and then flies out to a distance of 60 billion miles. The system somehow unlike most,, probably due in part at least to its nearness to the hole, never developed full planets...But the vast collection of asteroids, icy would-be moonlets and large comets, plus the high radiation and powerful gravitational tidal currents plying back and forth from the hole, making survival difficult for any but the very well-protected, hardy, and to a lesser extent (survivalwise) the foolhardy, make it a haven for pirates of all description, some operating all the way out to the edge of the Foundation, all taking advantage of the utter collapse of Imperial authority and the constant warfare among the petty kingdoms, republics, and other states about.
Given the Mule had apparently from all accounts, begun his career as a pirate...Some vague tales suggesting he'd fought the strongest and bravest in one man combat to seize leadership of his band, others that he'd been a sharp industrialist who'd bought the loyalty of his men with treasure he'd somehow acquired via dubious means...It seemed a sensible place to Pritcher to seek out information on the man and his mysterious origins.
A sentiment his partner, Goldan, concurred in. Not to mention it was about as far from Kalgan as one could go in a few long and rather desperate hyperjumps. However it was also a place noted for its short life expectancy for all but the (mostly) lucky and (always) skillful 1% of its inhabitants.
...
By the fourth day, Bayta had come to an opinion about Mis' place. Mylin, who despite her cynical surface, was not only in love, but the love of a young student whose admiration for her boss/teacher went far beyond mere adoration, no matter her tough manner concealing it, might see the place through the eyes of various gushing journalists, students, fans, and followers, as the laid-back, funky home of the greatest scientist on the Foundation and probably in the Galaxy... While to Magnifica, it was a heavenly paradise of wonder, whose splendors she could not fully describe despite constantly trying to... To Toran, it was a neat guy's pad, suggesting this 'settling down' thing could still have its joys. To Mis, puttering around rapidly between the university, Indbur's office, and the place, it was a place to hang a hat, eat, hang a hat, again, resume work he'd been doing at the university, and occasionally, (Bayta guessed but felt it too personal to ask), have sex, with Mylin. But, to Bayta, it was merely sloppy. For the first few days, her imprisonment there had been a light burden, after a couple of nights in the Security cells. Now it had begun to grate a bit, despite having been allowed a guarded trip or two to the central shops and for groceries. A grating not relieved by Toran's apparently being of special status to the Foundation authorities and, more or less, allowed to come and go as he pleased, though with a guard always. The suggestion that it was in fact the other way round, that she, as a Foundationer with a famous name, and as a member of the Opposition, was singled out, while Toran, a mere Trader with (now revoked, pending review) Associate Foundation status, did not, in fact, help. Though she tried to accept the others, particularly Toran, meant well, and that their own concerns about her largely stemmed from her pregnancy.
She wanted, as she noted to a Magnifica who'd noted her increasing annoyance...To be out there, doing something. Or at least to be able to leave the damned house without arranging special clearance each time.
Magnifica at least seemed quite content to do her assigned few chores as to bedmaking and general straightening up, practice her new flute, take her lessons with Bayta...Which she seemed to greatly enjoy...And indulge in the Foundation's still vast, despite Indburian strictures on free speech and the current Indbur's rigid sense of what constituted decorum, holo-entertainment and news system. There was nothing like it on Kalgan, even within the Palace of the Mule, she noted happily. But she was distressed, though also a bit surprised, by Bayta's frustration.
"It's my problem, honey." Bayta assured her. "I know everyone is trying to help me. And I know I do have to be careful, but...I'm used to doing, not hanging around."
"It must disappoint, that the one does not seek to do more as you do, milady." Magnifica noted. "But my life has been full of such alarms and changes that to have quiet and peace is joyous to me." Wan look.
"I know, honey." Bayta sighed. "And I'm glad for you. Don't worry about me. I just have to persuade the others here I'm not in danger and the government that I'm not a threat, though the latter I mean to be, soon as I can. And partly I suppose it's just the old pregnancy blues."
"Mayhaps, milady Mylin would let you assist her in her studies for the great doctor..." Magnifica suggested.
"To be honest..." Bayta, wry smile. "Not only do I not understand a fraction of what Mylin and Eb and their people are doing...I think I'd go crazy crunching data all day. I know Mylin loves it but it's not my style."
Her situation if not her attitude changed abruptly late that morning when Ebling Mis suddenly returned early from his travels...And informed them, the two of them, Bayta and Magnifica, that he had important matters to discuss with them, after he'd finished several errands, then with a quick glance of Mylin's data and a kiss to her, that left her rather vapidly, Bayta thought, a bit annoyed, smiling for some time afterward, he'd vanished out the door.
Magnifica, convinced it meant yet another Psychic Probe or worse, was disconsolate. Though as she noted, she was willing to do all the great one required, it was a fearful thing to have one's mind probed. And she'd still not gotten over her concerns about Mis' remarks about the Mule reshaping her mind. A dreadful thing, she'd noted to Bayta...What if all she remembered, what little the one did, were the plantings of the Mule? Could she even be trusted not to be at the Mule's beck and call, like some victim of one of the holostories she'd been indulging in when some creature compelled them to do its will?...A shudder across the frail form. Bayta had then spent the next hour assuring her the previous Probes had shown nothing of the kind, any manipulation likely very slight, probably to due with instilling fear at most. Mis was sure she was not controlled as far that went, his people'd searched for buried commands, etc. Nothing. Indeed her will was remarkably firm and intact, if flexible enough to bend with crises, that much had been clear, Mis had noted. She'd learned to adapt to the circumstances of what clearly had been a tough and grim existence. Magnifica listened, nodded, and continued to worry...Fortunately lunch had intervened and taken up a part of the remaining time, quickly restoring her to some semblance of contentment.
Though Bayta herself worried about the possible outcome...Mis clearly had something he wanted from the girl and no doubt wanted her around to keep her calm. But surely another mental probing was unnecessary, even cruel.
Perhaps she might have grown wearier of the strain, had not Magnifica's long nose drooped in a gesture that plainly showed her own far greater tension as she sat by Bayta, after lunch, with the minutes ticking by till Eb's return, Bayta trying to distract her.. Magnifica's pipe-stem legs were folded up under a pointed, sagging chin tucked into her tunic, as if she were trying to huddle himself into disappearance, and Bayta's hand went out in a gentle and automatic gesture of reassurance.
Magnifica winced, then smiled. "Surely, my lady, it would seem that even yet my body denies the knowledge of my mind and expects of others' hands a blow."
"There's no need for worry, Magnifica. I'm with you, and I won't let anyone hurt you." The girl's eyes sidled towards her, then drew away quickly.
"But they kept me away from you earlier..." she noted. "And from kind Lord Toran, and, on my word, you may laugh, but I was lonely then for missing friendship. I should not like that again, it was worse than the probing."
"I wouldn't laugh at that. I was lonely then, too. But glad I had you in the cells that night." The clown brightened, and she hugged her knees closer.
Ebling Mis entered frowning, deposited a carefully wrapped bundle on the floor. Both women looked at him. Mylin from her station looked over.
"We're going to talk a bit, all right, girl?" he eyed Magnifica, who trembled a bit. "It's all right, really. You've done nothing wrong and Miss Bayta will be right here, ok?"
"Yes, respected sir." She nodded. "The one wishes to help as her poor efforts can..."
Mis nodded, "Good". He unwrapped the package, "Know what this is?" Magnifica fairly hurled herself out of her seat and caught the multikeyed instrument. She fingered the myriad knobby contacts and threw a sudden back somersault of joy, to the imminent destruction of the nearby furniture and the startled looks of Bayta and Mis. She croaked, "A Visi-Sonor—and of a make to distill joy out of a dead man's heart." Her long fingers caressed softly and slowly, pressing lightly on contacts with a rippling motion, resting momentarily on one key then another—and in the air before them there was a soft glowing rosiness, just inside the range of vision.
"What the devil is that, Eb?" Mylin came over.
"Just as the girl here says, a Visi-Sonar." Mis nodded. As Magnifica fingered the instrument in rapture...
...