"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 XXXV…
Less than five weeks now remained till the forecasted opening of the TimeVault. The Kalganian Union fleets were still based at Horleggor and continuing their efforts to make gains in the Siwenna sector but since the hard punch they'd taken at Tervel, were, according to their news holobroadcasts, surprisingly honest as to defeats as well as victories, Bayta had to admit, currently regrouping and reequipping for a renewed offensive when their High Command and their "First Citizen" as the Mule now seemed to be styled, should deem the time right. The Foundation could even claim a few new gains, a couple of planets in Siwenna sector, a successful, largely, as Uncle Randu heavily emphasized, Trader fleet, raid on the Calthonia shipyards. Less comforting, several Galactic petty states outside the current war zone had gotten off the fence and declared themselves for the Mule and his Union. And, as Randu noted to Toran as they waited in Mis' home's living room, there were even rumblings among the Trading Worlds. Nothing too serious as yet, but a few suggesting that if the Foundation military and fleet was not whole-hearted in the war, the Independent Trading Worlds might consider their futures…Carefully.
"That doesn't sound too encouraging, Uncle Ran…" Toran shook head. "Are these people important enough to have influence? Or is this just grumbling?"
"Mostly? Grumbling. But one or two, yes, they have a degree of influence and some wealth. And yes, I suspect one or two have been approached by agents of the Mule. Though we are keeping a pretty tight watch out for that sort of thing. But Traders like their independence and a number can't help feeling uncomfortable with Indbur, especially when he presses them to accept his authority. Fool." Randu, grim look. "Where would he be without us? I know he's hoping once Seldon appears and confirms the Mule is expected and will be defeated he can dispense with us and our services…"
"Uncle Ran?" Toran stared.
"Don't worry, boy. I've always believed since his attack the Mule was the prime threat. And if Dr. Mis believes he's not within Seldon's calculations, he's truly the greatest danger. It's just frustrating…" the older man sighed. "That man acts as if he's doing us favor by not arresting us all. But we'll just have to deal with the situation as it is and do what we can to rectify things later."
"If even you feel that way…"Toran, anxiously. "Just how many people in the Trade Worlds are reconsidering the alliance?"
"It's fine, boy. I'm wrong to worry you. We know the Mule must be beaten. It's just…Frustrating…" wave of hands. "But today's not a day to fret over what we can't change. Your son comes home today and that's cause to rejoice." He clapped Toran on his back. "I wish your father could be here…But he's not exactly crazy about visiting Terminus and not really high enough up on the list of approved delegates. But when things ease, I know he'll come."
"Well, he actually has seen Toran Jr, in the hospital by holovision. The day Torie was born I called him and he's checked in every couple of days." Toran smiled. "I think Bay's finally won him over as a daughter now as well."
"The old fool." Randu grinned. "So, he has a soft spot for his grandson. Good for him."
Alarm buzz… "Here we are!" Mis' voice on speaker. "Just a minute, Dr. MIs." A guard's voice cut in. "All right, cleared to enter."
Toran rising to greet the group of Mylin, a beaming Mis, a rather ecstatic Bayta, the baby Toran in her arms, a group of guards looking distinctly like anxious aunts and uncles while trying to maintain an air of threatening menace, and moving constantly back-and-forth, Magnifica, anxiously seeing to Bayta and young Toran while carrying a number of bags. Mis at Mylin's stern look, urging her to release a couple to him as they entered. He and Magnifica hastily carrying all to the master bedroom and returning.
"Torie!" Bayta beamed. "Here he is, home to stay!" she slightly lifted young Torie as the guards escorted her carefully to the main sofa where she carefully sat. Several hovering about, again more like doting aunts and uncles asking if she was comfortable or needed again. Magnifica pressing through to her position of honor by Bayta's side at the elbow of the arm cradling Torie. Toran pushing through to the other side, guards rather eagerly, even kindly in their expressions, stepping back to allow him.
"Sorry I couldn't come this morning, honey." Toran noted. "They said you'd just come straight and there wasn't transport for everyone, so I thought it best to help Uncle Rand."
"It's fine. We were right out after the exam." Bayta nodded. "Hey, Rand!"
"Congrats, young one. Hello, very young one." Randu beamed.
"He's a beaut." One guard near Bayta noted. "Like my nephew."
"Please to keep further…" Magnifica urged a couple of guards who rather amazingly anxiously complied. "Baby Toran needs to keep a bit of distance from others and needs air. Thanks to ye, kind ones. Is he not beautiful, Lord Toran?" she looked to Toran with shining eyes.
"The most beautiful thing in the world, kiddo." Toran nodded. "Thank you for helping Bay with him. She's said you great in the hospital."
"Yes, thanks, honey." Bayta smiled.
"It was only my pleasure and duty." The girl nodded eagerly. "Shall fetch his new blanket from the bag? He should be kept warm as possible!"
"Sure…" Bayta nodded.
"He is a handsome fellow."Mis smiled, observing from just a couple of feet away, standing. Mylin on his arm, beside him.
"Excuse me…" Mis pulled out his compad and stepped back. "Have to take this."
Mylin eagerly peering at lil' Torie as Magnifica triumphantly returned with a blanket.
"I have the desired object, my lady!" she called. "May I put it round him?"
"Ok, just tuck. That's great, honey." Bayta beamed. "Thanks."
"So happy is the one to do so." Magnifica shook head fervently. "Such beauty…Greater even than the most gorgeous palace this one has seen." She looked fondly at Torie.
"I'd have to agree." Toran grinned, as he gently stroked the child and mother with a gloved hand. "You'll have to compose something on him." Mylin stepping in to nervously stroke the baby,likewise with glove on hand. Mis by her, now, compad put away.
"Yes…I thought 'The Blessing'…Would be a worthy title." Magnifica beamed.
"Lovely." Bayta smiled. "I can't wait to hear and see it."
"Yes, milady." Magnifica nodded. "I should have it ready by the morrow."
"Well, don't stay up all night again writing it." Bayta insisted. "Your brother and I need you healthy."
"My Lady…" Magnifica gasped. "You are too kind, too kind…"
"You're family, Magnifica." Toran noted, smiling at her. "That's just the way it is, kiddo."
"Oh…So many thanks, I cannot express…" she stepped back.
"It's ok…" Bayta smiled. "Just be a good sister to him."
"I will love the dear one with all my heart, milady." Magnifica nodded, looking solemn. "He will never know harm or pain while I live."
"That defines a good sister, thanks Magnifica." Bayta patted her. "Tomorrow we'll do his formal naming ceremony and I want you to hold him while Torie and I do the ceremony…And the Trader blessing."
"Ah, a proper Trader! Good, good!" Randu beamed. Toran allowing him to move in closer.
Mylin and Mis stepping back…
"What was that, the call?" she hissed to him, pulling him back.
"Sessons." He noted, whispering as well.
"Indbur wants you or…?"
"No. He called to say Flavia is enroute to NeoTrantor. She finally managed to get an 'audience' with the Emperor or what's left of him there. It's insane but the Library demands his sanction and will need his stamped and signed approval."
"Nice she's so devoted." Mylin, curtly.
"Mylin. We've been through this."
"I won't make a scene. Especially if you give me one of those…" she glanced over at young Torie.
"Dear Gods…" he stared. "How could you possibly want that? Do you know what a child entails?"
"I'm not asking you to change diapers…I know I can't count on you for anything there."
"That's hardly fair." He frowned.
"But accurate."
"I had one daughter with my first wife. Quite enough, though she's a dear child."
"Whom you barely see."
"That's her mother's doing, not mine."
"But you're quite content to leave things as they are."
"Elba and I get on well…Especially now she's grown and free. Even if I've no great interest in holonews production."
"A smile, a pleasant conversation, a dinner or two, and a present that's usually quite thoughtless, if you can remember,but for me buying them, is not a good relationship for a father, Eb." Mylin fumed.
"Yet, you'd like one? With me?"
"Yeah, call me crazy."
"Eb?! Come over here and kiss and toast your new godson." Bayta called. "Well, as of tomorrow."
"Coming!…" he called.
"Do you want a proposal?" he eyed Mylin.
"Sure, that would be fine. Don't count on me saying yes. But I mainly want a little Eb or Elisa." Mylin smiled.
"Absolutely crazy." Mis shook head. "We'll talk later."
"You bet we will." She smiled serenely. As Magnifica offered her a glass of wine from several on a tray she was diligently passing out.
"Kid, since I stand in his place, your father would have once insisted, you're truly and permanently screwed…" Randu teased, now having moved to the center of the room. "But he would do so no longer. And while you must now prepare to scramble and deal like a Trading man encumbered with family, I know you will provide. You'd better." Grin. "To Bayta and Toran! All the blessings!" he raised a glass.
"All the blessings!" all, including instinctively several guards, called. Magnifica holding her own glass of fruit juice, beaming at Bayta and Torie.
…
For Captain Han Pritcher, there was no happy celebration…Though he expressed pleasure for the Dartells' sake to Mis on Mis' visit the day after Torie's naming day at the Terminus City Hall. His courts-martial began the next day, a formal, if secret, hearing at Foundation Security's Great Chamber of which Mis, Bayta, Toran, Torie (at times, others he was cared for by Mylin), and Magnifica attended, in part as witnesses both to events and character. Pritcher fairly silent at the rather vindictive accusations of the prosecutor, though patient in his explanation of his actions and firm in his defense of them, despite his rather servile defense attorney's weakness. While at the same time he was insistent about the need to consider the threat of the Mule and distressed to hear that no word had been heard from Goldan. Naturally the prosecution seizing on his partner as a likely escaped traitor and member of the Opposition who was no doubt currently informing theMule on the Foundation's military secrets.
The judge and hearing board consisting of some of the Foundation's most senior officers, a number of whom while sympathetic, at least privately, to Pritcher, were well aware, having presided over similar trials and hearings over the course of the war and even before, Indbur having always been one to see conspiracy and treason in any action suggesting even minor sympathy for the Opposition or towards the Foundation's more democratic past, while carrying the advice of his father to never trust his military too far, to heart, what Mayor Indbur desired from them. And on strictly legal grounds the charges had some substance, at least so far as the disobeying of direct orders, the refusal to carry out an assigned mission.
Within a few days it was clear the verdict would be guilty, the sentence severe. Despite his sympathy for Pritcher, as Sessons noted to Mis in secret, there was little that could or would be done for the man.
Yet Pritcher remained serene, explaining on one of her visits with Mis and Toran, and on this occasion, little Torie, to Bayta, that having done what he perceived to be his duty, there was no cause to be downcast. His only regrets being that he feared for his young colleague and he was sorrowful for Harla Mallow and Herve Lida. Lida, probably, hopefully dead, Mallow lost in her own mind, trapped as the devoted servant/slave of the Mule, likely for life, a horrible fate.
Magnifica, in attendance at one or two of Bayta's visits, expressed the common sorrow at the man's fate as they waited for Mis to speak to Pritcher alone.
"It does make the one sad, to see a good man, like the brave Captain, so hardly treated. But that is the world, is it not, my Lady?" she asked Bayta, while delightedly cradling Torie in her akimbo arms, Bayta, while a bit anxious…And Toran far more so…Pleased to see her so happy to be entrusted with Torie's care to any extent allowed.
"It is…Magnifica." Sad nod. "But we are trying to do what we can for him."
"Such a brave man…And so handsome, like a noble prince or tale of a great hero. Ummn."
"Magnifica?" Bayta stared. "Are you?…Do you like the Captain?"
"He is very appealing, my Lady." Shy grin. "And the one is woman, if not appealing or beauteous. Forgive me, my Lady."
"No…Not at all." Bayta shook head. "Forgive me, for forgetting you are a woman, sometimes. And an adult. It's perfectly normal. He is a very brave and very good-looking man, after all." Grin. "Do not say that to Torie. Either of them. Though my guys are the most brave and most good-looking." She beamed.
"No, milady. But then, it be well that the one may take sorrow on the suffering of a good and handsome man? And perhaps, in her heart…A bit…" Awkward look.
"He'd be lucky, Magnifica."
"No, milady. I fear he would be horrified. Or worse, kind." Sad look from the deep brown eyes. "But it is enough that I feel for him, is it not?"
"It is. And the Captain would be grateful. I will tell him…Only that you feel for what he's going through." Bayta noted to Magnifica's apprehensive look. "I promise. Your secret is safe with me."
"Thanks ye, milady…Tis' a foolish thing."
"No, it's not. Magnifica?" Bayta eyed the girl in her Foundation tunic, still far more like a stick figure than person…And having gained not a pound despite the huge pleasure she obviously took in eating.
"I've tried not to pry. I know you've been though a lot of hell in your life and…With some men. And I remember how you reacted at the hairdresser's…"
"It…Has not been such a life as the one cares to remember too much. Till you and Lord Toran came into it." The girl noted quietly. "With some men…And some women. Not all are kind, like you. Even if the one does not appeal, there are those…" she waved hands to ward off the memories. "But the one learned to make some laugh and that was some blessing, some pain."
"And yet…" Bayta eyed her. "You can still find sympathy for Han Pritcher…And even, a little…" smile.
"The one here knows suffering, does not like to see the good or kind suffer…To make suffer is so easy, milady. To tear a tunic or a beloved book or break the instrument or throw one to a wall…Or to inflict pain…Force…All that is easy. What is hard is to do right and good, even when it may cause one pain or trouble." Hard stare…Followed by a faint smile, one that bordered on coy. "Perhaps, more than a little…"
"Please to say nothing there to the brave Captain…" she hastily added, anxious look. "He would wish to be kind and this one would not wish it so."
"Like I told you, sister…" Bayta smiled warmly. "Your secret is safe with me."
Magnifica blushing and bowing head, but with nervous smile. "Thank ye…Sister Bayta."