"Mule..."
Summary: My AU version of the Asimov tale from his collection of Foundation and Second Foundation tales.
As she consolidates her new Empire, the First Citizen, Magnifica Gigantica, i.e. Bobo the Clown/Musician is one step away from Galactic conquest. But that step requires the locating and defeat of Seldon's hidden Second Foundation.
Book III: "Foundation and Union..."
Part IX…
Channis could do nothing but shake his head feebly. "No…No…"
"Yes-Yes…" mimicked the Mule. "And if you are the last one free, and you may even shortly be the last one living, that will not be for long either."
And then there followed a short, pregnant pause, and Channis almost howled with the sudden pain of that tearing penetration of the innermost tissues of his mind.
The Mule drew back, sighed, and muttered, shaking head… "Not enough. You do not pass the test after all. Your despair is pretense. Your fear is not the broad overwhelming that adheres to the destruction of an ideal, but the puny seeping fear of personal destruction. So…Then…"
And the Mule's weak hand seized Channis by the throat in a puny grip that tall, strong Channis was somehow unable to break.
"You are my insurance, Channis. You are my director and safeguard against any underestimation I may make." The Mule's eyes bore down upon him. Insistent…Demanding…
"Have I calculated rightly, Channis? Have I outwitted your Second Foundation? Tazenda is destroyed, Channis, completely destroyed…So why is your despair pretense? Where is the reality? I must have reality, and truth! Talk, Channis, talk. Have I penetrated then, not deeply enough? Does the danger still exist? Talk, Channis. Don't make this worse than it has to be. Where have I gone wrong?"
Channis felt the words drag out of his mouth. They did not come willingly. He clenched his teeth against them. He bit his tongue. He tensed every muscle of his throat.
And they came out…Gasping…Pulled out by force and tearing his throat and tongue and teeth on the way…
"Truth," he squeaked, "Truth…"
"Yes, truth, little man. What is left to be done?"
"Seldon founded Second Foundation here." Sweat running, twisting groan… "Here, as I said. I told no lie. The psychologists arrived and took control of the native population."
"Of Tazenda?" The Mule plunged deeply into the flooding torture of the other's emotional upwellings, tearing at them brutally. "It is Tazenda I have destroyed. You know what I want. Give it to me. Come now, lets end this pain together. I don't enjoy making you suffer. Tell…Me…" grim tone.
"Not…Tazenda. I said Second Foundationers might not be those apparently in power. Tazenda is the figurehead….Only a handful were placed there." The words were almost unrecognizable, forming themselves against every atom of will of the Second Foundationer, "Rossem…Rossem…Rossem is the world…Rossem."
The Mule loosed her grip and Channis dropped into a huddle of pain and torture.
"And you thought to fool…Me?" said the Mule, softly.
"You were fooled." It was the last dying shred of resistance in Channis.
"But not long enough for you and yours. I am in communication with my Fleet. And after Tazenda can come Rossem. But first…Suppose we be sure. I'm sorry, boy…But I need to know your limits."
Channis felt the excruciating darkness rise against him, and the automatic lift of his arm to his tortured eyes could not ward it off. It was a darkness that throttled, and as he felt his torn, wounded mind reeling backwards, backwards into the everlasting black…There was that final picture of the triumphant Mule…A laughing matchstick…That long, fleshy nose quivering with laughter.
The sound faded away. The darkness embraced him lovingly.
It ended with a cracking sensation that was like the jagged glare of a lightning flash, and Channis came slowly to earth while sight returned painfully in blurry transmission through tear-drenched eyes.
His head ached unbearably, and it was only with a stab of agony that he could bring up a hand to it.
Obviously, he was alive. Softly, like feathers caught up in an eddy of air that had passed, his thoughts steadied and drifted to rest as Magnifica eyed him coldly. Suddenly, he felt comfort suck in, from outside. Slowly, torturedly, he bent his neck, and a relief that was a sharp pang, came.
For the door was open and now the First Speaker stood just inside the threshold. He tried to speak, to shout, to warn but his tongue froze and he knew that a part of the Mule's mighty mind still held him and clamped all speech within him. Paralyzed him.
Wait…He struggled. There were only three in the room. Pritcher, unconscious. His own crumbled form. The Mule…But…No…Two more? How two…He tried to clear his head.
He bent his neck once more. The Mule was still in the room. She was angry and hot-eyed. She laughed no longer, but her teeth were bared in a ferocious smile.
"So here we are, Emperor…" She eyed Dagobert IX, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, restored by her, calmly eyeing her in his day uniform of office…No trace of feebleness or weakness in his bearing now.
First Speaker of the Second Foundation…
How? Channis stared.
Yes, he knew Dagobert was First Speaker…He knew the feeble, kindly mask of a man who'd spent his whole life in concealment, controlling his every thought and emotion…Sacrificing his throne, his self-respect, his family, his own son…Was now off…And he no longer had to bury that knowledge but…
Dagobert here? How? Not a hologram…No…
Channis felt the First Speaker's mental influence moving gently over his mind with a healing touch and then there was the numbing sensation as it came into contact with the Mule's defense for an instant of struggle and withdrew.
"Yes, Captain…" the Emperor eyed the figure before him. "We are. But not all of us, in the flesh, of course. First Citizen…" he eyed her, clearly speaking to Magnifica… "I complement you on your use of Mind Static attuned to your own mental frequency. It is quite deceptive and with your slight use of distortion and the physical changes to Captain Merv here…" he eyed the grim Lena regarded him… "Quite completely fooled poor Channis."
"But not my friend…The man I raised to a throne." Lena replied coldly.
"No, child…" Dagobert sighed. "I know you too well. I knew you wouldn't risk exposing yourself here. But it was clever to use this poor woman as your puppet. Your mental control is excellent. But I also know you are here, on Kalgan…Don't you wish to come and show yourself at last?"
"As you have, at last…?" Lena regarded him. The Mule speaking through her.
"Just as you sought to fool even those who loved you, I was forced to deceive you and others." Dagobert nodded.
"So…" And suddenly the Mule was there, apparently…More than a hologram, yet less…Magnifica, in her robe, staring furiously. And Lena, relaxing back to something like her normal self in appearance, though her Conversion keeping her emotional state one of fury and anger at one who'd so betrayed the Mule. But now, like Channis, she too was paralyzed by a powerful mentalic grip.
Magnifica said gratingly, with a fury that was grotesque in her meagre body… "Then you finally come greet me, First Speaker." Her agile mind reached its tendrils out of the room…Out…out…
"You are alone, in the Palace." she said, questioningly.
Dagobert nodding, interrupted with an acquiescence: "I am thoroughly alone, physically…Just as you are, in your office. It is necessary that I be alone, since it was I who miscalculated your future five years ago. There would be a certain satisfaction to me in correcting that matter without aid. Unfortunately, I did not count on the strength of your Mind Static field around the Captain nor your own Field of Emotional Repulsion that surrounded this place on Rossem, you projected through her. Quite remarkable at such interstellar distance, it took me long to penetrate. I congratulate you upon the skill with which it was constructed."
"Thank you for nothing," came the hostile rejoinder. "Bandy no compliments with me, Emperor. Have you come to add your brain splinter to that of yonder cracked pillar of your realm? Ye and your allies' own shield may keep this one's soldiers here on Kalgan at bay, but not me…Not…Me, Lord Majesty. This one is penetrating it ever so even as we speak. Soon, you will be alone, even mentalically."
The old Emperor smiled… "My girl…You truly are the daughter of old Rox, in spirit. He did love Old Court Galactic. He taught you well."
"Do not speak of my father! Traitor! Betrayer!" she raged. "You and this other traitor…!" she eyed the fallen Channis. "…will fall!"
Dagobert, calmly…
"My child, why, the man you call Bail Channis performed his mission well, the more so since he was not your mental equal by far. As indeed none of us are, even combining our limited powers, by mentalic communication, as you see we've barely been able to defend me against your attack."
"The thing is, normally, we are not born with its full use, though we of the Second Foundation and those descended from the Gaia world are gifted in slight ways. We, like your own Listerners, though without forced Conversion, are carefully selected and vetted. But, a million years of decay is a formidable obstacle, and we must educate the sense, exercise it as we exercise our muscles. And there you have the main difference. You were born with it. At an enormously high level...Which old Rox was the first to realize when he stumbled on you…Or rather, you found him." Smile.
"So much we could calculate, after your appearance. Indeed, Seldon's Gaal Dornick once sensed you decades ago, through Time, vaguely. We knew one like you might possibly appear, but there was no way to calculate for it, not for an individual. We could however, in basic psychological terms, calculate the effect of such a sense upon a person in a world of people who did not possess it. The seeing man in the kingdom of the blind…We calculated the extent to which a megalomania would take control of one like you, and we thought we were prepared, should Gaal's vision be true and you ever appear. But for three factors we were not prepared." Shrug.
"The first was the great extent of your sense. We can induce emotional contact only when in eyeshot, which is why we are more helpless against physical weapons than you might think. Sight plays such an enormous part. Not so with you, your powers of telepathy, while not complete, are incredible. You are definitely known to have had men, even whole populations, under control, and, further, to have had intimate emotional contact with them, when out of sight and out of earshot. That was discovered too late. My failure…Our arrogance." Sigh.
"Secondly, we did not know of your physical shortcomings, particularly the one that seemed so important to you, that you adopted the name of the Mule. We didn't foresee that you were not merely a mutant, but a sterile mutant and the added psychic distortion due to your inferiority complex passed us by. We allowed only for a steadily developing megalomania, not for an intensely psychopathic, antisocial paranoia as well."
"Finally, there was you, yourself. Not the structure we'd created. We saw you as a threat and an enemy, a megalomanic conqueror, then an antisocial psychopath."
"Charming…"
"We become lost sometimes in our calculations and fail to see the human element. We did not accept, could not calculate your heart, Magnifica. That you, for all the boxes we chose to put you in would find a way out. That something in you was more. For all the ways we expected you'd develop, you chose both to be conqueror and savior. To somehow keep a human heart in spite of how hard you conceal it. And that heart led you to fumblingly save a few on Sesa and to Rox…And his dream…And later to Bayta Dartell and your other friends. Rox…The man who finally gave you things you'd lacked all your life…A father…But even more, a dream and a purpose. Your ambitions changed, child. You sought to channel your rage and your power to help make his dream real. You transcended what you'd been and your quest, fueled by him, became a religious one, one that could even produce voluntary converts. That perhaps was the most dangerous phase of all…And one that we, poor psychologists that we thought we were, failed to ever see. How it would both make you great, even somewhat noble, and …Almost…Inevitable."
"It is myself that bears the responsibility for having missed all that, for I was already the leader of the Second Foundation when you captured Kalgan. When you destroyed the First Foundation, we found out, but too late, and for that fault millions have died on Tazenda."
"And now we finally face each other. Though, not for long, Emperor. You've at last exposed yourself and our dance is done. So, is that it? You and your Second Foundation manipulated the great Seldon?" She eyed him coldly. "To restore your Empire? Sent my Rox on a foolish quest while you played Seldon's game?"
"No, not at all. Though we're the product of Seldon's research and effort. As for 'my Empire', dear child. I long ago accepted my place and role as a defeated ruler of the remains of the past. Though I won't deny as Dagobert IX it's been rather pleasant in a way, to revive a bit of the old glory, thanks to you. But as chosen First Speaker of the Second Foundation, I am pledged to pull down what you've constructed. And you know yourself it cannot last once you are no more."
"So, I'm to die to solve your problem…And your precious Plan will continue, creating an Empire your descendants mentalically control. Lord Rox knew and I once predicted that to Bayta Darrell, that it will be a living death for all but your elite. Worse than the original Empire." She noted coolly.
"And much like your own, dear. You above all know the cost in suffering your conquest has required."
"For a few years, whilst I live. When I die, a rebuilt Galactic State will stand…Or at least the chance of one. Free of control, free of 'Seldon Plans'. Is that what you fear?" she smiled coldly.
"We fear a structure whose collapse will take down the Plan and leave the Galaxy in chaos." Dagobert sighed. "Your Union has no power base but you, a few truly loyal supporters, and your Converted. In but a few years, a few decades, it will crumble to dust."
"And yours?" she frowned. "You think trillions, quadrillions, joyfully cheer the hundreds of years of suffering even Seldon predicts to end in your Foundation…Indeed your Second Foundation and may I ask, Emperor, your own descendants?...Triumphing in a new Empire, guarded by an elite of technocrats and telepaths, not even so free as that of your ancestors? How long will that last? An eternity? Frozen in suffering, with any hope of change or better crushed. A Galaxy of Converted who can never hope to escape control?"
"We hope not, dear child. And no, hardly my descendants…As you know." hard stare that made her relent the slightest bit. "But…" Dagobert sighed. "There maybe some truth to that. I agree and others in our group do fear that our mentalic control might prove a crushing burden. Seldon was born in an Empire where freedom was seen as a danger and one that should be controlled and limited. And it affected his views, however advanced they were relatively, certainly. As a young boy, son of a reigning Emperor-you may not believe this if you wish-I opposed being elevated to the throne, the notion of any Empire. I thought as you, as Rox did, that Humanity should be free to choose how it should be ruled and by whom. When the Second Foundation recruited me, in spite of my heritage, and for my mentalic ability, before the pathetic remnant of our old Trantorian Empire fell to attack and slaughter, I had doubts about their plans, doubts I deliberately sought to repress so that I would not be rejected, because I hoped to provide a voice against that denial of free will. I do believe in the Seldon Plan and the mission of the Second Foundation to prevent a dark night of collapse, one my own family would bear some considerable responsibility for, I know." Wry smile.
"But I too, have doubts. Doubts I and others have had to keep from our fellows who choose to have no such doubt of Seldon and any who may be behind him. The lure of being part of an elite has always been powerful, it was in the days of Trantor's glory and for both Terminus and the Second Foundation, it's a dangerous drug. As is simple Trantorian patriotism. It was hard, brutally, devastatingly hard to let Trantor go. To see it humiliated and brought low. It was almost unbearable for many of us born there. A dangerous drug indeed."
"One that contaminated even the great Hari Seldon." She noted coldly.
"He was great, but only human, dear." Dagobert smiled.
"So, we agree…But you refuse my solution. So, what's left? Gaia and its collective? The robot overlords of Gaia whom your ancestor Cleon crushed…Scattering the humans about the Galaxy…Those Rox hoped to use but never found, only the accident of finding me giving his dreams reality…Is that what you now hope for?"
"Gaia was the creation of robots who thought they could bequeath their programmed laws to Humanity as a higher morality." Dagobert sighed. "Their intentions, like yours, and Seldon's, were always flawed. They thought to make humans more like themselves would be the solution. They were mistaken, and very human in their arrogance, but a number of their own kind guessed that, particularly one…The overlord among them who rejected their collective and left, called on the Empress and my ancestor, of sorts, to destroy Gaia before it could kill Humanity's spirit, drown it in a collective sea. Do you know why he rejected Gaia, child?"
"I've no idea. Nor do I care."
He smiled wanly… "Well, indulge me as you so often have, my dear…After all, it will take even you time to severe me from my support and breech my shielding."
She eyed him, but offhandedly waved.
"Though he was a robot. Though he'd helped to create Gaia and the Seldon Plan and the Second Foundation…He'd even been instrumental in creating our First Empire. Though he and the first ancient mentalically capable robot, R. Giscard by name, created the Zeroth Law of Robotics to allow them to protect, in their way, Humanity from itself…He knew, buried in his memories, to reduce humans and even their robotic creations to components in Galaxia would be to fully kill all that was unique in Humanity, for good or bad, and to kill any chance of it developing in the robots who'd rejected his and Zeroth law and sought to become more, not less, human. He knew because thousands of years ago on Earth, before the great migration, when Earth had rejected for a time the notion of galactic expansion, he had a human partner. A police detective who operated on instinct as well as logic. And because of his partner, his human friend, he realized, over time, eons of time, despite his desperate desire to save Humanity from itself, to kill that instinct, that freedom of human thought, would be to kill Humanity far worse than any transitory suffering. So, he abandoned Gaia and urged it be destroyed, though he and the Empress and the Emperor sought to save the people. But, to try to ease Humanity's sufferings, he disguised himself, became a key Imperial minister, encouraged Hari Seldon in psychohistory and to create the two Foundations."
"How would you know this…?" she eyed him. "You?"
"No, I'm not R. Daneel Olivaw, which was his first name ages ago, back on old Earth. One of the finest humanoid robots ever built, though not biological. But, before he left Trantor, to seek answers that might help him protect Humanity into the distant future, without harming it, he told me this story and entrusted me, last of the hereditary Emperors, with the duty of maintaining his Second Foundation as First Speaker, the second to follow him. A duty I never wished for but which I took on."
"Even though you doubted its goals?" she eyed him.
"Because I doubted its goals, dear child." He noted.
"Regardless, you can't stop me. You haven't the power to beat down my mind. Even as we've spoken I've been feeling out your defenses, old man. And given just a bit more time, this one will cut off your link to the others."
"We thought so as well, given time." Dagobert, calmly. "But, for the moment we are still at stalemate and we can talk."
"As to what? Your surrender? Mine?" she chuckled.
"Or to neither, dear child. You claim you wish to mitigate the worst of what Seldon hoped to recreate, to fulfill my own old friend Rox's dream…And I have not lied to you there, he was a true friend, whose courage saved my wife and children repeatedly in those terrible days of the Fall…To create a new Galactic state of peace and, hopefully, prosperity, to make it a freer, better state that acts to protect those like you who've been abandoned in the old world and the new. I say, we think alike, to some extent." Smile. "But your Union is not the way, it's too soon and your structure too weak. Those you've controlled will maintain it a short time, but it will crumble all the faster for that control."
"So, kill me. Build your Empire as you like, in Seldon's way...An even more brutal copy of the First. If you can." Arch look. "But my mind is the stronger and I can hold off even your joint power."
"You see now I too have doubts about Seldon and his Plan? Doubts which might well cost me my position were they known widely." Dagobert shrugged.
"Then let me be." She eyed him. "You know my time is short. Let me try my way and we can see if my Galaxy is the better."
"To let you do that, is to destroy the Second Foundation…We both know that. You'd never rest till you'd hunted us all down, converted all you could and killed those who resisted."
"Well then. Shall I start with you, Emperor?" she sneered.
"Child, is that truly what you've wanted? What you worked and strived for? What our friend Rox, my old friend and your near-father…Strived for?"
"Alone since, only those I forced behind me." She noted, coldly.
"Not always. The happiest time of your life, poor girl, was that brief moment when you let your heart feel. And compelled no one."
"I did that to gain advantage, to conquer the Foundation and locate you. I succeeded in the one, and now I'll succeed in the other." Grim tone.
"And you made me Emperor, and as with Bayta Dartell, you chose to avoid changing me…To strengthen, but not to influence, a kindly old fool." He smiled.
"Another mistake. My emotions playing me false." She sighed.
"Or true." Dagobert noted.
"I killed your son." Narrow look.
"Yes. Ending my dynasty, such as it was." Sigh. "And he richly deserved it. It was my fault that I let him be, to grow up arrogant, headstrong, then cruel and hideous. But he was what he was and I could do nothing to save him…To have changed him, prevented him, would have exposed me or at best compromised me. Though, if I'd been there to intervene, I would have done whatever was necessary to protect poor Flavia De Santis…And then your Bayta, without fully exposing myself. But in the case of Bayta Dartell, your presence and ability were quite sufficient. What you did was right and necessary. It spared me from having to do it myself, as I would have had to." Calm nod.
"And since we stand at stalemate…But a steadily slipping one, to my favor…" she smiled coldly. "Why did you wait so long? Why let me send my force to Tazenda and kill and capture your people? Why let me know, through that foolish boy Channis, that Rossem is the home of your Foundation? Did you think that I would weaken myself reaching out from Kalgan this way?"
"I did not. But some of us did. I let them think so. As for the time I took in confronting you, you know why. To have openly faced you, myself, would have destroyed me quickly, to no purpose at best. Left me your instrument at worst. I needed time to study you and to build up a mentalic network to help shield me. And to prepare Channis as a distraction."
"Shield you…For a short time. This one snaps your links to the others as we speak." Smile. "I can feel how isolated you are becoming, Your Majesty. And you're right, you cannot match me strength for strength, mentalically."
…