Chapter 34 first quarter

Two full days passed, and though Candib was very angry, his heart was not very heavy.There's really no reason why the trial didn't happen quickly.If he had needed time to prepare, he could be sure they would have forced him to appear in court long ago. Yet the second base has never faced a more serious crisis since defeating the Mules.So they stalled - just to annoy him. They did succeed in this.Seldon! Their actions would only make his counterattack stronger, and he made this decision secretly in his heart. He looked around now, and the lounge was empty, as it had been for two days.Everyone knew he was a prisoner, a speaker about to be fired.It would be unprecedented in the five centuries of Second Foundation history—he would be deposed, reduced to an ordinary, ordinary Second Foundation member.

In fact, as long as it is a member of the Second Foundation, it is already a very honorable thing, and after being impeached, Candiba may still be able to retain a respectable title, that is to say, it will still be better than Ordinary members have more status.However, it is far from pleasant for a man who has been a speaker to be relegated to such a level. But this kind of thing can't happen anyway, Candiba thought angrily, although the people around him had been deliberately avoiding him for two days.Only Sura Novi's attitude remained the same, but that was because she was too straightforward to understand the current situation. For her, Candiba was still her only "teacher".

He was irritated to find that he even liked her flattery a little.When she looked at him with admiration, he often felt a kind of strange excitement. Thinking of this reaction made Candiba feel ashamed-had he become so grateful for such a small favor? ? At this time, a secretary came out of the conference hall and told Jiandibo that he was invited to attend the round table meeting, and he immediately walked in with his head held high.Candib knew the clerk well—he had in mind an uncompromisingly precise standard of how every speaker should be served.At this moment, Jiandibo was treated extremely badly. Even if he was only a secretary, he thought he had already been convicted.

The other speakers were all sitting around the table, each wearing a black robe specially designed for court sessions, with extremely serious expressions.Sandys, the chief speaker, looked a little uncomfortable, but managed not to force a look of friendliness on his face.Drami, one of the three female speakers, didn't even look at him. The chief speaker began: "Speaker Stuart Candiber, you have now been impeached for your misconduct. You have charged, in vague terms, with treason and murder in our presence at the Round Table. , but can't provide any evidence. What you're saying is that all members of the Second Foundation-including the chief speaker and each speaker-are all subjected to a thorough psychoanalysis in order to determine who No longer credible. Such words and deeds are enough to divide our society. If the centripetal force of the people disappears, the Second Foundation will not be able to control the complex and potentially hostile galaxy, let alone ensure that the Second Empire can be established on schedule.

"Your taboo words, since we have all heard them with our own ears, we will omit the procedure of reading the formal indictment and go directly to the next procedure. Speaker Stowe Candiber, do you have any reply? ?" Drami gave a sinister smile, but still didn't look at Candib. "If the facts can be regarded as a defense, then I have something to say. We have every reason to suspect that our security system has been leaked. There may be one or several members of the second base. It is not impossible for everyone here to be controlled by external spiritual forces-and this has caused an unprecedented crisis for the Second Foundation. If you say that you are eager to hold this trial because you dare not waste time, then everyone Possibly also dimly appreciating the seriousness of the crisis. But if so, why did you delay for two days after I formally demanded an immediate trial? Here I expressly state that because of the imminence of this deadly crisis, I must not If I don't say the things that are causing trouble, if I don't know everything and say everything, then I really don't deserve to be a speaker."

"He's just repeating those outrageous remarks again, Chief Speaker," Dramie said softly. Chandib's seat had been deliberately moved so that he was farther from the round table than the others - which meant he had been deposed.He simply moved the seat back, as if to show that he didn't care, and then stood up abruptly. "Are you going to convict me now, regardless of the legal process, or allow me to file a detailed plea?" he said. The chief speaker replied: "This is not a rally without legal grounds, speaker. Since there is not much precedent to follow, we are willing to take a position in favor of you, because it is well understood that if we mortal hearts, it is possible If we deviate from absolute justice, then we would rather let the guilty go unpunished than wrongly accuse any innocent. Therefore, although the current case is too serious to allow us to easily misplace the guilty, we still allow you to present your defense in your own way, and You have plenty of time until all unanimously decide to stop you—including me—" (he raised his voice especially in the last part of the sentence) "My statement is clear enough."

"So, let me begin by reporting to you that the recently expelled First Foundation man from Terminus, Glenn Trevize - the Chief Speaker and I believe he is the one who is in danger The vanguard—the spaceship it was piloting—suddenly swerved for no apparent reason." "The speaker should announce the source of the information," Drami said softly. "How would the speaker know?" (Judging by the tone of her tone, she did not refer to his title by "speaker.") "I got this information from the chief speaker," said Candiba, "but I have checked it out myself. However, in this case, as I am not sure about the security of the chamber, please allow me to I keep the source of the information secret."

The chief speaker said: "I will not make a ruling on the motion of Drami's speaker. Let us not ask the source of the intelligence for the time being and continue with the original procedure. But if we wait for the round table resolution to get an answer, Jiandi The speaker of the cypress must bring it up." "If the speaker is unwilling to provide an answer now, the only reasonable assumption I can think of is that he has an agent on his staff -- an agent whom he employs privately and who is not responsible for everything at the round table," Drami said. We really can't be sure that a single individual who is going to abide by the code of conduct for a member of the Second Foundation."

This remark made the chief speaker a little unhappy, and he said: "I understand what you mean, Speaker Drami, I don't need you to tell me every single word." "I bring this up just to put it on the record, Chief Speaker. Because that would be tantamount to adding to the crime, which was not in the original impeachment. I want to mention, by the way, that the impeachment bill has never been Read out article by article, and hereby I propose to add this article as well." The chief speaker said: "I asked the clerk to add this, and when the time is right, I'll fix the formal wording—Speaker of Candib," (at least by "speaker" he refers to the title of Candib ) "Your reply is tantamount to backtracking, please continue."

So Jiandibo said again: "This Trevize not only changed direction and headed towards a goal we couldn't predict, but also moved at an unprecedented speed. According to the information I have obtained-this point even the Chief Speech Those who don't know it—he moved nearly 10,000 parsecs in less than an hour." "By a jump?" said one speaker in disbelief. "With nearly thirty jumps, one after the other, without any pauses in between," Candib replied, "this is even more unimaginable than a single jump. Even if we find him now, it will take a while." Only time can catch up, and once he finds out, if he wants to escape, we will not be able to catch up with him again—but you are only focusing on the game of impeachment, just to add fuel to this case, let two days Time slips away in vain."

Trying to hide his anger, the chief speaker said flatly, "Please tell us, Speaker Candib, what you think this means." "This is a warning sign, Chief Speaker, that the technology of the First Foundation continues to advance by leaps and bounds, and they are far more powerful now than they were in Prim Pavor's day. If they find us and are free to act, we will never Handle." Suddenly Drami stood up and spoke: "Chief speaker, our time is wasted on irrelevant issues. We are not children and should not be frightened by this 'warp speed story told by old grandma'. Regardless of the first How amazing the mechanical devices of the base are, anyway, once the crisis comes, their minds will be under our control." "How do you explain that, Speaker Candiba?" asked the Chief Speaker. "Later we will naturally discuss the issue of the mind. At this moment, I just want to emphasize that the scientific and technological strength of the first base not only has an absolute advantage, but also continues to grow." The lead speaker said, "Going to the next point, speaker Candib. Your first point of reply, I have to tell you, I don't think has much to do with impeachment itself." From the actions and postures of the other members of the round table, it can be seen that they all agree with this statement. "I'll just skip to the next one," said Candibe. "Trevize had another companion on this trip," (he paused, searching for the name in his mind) "a man named Janov Pei A man of Lorat. He is a useless scholar who has devoted his life to exploring myths and legends about Earth." "Are you that clear about him? I assume it's from that secret source again?" Drami said, acting as the prosecutor for the trial, and she seemed to be doing her part. "That's right, I really know him that well." Candibe replied slowly. "A few months ago, the mayor of Terminus—an energetic and capable woman—became interested in this scholar for unknown reasons, and of course I began to pay attention to him. All this has been taken for granted, and all information I have obtained has been forwarded to the chief speaker." "I can attest to that," whispered the chief speaker. An elderly speaker asked: "What exactly is your so-called earth? Is it the world of origin that is often mentioned in legends? That was the topic that caused a sensation in the age of empires?" Candidate nodded. "If it was a drami speaker, she would have said Earth was in one of those 'warp tales told by old grandmas' - I suspect Pelorat's dream was to come to the galactic library on Trantor, well Look up information about Earth. Because he is on Terminus, he cannot borrow books from the Galactic Library through interlibrary cooperation. "When he and Trevize set off from Terminus, he must have thought that his lifelong dream was about to come true. We were waiting for these two, hoping to use this opportunity to find out about them—for our sake, of course. As a result, you now know that they are not coming. They are going to other destinations, and we don't know where they are going or why they are doing it." Dramid added: "What's all the fuss about? Of course we have nothing to lose by not coming here. In fact, since they ignore us so easily, it follows that the First Foundation is not aware of Trantor's presence." True face, so we should once again applaud Prim Pavor for what he has accomplished." Her round lids looked as innocent as an angel's when she said this. "If we don't think about it, we might actually get this comforting answer," said Candiber. "However, is it possible that they didn't see the importance of Trantor because of their sudden turn this time around? Could it be that someone To prevent us here on Trantor from having the opportunity to investigate these two men and prevent us from learning about the importance of Earth?" There was a commotion at the round table meeting. "Anyone—" Drammy said coldly, "could invent something outrageous and talk nonsense. But what's the point of what you're making up? How does the Second Foundation view Earth, and why would anyone Concerned? Whether it is really the planet of origin, or just a myth, and whether there is a single origin of human beings, of course, should only be historians, anthropologists, collectors of folk tales-such as this one in your mouth What does it matter to us that he is interested in a Pelorat--?" "What does it matter to us?" said Candiba. "Then please tell me why there is no Earth in the library?" At this moment, for the first time, there was an atmosphere other than hostility in the round table meeting. Drami asked, "Really not?" Jian Dibo said in a quite calm tone: "As soon as I received the news that Trevize and Pelorat might come here to find information about the earth, I naturally made some preparations very quickly. I In particular, I went to the Galaxy Library and asked the computer to list the complete catalog of these materials, but the computer found nothing. At that time, I felt that the matter was not simple—think about it, there is not only a small amount of materials, not a little, but is nothing at all! "But you insisted that I wait two more days before I would hold this trial. In the meantime, I heard that the two First Foundation people would not be coming, which made me even more curious. I must think Ways to satisfy my curiosity. When you are still doing nothing—as the saying goes, when the roof collapsed and you only focus on tasting wine—I took advantage of this gap to read a few history books in my collection. I read To some chapters, specifically mentioning the research on the 'problem of origin' at the end of the empire, some documents are listed and cited in the book, both traditional printing and film. Then I went back to the library and searched for those documents by myself. I Assure you, there is nothing there." Drami said, "Even so, there's nothing surprising about it. If Earth is indeed a myth—" "Then I should have found the name in the mythology reference book; if Earth was just 'Warp Tales Told by Old Grandmas', I should have found it in 'Tales of Warp Speed ​​Told by Old Grandmas'; if Earth was just psychopaths I should have found some information under morbid psychology. In fact, the legends about the earth do exist, otherwise you would not have heard all of them, and immediately thought of it as the legendary birthplace of human beings. But , why is there no information about Earth in the library, not in every category?" Drami did not respond this time, but another speaker intervened.The speaker was Leonis Zheng, a rather small man with an encyclopedic knowledge of the details of Seldon's plan and a myopic view of the real galaxy.When he talks, his eyes always like to blink. He said: "Everyone knows that in the days at the end of the empire, the empire tried to establish its own myth, so it deliberately downplayed all the history before the empire." Candidate nodded. "Speaker Zheng, 'Dilution' is a perfectly apt word, for it does not amount to the destruction of evidence. You should know better than anyone else that another feature of imperial decline is the sudden nostalgia for the past that Better times. As I mentioned, in the time of Hari Seldon, many people became interested in the 'problem of origin'—" Speaker Zheng gave a dry cough and interrupted the other party's speech. "I know this very well, young man, and I must have a much deeper understanding of the social problems that accompany the decline of empires than you can imagine. Due to the rise of the 'imperialization' movement, it has suppressed people's way of playing with the earth. research; two hundred years after the death of Seldon, under the leadership of Cleon II, the empire launched the last cultural renaissance, the imperialization movement reached its peak at that time, and all research on the earth was completely terminated. Regarding this point, in Kryon There was also a decree issued in Lyon's time, which referred to this interest in this subject as—I think I am quoting correctly—‘pedantic and unproductive speculation, which tends to corrode the people's sincere loyalty to the emperor.'” "So, Speaker Zheng, do you think that all references to Earth were destroyed during the time of Cleon II?" said Candib with a smile. "I haven't drawn any conclusions, I'm just discussing the facts." "It's really wise that you don't draw any conclusions. Although the empire experienced a brief revival during the time of Cleon II, at least the university and the library have fallen into our hands—or should I say, in our hands. It is under the control of our ancestors. If we want to remove any materials from the library, it is impossible to deceive the speaker of the Second Foundation. In fact, if there is such an attempt, the person who is ordered to carry it out must be our speaker, but The dying empire knows nothing of them." Jian Di Bur paused, but Speaker Zheng didn't say a word, just stared at him with wide eyes. Therefore, Jiandibo continued: "During Seldon's time, the library must still contain relevant materials about the earth, because the research on the 'problem of origin' was very popular at that time. Since then, the second base has taken over the library, so it is also There's no way someone would have had the opportunity to remove the material. How is it that there isn't any material in the library today?" Dramii interjected impatiently, "Your dilemma can end here, Chandib, we've already understood it. What's the answer in your mind? Did you move all the information yourself?" "As always, Drammy, you do hit the nail on the head." Chandibal nodded at her, sarcastically (she responded with a slight twitch of her mouth). "One of the possible answers is that a speaker from Second Foundation is stealing. This person knows how to dominate the librarians without leaving a memory in their minds, and also knows how to use the computer without leaving a memory in them. any record." Sandys, the chief speaker, blushed instantly. "Ridiculous, Speaker Candiba, I can't imagine a speaker doing that. What's his motivation? Even if a speaker moved Earth's data elsewhere for some specific reason, why hide it? The other members of the round table? Whoever wants to tamper with the library has a high chance of being discovered. Why should he take the risk of ruining his future? What's more, I don't think even the most talented speaker can It may be done seamlessly, without leaving a trace." "In that case, Chief Speaker, Speaker Dramid thinks I did it, and you must disagree." "Of course I disagree," said the chief speaker. "I can't help doubting your judgment sometimes, but I don't yet think you're completely insane." "Then, this should never have happened, Chief Speaker. The materials about Earth should still be in the library, not taken at all, because we've already ruled out all possibility—however, those materials did Gone." Delami said, pretending to be bored, "Okay, okay, let's finish this question quickly. Let me ask you again, what is the answer in your mind? I'm sure you must have an answer in mind." "If you can be sure, speaker, we can all be sure. My opinion is that the library was ransacked by some Second Foundation member who was under the control of some mysterious external force. Because of the force in the Helping each other secretly, so the whole process will be unknown and invisible." Drami laughed. "It turned out to be discovered by you, didn't you? You—the uncontrollable and uncontrollable proud son of heaven. If this mysterious power does exist, how can you find out that the information is missing? Why can't you be controlled?" "This is not a joke, speaker. They probably think like us that all intervention must be done in moderation. A few days ago, when my life was threatened, I The first thought is not to protect yourself, but how to avoid touching the heart of that Amman. They may have the same attitude, once they feel safe, they will stop all interference. This is the real danger , deadly danger, the reason why I was able to discover these things may mean that they no longer have any worries, that is to say, they think they have won. But we are still here to continue playing our game!" "But what is the purpose of all this trouble? Is there any possible purpose?" Drami asked.As she spoke, she moved her feet uneasily and bit her lip unconsciously.As the Round Table grew more interested and more concerned about the issue, she felt her influence was fading. Chandib replied: "Suppose that the First Foundation, with its enormous physical power, is doing all it can to find the whereabouts of the Earth, but it deliberately acts as if they were exiled by the two men, hoping that we will mistakenly believe that is the case-but if Exile really, how did they let these two have such an incredible spaceship that can travel 10,000 parsecs through space in under an hour? "As for our second base, we have never attempted to find the earth, and apparently someone has secretly manipulated it to prevent us from accessing any information about the earth. The first base is about to find the earth, but we have not even crossed a step. Get out, so—” Candiba paused for a moment, and Drami rushed to say: "What is this and that? Finish your fairy tales quickly. Do you know any truth at all?" "I don't know every single truth, speaker. I haven't yet fully understood the conspiracies that are pouring over the sky, but I do know that there are conspiracies. I don't know what it means to seek Earth, but I know for sure The Second Foundation is currently facing great danger, and this danger will also endanger the future of the Seldon Project and all mankind." Drami stood up abruptly, without a smile on his face.In an excited but manageable voice, she said, "Nonsense! Chief Speaker, stop him! We're talking about the defendant's inappropriate behavior, and he's saying something that's not only childish but irrelevant. He made up There is no way he can get away with all the puzzling theories that only he himself thinks are plausible. I call for an immediate vote on this matter - unanimously in favor of his indictment!" "Wait!" said Candibe sharply. "As far as I know, I can have a chance to defend myself, and I have one defense left - just the last one. Please let me put it first, and then you can vote, I will never have any more objection." The chief speaker rubbed his weary eyes. "You can go on, Speaker Chandib. Let me remind the roundtable one thing - convicting a speaker who is impeached is a big decision, and there is no precedent. We cannot give posterity the impression that We did not allow the defendants a full defense. Also remember that even if we are satisfied with the verdict, posterity will not necessarily be. I do not believe that members of any class of the Second Foundation have the slightest comment on history Let alone the speakers at the Round Table. Let us set an example to be sure that speakers many centuries from now will agree with us." Drami said sharply: "We may lose face by doing so, Chief Speaker, and posterity will laugh at us for doing so. It is your personal decision to allow the defendant to continue to plead." Candidate took a deep breath. "Since you have taken this decision, Chief Speaker, I would like to call a witness - a young woman I met three days ago, without whom I would not have been able to attend the roundtable that day, and Not just being late." "Is the woman you mentioned known to the members of the round table?" asked the lead speaker. "I don't know, Chief Speaker, she is a native of this planet." Drami's eyes widened instantly. "An Eminem woman?" "That's right! Exactly!" "What have we to do with such people?" exclaimed Drami. "It's all useless what they say, they don't exist!" Jandibal pursed his lips in an expression that no one could mistake for a smile.He snapped: "All the Amu people, of course they exist in physical bodies, they are also human beings, and they play their part in the Seldon plan. The Second Foundation is indirectly protected by them, so their role is extremely important. De I would like to draw a line between Lamy and the speaker for making such inhumane remarks, and hope that her statement will be kept in the minutes of the meeting, so that it can be used as evidence that she is not suitable to be a speaker in the future. Other round table Member, is there anyone who agrees with her shocking statement and also objects to my witness attendance?" The chief speaker said: "Call your witnesses, speaker." The corners of Candib's mouth relaxed, returning to the indifferent expression that a speaker should have when he is under pressure.His mind had long been prepared, and he had laid down numerous restrictions. However, after that fortification, he realized that the most dangerous moment had passed, and he had already won.