Chapter 77 second quarter

On Trantor, Kundo Santis felt suffocated by the weight of the chief speaker.Ever since Candib's spaceship disappeared into the atmosphere and entered the dark and deep space, he has been meditating behind closed doors and has not held a round table meeting. Is it wise to allow Candib to go it alone? Candib is quite a talent, but he is not perfect and can be overconfident at times.The greatest fault of Candidate was arrogance, and the greatest fault of Sandys himself (he thought sadly) was old age. He thought again and again that the great predecessor, Prim Pafo, had flown all over the galaxy to settle many things by himself, how dangerous it was.Who else could be like Prim Pavor? Would Candiba qualify? And Pafo had his wife for company.

In fact, Candib also had a traveling companion, the woman who was traveling with him.Yet she was of no use at all, and Pavel's wife was a speaker. As he waited anxiously for news from Candiba, Santeas felt himself getting older every day.As the days went by and there was no news from Candib, Santis felt his nerves getting tighter and tighter. Should have sent a fleet, at least a small one... No, the round table will not pass. However…… When the message finally arrived, Sandys was in a state of sleep—a restless sleep, unable to relax physically and mentally.The strong wind had been blowing in the first half of the night, and he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Like a child, he imagined that the sound of the wind was mixed with human voices.

As he was about to enter the troubled dreamland, his last thought was to fantasize about the ease and ease after abdication.Although he is very eager to unload the burden as soon as possible, he also knows that there is absolutely no way to do it now. If he abdicates at this moment, the successor of the chief speaker must be Drami. When the call came, he immediately woke up from the dream and sat up on the bed. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Very good, chief speaker," said Candiba. "Should we establish a video link to make communication simpler?" "Maybe wait a minute," Sandys said, "just to report first, how is the situation?"

Candiba realized that the other party had just woken up and was extremely tired and irritable, so he answered very carefully."I was near an inhabited planet called Gaia. As far as I know, there is no mention of its existence in any galactic records," he said. "The members of this world are those who are constantly improving the Seldon plan? Those anti-mules?" "It is possible, Chief Speaker, for several reasons. First, Trevize and Pelorat's spaceship, which was traveling all the way towards Gaia, may have landed there by now. Second, at approximately In the space half a million kilometers away from me, another warship of the First Base appeared."

"People won't be so interested in Gaia for no reason." "Chief speaker, everyone's interests may not be exactly the same. I came here because I have been following Trevize, and that battleship may have come because of it. The only question now is why Trevize came here Come?" "Are you going to follow him to that planet, Speaker?" "I have considered this possibility, but a new situation has emerged. The distance between me and Gaia is 100 million kilometers, and I sense a spiritual force field in the surrounding space, which is very uniform and extremely weak. If not The Eminem woman's mind produced a focusing effect, which I could never have noticed. Her mind is very unusual, and it was for this purpose that I was willing to take her along."

"That being said, your guess is correct. Do you think the Drami speaker knew this?" "When she urged me to take the Eminem woman with me? I suppose it's unlikely—but I've been able to make good use of it, Chief Speaker." "I'm glad you did. Do you think, Speaker Candib, that planet is the focus of the psychic field?" "To determine this, I'd have to make measurements at several distant locations to test whether the field distribution has a general spherical symmetry. My one-way mental detector might do it, but I can't be sure. However, it's not currently suitable to Do an in-depth investigation, because I'm facing a First Base warship."

"It shouldn't pose a threat." "It's hard to say. Until now, I dare not say that the battleship is definitely not the focus of the mental force field." "But they..." "I'm sorry, chief speaker, but please allow me to interrupt. We don't know the technological achievements of the First Foundation today, and their current actions appear to be overconfident, which may surprise us. Did they invent control? The device of the psychic force field, I must first confirm this. In short, Chief Speaker, the enemy I am facing is an expert in the psychomechanics of the entire battleship or the entire planet."

"If those experts in psychomechanics were on that battleship, their mental power might be too weak to restrain me; but they could still restrain my actions, and the physical weapons on the battleship would be enough to destroy me. Conversely, the focus If it’s that planet, since I can detect it from such a distance, the strength of the planet’s surface must be enormous, far beyond what I can personally handle.” "Regardless of which of the two possibilities is true, we need to set up a spiritual network—a collective spiritual network. I want to be able to command all the spiritual forces on Trantor when necessary."

The chief speaker was very hesitant. "The overall mental network? Never used it in the past, or even suggested it—except when facing the mule." "This crisis is likely to be more serious than the mule threat, Chief Speaker." "I don't believe the roundtable will agree." "I don't think you need to ask for their consent, chief speaker, you should declare an emergency." "What excuse do I have?" "Just tell them what I reported to you, Chief Speaker." "Drami speakers will say you're an incompetent coward who's driving yourself crazy."

Candy Burt paused before replying, "I can imagine she would say something similar, Chief Speaker, but let her say what she likes, I can bear it. It's not my personal face or dignity that is at stake. threat, but Second Base itself is already in jeopardy."