Chapter 87 Section VI

The three ships remained stationary with each other, moving slowly around the Gaia planet together, like a long-distance three-in-one satellite.It seems that Gaia suddenly has three more traveling companions during her endless orbital journey. Trevize sat in the spaceship, his eyes fixed on the screen.He's tired of guessing what role he's going to play, what Gaia's calling her from ten thousand parsecs away for. He was not surprised when a voice suddenly sounded in his heart, as if he had been waiting for it to appear. It said, "Can you hear me, Glenn Trevize? If you can, you don't have to answer. Just think."

Trevize turned his head to look around, and saw that Pelorat was obviously taken aback, looking around, as if trying to find the source of the sound.Bliss sat upright, lightly clasping her hands on her knees, and Trevize immediately understood that she recognized the voice. He ignored the voice's request to use his thoughts, and deliberately replied in a straightforward manner: "If I don't understand everything, I won't talk about anything." The voice said, "You'll see soon enough." 7 Novi said, "You can all hear my voice in your hearts, and you are all free to respond with your thoughts. I will make it possible for you to hear each other. And, as you all know, our ships are far enough apart from each other. Nearly, the mental force field is transmitted at the ordinary speed of light without causing any delay or inconvenience. First of all, I would like to declare that we have come here today through careful arrangements."

"What kind of arrangement?" This is Burano's voice. "Not in the way of mental interference." Novi said: "Gaia never interferes with anyone's mind. That's not our style. We just use everyone's strong ambition. Mayor Burano wants to establish In the Second Empire, the Candiba speaker wants to be the chief speaker, we just need to fully encourage these desires, then make the best use of the situation, and then choose to use it well." "I know how I was brought here," said Candib in a blunt tone—he did.Now he understood why he was so eager to go into space, so eager to track down Trevize, and so sure he could handle it all—it was all because of Novi, oh Novi!

"You are a special case, Speaker Candiba. Although you are ambitious, you also have a soft side, which provides us with a shortcut. You have been educated to think that certain people are in every way Not as good as you, and you will show them kindness and compassion. I/we are very ashamed that I used this trait of yours to lure you into the bait, and the only excuse is that the future of the galaxy is in jeopardy." Novi paused, her voice (though she didn't use her vocal cords) getting darker and darker, her expression deeper. "Time is running out, and Gaia can't wait any longer. Over the past century, the people of Terminus have developed a psychic force field shield, and if they were given another generation, it would progress to the point where even Gaia cannot At that time, they will be able to use physical weapons as they wish, and the entire galaxy will be unable to contend with them. A Second Galactic Empire in the terminal star mode will disregard the opposition of the Seldon Project, Trantor and Gaia, and in a very short time Time to build. So Gaia must try to entice Mayor Burano to act before the shield is perfect."

"Trantor, on to Trantor. The Seldon project worked flawlessly because of Gaia's efforts to keep it on track. Chief speakers for over a century, some of the most idle in history, Trang As a result, Trantor has become idle. However, now, Stowe Candiba is rising rapidly, and he will definitely become the next generation chief speaker. Under his leadership, Trantor will become a positive action group and will definitely focus on development Tangible forces will also perceive the threat of Terminus, and then take actual actions. If Candiba takes action against Terminus before the protective shield of Terminus is fully developed, then the Seldon plan can be completed from beginning to end, and finally established. The Second Galactic Empire - but that is a Trantor-type empire, neither Terminus nor Gaia will accept, so Gaia must try to entice Chandib to act before he becomes chief speaker. "

"Fortunately, after decades of careful planning, Gaia finally invited the representatives of the two bases to the most appropriate place at the most appropriate time. I have taken the trouble to repeat the whole process, mainly to let Terminus star Senator Glenn Trevize understands." Trevize interrupted suddenly, but still refused to use thought communication, he said in a firm tone: "I don't understand, what's wrong with the Second Galactic Empire built with these two models?" Novi said: "The Second Galactic Empire established in the terminal star mode will be a military hegemonic empire, established by force, maintained by force, and finally destroyed by force. It will be the first Galactic Empire without compromise. A mirror image of what Gaia sees."

"The Second Galactic Empire built on the Trantor model will be a patriarchal empire, established by mathematics and maintained by mathematics. In the framework of mathematics, it will always be a pool of stagnant water. It will be a dead end, That's Gaia's view." "What other options does Gaia offer?" Trevize said. "A bigger Gaia! Turn the Milky Way into a Gaia galaxy! Every inhabited planet is alive like Gaia, and every living planet fuses together to form a larger super life form. Every inhabited planet Every star, every little clump of interstellar gas, maybe even the big central black hole is a part of it. It's a living galaxy that brings all kinds of The endless blessings of life. It is like no other form of life in the past, a life that has never existed before, and will not repeat the ancient mistakes of the past."

"But there will be new mistakes," murmured Candibe sarcastically. "We have Gaia's tens of thousands of years of experience." "It has never been tested on a galactic scale." Trevize didn't bother to listen to these trivial conversations, and his question went to the core: "What role do I play in this matter?" Gaia's voice rang like thunder through Novi's mind: "Choose! Which mode should I use?" A long and absolute silence followed.Finally, in the silence, Trevize asked in a thin but still unconvinced voice (this time it was finally the voice of the heart, because he was speechless with surprise): "Why me?"

Novi said, "Even though we realize that either Terminus or Trantor will grow unstoppable, or worse—both at the same time, in a deadly tug of war that will take the galaxy with them—we still No action could be taken. For our purposes we needed an extraordinary man, a man of sound judgment. And we found you, Councilman - no, we cannot take credit, it was a man named Comp, The men of Trantor found you, but they didn't know how important you were. Their search for you drew our attention to you. Grant Trevize, you have the rare gift of knowing what to do How to do it right." "I deny it," Trevize said.

"Your intuition is indeed often very good. This time, we want you to make the most correct decision for the entire galaxy. Maybe you don't want to take this responsibility, maybe you will try not to make choices. However, you will understand that you are duty-bound, You will feel absolutely sure! Then you will make a choice. When we found you, we knew that the search was over, and then, for many years, we worked hard to induce a chain of events, while avoiding direct spiritual intervention. Under the circumstances, trying to get the three of you—Mayor Burano, Speaker Candiba, and Senator Trevize—to come to Gaia at the same time. Now, we finally did it."

Trevize said: "Here and now, as it stands, Gaia - if you want me to call you that - can't you beat the mayor and the speaker at the same time? Even if I do nothing, Couldn't you just go ahead and build that living galaxy? But why wouldn't you?" Novi said, "I don't know if my explanation will satisfy you. Gaia was created 20,000 years ago with the help of robots. For a brief time in history, robots were human beings." Good helpers, but this situation has long since ceased to exist. They have clearly commanded us that we can only live in the galaxy forever if we extend the object of the three commandments of robots to all life and strictly abide by them. Therefore, we His first commandment is: 'Gaimut shall not injure life, nor allow life to be harmed.' Throughout our history we have followed this commandment, and we have no choice but to do so." "As a result, we are now in a dilemma. Although we have a vision of a living galaxy, we cannot force the billions of humans in the galaxy, as well as countless other beings, to accept it. Doing so may cause great harm. But we also cannot sit back and watch the galaxy go down the path of destruction , because we might be able to prevent this catastrophe. We don't know whether we should act or not act to minimize galactic sacrifice. And if we choose to act, we don't know whether we should support Terminus or support Trantor .It's up to Senator Trevize to decide. No matter what his decision is, Gaia will willingly follow it." Trevize asked, "How do you want me to decide? What should I do?" Novi said, "You have a computer. When the people on Terminus built this computer, they did not know that they made a better product than expected; that computer was mixed with a small part of Gaia. Put your hands Put it on the terminal, and sit back and contemplate. You might think, for example, that Mayor Burano's shield has no holes in it. If you thought that, she could have fired and damaged or destroyed the other two ships in no time. ship, then conquer Gaia by force, and then go and take Trantor." "And you won't stop?" Trevize was taken aback. "Absolutely not. If in comparison, you are sure that the damage caused by the Terminus ruling the galaxy is the least, then we are willing to help the Terminus achieve its goal, even if it itself is destroyed. "Conversely, you might also support the psychic force field of the Candiba speaker, aiding him with computer-aided attack power. In doing so, he must break free from my restraints and push me aside. Then he will adjust The mind of the mayor, bring her fleet under her control, and take Gaia by physical force, ensuring the supremacy of Seldon's plan, and Gaia will not prevent this development." "Or, you will agree with my spiritual force field and join me. If so, the plan to live the galaxy can be launched immediately, but this goal cannot be completed immediately, and it will not be completed in this or the next generation. Rather, it will take many centuries of painstaking work, during which the Seldon Project will continue. The choice is now entirely yours." Burano said: "Wait a minute! Next rush to make a decision, can I speak?" "You are free to speak, and so are Candiba speakers," Novi said. So Burano said, "Mr. Trevizes, the last time we parted at Terminus, you said to me, 'There will come a day, Madam Mayor, when you'll beg me to help you.' I will act according to my own decision, but I will not forget what happened in the past two days." I don't know if you had foreseen today, or if you had an intuition that this would happen, or if you were really like this woman who talked about living the galaxy As I said, you have an incomparably correct judgment. In any case, you have been right. Now I want to ask you for a big favor on behalf of the Federation." "Maybe, you will think that this is a good opportunity to take revenge on me, because I once arrested you and then exiled you. But please remember one thing, the reason why I did that was completely for the sake of the Base Federation. Even I did it wrong, even if I did it out of selfishness, and please don't forget that it was just my own behavior and had nothing to do with the Federation. Don't destroy the entire Federation in revenge for my personal persecution of you. Please Remember you're a Foundation man, and a decent human being, and you don't want to be an insignificant symbol in the schemes of those ruthless mathematicians on Trantor: or a hyphen in a galaxy where the living and the inanimate You want yourself, your descendants, your flesh and blood compatriots, everyone is an independent organism, everyone has free will, and there is nothing more important than this." "You may be told that our empire is headed for a bloody and tragic fate - but it is not. We have free will to choose whether we want to do that or not, and we have other choices. In any case, embrace It is better to be defeated with free will than to live meaninglessly like a cog in a machine. Please note that Gaia sees you as a human being with free will, please make a choice for it, because Gaia None of the molecules can make decisions, their structure makes them incapable of this ability, so they must turn to you. If you order them, they will willingly destroy themselves. Do you want the whole galaxy to become like this?" Trevize said, "I don't know if I still have free will, Mayor. My mind may have been subtly manipulated to make me choose what one side would prefer." Novi said: "Your mind has not been affected at all. If we can adjust your mind and let you make a decision in our favor, this meeting will be unnecessary. If we are really so unprincipled, we can go To act on what we consider to be the best interests, without regard to the needs and well-being of humanity as a whole." At this time, Candiba said: "I believe it is my turn to speak now. Senator Trevize, don't be limited by the narrow regional concept. Even if you were born on the terminal star, you should not place the position of the terminal star on the Milky Way. On. For the past five centuries, the galaxy has been developing according to the Seldon plan, and the Seldon plan has always been going smoothly no matter whether it is inside or outside the Base Federation." "You've always been a part of the Seldon project, and your foundation man role is nothing compared to that. Don't be tempted by narrow-minded patriotism or romantic hopes for experimental new projects. Make any move to undermine Seldon's plan. The Second Foundation will never hinder the free will of mankind, we are spiritual teachers, not dictators." "The Second Galactic Empire we plan is fundamentally different from the First Empire. Looking back at the past history of mankind, in the tens of thousands of years after the advent of hyperspace travel, the Milky Way has never had ten consecutive years of peace. Yes, from time to time someone dies in bloodshed, even in peacetime for the base. If you choose Mayor Burano, this will continue indefinitely and the cycle of horrific tragedies will repeat itself. Seldon's plan ends in It will surely save human beings from the sea of ​​suffering, but the price is not to become one of the countless dust particles in the galaxy, nor does it have to reduce human beings to the same status as grass, bacteria, and dust." Novi said: "I agree very much with the criticism of the First Foundation empire by the speaker of Candiba, but I completely disagree with the vision of the Second Foundation empire he articulated. Those speakers in Trantor, they must be regarded as having Human beings with independent free will, and have always been. However, can they avoid vicious competition, political strife, and behaviors of climbing up at any cost? In the round table, is there no discord or even hatred? Do you dare to follow such a path forever? Mentor? You ask the speaker of Chandib whether this is true, and ask him to answer truthfully on the basis of his personality." "You don't need to ask me to pledge my personality," said Candiba. "I would like to admit that we did have hatred, struggle, betrayal and betrayal at the round table. But once a decision is made, we will all obey it, never exception." Trevize said, "So what if I don't choose?" "You have to choose," Novi said. "You'll know it's wrong to run away, and then you'll make a choice." "What if I want to try, but I can't do it?" "You have to choose." Trevize asked again, "How much time do I have?" Novi replied, "It doesn't matter how long it takes until you are sure." Trevize sat where he was and began to think. The others were also very quiet, Trevize seemed to be able to hear his own pulse. However, he could still hear Mayor Burano's firm voice: "Free will!" And the decisive voice of the Candiba speaker: "Guidance and peace!" Nuowei said in a tone full of expectation: "Life." Trevize turned his head and found that Pelorat was staring at him intently, so he said, "Janov, have you heard all these words?" "I heard it all, Grant." "What's your opinion?" "It's not up to me to decide." "I know, but what do you think?" "I don't know. All three options make me terrified. However, I suddenly had a very special idea..." "What idea?" "You showed me a visualization of the Milky Way when we first went into space, do you remember?" "of course." "You speed up time so that the rotation of the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye. As if anticipating this moment, I blurted out, 'The Milky Way looks like a creature crawling through space.' You think, At some level, is the galaxy already alive?" Trevize recalled that scene with a sudden sense of certainty.At the same time he remembered his intuition that Pelorat had also played an important role.So he turned away abruptly, not giving himself any time to think, doubt or hesitate. He put his hands on the sensor board and concentrated on driving his thoughts. He never knew that his thoughts could be so strong. He made his own choice—a choice that concerns the fate of the entire galaxy.