Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [145]
"Isn't it possible that Sayshell may see benefits in joining?"
"They will never do so while our ships remain on their borders. Withdraw them."
"It can't be done."
"Kodell, Sayshell is a marvelous advertisement for the benevolence of the Foundation Federation. It is nearly enclosed by our territory, it is in an utterly vulnerable position, and yet until now it has been safe, has gone its own way, has even been able to maintain an anti-Foundation foreign policy freely. How better can we show the Galaxy that we force no one, that we come in friendship to all? --If we take over Sayshell, we take that which, in essence, we already have. After all, we dominate it economically--if quietly. But if we take it over by military force, we advertise to all the Galaxy that we have become expansionist."
"And if I tell you that we are really interested only in Gaia?"
"Then I will believe it no more than the Sayshell Union will. This man, Trevize, sends me a message that he is on his way to Gaia and asks me to transmit it to Terminus. Against my better judgment, I do so because I must and, almost before the hyperspatial line is cool, the Foundation Navy is in motion. How will you get to Gaia, without penetrating Sayshellian space?"
"My dear Thoobing, surely you are not listening to yourself. Did you not tell me just a few minutes ago that Gaia, if it exists at all, is not part of the Sayshell Union? And I presume you know that hyperspace is free to all and is part of no world's territory. How then can Sayshell complain if we move from Foundation territory (where our ships stand right now), through hyperspace, into Gaian territory, and never in the process occupy a single cubic centimeter of Sayshellian territory?"
"Sayshell will not interpret events like that, Kodell. Gaia, if it exists at all, is totally enclosed by the Sayshell Union, even if it is not a political part of it, and there are precedents that make such enclaves virtual parts of the enclosing territory, as far as enemy warships are concerned."
"Ours are not enemy warships. We are at peace with Sayshell."
"I tell you that Sayshell may declare war. They won't expect to win such a war through military superiority, but the fact is, war will set off a wave of anti-Foundation activity throughout the Galaxy. The new expansionist policies of the Foundation will encourage the growth of alliances against us. Some of the members of the Federation will begin to rethink their ties to us. We may well lose the war through internal disarray and we will then certainly reverse the process of growth that has served the Foundation so well for five hundred years."
"Come, come, Thoobing," said Kodell indifferently, "You speak as though five hundred years is nothing, as though we are still the Foundation of Salvor Hardin's time, fighting the pocket-kingdom of Anacreon. We are far stronger now than the Galactic Empire ever was at its very height. A squadron of our ships could defeat the entire Galactic Navy, occupy any Galactic sector, and never know it had been in a fight."
"We are not fighting the Galactic Empire. We fight planets and sectors of our own time."
"Who have not advanced as we have. We could gather in all the Galaxy now."
"According to the Seldon Plan, we can't do that for another five hundred years."
"The Seldon Plan underestimates the speed of technological advance. We can do it now! --Understand me, I don't say we will do it now or even should do it now. I merely say we can do it now."
"Kodell, you have lived all your life on Terminus. You don't know the Galaxy. Our Navy and our technology can beat down the Armed Forces of other worlds, but we cannot yet govern the entire rebellious, hate-ridden Galaxy--and that is what it will be if we take it by force. Withdraw the ships!"
"It can't be done, Thoobing. Consider--What if Gaia is not a myth?"
Thoobing paused, scanning the other's face as though anxious to read his mind. "A world in hyperspace not a myth?"
"A world in hyperspace is superstition, but even superstitions may be built around kernels of truth.