Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [169]
And how much of that was blind pride? When he became First Speaker, Gendibal thought, this would change. There would have to be some narrowing of the physical gap between the Foundations. The Second Foundation could not face forever the possibility of destruction any time the mentalic monopoly slipped even slightly.
--Indeed, the monopoly might be slipping now. Perhaps the First Foundation had advanced or there was an alliance between the First Foundation and the Anti-Mules. (That thought occurred to him now for the first time and he shivered.)
His thoughts of the subject slipped through his mind with a rapidity common to a Speaker--and while he was thinking, he also remained sensitively aware of the glow in Novi's mind, the response to the gently pervasive mentalic field about them. It was not growing stronger as the Foundation warship drew nearer.
This was not, in itself, an absolute indication that the warship was not equipped with mentalics. It was well known that the mentalic field did not obey the inverse-square law. It did not grow stronger precisely as the square of the extent to which distance between emitter and receiver lessened. It differed in this way from the electromagnetic and the gravitational fields. Still, although mentalic fields varied less with distance than the various physical fields did, it was not altogether insensitive to distance, either. The response of Novi's mind should show a detectable increase as the warship approached--some increase.
(How was it that no Second Foundationer in five centuries--from Hari Seldon on--had ever thought of working out a mathematical relationship between mentalic intensity and distance? This shrugging off of physics must and would stop, Gendibal silently vowed.)
If the warship possessed mentalics and if it felt quite certain it was approaching a Second Foundationer, would it not increase the intensity of its field to maximum before advancing? And in that case, would not Novi's mind surely register an increased response of some kind?
--Yet it did not!
Confidently Gendibal eliminated the possibility that the warship possessed mentalics. It was advancing out of ignorance and, as a menace, it could be downgraded.
The mentalic field, of course, still existed, but it had to originate on Gaia. This was disturbing enough, but the immediate problem was the ship. Let that be eliminated and he could then turn his attention to the world of the Anti-Mules.
He waited. The warship would make some move or it would come close enough to him to feel confident that he could pass over to an effective offense.
The warship still approached--quite rapidly now--and still did nothing. Finally Gendibal calculated that the strength of his push would be sufficient. There would be no pain, scarcely any discomfort--all those on board would merely find that the large muscles of their backs and limbs would respond but sluggishly to their desires.
Gendibal narrowed the mentalic field controlled by his mind. It intensified and leaped across the gap between the ships at the speed of light. (The two ships were close enough to make hyperspatial contact--with its inevitable loss of precision--unnecessary.)
And Gendibal then fell back in numbed surprise.
The Foundation warship was possessed of an efficient mentalic shield that gained in density in proportion as his own field gained in intensity. --The warship was not approaching out of ignorance after all--and it had an unexpected if passive weapon.
5.
"AH," SAID BRANNO. "HE HAS ATTEMPTED AN attack, Liono. See!"
The needle on the psychometer moved and trembled in its irregular rise.
The development of the mentalic shield had occupied Foundation scientists for a hundred and twenty years in the most secret of all scientific projects, except perhaps for Hari Seldon's lone development of psychohistorical analysis. Five generations of human beings had labored in the gradual improvement of a device backed by no satisfactory theory.
But no advance would have been possible without the