Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [86]
Gendibal said, "He is under observation."
Delarmi pursed her lips in an indulgent smile. "By whom? By one of our outworld agents? Are such agents to be expected to stand against those with the powers we have seen demonstrated here? Surely not. In the Mule's time, and later on, too, the Second Foundation did not hesitate to send out--and even to sacrifice--volunteers from among the best we had, since nothing less would do. When it was necessary to restore the Seldon Plan, Preem Palver himself scoured the Galaxy as a Trantorian trader in order to bring back that girl, Arkady. We cannot sit here and wait, now, when the crisis may be greater than in either previous case. We cannot rely on minor functionaries--watchers and messenger boys."
Gendibal said, "Surely you are not suggesting that the First Speaker leave Trantor at this time?"
Delarmi said, "Certainly not. We need him badly here. On the other hand, there is you, Speaker Gendibal. It is you who have correctly sensed and weighed the crisis. It is you who detected the subtle outside interference with the Library and with Hamish minds. It is you who have maintained your views against the united opposition of the Table--and won. No one here has seen as clearly as you have and no one can be trusted, as you can, to continue to see clearly. It is you who must, in my opinion, go out to confront the enemy. May I have the sense of the Table?"
There was no formal vote needed to reveal that sense. Each Speaker felt the minds of the others and it was clear to a suddenly appalled Gendibal that, at the moment of his victory and Delarmi's defeat, this formidable woman was managing to send him irrevocably into exile on a task that might occupy him for some indefinite period, while she remained behind to control the Table and, therefore, the Second Foundation and, therefore, the Galaxy--sending all alike, perhaps, to their doom.
And if Gendibal-in-exile should, somehow, manage to gather the information that would enable the Second Foundation to avert the gathering crisis, it would be Delarmi who would have the credit for having arranged it, and his success would but confirm her power. The quicker Gendibal would be, the more efficiently he succeeded, the more surely he would confirm her power.
It was a beautiful maneuver, an unbelievable recovery.
And so clearly was she dominating the Table even now that she was virtually usurping the First Speaker's role. Gendibal's thought to that effect was overtaken by the rage he sensed from the First Speaker.
He turned. The First Speaker was making no effort to hide his anger--and it soon was clear that another internal crisis was building to replace the one that had been resolved.
4.
QUINDOR SHANDESS, THE TWENTY-FIFTH FIRST Speaker, had no extraordinary illusions about himself.
He knew he was not one of those few dynamic First Speakers who had illuminated the five-century-long history of the Second Foundation--but then, he didn't have to be. He controlled the Table in a quiet period of Galactic prosperity and it was not a time for dynamism. It had seemed to be a time to play a holding game and he had been the man for this role. His predecessor had chosen him for that reason.
"You are not an adventurer, you are a scholar," the twenty-fourth First Speaker had said. "You will preserve the Plan, where an adventurer might ruin it. Preserve! Let that be the key word for your Table."
He had tried, but it had meant a passive First Speakership and this had been, on occasion, interpreted as weakness. There had been recurrent rumors that he meant to resign and there had been open intrigue to assure the succession in one direction or another.
There was no doubt in Shandess's mind that Delarmi had been a leader in the fight. She was the strongest personality at the Table and even Gendibal, with all the fire and folly of youth, retreated