"Asimov, Isaac - Brin, David - Foundations Triumph" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

"Horis!" Hari cut him off. "You're drifting. Please get to the point."

Antic blinked, then nodded vigorously.

"Quite right. Sorry." He took a deep breath. "Anyway, theoreticians have long assumed that tilling is just another universal phenomenon-one that naturally accompanies having an oxy-nitrogen atmosphere. Only-"

Antic paused. Although he had checked the booth's security twice at the beginning of their conversation, he still craned his neck to look around.

"Only . . . members of my service have always known better," he continued in a much lower voice.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a flattish piece of stone. "Look carefully at the impressions here, Professor. Do you see symmetrical patterns?"

Hari hesitated. Meritocrats had a traditional aversion to touching rocks or dirt, one reason why they traditionally wore gloves. No one knew the origins of the custom, but it was ancient and deep.

And yet, I've never felt it. I've plunged my hands into soil before, enjoying the reaction this caused in my academic peers.

Hari reached out and took the stone, instantly fascinated by the series of jagged grooves Antic pointed out.

"It's called a fossil. There, see the weird eye sockets? Note the pentagonal symmetry. Five legs! This thing is unrelated to any of the forty standard phyla! I picked it up it on Glorianna, but that hardly matters. You can actually find fossils on about ten percent of settled worlds! If you go up in the mountains, or anywhere away from the tilled areas. Highland dwellers know all about them, but there are taboos against talking about it. And they've learned better than to mention such things to their local scholars, who always get angry and change the subject."

Hari blinked, transfixed by the outline traced in stone. His mind fizzed with questions, like how old this creature was, and what its story could have been. He wanted to follow up on Antic's story about the things farmers knew on innumerable worlds, and what meritocrats would not-or could not-learn.

But none of these things brought them any closer to the issue that burned foremost in his mind.

"Horis, your paper speaks of anomalies in the tilling. Please tell me about the exceptions. The ones that roused your suspicions."

The bureaucrat nodded again.

"Yes, yes! You see, Professor, tilling is not quite as universal a phenomenon as might at first appear! In my long experience as an inspector, visiting more worlds than I could count, I have found irregularities. Planets where the plains and valleys have much coarser consistencies, far more varied, with no trace of the sifting or recent heating that we find in most lowlands. Out of interest- more as a hobby or pastime than anything else-I began listing other unusual traits on these planets. . . such as the existence of large numbers of genetically unusual beasts. In several cases, there were signs that a supernova had gone off in the region, sometime in the last thirty thousand years. One planet has a fantastic amount of ambient radioactivity in its crust, while several others have a multitude of fused metal mounds scattered all over their surface. I began charting these anomalies, and found that they clustered along great sweeping bands..."

"And these bands also relate to those space currents you spoke of? How did you discover that?"

Antic smiled. "A lucky fluke. While nosing around through the galactographic files for data, I met a fellow aficionado . . . another bureaucrat like me, with a secret hobby. We compared our little fanaticisms-and if you think mine is strange, you should hear him go on and on about the ebb and flow of these diffuse clouds of atoms in space! He thinks he sees patterns in them that have escaped notice by the Imperial Navigation Service. Which is entirely possible, since they only care about maintaining clear routes for commerce. Even then it's all kept as routine as poss-"

"Horis."

"Uh? Oh, yes. Well, anyway, my new friend and I compared notes... I also had the temerity to apply a few of the mathematical tools that I saw described in popular accounts of your work, Professor. The result is the galactic chart that caught your interest last night." Antic exhaled deeply. "And so here we are!"

Hari frowned.

"I saw only your name on the paper."

"Yes, well... my friend is rather shy. He feels we don't have anywhere near enough evidence yet to go public. Without solid, tangible proof, a speculative article might jeopardize our careers."

"Whereas you felt the risk of coming forward was worthwhile."

Antic smiled while reaching into his pouch for another pill.

"It did catch your interest, Professor Seldon. You're sitting across from me. I know you wouldn't waste your precious time on something that's completely trivial."