"Asimov, Isaac - Cleon the Emperor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Venabili rose, her lips tightening. She left the room with one final injunction. УDon't throw the boy to the wolves, Hari.Ф

And after she was gone, Seldon said quietly, УI'm afraid that throwing you to the wolves is exactly what I'll have to do, Raych.Ф


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8.

They faced each other in Seldon's private Ministerial office, his Уthinking placeФ as he called it. There he had spent uncounted hours trying to think his way past and through the complexities of Trantorian and Imperial government.

He said, УHave you read much about the recent breakdowns we've been having in planetary services, Raych?Ф

УYes,Ф said Raych, Уbut you know, Dad, we've got an old planet here. What we gotta do is get everyone off it, dig the whole thing up, replace everything, add the latest computerizations, and then bring everyone back, or at least half of everyone. Trantor would be much better off with only twenty billion people.Ф

УWhich twenty billion?Ф asked Seldon, smiling.

УI wish I knew,Ф said Raych darkly. УThe trouble is we can't redo the planet, so we just gotta keep patching.Ф

УI'm afraid so, Raych, but there are some peculiar things about it. Now I want you to check me out. I have some thoughts about this.Ф

He brought a small sphere out of his pocket.

УWhat's that?Ф asked Raych.

УIt's a map of Trantor, carefully programmed. Do me a favor, Raych, and clear off this table top.Ф

Seldon placed the sphere more or less in the middle of the table and placed his hand on a keypad in the arm of his desk chair. He used his thumb to close a contact and the light in the room went out while the table top glowed with a soft ivory light that seemed about a centimeter deep. The sphere had flattened and expanded to the edges of the table.

The light slowly darkened in spots and took on a pattern. After some thirty seconds, Raych said, in surprise, УIt is a map of Trantor.Ф

УOf course. I told you it was. You can't buy anything like this at a sector mall, though. This is one of those gadgets the armed forces play with. It could present Trantor as a sphere, but a planar projection would more clearly show what I want to show.Ф

УAnd what is it you want to show, Dad?Ф

УWell, in the last year or two, there have been breakdowns. As you say, it's an old planet and we've got to expect breakdowns, but they've been coming more frequently and they would seem, almost uniformly, to be the result of human error.Ф

УIsn't that reasonable?Ф

УYes, of course. Within limits. This is true even where earthquakes are involved.Ф

УEarthquakes? On Trantor?Ф

УI admit Trantor is a fairly non-seismic planet, and a good thing, too, because enclosing a world in a dome when the world is going to shake itself badly several times a year and smash a section of the dome would be highly impractical. Your mother says that one of the reasons Trantor, rather than some other world, became the Imperial capital is that it was geologically moribundЧthat's her unflattering expression. Still, it might be moribund, but it's not dead. There are occasional minor earthquakes, three of them in the last two years.Ф

УI wasn't aware of that, Dad.Ф

УHardly anyone is. The dome isn't a single object. It exists in hundreds of sections, each one of which can be lifted and set ajar to relieve tensions and compressions in case of an earthquake. Since an earthquake, when one does occur, lasts for only ten seconds to a minute, the opening endures only briefly. It comes and goes so rapidly that the Trantorians beneath are not even aware of it. They are much more aware of a mild tremor, and a faint rattling of crockery, than of the opening and closing of the dome overhead and the slight intrusion of the outside weather, whatever it is.Ф