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

УYou suppose, Yugo? Merely suppose?Ф

УI don't want to jump into outer space without a suit.Ф He said this quite seriously (he did not have much of a sense of humor, Seldon knew) and they moved into their private office. It was small, but it was also well-shielded.

Amaryl sat down and crossed his legs. He said, УYour latest scheme for getting around chaos may be working in partЧat the cost of sharpness, of course.Ф

УOf course. What we gain in the straightaway, we lose in the roundabouts. That's the way the universe works. We've just got to fool it somehow.Ф

УWe've fooled it a little bit. It's like looking through frosted glass.Ф

УBetter than the years we spent trying to look through lead.Ф

Amaryl muttered something to himself, then said, УWe can catch glimmers of light and dark.Ф

УExplain!Ф

УI can't, but I have the Prime Radiant, which I've been working on like aЧaЧФ

УTry lamec. That's an animalЧa beast of burdenЧwe have on Helicon. It doesn't exist on Trantor.Ф

УIf the lamec works hard, then that is what my work on the Prime Radiant has been like.Ф

Amaryl pressed the security key pad on his desk, and a drawer unsealed and slid open noiselessly.

He took out a dark, opaque cylinder which Seldon scrutinized with interest. Seldon himself had worked out the Prime Radiant's circuitry, but Amaryl had put it togetherЧa clever man with his hands was Amaryl.

The room darkened and equations and relationships shimmered in the air. Numbers spread out beneath them, hovering just above the desk surface, as if suspended by invisible marionette strings.

Seldon said, УWonderful. Some day, if we live long enough, we'll have the Prime Radiant produce a river of mathematical symbolism that will chart past and future history. In it we can find currents and rivulets and work out ways of changing them in order to make them follow other currents and rivulets that we would prefer.Ф

УYes,Ф said Amaryl dryly, Уif we can manage to live with the knowledge that the actions we take, which we will mean for the best, may turn out to be for the worst.Ф

УBelieve me, Yugo, I never go to bed at night without that particular thought gnawing at me. Still, we haven't come to it yet. All we have is thisЧwhich, as you say, is no more than seeing light and dark fuzzily through frosted glass.Ф

УTrue enough.Ф

УAnd what is it you think you see, Yugo?Ф Seldon watched Amaryl closely, a little grimly. He was gaining weight, getting just a bit pudgy. He spent too much time bent over the computers (and now over the Prime Radiant), and not enough in physical activity. And, though he saw a woman now and then, Seldon knew, he had never married. A mistake! Even a workaholic is forced to take time off to satisfy a mate, to take care of the needs of the children.

Seldon thought of his own still-trim figure and of the manner in which Dors strove to make him keep it that way.

Amaryl said, УWhat do I see? The Empire is in trouble.Ф

УThe Empire is always in trouble.Ф

УYes, but it's more specific. There's a possibility that we may have trouble at the center.Ф

УAt Trantor?Ф

УI presume. Or at the Periphery. Either there will be a bad situation here, perhaps civil war, or the outlying provinces will begin to break away.Ф