【英文文学】基地系列 Second Foundation 第二基地.docx

【英文文学】基地系列 Second Foundation 第二基地PrologueThe First Galactic Empire had endured for tens of thousands of years. It had included all the planets of the Galaxy in a centralized rule, sometimes tyrannical, sometimes benevolent, always orderly. Human beings had forgotten that any other form of existence could be.All except Hari Seldon.Hari Seldon was the last great scientist of the First Empire. It was he who brought the science of psycho-history to its full development. Psycho-history was the quintessence of sociology, it was the science of human behavior reduced to mathematical equations.The individual human being is unpredictable, but the reactions of human mobs, Seldon found, could be treated statistically. The larger the mob, the greater the accuracy that could be achieved. And the size of the human masses that Seldon worked with was no less than the population of the Galaxy which in his time was numbered in the quintillions.It was Seldon, then, who foresaw, against all common sense and popular belief, that the brilliant Empire which seemed so strong was in a state of irremediable decay and decline. He foresaw (or he solved his equations and interpreted its symbols, which amounts to the same thing) that left to itself, the Galaxy would pass through a thirty thousand year period of misery and anarchy before a unified government would rise once more.He set about to remedy the situation, to bring about a state of affairs that would restore peace and civilization in a single thousand of years. Carefully, he set up two colonies of scientists that he called "Foundations." With deliberate intention, he set them up "at opposite ends of the Galaxy." One Foundation was set up in the full daylight of publicity. The existence of the other, the Second Foundation, was drowned in silence.In Foundation (Gnome, 1951) and Foundation and Empire (Gnome, 1952) are told the first three centuries of the history of the First Foundation. It began as a small community of Encyclopedists lost in the emptiness of the outer periphery of the Galaxy. Periodically, it faced a crisis in which the variables of human intercourse, of the social and economic currents of the time constricted about it. Its freedom to move lay along only one certain line and when it moved in that direction, a new horizon of development opened before it. All had been planned by Hari Seldon, long dead now.The First Foundation, with its superior science, took over the barbarized planets that surrounded it. It faced the anarchic Warlords that broke away from the dying Empire and beat them. It faced the remnant of the Empire itself under its last strong Emperor and its last strong General and beat it.Then it faced something which Hari Seldon could not foresee, the overwhelming power of a single human being, a Mutant. The creature known as the Mule was born with the ability to mold men's emotions and to shape their minds. His bitterest opponents were made into his devoted servants. Armies could not, would not fight him. Before him, the First Foundation fell and Seldon's schemes lay partly in ruins.There was left the mysterious Second Foundation, the goal of all searches. The Mule must find it to make his conquest of the Galaxy complete. The faithful of what was left of the First Foundation must find it for quite another reason. But where was it? That no one knew.This, then, is the story of the search for the Second Foundation!序幕第一银河帝国的历史已经持续万年之久，银河中每颗行星都臣服于帝国的中央集权统治之下。帝国的政体时而专制，时而开明，却总是将银河治理得井然有序。久而久之，人类便忘却还存在其他可能的情况。只有哈里谢顿是惟一的例外。哈里谢顿是第一帝国最后一位伟大的科学家，他最大的成就，在于将心理史学发展到登峰造极之境。这门学问是社会科学的精华，能够将复杂至极的人类行为，化约成明确而严密的数学方程式。个人的行为虽然无法预测，然而谢顿却发现，人类群体的反应能够以统计方法处理，人数越多，其计算就越精准。谢顿的研究对象，是银河系中所有的人类，而在他那个时代，银河总人口数已达到千兆之众。在钻研心理史学的过程中，谢顿发现了一个惊人的事实，那就是表面上强盛无比的帝国，实际上已病入膏肓，注定将要崩溃衰亡。这个预言与当时所有的常识，以及一般人的信念都恰恰相反。谢顿预见（或者应该说，他解出了自己导出的方程式，再解释其中的象征性意义），如果放任这种情况继续发展，银河将会历经三万年悲惨的无政府时期，然后另一个大一统的政府方能出现。于是，他开始了力挽狂澜、扭转乾坤的努力，试图将前述的三万年无政府状态缩减成一个千年，也就是说，要让和平与文明在千年之后重现。为了达到这个目的，他谨慎地设立了两个科学家的根据地，将之命名为“基地”，并故意设在“银河中两个遥相对峙的端点”。其中一个基地的一切完全公开，而另外那个第二基地的存在，则几乎没有留下任何形式的记录。第一基地最初三个世纪的历史，在基地、基地与帝国这两本书中已有详尽的叙述。它最初只是由百科全书编纂者构成的小型社群，在银河外缘虚无的太空中渐渐被人遗忘。周期性的危机一个接一个冲击这个基地，各个危机都蕴涵着当时人类集体行为的各种变数。它的行动自由被限制在一条特定的轨迹上，只要沿着这条轨迹不断前进，就必定会有柳暗花明的发展，进而得以开展另一个新局。而这一切，都是由早已作古的哈里谢顿一手策划的。第一基地凭借着优越的科技成就，首先征服了周围数个落后的行星，然后又面临了从垂死帝国脱离、割地称雄的大小军阀，并且将他们一一击败。接着，它又与帝国的残躯发生正面冲突，结果战胜了帝国最后一名强势皇帝，以及他麾下最后一位真正的大将。不过第一基地遇到的下一个对手，却是连哈里谢顿也无法预见的一名异人。这位自称为“骡”的人物是一个突变异种，天生拥有强大无匹的精神力量，能够随意改变人类的情感，进而重塑他人的心灵。他可以将最强硬的死敌改造成最忠诚的仆人，任何的军队都不能也不会与他为敌。第一基地终于也难逃陷落的命运，而谢顿计划眼看就要瓦解消失。然而，谜一般的第二基地依旧存在，因此也就成了众矢之的。骡必须将它铲除，才能完成征服银河的壮举；而第一基地为了另一个完全不同的理由，也非得把它找出来不可。但是它究竟在哪里？却没有任何人知道。本书所叙述的故事，就是各方人马寻找第二基地的传奇！PART I SEARCH BY THE MULE1 Two Men and the MuleTHE MULE It was after the fall of the First Foundation that the constructive aspects of the Mule's regime took shape. After the definite break-up at the first Galactic Empire, it was he who first presented history with a unified volume at space truly imperial in scope. The earlier commercial empire at the fallen Foundation had been diverse and loosely knit, despite the impalpable backing at the predictions of psycho-history. It was not to be compared with the tightly controlled 'union of Worlds' under the Mule, comprising as it did, one-tenth the volume of the Galaxy and one-fifteenth of its population. Particularly during the era of the so-called Search.ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA * All quotations from the Encyclopedia Galactica here reproduced are taken from the 116th Edition published in 1020 F.E. by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus, with permission of the publishers.There is much more that the Encyclopedia has to say on the subject of the Mule and his Empire but almost all of it is not germane to the issue at immediate hand, and most of it is considerably too dry for our purposes in any case. Mainly, the article concerns itself at this point with the economic conditions that led to the rise of the "First Citizen of the union" ?the Mule's official title ?and with the economic consequences thereof.If, at any time, the writer of the article is mildly astonished at the colossal haste with which the Mule rose from nothing to vast dominion in five years, he conceals it. If he is further surprised at the sudden cessation of expansion in favor of a five-year consolidation of territory, he hides the fact.We therefore abandon the Encyclopedia and continue on our own path for our own purposes and take up the history of the Great Interregnum ?between the First and Second Galactic Empires ?at the end of that five years of consolidation.Politically, the union is quiet. Economically, it is prosperous. Few would care to exchange the peace of the Mule's steady grip for the chaos that had preceded, On the worlds that five years previously had known the Foundation, there might be a nostalgic regret, but no more. The Foundation's leaders were dead, where useless; and Converted, where useful.And of the Converted, the most useful was Han Pritcher, now lieutenant general.In the days of the Foundation, Han Pritcher had been a captain and a member of the underground Democratic Opposition. When the Foundation fell to the Mule without a fight, Pritcher fought the Mule. Until, that is, he was Converted.The Conversion was not the ordinary one brought on by the power of superior reason. Han Pritcher know that well enough. He had been changed because the Mule was a mutant with mental powers quite capable of adjusting the conditions of ordinary humans to suit himself. But that satisfied him completely. That was as it should be. The very contentment with the Conversion was a prime symptom of it, but Han Pritcher was no longer even curious about the matter.And now that he was returning from his fifth major expedition into the boundlessness of the Galaxy outside the union, it was with something approaching artless joy that the veteran spaceman and Intelligence agent considered his approaching audience with the "First Citizen." His hard face, gouged out of a dark, grainless wood that did not seem to be capable of smiling without cracking, didn't show it ?but the outward indications were unnecessary. The Mule could see the emotions within, down to the smallest, much as an ordinary man could see the twitch of an eyebrow.Pritcher left his air car at the old vice-regal hangars and entered the palace grounds on foot as was required. He walked one mile along the arrowed highway ?which was empty and silent. Pritcher knew that over the square miles of Palace grounds, there was not one guard, not one soldier, not one armed man.The Mule had need of no protection.The Mule was his own best, all-powerful protector.Pritcher's footsteps beat softly in his own cars, as the palace reared its gleaming, incredibly light and incredibly strong metallic walls before him in the daring, overblown, near-hectic arches that characterized the architecture of the Late Empire. It brooded strongly over the empty grounds, over the crowded city on the horizon.Within the palace was that one man ?by himself ?on whose inhuman mental attributes depended the new aristocracy, and the whole structure of the union.The huge, smooth door swung massively open at the general's approach, and he entered. He stepped on to the wide, sweeping ramp that moved upward under him. He rose swiftly in the noiseless elevator. He stood before the small plain door of the Mule's own room in the highest glitter of the palace spires.It opened?Bail Channis was young, and Bail Channis was Unconverted. That is, in plainer language, his emotional make-up had been unadjusted by the Mule. It remained exactly as it had been formed by the original shape of its heredity and the subsequent modifications of his environment. And that satisfied him, too.At not quite thirty, he was in marvelously good odor in the capital. He was handsome and quick-witted ?therefore successful in society. He was intelligent and self-possessed ?therefore successful with the Mule. And he was thoroughly pleased at both successes.And now, for the first time, the Mule had summoned him to personal audience.His legs carried him down the long, glittering highway that led tautly to the sponge-aluminum spires that had been once the residence of the viceroy of Kalgan, who ruled under the old emperors; and that had been later the residence of the independent Princes of Kalgan, who ruled in their own name; and that was now the residence of the First Citizen of the union, who ruled over an empire of his own.Channis hummed softly to himself. He did not doubt what this was all about. The Second Foundation, naturally! That all-embracing bogey, the mere consideration of which had thrown the Mule back from his policy of limitless expansion into static caution. The official term was ?"consolidation."Now there were rumors ?you couldn't stop rumors. The Mule was to begin the offensive once more. The Mule had discovered the whereabouts of the Second Foundation, and would attack The Mule had come to an agreement with the Second Foundation and divided the Galaxy. The Mule had decided the Second Foundation did not exist and would take over all the Galaxy.No use listing all the varieties one heard in the anterooms. It was not even the first time such rumors had circulated. But now they seemed to have more body in them, and all the free, expansive Souls Who thrived on war, military adventure, and political chaos and withered in times of stability and stagnant peace were joyful.Bail Channis was one of these. He did not fear the mysterious Second Foundation. For that matter, he did not fear the Mule, and boasted of it. Some, perhaps, who disapproved of one at once so young and so well-off, waited darkly for the reckoning with the gay ladies' man who employed his wit openly at the expense of the Mule's physical appearance and sequestered life. None dared join him and few dared laugh, but when nothing happened to him, his reputation rose accordingly.Channis was improvising words to the tune he was humming. Nonsense words with the recurrent refrain: "Second Foundation threatens the Nation and all of Creation."He was at the palace.The huge, smooth door swung massively open at his approach and he entered. He stepped on to the wide, sweeping ramp that moved upward under him. He rose swiftly in the noiseless elevator. He stood before the small plain door of the Mule's own room in the highest glitter of the palace spires.It opened?The man who had no name other than the Mule, and no title other than First Citizen looked out through the one-way transparency of the wall to the light and lofty city on the horizon.In the darkening twilight, the stars were emerging, and not one but owed allegiance to him.He smiled with fleeting bitterness at the thought. The allegiance they owed was to a personality few had ever seen.He was not a man to look at, the Mule ?not a man to look at without derision. Not more than one hundred and twenty pounds was stretched out into his five-foot-eight length. His limbs were bony stalks that jutted out of his scrawniness in graceless angularity. And his thin face was nearly drowned out in the prominence of a fleshy beak that thrust three inches outward.Only his eyes played false with the general farce that was the Mule. In their softness ?a strange softness for the Galaxy's greatest conqueror ?sadness was never entirely subdued.In the city was to be found all the gaiety of a luxurious capital on a luxurious world. He might have established his capital on the Foundation, the strongest of his now-conquered enemies, but it was far out on the very rim of the Galaxy. Kalgan, more centrally located, with a long tradition as aristocracy's playground, suited him better ?strategically.But in its traditional gaiety, enhanced by unheard-of prosperity, he found no peace.They feared him and obeyed him and, perhaps, even respected him ?from a goodly distance. But who could look at him without contempt? Only those he had Converted. And of what value was their artificial loyalty? It lacked flavor. He might have adopted titles, and enforced ritual and invented elaborations, but even that would have changed nothing. Better ?or at least, no worse ?to be simply the First Citizen ?and to hide himself.There was a sudden surge of rebellion within him ?strong and brutal. Not a portion of the Galaxy must be denied him, For five years he had remained silent and buried here on Kalgan because of the eternal, misty, space-ridden menace of the unseen, unheard, unknown Second Foundation. He was thirty-two. Not old ?but he felt old. His body, whatever its mutant mental powers, was physically weak.Every star! Every star he could see ?and every star he couldnt see. It must all be his!Revenge on all. On a humanity of which he wasn't a part. On a Gala