Foundation And Chaos Read Online Free PDF Page B

revolts, and the
     public distaste for them still lingered.
    “No. Like robots out of history and legend. Eternals. ” He pointed west, in the general
     direction of the Imperial Sector, the Palace. “It's madness, but it's Imperial madness,
     not easy to overcome. Best if you leave, and I know the best place to go... on Trantor.
     Not far from here. I can help you make arrangements. ”
    “No thank you, ” she said. There was too much uncertainty here for Klia to put herself in
     the hands of this stranger, however compelling parts of his story might seem. His words
     and what she sensed did not add up.
    “Then take this. ” The man thrust a small display card into her hand and stood once more.
     “You will call. This is not in question. It is only a matter of time. ”
    He stared at her directly, his eyes bright, fully capable.
    “We all have our secrets, ” he said, and turned to leave.
5.
    Lodovik stood alone on the bridge of the Spear of Glory, peering through the broad
     forward-facing port at what might have been a scene of exceptional beauty, had he been
     human. Beauty was not an easy concept for a robot to grasp, however; he could see what lay
     outside the ship, and understand that a human would think it interesting, but for him, the
     closest analog to beauty was successful service, perfect performance of duty. He would in
     some sense enjoy notifying a human that a beautiful view was available through this port;
     but his foremost duty would be to inform the human that this view was in fact caused by
     forces that were very dangerous...
    And in this duty he had no chance of succeeding, for the humans on Spear of Glory were
     already dead. Captain Tolk had
    died last, his mind gone, his body a wreck. In the last few hours of rational thought left
     to him, Tolk had instructed Lodovik on the actions that might be taken to bring the ship
     to its final destination: repair of the hyperdrive units, reprogramming of the ship's
     navigational system, preserving ship's power for maximum survival time.
    Tolk's last coherent words to Lodovik had been a question. “How long can you live... I
     mean, function?”
    Lodovik had told him, “A century, without refueling. ”
    Tolk had then succumbed to the painful, murmurous half sleep that preceded his death.
    Two hundred human deaths weighed on Lodovik's positronic brain like a drain on his power
     supplies; it slowed him somewhat. That effect would pass. He was not responsible for the
     deaths. He simply could not prevent them. But this in itself was sufficient to make him
     feel weary.
    As for the view-
    Sarossa itself was a dim star, still a hundred billion kilometers distant; but the shock
     front revealed its extended spoor like a vast, ghostly fireworks display.
    The streams of high-energy particles had met the solar wind from the Sarossan system,
     creating huge, dim auroras like waving banners. He could make out faint traces red and
     green in the murky luminosity; switching his eyes to the ultraviolet, he could see even
     more colors as the diffuse clouds of the explosion's outer shells advanced through the
     outlying regions of the system's cometary dust and ice and gas.
    There was so little time to act, nothing he could do...
    And worse still, Lodovik could feel his brain changing. The neutrinos and other radiation
     had overwhelmed the ship's armor of energy fields, and had done more than just kill the
     humans; they had somehow, he believed, interfered with his own positronic circuitry. He
     had not yet finished his autodiag-nosis sequence-that might take days more-but he feared
     the worst.
    If his primary functions were affected, he would have to destroy himself. In ages past, he
     would have merely gone into a dormant mode until a human or another robot repaired him;
     but he could not afford to have his robotic nature discovered.
    Whatever happened to him, there seemed little chance of discovery. Spear of Glory was