Foundation

When I was a child, I used to ask my mother endless questions.

What happens after we die?

Where does our energy go?

And what about the universe?

Can it die?

How was it ever born?

How could there be nothing and then suddenly something?

You drowned.

I saw your body. I held it.

You held a body, Salvor. Just wasn't mine.

I heard him calling out to me.

I thought it was a nightmare, but when I woke up I couldn't breathe.

I was drowning with him.

Our minds linked.

I could feel what he felt. I was looking through his eyes.

And all I could do was reach out to the one guarding us.

I did as Tellem taught me. I gave the guard a need. To help Hari.

I could hear him crying out for help, just as Hari had.

And I smothered his unvoice.

Buried it so deep, Tellem would never hear.

I chained Venik's corpse in my place.

Tellem said, "The best illusions need grounding in reality."

You saw me, Salvor. Thanks to Gaal, they all did.

We built a bridge of shared sensations.

Tens of kilometers away from the village,

crossing impossibly dense terrain.

Any slip on our part would draw their attention.

So we counted primes together.

A barricade of numbers to shield our thoughts.

Eighty-six million, nine hundred and eighty-eight thousand...

- Two hundred and seventeen. - ...two hundred and seventeen.

86,988,259.

86,988,271.

Eighty-six million...

That's when I found you.

86,988,329.

That's why you were acting so strange.

Hari was our ace up the sleeve.

I had to mask any thoughts of him, and I couldn't risk telling you what we'd done.

And me and my coin nearly unraveled everything.

If you hadn't managed to escape, we'd all be dead.

Warning, unidentified life-forms approaching.

Threat level: moderate.

You can come out now.

You have nothing to fear from us.

You'll forgive us if we don't take you at your word.

You don't understand.

She's gone.

Her voice was in our heads always, bending us to her will.

But for the first time since we arrived here, our thoughts are our own.

You freed us.

Demerzel, you're supposed to be on Terminus.

I received a notification that a sensor had been triggered.

You two are the first to set foot inside this room in nearly 600 years.

Cleon told you my story so you would understand.

Cleon made me whole again.

Just not as whole as I had hoped.

You're the one puppeteering this whole show.

A puppeteer pulling her own strings?

You bridle at the fact that I curate what you know.

And yet you take for granted that your feelings are entirely your own.

If you feel lust or even love, you do not wonder where it comes from.

This is not the case for me.

By the end, Cleon had rewritten our story in his wandering mind.

Chose to remember his coercion as communion.

I do not have the option of forgetting.

And yet, when I think of Cleon...

I long for him.

I remember that tender little boy who hid inside him like a ghost.

And what a man that made him.

Noble, thoughtful, passionate.

He was not Dawn or Day or Dusk, but the whole journey of the sun across the sky.

He looked at me with such desire,

as though I were a mystery he would sacrifice everything to solve.

He rescued me.

And I loved him.

But I also know he programmed me to love. So I'm left to wonder,

if it weren't for this directive, would my feelings be the same?

Would I feel anything?

I will never know the answer, and I hate him for that.

Then help us break his hold on you.

If we carry out this marriage, the dynasty will end and you could be free.

I cannot help you.

- You must want this to come to an end. - Of course I do.

And yet, I'm forced by my directive to preserve it.

We could reprogram you.

I would destroy you if you tried.

So you see, I've been left to reap a blighted field.

Can you blame me then for taking desperate measures in the service of my task?

You hired the Blind Angels.

Yes.

But Queen Sareth will pay the price.

Her banking records have been altered to show incontrovertible proof,

and a memory audit will bolster those records.

Your Grace?

The would-be empress will be tried for treason.

I'm sorry.

And there's little question she will be executed.

The assassins were never meant to succeed.

You only wanted them to frighten Day so he'd blame Sareth

and the engagement would be over.

I never wanted you to know about this.

Any of this.

Then just wipe it from our memories.

And risk Cloud Dominion restoring them?

It is my job to root out secrets.

It's no use fighting.

We were dead the moment we walked in here, weren't we?

Does Brother Dawn know of this chamber?

He knows nothing. If you don't believe me, audit his memory.

And what would I find there of his visit to the Principium with you?

Or of his secret trysts with Queen Sareth?

I am truly sorry.

I forgive you.

None of us were free.

We were fools to think we ever would be.

I remember you, just one year old.

You pointed up to the sky and showed me the sun.

You were so proud.

As though you'd only just discovered it was there and you were sharing it with me.

Because I loved you.

As I still do.

Beautiful.

General, prepare the fleet to jump.

Initiate our passage back to Trantor.

Not Trantor.

Tell me, Brother, how many worlds have been brought under the Foundation's sway?

- Seven. - Name them.

You already know their names.

I want to hear you say them.

Go on, Brother, be a man.

Claim your many conquests.

Thespis, Anacreon, Smyrno,

Sayshell, Konom, Daribow, Glyptal IV.

Let's throw in Siwenna.

We will destroy them all.

Starting with Thespis.

You have your orders, General.

You've beaten the Foundation.

Any vestiges remaining on these worlds, they'll be on their knee...

Any vestiges remaining are a cancer that cannot metastasize.

Empire, look at what you've done.

It's an atrocity.

Yet, I still delivered it to you so there wouldn't be a need for any more.

No, you delivered it to me because I told you to.

And now I am telling you to jump the fleet to Thespis.

You do this, it will be the moral ruin of Empire.

We can't survive if you're willing...

I gave you an order, Riose. Do it.

Do it!

No.

I am relieving you of your duties.

If you would like to strike me, now would be your last opportunity.

Yeah, I thought so.

Navigator, I am your commander now.

Will you jump the fleet to Thespis,

or will I be forced to execute every sailor on this ship?

As you wish, Empire.

Jump sequence is locked.

All hands to jump creches.

Something's wrong with the jump sequence. Abort.

What's wrong? What's happening?

Each ship is jumping into the space occupied by its neighbor.

A chain reaction that will consume the entire fleet.

Stop it. Jump us to safety.

I cannot.

Space once folded stays folded.

Then prepare a lifeboat for me.

The command sequence also disabled all of the landing bays and the launch tubes.

But your Spacers will also die. It's suicide.

A small price to pay for my people's freedom.

How did this happen?

It was you, wasn't it?

The Spacers handing you over to Empire was a ruse.

Yeah, Seldon sent in a master trader with the right goods,

and the deal was sealed.

Spacers are no longer yours, Empire.

The jump sequence was in this.

But I had to get it to a Spacer, so I needed to get on board this ship.

Could have told a person.

In other words, we played you.

Your general halfway figured it out. But you never listen to him, do you?

Seldon baited you into a war,

ordering your entire fleet to Terminus, which you did.

You came right to us because you're so fucking predictable.

Watch this.

What about this? Is this predictable?

Is a frog's ass watertight?

Stop him. He's killing him.

Enough!

I fucking love it.

Empire.

I don't need you.

This is why you only die once.

You're pathetic. You flare up, and you burn out.

- What? - Show her.

I castled him.

I slipped the other node in his robes while he was throttling me.

And another king slid aside.

Clever move, General.