The trial (Gaal supposed it to be one, though it bore little resemblance legalistically to the elaborate trial techniques Gaal had read of) had not lasted long. It was in its third day. Yet already, Gaal could no longer stretch his memory back far enough to embrace its beginning.

He himself had been but little pecked at. The heavy guns were trained on Dr. Seldon himself. Hari Seldon, however, sat there unperturbed. To Gaal, he was the only spot of stability remaining in the world.

The audience was small and drawn exclusively from among the Barons of the Empire. Press and public were excluded and it was doubtful that any significant number of outsiders even knew that a trial of Seldon was being conducted. The atmosphere was one of unrelieved hostility toward the defendants.

Five of the Commission of Public Safety sat behind the raised desk. They wore scarlet and gold uniforms and the shining, close-fitting plastic caps that were the sign of their judicial function. In the center was the Chief Commissioner Linge Chen. Gaal had never before seen so great a Lord and he watched him with fascination. Chen, throughout the trial, rarely said a word. He made it quite clear that much speech was beneath his dignity.

The Commission’s Advocate consulted his notes and the examination continued, with Seldon still on the stand:

Q.  Let us see, Dr. Seldon. How many men are now engaged in the project of which you are head?

A.  Fifty mathematicians.

Q.  Including Dr. Gaal Dornick?

A.  Dr. Dornick is the fifty-first.

Q.  Oh, we have fifty-one then? Search your memory, Dr. Seldon. Perhaps there are fifty-two or fifty-three? Or perhaps even more?

A.  Dr. Dornick has not yet formally joined my organization. When he does, the membership will be fifty-one. It is now fifty, as I have said.

Q.  Not perhaps nearly a hundred thousand?

A.  Mathematicians? No.

Q.  I did not say mathematicians. Are there a hundred thousand in all capacities?

A.  In all capacities, your figure may be correct.

Q.  May be? I say it is. I say that the men in your project number ninety-eight thousand, five hundred and seventy-two.

A.  I believe you are counting women and children.

Q.  (raising his voice) Ninety-eight thousand five hundred and seventy-two individuals is the intent of my statement. There is no need to quibble.

A.  I accept the figures.

Q.  (referring to his notes) Let us drop that for the moment, then, and take up another matter which we have already discussed at some length. Would you repeat, Dr. Seldon, your thoughts concerning the future of Trantor?

A.  I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next three centuries.

Q.  You do not consider your statement a disloyal one?

A.  No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.

Q.  You are sure that your statement represents scientific truth?

A.  I am.

Q.  On what basis?

A.  On the basis of the mathematics