"what a surprise-my friend hari!" agis's visage beamed at seldon through the holoscreen. "i am glad to hear from you, although you usually request the more formal personal audience. come, you've piqued my interest. why the urgency?"
"sire," began seldon, "my son, raych, and his wife and daughter live on santanni."
"ah, santanni," the emperor said as his smile faded. "a bunch of misguided wretches if i ever-"
"sire, please," broke in seldon, surprising both the emperor and himself with this flagrant breach of imperial protocol. "my son was able to get manella and bellis onto a hypership, the arcadia vii, bound for anacreon. he, however, had to remain. that was three days ago. the ship has not landed at anacreon. and my son seems to have disappeared. my calls to santanni have gone unanswered and now the communication beams are broken.
"please, sire, can you help me?"
"hari, as you know, officially all ties between santanni and trantor have been severed. however, i still hold some influence in selected areas of santanni. that is, there are still a few loyal to me who have not yet been found out. although i cannot make direct contact with any of my operatives on that world, i can share with you any reports i receive from there. these are, of course, highly confidential, but considering your situation and our relationship, i will allow you access to those pieces that might interest you.
"i am expecting another dispatch within the hour. if you like, i'll recontact you when it arrives. in the meantime, i'll have one of my aides go over all transmissions from santanni for the past three days to look for anything pertaining to raych, manella, or bellis seldon."
"thank you, sire. i thank you most humbly." and hari seldon dipped his head as the emperor's image faded from the holoscreen.
sixty minutes later hari seldon was still sitting at his desk, waiting to hear from the emperor. the past hour had been one of the most difficult he had ever spent, second only to the hours after dors's destruction.
it was the not knowing that did hari in. he had made a career of knowing-the future as well as the present. and now he had no idea at all about three of the people most precious to him.
the holoscreen buzzed softly and hari pressed a contact in response. agis appeared.
"hari," began the emperor. from the soft slow sadness in his voice, hari knew this call brought bad news.
"my son," said hari.
"yes," replied the emperor. "raych was killed, earlier today, in a bombardment on santanni university. i've learned from my sources that raych knew the attack was coming but refused to desert his post. you see, a good number of the rebels are students and raych felt that if they knew that he was still there, they would never. ....but hate overcame all reason.
"the university is, you see, an imperial university. the rebels feel they must destroy all things imperial before rebuilding anew. the fools! why-" and here agis stopped, as if suddenly realizing that seldon did not care about santanni university or the plans of the rebels-not right now, at least.
"hari, if it makes you feel any better, remember that your son died in defense of knowledge. it was not the empire raych fought and died for but humanity itself."
seldon looked up out of tear-filled eyes. weakly he asked, "and manella and little bellis? what of them? have you found the arcadia hl?"
"that search has proved fruitless, hari. the arcadia vii left santanni, as you were told..but it seems to have disappeared. it may have been hijacked by rebels or it may have made an emergency detour-at this point, we just don't know."
seldon nodded.."thank you, agis. although you have brought me tragic news, at least you have brought it. not knowing was worse. you are a true friend."
"and so, my friend," said the emperor, "i'll leave you to yourself now-and your memories." the emperor's image faded from the screen as hari seldon folded his arms in front of him on his desk, put his head down, and wept.
