Mallow was through. He had what he wanted.
There was only one thing in his mind.
The golden globe with its conventionalized rays, and the oblique cigar shape that was a space vessel.
The Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire!
The Empire!
The words drilled!
A century and a half had passed but there was still the-Empire, somewhere deeper in the Galaxy.
And it was emerging again, out into the Periphery.
Mallow smiled! 9.
The Far Star was two days out in space, when Hober Mallow, in his private quarters with Senior Lieutenant Drawt, handed him an envelope, a roll of microfilm, and a silvery spheroid.
"As of an hour from now, Lieutenant, you're Acting Captain of the Far Star, until I return, -or forever."
Drawt made a motion of standing but Mallow waved him down imperiously.
"Quiet, and listen.
The envelope contains the exact location of the planet to which you're to proceed.
There you will wait for me for two months.
If, before the two months are up, the Foundation locates you, the microfilm is my report of the trip.
"If, however," and his voice was somber, "I do not return at the end of two months, and Foundation vessels do not locate you, proceed to the planet, Terminus, and hand in the Time Capsule as the report.
Do you understand that?"
"Yes, sir."
"At no time are you, or any of the men, to amplify in any single instance, my official report."
"If we are questioned, sir?"
"Then you know nothing."
"Yes, sir."
The interview ended, and fifty minutes later, a lifeboat kicked lightly off the side of the Far Star. 10.
Onum Barr was an old man, too old to be afraid.
Since the last disturbances, he had lived alone on the fringes of the land with what books he had saved from the ruins.
He had nothing he feared losing, least of all the worn remnant of his life, and so he faced the intruder without cringing.
"Your door was open," the stranger explained.
His accent was clipped and harsh, and Barr did not fail to notice the strange blue-steel hand-weapon at his hip.
In the half gloom of the small room, Barr saw the glow of a force-shield surrounding the man.
He said, wearily, "There is no reason to keep it closed.
Do you wish anything of me?"
"Yes."
The stranger remained standing in the center of the room.
He was large, both in height and bulk.
"Yours is the only house about here."
"It is a desolate place," agreed Barr, "but there is a town to the east.
I can show you the way'."
"In a while.
May I sit?"
"If the chairs will hold you," said the old man, gravely.
They were old, too.
Relics of a better youth.
The stranger said, "My name is Hober Mallow.
I come from a far province."
Barr nodded and smiled,
"Your tongue convicted you of that long ago.
I am Onum Barr of Siwenna - and once Patrician of the Empire."
"Then this is Siwenna.
I had only old maps to guide me."