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Third Foundation
by Yoo C. Chung <wacko@laplace.snu.ac.kr>
Hari Seldon had a problem. His work on psychohistory, the science that
should eventually be able to predict the course of human history, had
been proceeding very slowly up to this point.
But now progress was on a standstill. The information that Eto
Demerzel (he still thought him as such even though he knew that he was
a humaniform robot with the name Daneel Olivaw) provided on ancient
history was of some help, but now he would have to choose one of
several possible approaches to the further development of
psychohistory. It would be possible to use just the information that
he had now to verify if any one of them worked, but it would take a
long time, like years. It would be much quicker if he could obtain
even earlier information on human history, when all humans were still
on a single planet.
Unfortunately, Demerzel's store of information didn't quite go that
far back into the past. Well, it did, but there were so many murky
details and unknowns that it wasn't of much use.
Seldon was beginning to despair, since it seemed that psychohistory
could never be developed to a usable form in his lifetime (if he were
to pursue any of the approaches blindly, each of which would probably
take decades to develop, and if it turned out wrong or useless, then
he would have wasted those decades). But still, he had little choice.
Well, he had little choice until Demerzel contacted him to say that he
had made contact with a group that possessed relatively accurate
information on the ancient history of Earth (really, really ancient,
like before spaceflight was invented), and that he had managed to
arrange a meet between one of them and Seldon.
That was why he was in a park (now that he thought of it, this was
where he first met Demerzel), waiting for a black-haired teenager
wearing a bandanna. He was wondering what kind of group could possess
such ancient history (another group of robots like the one Demerzel
led? a group of humans that devoted themselves to the accurate
preservation of history?), when the boy finally turned up.
"Hello, I am Hari Seldon," Seldon said after approaching him.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Fujii Yakumo. This data chip contains the
information that Daneel said that you would need," the boy said.
"Thank you for your assistance. But how did you manage to maintain
such information?" Seldon asked.
"We have our ways," Fujii said.
"Well, it would be helpful if you told us more about yourselves, since
it would help us verify the accuracy of the information that you've
provided," Seldon said.
"Trust me, you do not want to know. Hope you have luck with your
psychohistory," Fujii said, and left.
`Boy, that was fast. And they seem to be *really* secretive. But I
can't really do anything about it,' Seldon thought. He would have to
check the accuracy (well, plausibility at any rate) of the information
in the data chip with Dors, his historian wife (who was probably also
a robot like Demerzel, though she had never admitted it openly). It
would be hard to trust information from a group they knew nothing
about.
_________________________________________________________________
Yakumo began to mull over the past again as he left the park. It was
amazing how little he remembered about the past. Though it wasn't so
amazing once he considered the fact that he had been alive for over
20,000 years. If it weren't for the fact that they had kept records of
important events, they wouldn't have been able to help Hari Seldon at
Daneel Olivaw's request.
He could hardly remembered how he first met Daneel. It seemed to be
somewhere in one of the underground cities on Earth just before the
planet started to become intolerably radioactive. He would have to
look through his journal to find out.
Now that he thought about it, he wouldn't be keeping a journal if the
big fight with Benares (oh dear, he couldn't even remember what he
looked like) hadn't killed off all the other Sanjiyans except for
Pavarti, who was on the other side of the world at the time. He and
Pavarti couldn't use the statue of humanity, nor could they find any
other way to become human.
He started to maintain a journal when he was about a hundred years
old, since he realized that he couldn't remember a great many things
about his life. If he had become human, he wouldn't have grown so old
as to need one. If only the fight with Benares didn't kill the other
Sanjiyans ...
Oh well, it was too late to do anything about it. Better stop thinking
such melancholy thoughts before he became too depressed. He needed to
go to Mycogen next, and that place was depressing enough as it was. He
wouldn't bother to go there, except that the food there was
incrediblly good that it would disappoint Pavarti greatly if he didn't
get some for her. Her love for good food certainly hadn't ebbed
through the years.
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Author's notes:
One day, it suddenly occured to me that Yakumo and Pai could live
forever if they didn't become human, and that a crossover with an
anime set in the future would be entirely plausible. So I thought of
making a crossover of 3*3 Eyes with Bubblegum Crisis. But I lacked
ideas. Then it occured to me that it didn't have to be anime. So I
thought of a crossover with Star Trek. I still lacked ideas. So I went
way into the future (can we see a trend here?), and thought of a
crossover with the Foundation universe created by Isaac Asimov. And
this is the result.
I give no details about how Yakumo got involved with a big fight with
Benares that killed all the other Sanjiyans (I don't say even how many
Sanjiyans there were), since that is not the point of this fanfic.
Neither are there any details about Yakumo and Pai's lives for the
same reason. Fill them in yourself if you want to know, because I
don't know them myself.
Note that the title "Third Foundation" was invented completely
independently from David Brin's not so soon to be released Third
Foundation, an upcoming sequel to the Foundation universe. The sharp
ones out there will probably realize how I came up with it.
Feel free to give me comments and criticisms (which this fanfic needs
desperately), and I hope that this will inspire other similar fanfics.
Permission to distribute unmodified versions of this fanfic is
granted. Characters from 3*3 Eyes by Yuzo Takada and Foundation by
Isaac Asimov used without permission. Though it's hard to see how the
Grand Master could give me permission even if he wanted to.
- --
Yoo C. Chung <http://plaza.snu.ac.kr/~wacko/>
School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
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