02x01 - In Seldon's Shadow

[bunniefuu]

[HARI PANTING]

You... You were supposed to be the one.

You were supposed to be the one
in the pod, not her.

Why did you put her in the pod?

[SHOUTS] Why did you put her in the pod?

Idolatry will feed his sickness.

Idolatry will feed his sickness.
Second Foundation…

She's not gonna talk to you, is she?

You would believe her.
She solved the last puzzle.

[EXHALES] She solved the last puzzle.

Gods made wine to compensate
those who cannot afford revenge.

The gods made knives

to satisfy those
who can't digest your grandest plan.

I have a plan.

You wouldn't have changed
your precious Plan, Hari, don't lie.

If you told me,
you-you'd never have changed your Plan.

Yes, but the Radiant can't predict,

can't account for the...
the actions of individuals.

It's not my fault. It's not my fault.

[SHOUTING] You know nothing.

You wanna be in control?
You know nothing!

You're nothing but a petulant child.

If you shared your
great Plan with people,

maybe they could help you.

You saw what happened
to me on the Raven.

- [HARI GROANING]
- [GAAL] There's an old saying.

Any man can be a success,
but it takes a madman to be great.

Something's happening.

[EXHALES SHARPLY] Something's happening.

[SCREAMING]

My name is Salvor Hardin.

I'm your daughter.

[STAMMERS] I don't have a daughter.

Are you Gaal Dornick?

Then I've got an update

about a certain embryo you may
or may not… [GULPS] …remember donating.

[BREATHING HEAVILY] Oh, gods.

Time? I-I... I was in cryosleep, I...

Yeah, me too.

Guess we both slept our way
into the future.

How old are you? Biologically?

- Older than you, I'd wager.
- [GAAL BREATHES HEAVILY]

Salvor Hardin.

- Mari Hardin.
- Carried me.

Raised me.

But I was always yours. I think.

I sort of know things.

Like, I knew to come here to find you.

Did you come here to find me? Maybe
you heard a voice calling you, or...

[SIGHS] No.

I'm sorry. Let's start over.

Okay.

What do I call you?
'Cause, um, "Mom" feels a little loaded.

[LAUGHS] How about just "Gaal"? For now.

Okay. Then tell me about you, Gaal.

How you got those scars in your cheeks.

Tell me about my father, Raych.

How those rings above us got there.

Tell me everything.

[GAAL] As waters rise,
territories shrink.

That's what happened on Synnax,
and that's what happened with Empire.

Day by day, decade by decade,

the First Foundation nibbled away
planets from edges of Empire.

And Empire steadily contracted.

- [DAY GROANING, MOANING]
- [DEMERZEL MOANING]

[MOANING]

Harder, Empire!

- Please. [MOANING]
- No. Just be you. Your voice.

Yes, Empire.

Not Empire. [BREATHING HEAVILY]

Cleon. Cleon.

- Yeah. [PANTING]
- [DEMERZEL MOANING]

I'm close. [PANTING] Yeah.

I'm with you.

[BOTH MOANING]

Open your eyes, Cleon. Look at me.

[DAY GRUNTS]

- [SHOUTS]
- [ATTACKER GRUNTS]

[ATTACKER , DAY GRUNTING]

[ATTACKER SCREAMS, PANTING]

[BOTH GRUNTING]

If you think you can breach my aura...
[GRUNTING]

[ATTACKER SCREAMS, GRUNTING]

[ATTACKER , DAY GRUNTING]

[DAY GRUNTING, GROANING]

[BOTH SHOUTING]

[BOTH GRUNTING]

[PANTING]

[ATTACKER GRUNTS]

- [GRUNTS]
- [ATTACKER GRUNTS]

Cleon.

Demerzel.

- [ALARM BLARING]
- [DAY SHOUTING]

Empire has received a blaster sh*t
to his left deltoid

and penetrating thoracic trauma.

A nanotoxin was delivered
via molecular blade.

We have seconds before edema
leads to brain stem death.

Give it to me.

[GRUNTING]

[DEMERZEL]
Empire will recover. Stabilize him.

[DISTORTED]
If he asks, tell him I needed mending.

It's you again.

[SIGHS]

[PANTING]

[GASPS, BREATHING SHAKILY]

[SHOUTING]

[SOBBING]

[KARIEL] Hari?

D object. D shadow. Smart boy.

[NOLAN] Smart?

I paid for that book.

[HARI] Three-dimensional shadow.
Four-dimensional object.

Four-dimensional space.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

[SIGHING, SNIFFLES]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

Yanna?

My love.

But you're dead.

So are you.

[SIGHS, SOBBING]

I've missed you.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

Yanna, the galaxy, it's...
it's breaking.

Something's breaking the future.

Maybe I... I need to fix it.

I need your help.

Oh, my soul,
I wish you weren't just a dream.

I'd find some moonlight to irritate you.
[CHUCKLES]

You have doubts.

I am real.

[INHALES DEEPLY]

Prove it.

You'd let me make the case for myself.

[BOTH CHUCKLE]

Premise one, that implies statement two.

Step-by-step.

One, two, three.

QED.

You're not Yanna. I know my life-mate.

Who are you really?

The way you're speaking, I...

You like work.

Work it out.

[WHISPERS] Free your mind.

- [PERSON SCREAMS]
- [GASPING]

Salvor!

[GRUNTS, PANTING]

Salvor.

What were you doing in there?
I thought you drowned.

I thought you drowned.

- I wake up early.
- [GRUNTS]

[SALVOR] I have this instinct to walk
the perimeter wherever I am.

So I took your boat… [SIGHS]
…did some bowfishing.

[GRUNTS] Fish here
practically volunteer.

I'm sorry. [BREATHING HEAVILY]

I panicked.

I have dreams sometimes.

About things that will happen.

You dreamt the future?

I think I can feel the future.

That's funny 'cause I have dreams
about the past.

Your past.

I guess we have that in common.

Both sleep like sh*t.

It's not really the same thing.

Right.

Nothing in common then.

Except for that, I guess.

Why haven't you activated it yet?

[STAMMERS] I don't have the right tools.

Remember those
instincts I told you about?

- They tell me when someone's lying.
- I'm not lying.

My coin says you are.

[GAAL] It had been years

since the Foundation had been exiled
to Terminus.

And just like Synnax, the dark waters
were now rising everywhere.

The Foundation had flourished,

but a flourishing Foundation posed
a thr*at.

How long would it be before Empire
thrashed like a drowning man?

Not long at all, as it turned out.

[SIREN WAILING]

[GUARD] Warden.
That siren, I've never heard it before.

No one has in years.

[PEOPLE CLAMORING]

[JAEGGER] It's the Vault.

Warden, is this what I think it is?

[JAEGGER] Null field's
definitely subsiding, Director.

Another few seconds,
and it'll be safe to approach.

Seldon said he would return, but I
never imagined I'd live to see him.

And you still may not.
Have a walk with me.

Been minutes. No doorway.

- No Seldon. Not yet.
- [DIRECTOR] Not yet?

I think the prophet's giving us time
to get ready.

- For what?
- w*r. With Empire.

[BRIGADIER]
We're still in the building phase.

I've been saying
if this is gonna be a hot w*r...

Seldon said it was inevitable.

We always knew
we were living on borrowed time.

Warden.

Brigadier, the m*llitary always feels
there's more preparation

to be done.

But I venture we're ready
for whatever news Seldon will bring.

I just wish he'd bring it already.

[GAAL] Hari Seldon was always
a little adrift, if you ask me.

He was aware of the rising seas
from an early age.

Before he knew which questions
were too crazy to ask.

And when his thoughts led him
to strange new conclusions,

he didn't reject them.

[HARI] Who are you?
Why approach me as Yanna?

It's too long you've
been kept all alone.

And you needed a face you could trust.

Establishing trust,
that's an interrogator's technique,

not a life-mate's.

And the way you're speaking,
that cadence.

[SIGHS] "I was lonely…"
And then something

- about "the rhythm of the words…"
- Rhythm of the words.

What was that?
That's a quote, but from whom?

Gaal Dornick, my tormentor.

Something she said a lifetime ago.

Think, Hari.

She's speaking in verse.

Two unstressed syllables, one stressed.

Nine syllables per line. [SCOFFS]

Anapestic trimeter.
Very few poets use it.

But I know of
one poet-mathematician who did.

Kalle.

Author of the Ninth Proof of Folding.

Very good.
And now do you know where you are?

I was in one prison, now I'm in another.
[SCOFFS]

I was moved to the space Yanna
and I folded using your formulations.

I'm in the Prime Radiant.

I've trapped Hari Seldon inside.

But I left Hari on
Terminus in the Vault.

I should've known he wouldn't have
let Terminus carry on without him.

[BREATHES SHAKILY] Then clearly he made
a second copy of his consciousness

because I had one with me
when I landed here,

in a data storage device.

- So there are two Haris now?
- Well, apparently so.

I transferred him to the Prime Radiant
last night,

while you were sleeping.

- Why?
- Because I don't trust him.

But Hari created the Foundation.
And his Plan's been working.

Hari sacrifices everyone
for the Plan, Salvor.

Look, you don't know him like I do.
He...

He's always holding something back.

He encoded the entire Plan,

the future of the human race…

in this.

You know what I think?

I don't think it's
Hari you're scared of.

I think it's the Plan itself.

Maybe that's
what your nightmare was about.

It's been, what,
years since we were last awake?

For all we know,
the fall has already happened out there.

And just speaking for me, but I'd like
to know where the galaxy stands.

Show me how it works.

[GAAL] It's a movement combination.

There's a tap at the beginning,
then a sort of flourish.

That bad?

[SIGHS]

See this node?

That was the first crisis.

The one you helped solve.

Now, we're advancing through time
years, until today.

[SALVOR] Is that another crisis?

The second crisis.
Right on our doorstep.

- Well, we survived the first one.
- Only because of you.

It was supposed to be me solving it, but

I wasn't there and, the thing is,

this one's even bigger
than the last crisis.

Watch.

[STAMMERS] I don't understand.

[GAAL] The blue line was the trajectory
mankind was supposed to follow.

The future Hari had accounted for.

The red line is what's actually happened
since the last crisis.

That's where we really are.

- The Plan's veering off course?
- Yes.

This one. Call it the third crisis.

It's a turning point.

If it isn't handled,

then there's crisis four,
five, a thousand.

[SIGHS]

If we don't start preparing for it now,

the age of darkness Hari predicted
gets longer, not shorter.

How long?

So long that it might never end.

[DAY SCREAMS]

- What are you doing to him?
- Empire refused anesthesia.

Not a chance I'd let these butchers
put me to sleep... [GASPS]

[SCREAMING]

Risk them decanting another me!

For all I know,
they were in on the attempt.

[SCREAMS] Ow!

For all I know, you were!

You can't possibly think
I could've done this.

The alliance. The marriage.
[SCREAMS] You hate!

[SIGHS]

- Am I done?
- Yes, Empire, but you really must r...

Utter the word "rest," and you die.

Help me up.

[GRUNTS, GROANS]

Somebody get me a damn blasted robe

so my manhood isn't flapping around!

[ELECTRICITY CRACKLING]

- Empire.
- Who were they, Shadowmaster?

- Blind Angels.
- Angels?

Damnation.
They always seemed like a myth.

Dark sector training,
everything psycho-encrypted.

We'll get nothing from their side.

So, did they exploit
someone's gross negligence,

or were they assisted?

[w*apon CHARGING]

One of them entered
through the servant's way.

Empire, I... [GRUNTS]

I want every shade here taken
to the inquisitors for interrogation.

Leave us.

I was frightened today.

Well, we're not impervious to it.

Cleon XIII knew fear.

I didn't wanna die.

I knew another Day could be decanted,

and no one would be aware it'd happened.

But if that razor sword
went through my neck,

it would end me.

I suppose that's the altered genome.

I feel like a singular soul.

Don't you feel like a singular soul?

Having children won't make you immortal.

Just the opposite.

Children are meant to replace us.

That's the whole point of them,
isn't it?

And if you do have them,
then the day you die…

you are gone.

And then it's really the last of you.

What we are now, as brothers,
it's something more than that.

- Mmm.
- It is. It's something that's...

[SCOFFS, MUTTERS]

No, no. I want you to speak plain.

You and Dusk have been
choosing your words so carefully.

I thank you for your honesty. Come here.

You and Dusk will submit
to an independent neural audit.

What?

They will comb
through your memory engrams.

Check the Memorium.

You think that we could've done this?

Under normal circumstances, no.

But I can see how threatened you
both are by my impending marriage.

We have nothing to hide.

Good.

Good.

You all right? [BREATHES HEAVILY]

I will be fine, Empire.
My consciousness is decentralized.

- Are you all right?
- Yes, it's just...

What we've been doing,

it isn't indecent, is it?

Any gift that's given freely out of love
is never indecent.

A moment of privacy, perhaps?

Yes. Of course.

[WHIRRING]

They had just started building
these rings when I left Trantor.

There were signs all over,

describing them as a frill
around the neck of a lizard.

A symbol of strength and intimidation.

[SARETH] Really? [CHUCKLES]

And here I understood that lizards raise
their frills

when they're frightened.

They're right to be afraid of you.

[DUSK]
What are you doing bedding Demerzel?

Cleon I was well acquainted with her
in that way,

why shouldn't I get to be?

Because she changed your diaper
when you were a child, for one.

And two, it's an abuse of your position.

[CLICKS TONGUE]
Oh, rest assured… [CHUCKLES]

…she's enjoying my position very much.

She's the one who first initiated.

In any case,
it's a good thing she was there.

They were in my bedroom, brother.

Even worse, my aura failed me.

Someone tampered with it.

[INHALES SHARPLY]
Hire an outside firm to investigate.

Internal security is either incompetent,
or they're in on it.

But remember to look outward,
not just inward.

- How very exculpating of you.
- [MOUTHING] Yeah.

Foreigners seem more foreign every year.
Even the ones we embrace.

They're your guests. Your proposal.

[DAY] Queen's advance team
was much larger than I expected.

[DUSK]
Which could have created opportunities.

Some people say

she engineered the accident
that put the crown on her head.

Of course, if she's going to k*ll you,

she'd be wiser to wait
till after you're married.

Convenient for you and Dawn
if it doesn't come off.

I have yet to commit to this union.

Nor has Queen Sareth for that matter.

But you're leaning into the idea.

We can't keep going on like...
like we are now.

Drifting further and further
from our genetic origin.

Deep down, you and even Dawn
must surely grasp that.

Must we?

We are drifting, surely.

But steering into the rapids
seems an odd cure.

But it is the boldest one.

It's time the Empire learned
how to paddle again, brother.

Feels like I can see it getting higher.

There's almost nothing left.
This place now, this isn't home.

Maybe it's just where we came
to find each other.

If there's any chance of making
a better future, I bet it's up there.

How? Your ship's been down there
for years.

There's coral growing on it.

The Beggar's tough.

Bit of water damage and some pretty
coral won't put her down for the count.

[SIGHS] And the hole in the hull?

Imperial patrol tagged her
before I went into cryo.

If I could access the CPU,

I could do a hard reboot
and cycle an engine purge.

The ship should just pop back up
to the surface like a cork.

It's about meters to the hull,
maybe another to the bridge.

Another minute once I'm there
for the reboot.

And I am dead.
I can't hold my breath for that long.

You can if I'm down there with you.

I don't know how to reboot a ship,
but I do know how to hold my breath.

I can give you some of mine
when we reach the bridge.

Some of yours? What if you drown?

Brain damage doesn't set in
for at least four minutes.

You'll have time.

- No.
- You saw the math.

It's not just one crisis we have
to survive, it's multiple crises.

But we better do it fast,
or we're both dead anyway.

Those sea sirens,
normally they're pale, white.

All that red, bright like that,

means they're saturating
themselves with oxygen.

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

Means they're getting ready
to dive into deeper water.

- Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
- Bad.

Means a hurricane's coming.

Describe the routes inside.

Uh, a right, and then a... a left,

and then a second right
after the turning.

- I'll pull you once we're in.
- Wait, right now?

Right now.
Don't think about it. Just commit.

- [THUNDER RUMBLING]
- Three deep breaths.

In, out. In, out. In, then we dive.

[BOTH BREATHING HEAVILY]

Gaal!

[COUGHS]

[STRAINS, GRUNTING]

[PANTING] Gaal.

- [GAAL COUGHS]
- [GRUNTS, PANTING]

[GAAL GROANING, COUGHING]

- Did we do it?
- We did it.

[GROANS] It hurts so bad.

You're the last person I know,
you are not allowed to die!

I'm not trying to... [INHALES SHARPLY]

I'm trying to breathe.
[BREATHES HEAVILY] Don't!

[PANTS] Hey, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, that was...

You don't have to be sorry.
It's weird. I know... I know it's weird.

[LAUGHS] You know,
this isn't how I thought it would be.

I had this idea that I could find you,

and I thought by some miracle if I did,

there would be this
connection between us.

And I'd see you, and I'd feel like…

now I make sense.

We've known each other a day.

Salvor, you had time to imagine
what this reunion might be like,

and I didn't.

So it's a shock.

Maybe one day this will be less strange,

and maybe it won't, I don't know yet.

Right.

We'll play it by ear.

Listen, everyone I ever knew,

everyone I loved, is behind me.

That is rare and terrible,
and we share that.

This is the water we come from.
We are the last Synnaxians.

[INHALES SHARPLY]

Even if you don't
really swim like one. [CHUCKLES]

[LAUGHING] Ow.

Welcome to Trantor.
The eye of the Empire.

Please respect and enjoy the peace.

I am Empire, Cleon XVII.

Empire, I am Rue, enjoiner to the queen.

Allow me to present
the doyen of the Trade Leagues,

prime witness of the Cloud Cathedral
and most excellent queen,

Sareth the First,
sole descendant of Dominion.

So many titles, and yet you omit
the most intriguing one. Bride-to-be.

Provisional.

Indeed. Allow me to present
Empires Dusk and Dawn.

Well, they manage a kind look
for the usurper.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Empire, it is to you, the three of you,
I present our gift.

Samples of our rarest pigments.
Usually reserved for domestic use.

[CHUCKLES] Extraordinary.

All the imperial blues in pure form.

And Cloud itself,
that's what they're wearing.

Color of a storm cloud.

Nearly impossible to procure
in a form that does not fade.

[CHUCKLES]

Dominion pioneered
the science of active chroma

which adorn our mural walls.

Thank you, Rue.

And a gift from myself.

Trantor. Nicely rendered in brass.

It represents
what is being offered to you.

It's beautiful.

But Empire is larger than Trantor,
surely.

Or is this
a vision of a diminished future?

I'm sorry?

The orbital rings adorning this world
are impressive.

But surely there are more efficient ways
to launch payloads into space?

When ruling a realm so large,
evoking awe often trumps efficiency.

Nevertheless.

One wouldn't want to misinterpret them
as an overcompensation

for weakness.

Empire, a matter has come up.

You may speak
in front of your future empress.

I cannot.

[DEMERZEL] A body possessing
imperial nanites was recently recovered.

It had been floating in space
for over a century.

Commander Dorwin was dispatched
to the Outer Reach by your ascendant,

Cleon XII, to investigate a comms buoy
that had gone dark near Terminus.

Allegedly, his ship was destroyed
by a mega-flare,

which presumably destroyed
all life in the system.

Presumably?
Wasn't an official inquest launched?

No. The incident was contemporary news
with our discovery

that the Genetic Dynasty
had been corrupted.

So we got distracted
and dropped the ball.

I'm recording this message
via a neural implant.

An Anacreon w*r party
sabotaged the comms buoy

and were laying in wait
for us on Terminus.

My crew is dead.

They have taken myself
and a handful of Foundationers hostage.

The Anacreons have located
a derelict w*r ship called the Invictus.

Apparently, its jump drives
are still active... [GRUNTS]

Crying for help into the void.
Even your last living action is weak.

We know they successfully
boarded the Invictus.

The commander's implant recorded that.

He was k*lled shortly thereafter.

This was more than a century ago?

Even if they did take command of it,
they wouldn't have had Spacers.

[DUSK]
The ancient fleet did not use Spacers.

The ships were too ungainly compared
to our current vessels,

and the jumps were very violent.

Fine. So the Anacreons got their hands
on some working jumpship,

but clearly, they didn't use them.

The Outer Reach has been dark
since we cut it loose.

What if that darkness was by design,
rather than desperation?

Spectral reconnaissance
has confirmed there was no mega-flare.

After receiving this transmission,

I checked the reports of our observers
in the Periphery.

There have been rumors of an alliance
at the edge of the galaxy,

led by magicians who
glow in the darkness

and fly unaided through the air,

and whom weapons cannot touch.

Who speak of a galactic spirit

who will return and guide his people
to a promised new age.

Seldon.

So you're saying his Foundation
never withered away, they flourished?

We should never have let them go.
[INHALES SHARPLY]

Only Empire commands the stars.

Crush them. Now.

Not yet, Empire.

You bring us this,
and then you counsel restraint?

I do.
The implications demand investigation.

But waging a w*r based on unproven
innuendo strikes me as an ill wind.

I'd rather not revisit
the lessons gleaned

after the bombing of
Anacreon and Thespis.

She's right. We'll let the Foundation
keep on playing dead

while we determine how far
their influence extends.

Has the rot taken
a few outwardly branches,

or has it spread to the trunk?

Our tree does seem to be embattled,
doesn't it?

Magicians, Angels,

provisional brides.

Everyone hacking away at our branches.

Get your house in order, brother.

[KALLE]
I'm so glad you worked out who I am

so I can stop speaking in meter.

It's lovely for writing,
but so very awkward for speaking.

You're not Kalle, are you?
Any more than you were Yanna.

You've got parts of both of them in you,
but you're something else.

Something new.

Something new.

Say it.

Are you the Radiant?

Show your work.

The Prime Radiant has Yanna's math in it

and Kalle's, of course, from a distance.

It's an adaptive,
predictive four-dimensional model

that takes in new data.

It learns, but that's different
from having self-awareness

or an inherited memory of either women.

If the model developed
purpose-driven behavior,

acquired agency...

No, it can't do that,
not based on the parameters I designed.

Ah, but you're not the only designer.

As you said,
Kalle and Yanna contributed.

Your work was always incomplete.

Perhaps I am its completion.

If you're the Prime Radiant,
what's your goal?

I have a vested interest
in humanity's destiny.

Oh, well, that's worrying.

I wish you'd say you had a
vested interest in our survival.

Isn't it the same thing?

It isn't. And you should know that.

Well, the creator and his creation
have reached an impasse.

I think it's time for you to go.

You'll help me escape then?

I can't.
I'm not the one who imprisoned you.

What is the point of this charade?

Your mind is damaged, Hari.
It has been damaged for a long time.

I am trying to help you
knit it back together.

If you want out, think.

[STUTTERING] I can't. I can't. I...

[STAMMERS] I'm not up to navigating it
in four dimensions right now.

So, what's a boy to do?

D object. D shadow.

Reducing the dimensions.

Flattening, unfolding it.

Good luck. Once you make it out,
we can talk next steps.

I'll explain more if you can meet me
in Oona's world.

The effort? I won't regret it?

You'll appreciate it down to your bones.

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

[SALVOR] sh*t! It's not good.

The Beggar was able
to self-heal the breach,

but there's a fault somewhere
in the avionics.

[SIGHS] How long will it take to find?

I don't know. It's all ones and zeros.

It could take months
to sort through the opcode.

We don't even have hours.

[SIGHS]

You have to let him out, Gaal.

- No.
- He's a digital ghost.

We let him loose, he'll
probably find the fault in seconds.

I can't.
Hari and I didn't part on good terms.

[STAMMERS] It's too risky.

Look at where we are.
He's our only chance to get off Synnax.

What use are we to
the Plan if we're dead?

[HARI] Gaal Dornick!

[BREATHES HEAVILY]

It's time you and I had a reckoning.