Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me," he said, "then I would say this lady cannot exist — for what sane man would hold a dream to be real… - Isaac Asimov

Granted! Yet no trader since has been captured. No trade ship but has had the speed to escape at choice. No trade ship but has had a screen that could take all the beating a light cruiser could give it, should it choose to fight. And no trader but has fought to death when occasion warranted. Traders have been traced as the leaders and instigators of the guerrilla warfare on occupied planets and of the flying raids in occupied space.

Esta es la Tierra. No el eterno hogar de la Humanidad, sino el punto de partida de una infinita aventura. Todo lo que has de hacer para conseguirlo es tomar tu decisión. Es solo tuya. Tú, yo y el contenido de esa cueva estaremos protegidos por un campo de fisio-tiempo contra el Cambio. Cooper y su mensaje desaparecerán. La Eternidad desaparecerá junto con la Realidad de mi Siglo, pero nosotros nos quedaremos para tener hijos y nietos, y la Humanidad permanecerá para llegar hasta las Estrellas.

He's a low-born rascal who has by unfailing flattery tickled the whims of the Emperor. He's well-hated by the court aristocracy, vermin themselves, because he can lay claim to neither family nor humility. He is the Emperor's adviser in all things, and the Emperor's tool in the worst things. He is faithless by choice but loyal by necessity. There is not a man in the Empire as subtle in villainy or as crude in his pleasures.