Foundation book 1
Part 1 - The Psychohistorians
Gaal Dormick travels to Trantor and meets dr Hari Seldon, who predicts the Empire that lasted 12,000 years will end at the end of 300 years. The prediction is based on psychohistory, a branch of mathematics which deals with reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli.
The fall of the Empire is dictated by rising bureaucracy, receding initiative, freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity, and many others. The fall cannot be stopped, but the interregnum after the fall can be shortened. Dr Seldon’s proposes to create the galactic encyclopedia to preserve knowledge so they don’t have to be rediscovered.
After a trial and judgement, the team working for dr Seldon, comprised of 30,000 families is allowed to travel to Terminus, a planet at the edge of the Galaxy so they can work on the Encyclopedia Galactica. Two scientific refuges will be established at two ends of the galaxy, one at Terminus and another at Star’s End.
Linge Chen was the de facto emperor, one of the powerful families of Trantor. Forty billion people lived on the Capital of the empire, all dedicated to the management of the bureaucracy of the empire. The galaxy comprised of 25 million inhabited planets.
Part 2 - The Encyclopedists
It took 50 years to establish the Encyclopedia Foundation number one, 50 more years to come up with volume one of the most monumental work ever of the galaxy. Then new volumes would be produced at 10 year intervals. Leading the work was Lewis Pirenne, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Foundation.
Salvor Hardin was elected mayor of Terminus City. The planet was at the periphery of the empire, and located between two planets, Anacreon and Smyrna, who were fighting each other in a war. The King of Anacreon sent an envoy Anselm haut Rostov to Terminus to establish their dominance, to which dr Pirenne responded that the Foundation was a state supported scientific institution, part of the personal domain of the Emperor . Unfazed, he asked for tribute to protect the planet, but given the planet had no metal resources, it would settle for land. Salvor Hardin mention of nuclear power startled haut.
The chancellor of the Empire Lord Darwin came for a visit, when Hardin realized that the entire empire was in a state of stagnation, scientists were relying on the past knowledge instead of taking initiative and understanding the problem for themselves. Their neighbors already lost the knowledge of nuclear power and reverted to gas and coal. This was all confirmed when the vault was opened for the 50th anniversary of the foundation, Hari Seldon said the encyclopedia was a fraud, and the foundations at the edge of the Empire were seeds of the next empire, but would have to face and resolve crisis that they encounter.
Part 3 - The Mayors
Yohan Lee was Salvor Hardin’s deputy for more than thirty years, it had been this long since Mayor Hardin was able to share nuclear power, medicine, and other scientific knowledge with the four kingdoms and kept balance of power. To make science more acceptable, the foundation created a science religion, priests were well versed in science and kept control of populations of the other kingdoms through faith in the religion.
Terminus was under constant threat of destruction from the other kingdoms. Semak and others challenged the peaceful view of Hardin and wanted to arm themselves and go to war with the other kingdoms, the formed the action party and were going to challenge Hardin in the next elections. There was also the matter of the powerful formerly Imperial battle cruiser that Anacreon asked the Foundation to repair for its navy.
King Leopold of Anacreon was coming of age and the prince regent Wienis was hungry for power and trying to have his children become kings. On the day of the coronation of Leopold, Hardin went to Anacreon for the ceremony but ended up under arrest by Weinis guards, while the navy was sent on its way to conquer Terminus. However, Hardin had a plan that was set in motion. Using the priests and temples to control the mobs, he was able to shut down power, turn back the attacking force, and show who was in control. Wienis killed himself, Hardin signed treaties with all four kingdoms and the Foundation got powers to prevent similar threats of future attack.
At the end, Hari Sheldon showed up again at the Time Vault and talked about how the plan was on track after 80 years. In the first crisis, the Foundation held off the barbarian kingdoms using the balance of power. In this crisis, the Spiritual power prevailed over the Temporal power. He warned about overconfidence since Spiritual power couldn't attack and wouldn't prevail against the counter-balancing force of Regionalism or Nationalism. The Foundation was on its path leading to the second galactic empire, and there was another Foundation at the other end of the galaxy.
Part 4 - The Traders
Limmar Ponyets was one of those traders who came and left for months or years from Terminus. Thru their daring, traders forged an empire more enduring than the religious era of the four kingdoms. He received a mail from Les Gorm, it was asking him to go to Askone to rescue an imprisoned trader. Ponyets happened to know that master trader Eskel Gorov was not a trader at all, but an agent of the Foundation.
It was a long trip, Ponyets arrived at Askone after two weeks. He was able to convince the Grand Master of Askone to go see Gorov. Gorov told him about the weakness of the Grand Master for gold, he conceived of a plan to free up the old man. He showed the Askonians a device to convert iron into gold made out of the food irradiation chamberand made a demonstration. Not only that, Ponyets offered to stay as hostage for 30 days to convince them it wasn't a trick.
A week into the extra stay, Ponyets started to work Pherl, the second in command and the next Grand Master. Ponyets was able to get a deal after catching Pherl betraying his people with a microfilm recorder. Gorov was released on the 30th day in exchange for 500 pounds of gold. The deal was to get all Ponyet's nucleic gadgets cargo and all of Gorov's cargo in exchange for all the tin the two could carry.
Part 5 - The Merchant Princes
Hober Mallow of Smyrna started as a trader and became the first of the merchant princes. Joranne Sutt, the secretary to the mayor recruited Mallow to go help seek out the 3 missing ships in the Korellian system. Either the Korellians acquired nuclear technology or there was a traitor in the Foundation.
Mallow and Jain Twer traveled to Korell. The spaceport was decayed as the Galactic Empire left but the Foundation hadn’t arrived yet. The trip there was uneventful, but after a few days wait, a Foundation missionary Parma entered the ship. It turned out the missionary was a test and a big Korellian mob encircled the ship and demanded Mallow to turn in the missionary, which he did and Twer vehemently opposed.
Soon after that event, an invitation from Commdor Asper Argo to meet came from the capital. At the meeting, Mallow convinced the Commdor that he had goods his people would want, like the necklace that flashed flames in crimson and gold, without priests to work the technology. He also convinced the Commdor he could make work much more efficient. The profits would be enormous for both, and payment would be iron, minerals, tobacco and other needs of the Foundation.
Mallow saw a foundry of Korell, and there he saw troops with nuclear pistols technology, the spaceship and sun logo clued him that it was Galactic Empire technology. Mallow travelled to Siwenna, former capital of the Normannic sector where he met Onum Barr, an old patrician of the Empire. Mallow saw a nuclear plant that was enormous and he realized the Empire dealt with giant problems of planets and star systems while the Foundation had to design things on limited resources.
Back at Terminus, Mallow was put on trial for leaving the priest to die at the hands of the mob in Korell. He was able to prove that reverend Jord Parma was an impostor, and Joren Sutt and Jain Twer conspired against him. With great popularity, Mallow was mayor at the time of the next Seldon crisis, Korell declared war and trade stopped. Without the gadgets and tools of the Foundation, the Commdor didn’t realize, but the economy couldn’t function and Korell surrendered at the end of 3 years.
The religious control of the previous era was replaced with trade and economic control. The Foundation had become a plutocracy and merchant princes were in control.
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