Chapter 7

The Vault was furnished with considerably more than six chairs, as though alarger company had been expected. Hardin noted that thoughtfully and seatedhimself wearily  in a  comer just as  far from the other  five as possible.
The Board  members did not seem  to object to that  arrangement. They spokeamong themselves  in whispers, which fell  off into sibilant monosyllables,and  then into  nothing at  all. Of  them all,  only Jord Fara  seemed evenreasonably calm.  He had produced a  watch and was staring  at it somberly.
Hardin glanced at his  own watch and then at the glass cubicle ?absolutelyempty ? that dominated half the  room. It was the  only unusual feature ofthe  room, for  aside from that  there was  no indication that  somewhere acomputer was splitting off instants of time toward that precise moment whena muon stream would flow, a connection be made and?
The lights went dim!
They didn't  go out,  but merely yellowed  and sank with  a suddenness thatmade Hardin jump. He  had lifted his eyes to the ceiling lights in startledfashion,  and when  he brought them  down the  glass cubicle was  no longerempty.
A figure occupied it ?a figure in a wheel chair!
It said nothing for  a few moments, but it closed the book upon its lap andfingered  it idly.  And  then it  smiled, and  the  face seemed  all alive.
It said, "I am Hari Seldon." The voice was old and soft.
Hardin almost  rose to acknowledge the  introduction and stopped himself inthe act.
The voice  continued conversationally: "As  you see, I am  confined to thischair and  cannot rise to greet you. Your  grandparents left for Terminus afew  months  back in  my  time  and since  then  I have  suffered a  ratherinconvenient paralysis.  I can't  see you, you  know, so I  can't greet youproperly. I don't even  know how many of you there are, so all this must beconducted informally.  If any of you are standing,  please sit down; and ifyou care to smoke, I wouldn't mind." There was a light chuckle. "Why shouldI? I'm not really here."Hardin fumbled for a  cigar almost automatically, but thought better of it.
Hari Seldon put away  his book ?as if laying it upon  a desk at his side ?
and when his fingers let go, it disappeared.
He said:  "It is  fifty years now  since this Foundation  was established ?
fifty years  in which the members  of the Foundation have  been ignorant ofwhat  it  was they  were  working toward.  It  was necessary  that they  beignorant, but now the necessity is gone.
"The Encyclopedia  Foundation, to  begin with, is  a fraud, and  always hasbeen!"There  was a  sound  of a  scramble behind  Hardin and  one or  two muffledexclamations, but he did not turn around.
Hari Seldon was, of  course, undisturbed. He went on: "It is a fraud in thesense that neither I  nor my colleagues care at all whether a single volumeof the Encyclopedia is  ever published. It has served its purpose, since byit we  extracted an imperial charter  from the Emperor, by  it we attractedthe hundred thousand humans  necessary for our scheme, and by it we managedto keep  them preoccupied while events shaped  themselves, until it was toolate for any of them to draw back.
"In the fifty years that you have worked on this fraudulent project ?thereis no  use in  softening phrases ?your  retreat has been cut  off, and youhave now no choice  but to proceed on the infinitely more important projectthat was, and is, our real plan.
"To that end we have placed you on such a planet and at such a time that infifty  years you  were maneuvered  to the  point where  you no  longer havefreedom of  action. From now on, and into the  centuries, the path you musttake is  inevitable. You will be faced with a series  of crises, as you arenow  faced with the  first, and in  each case  your freedom of  action willbecome similarly  circumscribed so that  you will be forced  along one, andonly one, path.
"It is  that path which our  psychology has worked out  ?and for a reason.
"For  centuries Galactic  civilization has  stagnated and  declined, thoughonly a few ever  realized that. But now, at last, the Periphery is breakingaway and  the political unity of the Empire  is shattered. Somewhere in thefifty years  just past is where the historians of  the future will place anarbitrary  line and  say:  'This marks  the Fall  of the  Galactic Empire.'
"And they  will be right, though scarcely any  will recognize that Fall foradditional centuries.
"And after  the Fall  will come inevitable  barbarism, a period  which, ourpsychohistory  tells us,  should,  under ordinary  circumstances, last  forthirty  thousand years. We  cannot stop the  Fall. We  do not wish  to; forImperial culture  has lost whatever virility and worth  it once had. But wecan shorten  the period  of Barbarism that  must follow ?down  to a singlethousand of years.
"The ins and outs  of that shortening, we cannot tell you; just as we couldnot tell  you the truth about  the Foundation fifty years  ago. Were you todiscover those ins and outs, our plan might fail; as it would have, had youpenetrated the  fraud of the Encyclopedia  earlier; for then, by knowledge,your  freedom of  action  would be  expanded and  the number  of additionalvariables introduced would become greater than our psychology could handle.
"But you won't, for there are no psychologists on Terminus, and never were,but for Alurin ?and he was one of us.
"But  this I  can tell you:  Terminus and  its companion Foundation  at theother  end of the  Galaxy are the  seeds of  the Renascence and  the futurefounders of  the Second Galactic Empire. And it  is the present crisis thatis starting Terminus off to that climax.
"This, by  the way, is  a rather straightforward crisis,  much simpler thanmany of those that are ahead. To reduce it to its fundamentals, it is this:
You are  a planet suddenly cut off from  the still-civilized centers of theGalaxy, and threatened by your stronger neighbors. You are a small world ofscientists surrounded  by vast and rapidly  expanding reaches of barbarism.
You are  an island  of nuclear power  in a growing ocean  of more primitiveenergy;  but are  helpless despite  that, because  of your lack  of metals.
"You see,  then, that you are  faced by hard necessity,  and that action isforced on  you. The nature of  that action ?that  is, the solution to yourdilemma ?is, of course, obvious!"The  image of  Hari Seldon  reached into  open air  and the book  once moreappeared in his hand. He opened it and said:
"But  whatever devious  course  your future  history may  take,  impress italways upon your descendants that the path has been marked out, and that atits end is new and greater Empire!"And  as his eyes  bent to his  book, he  flicked into nothingness,  and thelights brightened once more.
Hardin looked up to see Pirenne facing him, eyes tragic and lips trembling.
The chairman's  voice was firm but toneless. "You  were right, it seems. Ifyou will see  us tonight at six, the Board will consult  with you as to thenext move."They shook his hand, each one, and left, and Hardin smiled to himself. Theywere fundamentally sound at  that; for they were scientists enough to admitthat they were wrong ?but for them, it was too late.
He looked  at his watch. By  this time, it was all  over. Lee's men were incontrol and the Board was giving orders no longer.
The Anacreonians were landing their first spaceships tomorrow, but that wasall  right, too.  In six  months, they  would  be giving orders  no longer.
In fact,  as Hari Seldon had  said, and as Salvor  Hardin had guessed sincethe day  that Anselm haut Rodric had first  revealed to him Anacreon's lackof  nuclear  power  ? the  solution  to  this first  crisis  was  obvious.
Obvious as all hell!