Foundation

"I remember. The papers had some garbled version of the story at the time. I don't see what you're driving at."

"Then, listen," said Bort, stiffly. "The priesthood forms a hierarchy at the apex of which is the king, who is regarded as a sort of minor god. He's an absolute monarch by divine right, and the people believe it, thoroughly, and the priests, too. You can't overthrow a king like that. Now do you get the point?"

"Hold on," said Walto, at this point. "What did you mean when you said Hardin's done all this? How does he come in?"

Bort glanced at his questioner bitterly. "The Foundation has fostered this delusion assiduously. We've put all our scientific backing behind the hoax. There isn't a festival at which the king does not preside surrounded by a radioactive aura shining forth all over his body and raising itself like a coronet above his head. Anyone touching him is severely burned. He can move from place to place through the air at crucial moments, supposedly by inspiration of divine spirit. He fills the temple with a pearly, internal light at a gesture. There is no end to these quite simple tricks that we perform for his benefit; but even the priests believe them, while working them personally."

"Bad!" said Sermak, biting his lip.

"I could cry - like the fountain in City Hall Park," said Bort, earnestly, "when I think of the chance we muffed. Take the situation thirty years ago, when Hardin saved the Foundation from Anacreon - At that time, the Anacreonian people had no real conception of the fact that the Empire was ru

"If the Emperor had had the nerve to try, he could have taken over again with two cruisers and with the help of the internal revolt that would have certainly sprung to life. And we we could have done the same; but no, Hardin established monarch worship. Personally, I don't understand it. Why? Why? Why?"

"What," demanded Jaim Orsy, suddenly, "does Verisof do? There was a day when he was an advanced Actionist. What's he doing there? Is he blind, too?"

"I don't know," said Bort, curtly. "He's high priest to them. As far as I know, he does nothing but act as adviser to the priesthood on technical details. Figurehead, blast him, figurehead!"

There was silence all round and all eyes turned to Sermak. The young party leader was biting a fingernail nervously, and then said loudly, "No good. It's fishy!"

He looked around him, and added more energetically, "Is Hardin then such a fool?"

"Seems to be," shrugged Bort.

"Never! There's something wrong. To cut our own throats so thoroughly and so hopelessly would require colossal stupidity. More than Hardin could possibly have even if he were a fool, which I deny. On the one hand, to establish a religion that would wipe out all chance of internal troubles. On the other hand, to arm Anacreon with all weapons of warfare. I don't see it."

"The matter is a little obscure, I admit," said Bort, "but the facts are there. What else can we think?"

Walto said, jerkily, "Outright treason. He's in their pay."

But Sermak shook his head impatiently. "I don't see that, either. The whole affair is as insane and meaningless - Tell me, Bort, have you heard anything about a battle cruiser that the Foundation is supposed to have put into shape for use in the Anacreon navy?"

"Battle cruiser?"

"An old Imperial cruiser-"

"No, I haven't. But that doesn't mean much. The navy yards are religious sanctuaries completely inviolate on the part of the lay public. No one ever hears anything about the fleet.

"Well, rumors have leaked out. Some of the Party have brought the matter up in Council. Hardin never denied it, you know. His spokesmen denounced rumor mongers and let it go at that. It might have significance."

"It's of a piece with the rest," said Bort. "if true, it's absolutely crazy. But it wouldn't be worse than the rest."

"I suppose," said Orsy, "Hardin hasn't any secret weapon waiting. That might-"

"Yes," said Sermak, viciously, "a huge jack-in-the-box that will jump out at the psychological moment and scare old Wienis into fits. The Foundation may as well blow itself out of existence and save itself the agony of suspense if it has to depend on any secret weapon."

"Well," said Orsy, changing the subject hurriedly, "the question comes down to this: How much time have we left? Eli, Bort?"

"All fight. It is the question. But don't look at me; I don't know. The Anacreonian press never mentions the Foundation at all. Right now, it's full of the approaching celebrations and nothing else. Lepold is coming of age next week, you know."

"We have months then." Walto smiled for the first time that evening. "That gives us time-"

"That gives us time, my foot," ground out Bort, impatiently. "The king's a god, I tell you. Do you suppose he has to carry on a campaign of propaganda to get his people into fighting spirit? Do you suppose he has to accuse us of aggression and pull out all stops on cheap emotionalism? When the time comes to strike, Lepold gives the order and the people fight. Just like that. That’s the damnedness of the system. You don’t question a god. He may give the order tomorrow for all I know; and you can wrap tobacco round that and smoke it."

Everyone tried to talk at once and Sermak was slamming the table for silence, when the front door opened and Levi Norast stamped in. He bounded up the stairs, overcoat on, trailing snow.

"Look at that!" he cried, tossing a cold, snow-speckled newspaper onto the table. "The visicasters are full of it, too."

The newspaper was unfolded and five heads bent over it.

Sermak said, in a hushed voice, "Great Space, he’s going to Anacreon! Going to Anacreon!"

"It is treason," squeaked Tarki, in sudden excitement. "I’ll be damned if Walto isn’t right. He’s sold us out and now he’s going there to collect his wage."

Sermak had risen. "We’ve no choice now. I’m going to ask the Council tomorrow that Hardin be impeached. And if that fails-"

The snow had ceased, but it caked the ground deeply now and the sleek ground car advanced through the deserted streets with lumbering effort. The murky gray light of incipient dawn was cold not only in the poetical sense but also in a very literal way - and even in the then turbulent state of the Foundation's politics, no one, whether Actionist or pro-Hardin found his spirits sufficiently ardent to begin street activity that early.

Yohan Lee did not like that and his grumblings grew audible. "It's going to look bad, Hardin. They're going to say you sneaked away."

"Let them say it if they wish. I've got to get to Anacreon and I want to do it without trouble. Now that's enough, Lee."

Hardin leaned back into the cushioned seat and shivered slightly. It wasn't cold inside the well-heated car, but there was something frigid about a snow-covered world, even through glass, that a

He said, reflectively, "Some day when we get around to it we ought to weather-condition Terminus. It could be done."

"I," replied Lee, "would like to see a few other things done first. For instance, what about weather-conditioning Sermak? A nice, dry cell fitted for twenty-five centigrade all year round would be just fight."

"And then I'd really need bodyguards," said Hardin, "and not just those two," He indicated two of Lee's bully-boys sitting up front with the driver, hard eyes on the empty streets, ready hands at their atom blasts. "You evidently want to stir up civil war."

"I do? There are other sticks in the fire and it won't require much stirring, I can tell you." He counted off on blunt fingers, "One: Sermak raised hell yesterday in the City Council and called for an impeachment."

"He had a perfect right to do so," responded Hardin, coolly. "Besides which, his motion was defeated 206 to 184."

"Certainly. A majority of twenty-two when we had counted on sixty as a minimum. Don't deny it; you know you did."

"It was close," admitted Hardin.

"All right. And two; after the vote, the fifty-nine members of the Actionist Party reared upon their hind legs and stamped out of the Council Chambers."

Hardin was silent, and Lee continued, "And three: Before leaving, Sermak howled that you were a traitor, that you were going to Anacreon to collect your payment, that the Chamber majority in refusing to vote impeachment had participated in the treason, and that the name of their party was not 'Actionist' for nothing. What does that sound like?"

"Trouble, I suppose."

"And now you're chasing off at daybreak, like a criminal. You ought to face them, Hardin - and if you have to, declare martial law, by space!"

"Violence is the last refuge-"

"-Of the incompetent. Bah!"

"All right. We'll see. Now listen to me carefully, Lee. Thirty years ago, the Time Vault opened, and on the fiftieth a

"I remember," Lee nodded reminiscently, with a half smile. "It was the day we took over the government."

"That's right. It was the time of our first major crisis. This is our second-and three weeks from today will be the eightieth a

"You mean he's coming again?"

"I'm not finished. Seldon never said anything about returning, you understand, but that's of a piece with his whole plan. He's always done his best to keep all foreknowledge from us. Nor is there any way of telling whether the computer is set for further openings short of dismantling the Vault - and it's probably set to destroy itself if we were to try that. I've been there every a