"And after you die, sir?"
"Why, there will be successors - perhaps even yourself.
And these successors will be able to apply the final touch in the scheme and instigate the revolt on Anacreon at the right time and in the right manner. Thereafter, events may roll unheeded."
"I do not understand."
"You will."
Seldon's lined face grew peaceful and tired, both at once,
"Most will leave for Terminus, but some will stay.
It will be easy to arrange. -But as for me," and he concluded in a whisper, so that Gaal could scarcely hear him, "I am finished."
Part II
The Encyclopedists 1.
TERMINUS-… Its location (see map) was an odd one for the role it was called upon to play in Galactic history, and yet as many writers have never tired of pointing out, an inevitable one.
Located on the very fringe of the Galactic spiral, an only planet of an isolated sun, poor in resources and negligible in economic value, it was never settled in the five centuries after its discovery, until the landing of the Encyclopedists…
It was inevitable that as a new generation grew, Terminus would become something more than an appendage of the psychohistorians of Trantor.
With the Anacreonian revolt and the rise to power of Salvor Hardin, first of the great line of…
Encyclopedia Galactica
Lewis Pirenne was busily engaged at his desk in the one well-lit comer of the room.
Work had to be co-ordinated. Effort had to be organized. Threads had to be woven into a pattern.
Fifty years now; fifty years to establish themselves and set up Encyclopedia Foundation Number One into a smoothly working unit.
Fifty years to gather the raw material.
Fifty years to prepare.
It had been done.
Five more years would see the publication of the first volume of the most monumental work the Galaxy had ever conceived.
And then at ten-year intervals - regularly - like clockwork - volume after volume.
And with them there would be supplements; special articles on events of current interest, until-
Pirenne stirred uneasily, as the muted buzzer upon his desk muttered peevishly.
He had almost forgotten the appointment.
He shoved the door release and out of an abstracted comer of one eye saw the door open and the broad figure of Salvor Hardin enter.
Pirenne did not look up.
Hardin smiled to himself.
He was in a hurry, but he knew better than to take offense at Pirenne's cavalier treatment of anything or anyone that disturbed him at his work.
He buried himself in the chair on the other side of the desk and waited.
Pirenne's stylus made the faintest scraping sound as it raced across paper.
Otherwise, neither motion nor sound.
And then Hardin withdrew a two-credit coin from his vest pocket. He flipped it and its stainless-steel surface caught flitters of light as it tumbled through the air.
He caught it and-flipped it again, watching the flashing reflections lazily.
Stainless steel made good medium of exchange on a planet where all metal had to be imported.
Pirenne looked up and blinked.
"Stop that!" he said querulously.
"Eh?"
"That infernal coin tossing. Stop it."
"Oh." Hardin pocketed the metal disk.
"Tell me when you're ready, will you?
I promised to be back at the City Council meeting before the new aqueduct project is put to a vote."
Pirenne sighed and shoved himself away from the desk.
"I'm ready.
But I hope you aren't going to bother me with city affairs.
Take care of that yourself, please.
The Encyclopedia takes up all my time."
"Have you heard the news?" questioned Hardin, phlegmatically.
"What news?"