The Mayors 1.
THE FOUR KINGDOMS - The name given to those portions of the Province of Anacreon which broke away from the First Empire in the early years of the Foundational Era to form independent and short-lived kingdoms.
The largest and most powerful of these was Anacreon itself which in area…
… Undoubtedly the most interesting aspect of the history of the Four Kingdoms involves the strange society forced temporarily upon it during the administration of Salvor Hardin…
Encyclopedia Galactica
A deputation!
That Salvor Hardin had seen it coming made it none the more pleasant. On the contrary, he found anticipation distinctly annoying.
Yohan Lee advocated extreme measures.
"I don't see, Hardin," he said, "that we need waste any time.
They can't do anything till next election - legally, anyway - and that gives us a year.
Give them the brush-off."
Hardin pursed his lips.
"Lee, you'll never learn.
In the forty years I've known you, you've never once learned the gentle art of sneaking up from behind."
"It's not my way of fighting," grumbled Lee.
"Yes, I know that.
I suppose that's why you're the one man I trust."
He paused and reached for a cigar.
"We've come a long way, Lee, since we engineered our coup against the Encyclopedists way back.
I'm getting old. Sixty-two.
Do you ever think how fast those thirty years went?"
Lee snorted.
"I don't feel old, and I'm sixty-six."
"Yes, but I haven't your digestion."
Hardin sucked lazily at his cigar.
He had long since stopped wishing for the mild Vegan tobacco of his youth.
Those days when the planet, Terminus, had trafficked with every part of the Galactic Empire belonged in the limbo to which all Good Old Days go. Toward the same limbo where the Galactic Empire was heading.
He wondered who the new emperor was - or if there was a new emperor at all - or any Empire.
Space!
For thirty years now, since the breakup of communications here at the edge of the Galaxy, the whole universe of Terminus had consisted of itself and the four surrounding kingdoms.
How the mighty had fallen!
Kingdoms!
They were prefects in the old days, all part of the same province, which in turn had been part of a sector, which in turn had been part of a quadrant, which in turn had been part of the allembracing Galactic Empire.
And now that the Empire had lost control over the farther reaches of the Galaxy, these little splinter groups of planets became kingdoms - with comic-opera kings and nobles, and petty, meaningless wars, and a life that went on pathetically among the ruins.
A civilization falling.
Nuclear power forgotten.
Science fading to mythology - until the Foundation had stepped in.
The Foundation that Hari Seldon had established for just that purpose here on Terminus.
Lee was at the window and his voice broke in on Hardin's reverie.
"They've come," he said, "in a late-model ground car, the young pups."
He took a few uncertain steps toward the door and then looked at Hardin.
Hardin smiled, and waved him back.
"I've given orders to have them brought up here."
"Here!
What for?
You're making them too important."
"Why go through all the ceremonies of an official mayor's audience?
I'm getting too old for red tape.
Besides which, flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters - particularly when it doesn't commit you to anything."
He winked.