II- THE MAYORS (79-80 F.E.)
1.
"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."
Hardin considers that with little over sixty years he is "getting old", although the slightly older Lee seems to disagree. It is possible that Terminus' isolation resulted in a decrease in life expectancy.
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.
Imperial administrative division. We know that a prefect (that may or may not be typical) contains roughly twenty-five star systems (thus, around one million of these would exist in the whole Empire) and some comments hint that a province would have around thirty prefects (~1,000 systems). Lastly, a quadrant might mean a fourth of the galactic disk (suggesting that each would have around six million worlds). Unfortunately there is no information about the possible size of a sector.
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.
The "ground" qualifier suggests that even Terminus (a small, isolated and metal-free world) still has some cars that aren't landbound.
"I make no such suggestion, Mr. Mayor. It is our simple proposition that all appeasement cease immediately. Throughout your administration, you have carried out a policy of scientific aid to the Kingdoms. You have given them nuclear power. You have helped rebuild power plants on their territories. You have established medical clinics, chemical laboratories and factories."
[...]
"Because you have given them power, given them weapons, actually serviced the ships of their navies, they are infinitely stronger than they were three decades ago. Their demands are increasing, and with their new weapons, they will eventually satisfy all their demands at once by violent annexation of Terminus. Isn't that the way blackmail usually ends?"
Sermak's rant might be biased, but it is probably accurate, considering that Hardin considered him a serious political threat.
Hardin frowned. "What of that? I don't see that it has anything to do with the argument at all. I started that way at first because the barbarians looked upon our science as a sort of magical sorcery, and it was easiest to get them to accept it on that basis. The priesthood built itself and if we help it along we are only following the line of least resistance. It is a minor matter."
This pathetic level of superstition suggests that the fall of scientific knowledge must have begun long before Anacreonian independence.
2.
He changed into his civilian clothes – a holiday in itself – and boarded a passenger liner to the Foundation, second class. Once at Terminus, he threaded his way through the crowd at the spaceport and called up City Hall at a public visiphone.
Thirty years after the Fall, interstellar travel is open for citizens of limited means using passenger spaceships. It is likely that these ships are of new construction, although the possibility of more Imperial relics shouldn't be ruled out.
Verisof helped himself. "Interesting. There was a priest in the next cabin on his way here to take a special course in the preparation of radioactive synthetics – for the treatment of cancer, you know –"
"Surely, he didn't call it radioactive synthetics, now?"
"I guess not! It was the Holy Food to him."
Self-explanatory. An actual example of pseudo-religious BS about science.
"But it amounts to the same thing. He's foaming at the mouth with eagerness to attack the Foundation. He scarcely troubles to conceal it. And he's in a position to do it, too, from the standpoint of armament. The old king built up a magnificent navy, and Wienis hasn't been sleeping the last two years. In fact, the tax on Temple property was originally intended for further armament, and when that fell through he increased the income tax twice."
At this point, Anacreon's fleet is largely post-Imperial in composition, as Verisof states that the former king built it. Apparently, Wienis has enlarged it in a significative proportion in just two years, something that gives us a chance to calculate industrial output.
-Anacreontian militarization.
The battlecruiser Wienis had half the volume of the Anacreontian fleet. That fleet was more or less built from scratch in the roughly thirty years that followed the emancipation of Anacreon from the Empire. Note that this was not wartime production and that the Foundation hadn't yet completely rebuilt the Imperial energy production network.
The Wienis was two miles in length. Although we don't know anything about its volume (other than all descriptions of Imperial warships suggesting that they are massive and colossal), I have used the volume of eight Imperial Star Destroyers (ISD), which should be an adequate benchmark within an order of magnitude in either direction.
9E7 m^3 * 8 = 7.2E8 m^3
7.2E8 m^3 * 2 = 1.44E9 m^3 (estimated production over thirty years)
1.44E9 m^3 / 30 = 4.8E7 m^3 (estimated yearly production)
Now, Anacreon was just a small fraction of the Galactic Empire.
Following closely the boundaries of the old Prefect of Anacreon, it embraced twenty-five stellar systems, six of which included more than one inhabited world. The population of nineteen billion, though still far less than it had been in the Empire's heyday was rising rapidly with the increasing scientific development fostered by the Foundation.
Using the Anacreontian figures for the Empire in a per planet and per capita basis we get that:
Estimated Galactic Empire production (per planet): 4.8E7 m^3 * 800,000 (Anacreon is estimated to have ~30 planets) = 3.84E13 m^3 (~425,000 ISD sized warships a year).
Estimated Galactic Empire production (per capita): 4.8E7 m^3 * 5.25E7 (Galactic population/Anacreontian population) = 2.52E15 m^3 (~2,800,000 ISD sized warships a year).
"Two weeks ago an Anacreonian merchant ship came across a derelict battle cruiser of the old Imperial Navy. It must have been drifting in space for at least three centuries."
Interest flickered in Hardin's eyes. He sat up. "Yes, I've heard of that. The Board of Navigation has sent me a petition asking me to obtain the ship for purposes of study. It is in good condition, I understand."
"In entirely too good condition," responded Verisof, dryly. "When Wienis received your suggestion last week that he turn the ship over to the Foundation, he almost had convulsions."
After three hundred years floating in space, an Imperial ship is in relative good condition. Well enough to return to working order with adequate maintenance, at any rate.
"It's a ship! They could build in those days. Its cubic capacity is half again that of the entire Anacreonian navy. It's got nuclear blasts capable of blowing up a planet, and a shield that could take a Q-beam without working up radiation. Too much of a good thing, Hardin –"
This passage is very well known and has appared in countless Foundation-related debates. Ignoring firepower-related calculations, this very strongly suggests that the ship CAN destroy a world (using unknown mechanisms and within an unknown timefrime). And considering that Verisof is a qualified scientist, reporting to his Commander-in-Chief, wild exaggeration seems unlikely.
"No. But repairing the ship will take months and an attack after that is certain. Our yielding will be taken as a sign of appalling weakness and the addition of the Imperial Cruiser will just about double the strength of Wienis' navy. He'll attack as sure as I'm a high priest. Why take chances? Do one of two things. Either reveal the plan of campaign to the Council, or force the issue with Anacreon now!"
Oddly enough, although it is suggested that the Anacreonian fleet is twice as big as the cruiser, Verisof states that its firepower will be doubled (this means, btw, that he has in mind the cruiser's technical specifications). This suggests that the Foundation-built Anacreonian fleet has worse power generation technology than the Empire two centuries before.
