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capabilities have degenerated into ritual. Back on Terminus once more, Mallow is tried for the death of the priest he had turned over to the Korellians but wins his freedom (and is elected mayor) by demonstrating that the so-called priest was an agent of the Korellian secret police. The Korellian republic attacks the Foundation with old Empire atomic cruisers, but the attack slows as Foundation devices on Korell begin to fail. The Korellians rebel in order to regain their prosperity. Mallow predicts future crises in which money power will be as useless as religion. |
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The second volume of the Trilogy, titled Foundation and Empire, consists of two novellas. The first, "The General" (called "Dead Hand" in the April 1945 Astounding), takes place about forty years after "The Merchant Princes.'' The central action is the attempt by Bel Riose, an ambitious and capable young general for the decaying Empire, to conquer the Foundation, whose reputation for trade and science by now has reached Trantor. The Merchant Princes, the only Foundation leaders, are without ideas about how to repel Riose's attack; they send a young trader, Lathan Devers, in a ship to be captured by Riose. The Emperor becomes suspicious of Riose's request for more ships to attack the Foundation and sends his privy secretary, Brodrig, to investigate. But Brodrig joins Riose with the hope of using Foundation technology to conquer the Empire and restore its glory. Riose's authority on the Foundation is Ducem Barr. Barr and Devers escape in Devers's ship to Trantor with a message that implicates Brodrig in a plot with Riose. Though they are unable to break through bureaucratic barriers to reach the Emperor, they learn, as they are leaving Trantor, that Riose and Brodrig are under arrest. The crisis has resolved itself: a weak general was no threat to the Foundation and the Emperor would not have tolerated a strong general lest he seize the throne. Only the combination of a strong Emperor and a strong general could endanger the Foundation, but a strong Emperor remains strong by permitting no strong subjects. Even a strong Emperor who was also a general could not risk engaging himself in foreign wars for fear of rebellion springing up in his absence. Under any circumstances, the Foundation had to win out. |
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"The Mule" (Astounding, November, December 1945) takes place 105 years after the execution of Riose and Brodrig. Toran, son of a small trader on Haven, and Bayta, a Foundation citizen who is unhappy about the way the wealthy traders have accumulated power, have just been married. They arrive on Haven to learn that Toran's father and uncle are worried about Foundation tax collectors and are speculating about a new and mysterious conqueror of worlds called "The Mule." The |
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