Foundation’s Triumph

The Director of Rhodia: You seem worried, young fellow. Do you think our secret rebellion against the Tyranni oppressors will fail?

Biron Farrill: Your plan is a good one, sir. We may stand a chance, on the battlefield. But what of that crucial document? The one my father sent me to search for, on Old Earth? It was already stolen before I arrived!

The Director: And now you fear it might be used against us?

Farrill : Exactly, sir. I am certain the Tyranni have it.

The Director: But of course not. I have it. I’ve had it for twenty years. It was what started the rebellion world, for it was only when I had it that I knew we could hold our winnings once we had won.

Farrill : It is a weapon, then?

The Director: It is the strongest weapon in the universe. It will destroy the Tyranni and us alike, but will save the Nebular Kingdoms. Without it, we could perhaps defeat the Tyranni, but we would only have exchanged one feudal despotism for another, and as the Tyranni are plotted against, we would be plotted against. We and they must both be delivered into the ash can of outmoded political systems. The time for maturity has come as it once came on the planet Earth, and there will be a new kind of government, a kind that has never yet been tried in the galaxy. There will be no khans, autarchs, emperors, or ruling elites.

Rizzet: In the name of Space, what will there be?

The Director: People.

Rizzet: People? How can they govern? There must be some one person to make decisions.

The Director: There is a way. The blueprint that’s in my possession dealt with a small section of one planet, but it can be adapted to all the galaxy.

—Excerpted from a popular holoplay-Suns, Like Motes of Soil-produced in 8789 G.E. during the Lingane Renaissance. Imperial censors suppressed the drama after Lingane fell into chaos. in 8797 G.E. This version was reconstructed four millennia later by one of the diversity-federalist coalitions during the Fifth Great Destiny Debate of 682 F.E.