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 disc. ‘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?’
‘The news that the Terminus City ultrawave set received two hours ago. The Royal Governor of the Prefect of Anacreon has assumed the title of king.’
‘Well? What of it?’
‘It means,’ responded Hardin, ‘that we’re cut off from the inner regions of the Empire. We’ve been expecting it but that doesn’t make it any more comfortable. Anacreon stands square across what was our last remaining trade route to Santanni and to Trantor and to Vega itself! Where is our metal to come from? We haven’t managed to get a steel or aluminium shipment through in six months and now we won’t be able to get any at all, except by grace of the King of Anacreon.’
Pirenne tch-tched impatiently. ‘Get them through him, then.’
‘But can we? Listen, Pirenne, according to the charter which established this Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Committee has been given full administrative powers. I, as Mayor of Terminus City, have just enough power to blow my own nose and perhaps to sneeze if you countersign an order giving me permission. It’s up to you and your Board then. I’m asking you in the name of the City, whose prosperity depends upon uninterrupted commerce with the Galaxy, to call an emergency meeting—’
‘Stop! A campaign speech is out of order. Now, Hardin, the Board of Trustees has not barred the establishment of a municipal government on Terminus. We understand one to be necessary because of the increase in population since the Foundation was established fifty years ago, and because of the increasing number of people involved in non-Encyclopedia affairs. But that does not mean that the first and only aim of the Foundation is no longer to publish the definitive Encyclopedia of all human knowledge. We are a State-supported, scientific institution, Hardin. We cannot – must not – will not interfere in local politics.’
‘Local politics! By the Emperor’s left big toe, Pirenne, this is a matter of life and death. The planet, Terminus, by itself cannot support a mechanized civilization. It lacks metals. You know that. It hasn’t a trace of iron, copper, or aluminium in the surface rocks, and precious little of anything else. What do you think will happen to the Encyclopedia if this watchamacallum King of Anacreon clamps down on us?’
‘On us? Are you forgetting that we are under the direct control of the Emperor himself? We are not part of the Prefect of Anacreon or of any other prefect. Memorize that! We are part of the Emperor’s personal domain, and no one touches us. The Empire can protect its own.’
‘Then why didn’t it prevent the Royal Governor of Anacreon from kicking over the traces? And only Anacreon? At least twenty of the outermost prefects of the Galaxy, the entire Periphery as a matter of fact, have begun steering things their own way. I tell you I feel darned uncertain of the Empire and its ability to protect us.’
‘Hokum! Royal Governors, Kings – what’s the difference? The Empire is always shot through with a certain amount of politics and with different men pulling this way and that. Governors have rebelled, and, for that matter, Emperors have been deposed, or assassinated before this. But what has that to do with the Empire itself? Forget it, Hardin. It’s none of our business. We are first of all and last of all – scientists. And our concern is the Encyclopedia. Oh, yes, I’d almost forgotten. Hardin!’
‘Well?’
‘Do something about that paper of yours!’ Pirenne’s voice was angry.
‘The Terminus City Journal? It isn’t mine; it’s privately owned. What’s it been doing?’
‘For weeks now it has been recommending that the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation be made the occasion for public holidays and quite inappropriate celebrations.’
‘And why not? The radium clock will open the First Vault in three months. I would call this a big occasion, wouldn’t you?’
‘Not for silly pageantry, Hardin. The First Vault and its opening concern the Board of Trustees alone. Anything of importance will be communicated to the people. That is final and please make it plain in the Journal.’
‘I’m sorry, Pirenne, but the City Charter guarantees a certain minor matter known as freedom of the press.’
‘It may. But the Board of Trustees does not. I am the Emperor’s representative on Terminus, Hardin, and have full powers in this respect.’
Hardin’s expression became that of a man counting to ten, mentally. He said, grimly: ‘In connection with your status as Emperor’s representative, then, I have a final piece of news to give you.’
‘About Anacreon?’ Pirenne’s lips tightened. He felt annoyed.
‘Yes. A special envoy will be sent to us from Anacreon. In two weeks.’
‘An envoy? Here? From Anacreon?’ Pirenne chewed that. ‘What for?’
Hardin stood up, and shoved his chair back up against the desk. ‘I give you one guess.’
And he left – quite unceremoniously.
Anselm haut Rodric – ‘haut’ itself signifying noble blood – Sub-prefect of Pluema and Envoy Extraordinary of his Highness of Anacreon – plus half a dozen other titles – was met by Salvor Hardin at the space-port with all the imposing ritual of a state occasion.
With a tight smile and a low bow, the sub-prefect had flipped his blaster from its holster and presented it to Hardin butt first. Hardin returned the compliment with a blaster specifically borrowed for the occasion. Friendship and goodwill were thus established, and if Hardin noted the barest bulge at haut Rodric’s shoulder, he prudently said nothing.
The ground car that received them then – preceded, flanked, and followed by the suitable cloud of minor functionaries – proceeded in a slow, ceremonious manner to Cyclopedia Square, cheered on its way by a properly enthusiastic crowd.
Sub-prefect Anselm received the cheers with the complaisant indifference of a soldier and a nobleman.
He said to Hardin, ‘And this city is all your world?’
Hardin raised his voice to be heard above the clamour. ‘We are a young world, your eminence. In our short history we have had but few members of the higher nobility visiting our poor planet.
