"Asimov, Isaac - Brin, David - 2nd Foundation 03 - Foundation's Triumph" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Part 1. A Foretold Destiny
Part 2. An Ancient Plague
Part 3. Secret Crimes
Part 4. A Magnificent Design
Part 5. A Recurring Rendezvous
Part 6. Full Circle
Acknowledgments
Afterword
Timeline for the Robots and Foundation Universe



PART 1



A FORETOLD DESTINY

Little is known about the final days of Hari Seldon, though many romanticized accounts exist, some of them purportedly by his own hand. None has any proved validity.

What appears evident, however, is that Seldon spent his last months uneventfully, no doubt enjoying satisfaction in his life's work. For with his gift of mathematical insight, and the powers of psychohistory at his command, he must surely have seen the panorama of history stretching before him, confirming the great path of destiny that he had already mapped out.

Although death would soon claim him, no other mortal ever knew with such confidence and certainty the bright promise that the future would hold in store.

ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA, 117TH EDITION, 1054 RE.



-1-



"As for me... I am finished."

Those words resonated in his mind. They clung, like the relentless blanket that Hari's nurse kept straightening across his legs, though it was a warm day in the imperial gardens.

I am finished.

The relentless phrase was his constant companion.

... finished.

In front of Hari Seldon lay the rugged slopes of Shoufeen Woods, a wild portion of the Imperial Palace grounds where plants and small animals from across the galaxy mingled in rank disorder, clumping and spreading unhindered. Tall trees even blocked from view the ever-present skyline of metal towers. The mighty world-city surrounding this little island forest.

Trantor.

Squinting through failing eyes, one could almost pretend to be sitting on a different planet-one that had not been flattened and subdued in service to the Galactic Empire of Humanity.

The forest teased Hari. Its total absence of straight lines seemed perverse, a riot of greenery that defied any effort to decipher or decode. The geometries seemed unpredictable, even chaotic.