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Plan may not work out. Another group is actively fighting the idea of a ruling class of psychologists. The Second Foundation has had to adopt a project with a low probability of success, to preserve the Plan and themselves, by working with individuals rather than large groups. Arkady proves helpful on Kalgan by persuading Lord Stettin's mistress, Lady Callia, that Munn intends to prove that the Second Foundation does not exist and that Lord Stettin, the ruler of Kalgan, is destined to unite the Galaxy instead of the Foundation. Stettin permits Munn's research in the old palace, but also decides to marry Arkady. Callia helps Arkady escape, and Arkady suspects that Callia is a member of the Second Foundation. Arkady is almost captured at the spaceport on Kalgan but is saved by Preem Palver and his wife, trading representatives of their farm cooperative on Trantor. They take Arkady back to Trantor. Stettin attacks the Foundation and forces its fleets back to its original group of planets. In a final battle, however, Stettin's fleet is wiped out. |
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The conspirators gather once more in Darell's home, each claiming the solution to the mystery of the Second Foundation. Munn says there is no Second Foundation, but an encephalograph reveals that his mind has been tampered with. Anthor says that the Second Foundation must be on Kalgan, where everything, including the tampering with Munn's mind, has happened. Then Darell reveals a message from Arkady: "A circle has no end." From this he has deduced that the Second Foundation is on Terminus itself. He has invented a device that creates Mental Static and renders helpless minds capable of advanced mental science. Anthor collapses when it is turned on. Other Second Foundation members on Terminus will be sought out and neutralized. |
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In the final chapter the First Speaker reveals to the apprentice that his plan has worked. Fifty men and women of the Second Foundation have been sacrificed, but the Foundation is convinced that the Second Foundation has been destroyed, and Seldon's Plan has been restored. The Second Foundation is actually located on Trantor, where its psychologists are simple farmers. Why is the Second Foundation described as being at "the opposite end of the Galaxy"? From its periphery, the opposite end of a spiral is its center, and the Galaxy is a double spiral. Moreover, in social terms the opposite end of the extremities is the heart, and Trantor was once the heart of the Empire. What about "Star's End"? An old saying goes: "Stars end at Trantor." The First Speaker is Preem Palver. |
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Asimov abandoned The Foundation Trilogy with "Search by the Foundation" because it had grown too difficult to bring the reader up to date |
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