Gaal Dornick makes his first ever trip to Trantor, a planet at the center of the empire that has been turned into an enormous city with no self-sustaining agriculture. He is there to meet with Hari Seldon to work on his mysterious project. The project is made even more mysterious when Seldon’s reputation as a “raven” that portends doom is revealed ahead of meeting the man himself.
Seldon appears in Dornick’s hotel room and confirms that he does foresee doom, but not on intuition, but based on a complex mathematical formula that he’s developed that can predict events into the far future that he calls psychohistory.
These predictions do not sit well with the empire, as they put both Seldon and Dornick on trial and are questioned about Seldon’s predictions and intentions. Seldon says that psychohistory predicts not only the destruction of Trantor but the fall of the empire itself.
Seldon proposes that the chaotic era following the fall of the empire can be reduced from 30,000 years to just 1000 years if they allow him to form a group that would compile the sum of knowledge into a volume.
The advocate is skeptical, but ultimately agrees to let Seldon form his group, exiled on a remote planet named Terminus. This appears to be a setback, but according to Seldon, it was all within his predictions.
Fifty years later on Terminus, work has continued on the Encyclopedia Galactica, with the board of trustees holding the real power on the planet. Meanwhile, its first mayor, Salvor Hardin pleads with the council to take action regarding the recent takeover of the sector by Anacreon, leaving the planet without access to any resources.
The board is hesitant to get involved in politics and instead wants to focus on its work. They receive the sub-prefect of Anacreon to gauge their intentions. Anacreon intends to tax Terminus, despite its lack of ability to pay any taxes and their status as directly appointed by the Emperor. Since there are no resources, the sub-prefect instead suggests that they give up land on the planet instead. The conversation is stalled when it’s insinuated that the planet possesses nuclear weapons, while the knowledge of nuclear power has been forgotten by most others in the galaxy, including the empire.
Lord Dorwin, a representative of the empire, arrives to make an agreement with Anacreon, but after it’s ratified, it’s found that it’s essentially toothless and cedes all power to Anacreon. The board is still hesitant to take any political action and Mayor Hardin plans a coup to seize power of the planet. The board instead waits for the anticipated message from Seldon himself that is to come on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Foundation. Seldon’s message does appear and informs them that the entire mission of the Encyclopedia mission has been a fraud. He says that the foundation will face a series of crises to which there is only one inevitable path, ultimately leading to the fall of the stagnating empire and the founding of the second empire by the Foundation.
Hardin is given control of Terminus and asked what the next move is, to which he replies is “obvious as hell.”