The Foundation

At the Seventh Test Well, the “Source” underground emits one beat every 86.4 seconds. Each beat measures not only time, but also age, wages, prison sentences, engagements, and death. For thirty years, the entire city has relied on it to maintain order. Then one day, the intervals between beats begin to grow longer and longer. To keep factories paying wages, prisoners getting released on schedule, and the dead receiving proper burials, people decide to use artificially generated reference beats to keep time going. The numbers start moving again, and everything seems to return to normal. Only a few people know that an unbridgeable gap has opened between reality and the record of it. When every number is accurate, every document complies with regulations, and everyone is honestly doing their job, can the history that remains still be true?