“The thing is,” said Trevize, “I’ve never been this close to a binary system before.”

 

            “You haven’t?” said Pelorat, open astonishment in his voice. “How is that possible?”

 

            Trevize laughed. “I’ve been around, Janov, but I’m not the Galactic rover you think I am.”

 

            Pelorat said, “I was never in space at all till I met you, Golan, but I always thought that anyone who did manage to get into space-”

 

            “Would go everywhere. I know. That’s natural enough. The trouble with planet-bound people is that no matter how much their mind may tell them otherwise, their imaginations just can’t take in the true size of the Galaxy. We could travel all our lives and leave most of the Galaxy unpenetrated and untouched. Besides, no one ever goes to binaries.”

 

            “Why not?” said Bliss, frowning. “We on Gaia know little astronomy compared to the traveling Isolates of the Galaxy, but I’m under the impression that binaries aren’t rare.”

 

            “They’re not,” said Trevize. “There are substantially more binaries than there are single stars. However, the formation of two stars in close association upsets the ordinary processes of planetary formation. Binaries have less planetary material than single stars do. Such planets as do form about them often have relatively unstable orbits and are very rarely of a type that is reasonably habitable.

 

            “Early explorers, I imagine, studied many binaries at close range but, after a while, for settlement purposes, they sought out only singles. And, of course, once you have a densely settled Galaxy, virtually all travel involves trade and communications and is carried on between inhabited worlds circling single stars. In periods of military activity, I suppose bases were sometimes set up on small, otherwise-uninhabited worlds circling one of the stars of a binary that happened to be strategically placed, but as hyperspatial travel came to be perfected, such bases were no longer necessary.”

 

            Pelorat said humbly, “.It’s amazing how much I don’t know.”

 

            Trevize merely grinned. “Don’t let that impress you, Janov. When I was in the Navy, we listened to an incredible number of lectures on outmoded military tactics that no one ever planned, or intended to use, and were just talked about out of inertia. I was just rattling off a bit of one of them.-Consider all you know about mythology, folklore, and archaic languages that I don’t know, and that only you and a very few others do know.”

 

            Bliss said, “Yes, but those two stars make up a binary system and one of them has an inhabited planet circling it.”

 

            “We hope it does, Bliss,” said Trevize. “Everything has its exceptions. And with an official question mark in this case, which makes it more puzzling.-No, Fallom, those knobs are not toys.-Bliss, either keep her in handcuffs, or take her out.”

 

            “She won’t hurt anything,” said Bliss defensively, but pulled the Solarian youngster to herself just the same. “If you’re so interested in that habitable planet, why aren’t we there already?”

 

            “For one thing,” said Trevize, “I’m just human enough to want to see this sight of a binary system at close quarters. Then, too, I’m just human enough to be cautious. As I’ve already explained, nothing has happened since we left Gaia that would encourage me to be anything but cautious.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Which one of those stars is Alpha, Golan?”

 

            “We won’t get lost, Janov. The computer knows exactly which one is Alpha, and, for that matter, so do we. It’s the hotter and yellower of the two because it’s the larger. Now the one on the right has a distinct orange tinge to its light, rather like Aurora’s sun, if you recall. Do you notice?”

 

            “Yes, now that you call it to my attention.”

 

            “Very well. That’s the smaller one.-What’s the second letter of that ancient language you speak of?”

 

            Pelorat thought a moment, and said, “Beta.”

 

            “Then let’s call the orange one Beta and the yellow-white one Alpha, and it’s Alpha we’re heading for right now.”

 

  

 

 17. New Earth

 

  

 

 74.

 

  

 

      “FOUR PLANETS,” muttered Trevize. “All are small, plus a trailing off of asteroids. No gas giants.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Do you find that disappointing?”

 

            “Not really. It’s expected. Binaries that circle each other at small distances can have no planets circling one of the stars. Planets can circle the center of gravity of both, but it’s very unlikely that they would be habitable-too far away.

 

            “On the other hand if the binaries are reasonably separate, there can be planets in stable orbits about each, if they are close enough to one or the other of the stars. These two stars, according to the computer’s data bank, have an average separation of 3.5 billion kilometers and even at periastron, when they are closest together, are about 1.7 billion kilometers apart. A planet in an orbit of less than 200 million kilometers from either star would be stably situated, but there can be no planet with a larger orbit. That means no gas giants since they would have to be farther away from a star, but what’s the difference? Gas giants aren’t habitable, anyway.”

 

            “But one of those four planets might be habitable.”

 

            “Actually the second planet is the only real possibility. For one thing, it’s the only one of them large enough to have an atmosphere.”

 

            They approached the second planet rapidly and over a period of two days its image expanded; at first with a majestic and measured swelling. And then, when there was no sign of any ship emerging to intercept them, with increasing and almost frightening speed. ,

 

            TheFar Star was moving swiftly along a temporary orbit a thousand kilometers above the cloud cover, when Trevize said grimly, “I see why the computer’s memory banks put a question mark after the notation that it was inhabited. There’s no clear sign of radiation; either light in the night-hemisphere, or radio anywhere.”

 

            “The cloud cover seems pretty thick,” said Pelorat.

 

            “That should not blank out radio radiation.”

 

            They watched the planet wheeling below them, a symphony in swirling white clouds, through occasional gaps of which a bluish wash indicated ocean.

 

            Trevize said, “The cloud level is fairly heavy for an inhabited world. It might be a rather gloomy one.-What bothers me most,” he added, as they plunged once more into the night-shadow, “is that no space stations have hailed us.”

 

            “The way they did back at Comporellon, you mean?” said Pelorat.

 

            “The way they would in any inhabited world. We would have to stop for the usual checkup on papers, freight, length of stay, and so on.”

 

            Bliss said, “Perhaps we missed the hail for some reason.”

 

            “Our computer would have received it at any wavelength they might have cared to use. And we’ve been sending out our own signals, but have roused no one and nothing as a result. Dipping under the cloud layer without communicating with station officials violates space courtesy, but I don’t see that we have a choice.”

 

            TheFar Star slowed, and strengthened its antigravity accordingly, so as to maintain its height. It came out into the sunlight again, and slowed further. Trevize, in co-ordination with the computer, found a sizable break in the clouds. The ship sank and passed through it. Beneath them heaved the ocean in what must have been a fresh breeze. It lay, wrinkled, several kilometers below, them, faintly striped in lines of froth.

 

            They flew out of the sunlit patch and under the cloud cover. The expanse of water immediately beneath them turned a slate-gray, and the temperature dropped noticeably.

 

            Fallom, staring at the viewscreen, spoke in her own consonant-rich language for a few moments, then shifted to Galactic. Her voice trembled. “What is that which I see beneath?”

 

            “That is an ocean,” said Bliss soothingly. “It is a very large mass of water.”

 

            “Why does it not dry up?”

 

            Bliss looked at Trevize, who said, “There’s too much water for it to dry UP. 9t

 

            Fallom said in a half-choked manner, “I don’t want all that water. Let us go away.” And then she shrieked, thinly, as theFar Star moved through a patch of storm clouds so that the viewscreen turned milky and was streaked with the mark of raindrops.

 

            The lights in the pilot-room dimmed and the ship’s motion became slightly jerky.

 

            Trevize looked up in surprise and cried out. “Bliss, your Fallom is old enough to transduce. She’s using electric power to try to manipulate the controls. Stop her!”

 

            Bliss put her arms about Fallom, and hugged her tightly, “It’s all right, Fallom, it’s all right. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just another world, that’s all. There are many like this.”

 

            Fallom relaxed somewhat but continued to tremble.

 

            Bliss said to Trevize, “The child has never seen an ocean, and perhaps, for all I know, never experienced fog or rain. Can’t you be sympathetic?”

 

            “Not if she tampers with the ship. She’s a danger to all of us, then. Take her into your room and calm her down.”

 

            Bliss nodded curtly.

 

            Pelorat said, “I’ll come with you, Bliss.”

 

            “No, no, Pel,” she responded. “You stay here. I’ll soothe Fallom and you soothe Trevize.” And she left.

 

            “I don’t need soothing,” growled Trevize to Pelorat. “I’m sorry if I flew off the handle, but we can’t have a child playing with the controls, can we?”

 

            “Of course we can’t,” said Pelorat, “but Bliss was caught by surprise. She can control Fallom, who is really remarkably well behaved for a child taken from her home and her-her robot, and thrown, willy-nilly, into a life she doesn’t understand.”

 

            “I know. It wasn’t I who wanted to take her along, remember. It was Bliss’s idea.”

 

            “Yes, but the child would have been killed, if we hadn’t taken her.”

 

            “Well, I’ll apologize to Bliss later on. To the child, too.”

 

            But he was still frowning, and Pelorat said gently, “Golan, old chap, is there anything else bothering you?”

 

            “The ocean,” said Trevize. They had long emerged from the rain storm, but the clouds persisted.

 

            “What’s wrong with it?” asked Pelorat.

 

            “There’s too much of it, that’s all.”

 

            Pelorat looked blank, and Trevize said, with a snap, “No land. We haven’t seen any land. The atmosphere is perfectly normal, oxygen and nitrogen in decent proportions, so the planet has to be engineered, and there has to be plant life to maintain the oxygen level. In the natural state, such atmospheres do not occur-except, presumably, on Earth, where it developed, who knows how. But, then, on engineered planets there are always reasonable amounts of dry land, up to one third of the whole, and never less than a fifth. So how can this planet be engineered, and lack land?”

 

            Pelorat said, “Perhaps, since this planet is part of a binary system, it is completely atypical. Maybe it wasn’t engineered, but evolved an atmosphere in ways that never prevail on planets about single stars. Perhaps life developed independently here, as it once did on Earth, but only sea life.”

 

            “Even if we were to admit that,” said Trevize, “it would do us no Good.

 

            There’s no way life in the sea can develop a technology. Technology is always based on fire, and fire is impossible in the sea. A life-bearing planet without technology is not what we’re looking for.”

 

            “I realize that, but I’m only considering ideas. After all, as far as we know, technology only developed once-on Earth. Everywhere else, the Settlers brought it with them. You can’t say technology is ‘always’ anything, if you only have one case to study.”

 

            “Travel through the sea requires streamlining. Sea life cannot have irregular outlines and appendages such as hands.”

 

            “Squids have tentacles.”

 

            Trevize said, “I admit we are allowed to speculate, but if you’re thinking of intelligent squid-like creatures evolving independently somewhere in the Galaxy, and developing a technology not based on fire, you’re supposing something not at all likely, in my opinion.”

 

            “In youropinion ,” said Pelorat gently.

 

            Suddenly, Trevize laughed. “Very well, Janov. I see you’re logic-chopping in order to get even with me for speaking harshly to Bliss, and you’re doing a good job. I promise you that if we find no land, we will examine the sea as best we can to see if we can find your civilized squids.”

 

            As he spoke, the ship plunged into the night-shadow again, and the viewscreen turned black.

 

            Pelorat winced. “I keep wondering,” he said. “Is this safe?”

 

            “Is what safe, Janov?”

 

            “Racing through the dark like this. We might dip, and dive into the ocean, and be destroyed instantly.”

 

            “Quite impossible, Janov. Really! The computer keeps us traveling along a gravitational line of force. In other words, it remains always at a constant intensity of the planetary gravitational force which means it keeps us at a nearly constant height above sea level.”

 

            “But how high?”

 

            “Nearly five kilometers.”

 

            “That doesn’t really console me, Golan. Might we not reach land and smash into a mountain we don’t see?”

 

            “Wedon’t see, but ship’s radar will see it, and the computer will guide the ship around or over the mountain.”

 

            “What if there’s level land, then? We’ll miss it in the dark.”

 

            “No, Janov, we won’t. Radar reflected from water is not at all like radar reflected from land. Water is essentially flat; land is rough. For that reason, reflection from land is substantially more chaotic than reflection from water. The computer will know the difference and it will let me know if there’s land in view. Even if it were day and the planet were sun-lit, the computer might well detect land before I would.”

 

            They fell silent and, in a couple of hours, they were back in daylight, with an empty ocean again rolling beneath them monotonously, but occasionally invisible when they passed through one of the numerous storms. In one storm, the wind drove theFar Star out of its path. The computer gave way, Trevize explained, in order to prevent an unnecessary waste of energy and to minimize the chance of physical damage. Then, when the turbulence had passed, the computer eased the ship back into its path.

 

            “Probably the edge of a hurricane,” said Trevize.

 

            Pelorat said, “See here, old chap, we’re just traveling west to east-or east to west. All we’re examining is the equator.”

 

            Trevize said, “That would be foolish, wouldn’t it? We’re following a great-circle route northwest-southeast. That takes us through the tropics and both temperate zones and each time we repeat the circle, the path moves westward, as the planet rotates on its axis beneath us. We’re methodically crisscrossing the world. By now, since we haven’t hit land, the chances of a sizable continent are less than one in ten, according to the computer, and of a sizable island less than one in four, with the chances going down each circle we make.”

 

            “You know what I would have done,” said Pelorat slowly, as the night hemisphere engulfed them again. “I’d have stayed well away from the planet and swept the entire hemisphere facing me with radar. The clouds wouldn’t have mattered, would they?”

 

            Trevize said, “And then zoom to the other side and do the same there. Or just let the planet turn once.-That’s hindsight, Janov. Who would expect to approach a habitable planet without stopping at a station and being given a path-or being excluded? And if one went under the cloud layer without stopping at a station, who would expect not to find land almost at once? Habitable planets are-land!”

 

            “Surely not all land,” said Pelorat.

 

            “I’m not talking about that,” said Trevize, in sudden excitement. “I’m saying we’ve found land! Quiet!”

 

            Then, with a restraint that did not succeed in hiding his excitement, Trevize placed his hands on the desk and became part of the computer. He said, “It’s an island about two hundred and fifty kilometers long and sixty-five kilometers wide, more or less. Perhaps fifteen thousand square kilometers in area or thereabout. Not large, but respectable. More than a dot on the map. Wait-”

 

            The lights in the pilot-room dimmed and went out.

 

            “What are we doing?” said Pelorat, automatically whispering as though darkness were something fragile that must not be shattered.

 

            “Waiting for our eyes to undergo dark-adaptation. The ship is hovering over the island. Just watch. Do you see anything?”

 

            “No-Little specks of light, maybe. I’m not sure.”

 

            “I see them, too. Now I’ll throw in the telescopic lam.”

 

            And there was light! Clearly visible. Irregular patches of it.

 

            “It’s inhabited,” said Trevize. “It may be the only inhabited portion of the pest-„

 

            “What do we do?”

 

            “We wait for daytime. That gives us a few hours in which we can rest.”

 

            “Might they not attack us?”

 

            “With what? I detect almost no radiation except visible light and infrared. It’s inhabited and the inhabitants are clearly intelligent. They have a technology, but obviously a preelectronic one, so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about up here. If I should be wrong, the computer will warn me in plenty of time.”

 

            “And once daylight comes?”

 

            “We’ll land, of course.”

 

  

 

 75.

 

  

 

            THEY CAME down when the first rays of the morning sun shone through a break in the clouds to reveal part of the island-freshly green, with its interior marked by a line of low, rolling hills stretching into the purplish distance.

 

            As they dropped closer, they could see isolated copses of trees and occasional orchards, but for the most part there were well-kept farms. Immediately below them, on the southeastern shore of the island was a silvery beach backed by a broken line of boulders, and beyond it was a stretch of lawn. They caught a glimpse of an occasional house, but these did not cluster into anything like a town.

 

            Eventually, they made out a dim network of roads, sparsely lined by dwelling places, and then, in the cool morning sir, they spied an air-car in the far distance. They could only tell it was an au-car, and not a bird, by the manner of its maneuvering. It was the first indubitable sign of intelligent life in action they had yet seen on the planet.

 

            “It could be an automated vehicle, if they could manage that without electronics,” said Trevize.

 

            Bliss said, “It might well be. It seems to me that if there were a human being at the controls, it would be heading for us. We must be quite a sight-a vehicle sinking downward without the use of braking jets of rocket fire.”

 

            “A strange sight on any planet,” said Trevize thoughtfully. “There can’t be many worlds that have ever witnessed the descent of a gravitic space-vessel.-The beach would make a fine landing place, but if the winds blow I don’t want the ship inundated. I’ll make for the stretch of grass on the other side of the boulders.”

 

            “At least,” said Pelorat, “a gravitic ship won’t scorch private property in descending.”

 

            Down they came gently on the four broad pads that had moved slowly outward during the last stage. These pressed down into the soil under weight of the ship.

 

            Pelorat .said, “I’m afraid we’ll .leave marks, though.”

 

            “At least,” said Bliss, and there was that in her voice that was not en approving, “the climate is evidently equable.-I would even say, warm.”

 

            A human being was on the grass, watching the ship descend and showing no evidence of fear or surprise. The look on her face showed only rapt interest.

 

            She wore very little, which accounted for Bliss’s estimate of the climate. Her sandals seemed to be of canvas, and about her hips was a wraparound skirt with a flowered pattern. There were no leg-coverings and there was nothing above her waist.

 

            Her hair was black, long, and very glossy, descending almost to her waist; Her skin color was a pale brown and her eyes were narrow.

 

            Trevize scanned the surroundings and there was no other human being in sight. He shrugged and said, “Well, it’s early morning and the inhabitants may be mostly indoors, or even asleep. Still, I wouldn’t say it was a well-populated area.”

 

            He turned to the others and said, “I’ll go out and talk to the woman, if she speaks anything comprehensible. The rest of you-”

 

            “I should think,” said Bliss firmly, “that we might as well all step out. That woman looks completely harmless and, in any case, I want to stretch my legs and breathe planetary air, and perhaps arrange for planetary food. I want Fallom to get the feel of a world again, too, and I think Pel would like to examine the woman at closer range.”

 

            “Who? I?” said Pelorat, turning faintly pink. “Not at all, Bliss, but Iam the linguist of our little party.”

 

            Trevize shrugged. “Come one, come all. Still, though she may look harmless, I intend to take my weapons with me.”

 

            “I doubt,” said Bliss, “that you will be much tempted to use them on that young woman.”

 

            Trevize grinned. “She is attractive, isn’t she?”

 

            Trevize left the ship first, then Bliss, with one hand swung backward to enclose Fallom’s, who carefully made her way down the ramp after Bliss. Pelorat was last.

 

            The black-haired young woman continued to watch with interest. She did not back away an inch.

 

            Trevize muttered, “Well, let’s try.”

 

            He held his arms away from his weapons and said, “I greet you.”

 

            The young woman considered that for a moment, and said, “I greet thee and I greet thy companions.”

 

            Pelorat said joyfully, “How wonderful! She speaks Classical Galactic and with a correct accent.”‘

 

            “I understand her, too,” said Trevize, oscillating one hand to indicate his understanding wasn’t perfect. “I hope she understands me.”

 

            He said, smiling, and assuming a friendly expression, “We come from across space. We come from another world.”

 

            “That is well,” said the young woman, in her clear soprano. “Comes thy ship from the Empire?”

 

            “It comes from a far star, and the ship is namedFar Star . “

 

            The young woman looked up at the lettering on the ship. “Is that what that sayeth? If that be so, and if the first letter is an F, then, behold, it is imprinted backward.”

 

            Trevize was about to object, but Pelorat, in an ecstasy of joy, said, “She’s right. The letter F did reverse itself about two thousand years ago. What a marvelous chance to study Classical Galactic in detail and as a living language.”

 

            Trevize studied the young woman carefully. She was not much more than 1.5 meters in height, and her breasts, though shapely, were small. Yet she did not seem unripe. The nipples were large and the areolae dark, though that might be the result of her brownish skin color.

 

            He said, “My name is Golan Trevize; my friend is Janov Pelorat; the woman is Bliss; and the child is Fallom.”

 

            “Is it the custom, then, on the far star from which you come, that the men be given a double name? I am Hiroko, daughter of Hiroko.”

 

            “And your father?” interposed Pelorat suddenly.

 

            To which Hiroko replied with an indifferent shrug of her shoulder, “His name, so sayeth my mother, is Smool, but it is of no importance. I know him not.”

 

            “And where are the others?” asked Trevize. “You seem to be the only one to be here to greet us.”

 

            Hiroko said, “Many men are aboard the fishboats; many women are in the fields. I take holiday these last two days and so am fortunate enough to see this great thing. Yet people are curious and the ship will have been seen as it descended, even from a distance. Others will be here soon.”

 

            “Are there many others on this island?”

 

            “There are more than a score and five thousand,” said Hiroko with obvious pride.

 

            “And are there other islands in the ocean?”

 

            “Other islands, good sir?” She seemed puzzled.

 

            Trevize took that as answer enough. This was the one spot on the entire planet that was inhabited by human beings.

 

            He said, “What do you call your world?”

 

            “It is Alpha, good sir. We are taught that the whole name is Alpha Centauri, if that has more meaning to thee, but we call it Alpha only and, see, it is a fair-visaged world.”

 

            “Awhat world?” said Trevize, turning blankly to Pelorat.

 

            “A beautiful world, she means,” said Pelorat.

 

            “That it is,” said Trevize, “at least here, and at this moment.” He looked up at the mild blue morning sky, with its occasional drift of clouds. “You have a nice sunny day, Hiroko, but I imagine there aren’t many of those on Alpha.”

 

            Hiroko stiffened. “As many as we wish, sir. The clouds may come when we need rain, but on most days it seemeth good to us that the sky is fair above. Surely a goodly sky and a quiet wind are much to be desired on those days when the fishboats are at sea.”

 

            “Do your people control the weather, then, Hiroko?”

 

            “Did we not, Sir Golan Trevize, we would be soggy with rain.”

 

            “But how do you do that?”

 

            “Not being a trained engineer, sir, I cannot tell thee.”

 

            “And what might be the name of this island on which you and your people live?” said Trevize, finding himself trapped in the ornate sound of Classical Galactic (and wondering desperately if he had the conjugations right).

 

            Hiroko said, “We call our heavenly island in the midst of the vast sea of waters New Earth.”

 

            At which Trevize and Pelorat stared at each other with surprise and delight.

 

  

 

 76.

 

  

 

      THERE was no time to follow up on the statement. Others were arriving. Dozens. They must consist of those, Trevize thought, who were not on the ships or in the fields, and who were not from too far away. They came on foot for the most part, though two ground-cars were in evidence-rather old and clumsy.

 

            Clearly, this was a low-technology society, and yet they controlled the weather.

 

            It was well known that technology was not necessarily all of a piece; that lack of advance in some directions did not necessarily exclude considerable advance in others-but surely this example of uneven development was unusual.

 

            Of those who were now watching the ship, at least half were elderly men and women; there were also three or four children. Of the rest, more were women than men. None showed any fear or uncertainty whatever.

 

            Trevize said in a low voice to Bliss, “Are you manipulating them? They seem-serene.”

 

            “I’m not in the least manipulating them,” said Bliss. “I never touch minds unless I must. It’s Fallom I’m concerned with.”

 

            Few as the newcomers were to anyone who had experienced the crowds of curiosity-seekers on any normal world in the Galaxy, they were a mob to Fallom, to whom the three adults on theFar Star had been something to grow accustomed to. Fallom was breathing rapidly and shallowly, and her eyes were half-closed. Almost, she seemed in shock.

 

            Bliss was stroking her, softly and rhythmically, and making soothing sounds. Trevize was certain that she was delicately accompanying it all by an infinitely gentle rearrangement of mental fibrils.

 

            Fallom took in a sudden deep breath, almost a gasp, and shook herself, in what was perhaps an involuntary shudder. She raised her head and looked at those present with something approaching normality and then buried her head in the space between Bliss’s arm and body.

 

            Bliss let her remain so, while her arm, encircling Fallom’s shoulder, tightened periodically as though to indicate her own protective presence over and over.

 

            Pelorat seemed rather awestruck, as his eyes went from one Alphan to another. He said, “Golan, they differ so among themselves.”

 

            Trevize had noticed that, too. There were various shades of skin and hair color, including one brilliant redhead with blue eyes and freckled skin. At least three apparent adults were as short as Hiroko, and one or two were taller than Trevize. A number of both sexes had eyes resembling those of Hiroko, and Trevize remembered that on the teeming commercial planets of the Fili sector, such eyes were characteristic of the population, but he had never visited that sector.

 

            All the Alphans wore nothing above the waist and among the women the breasts all seemed to be small. That was the most nearly uniform of all the bodily characteristics that he could see.

 

            Bliss said suddenly, “Miss Hiroko, my youngster is not accustomed to travel through space and she is absorbing more novelty than she can easily manage. Would it be possible for her to sit down and, perhaps, have something to eat and drink?”

 

            Hiroko looked puzzled, and Pelorat repeated what Bliss had said in the more ornate Galactic of the mid-Imperial period.

 

            Hiroko’s hand then flew to her mouth and she sank to her knees gracefully. “I crave your pardon, respected madam,” she said. “I have not thought of this child’s needs, nor of thine. The strangeness of this event has too occupied me. Wouldst thou-would you all-as visitors and guests, enter the refectory for morning meal? May we join you and serve as hosts?”

 

            Bliss said, “That is kind of you.” She spoke slowly and pronounced the words carefully, hoping to make them easier to understand. “It would be better, though, if you alone served as hostess, for the sake of the comfort of the child who is unaccustomed to being with many people at once.”

 

            Hiroko rose to her feet. “It shall be as thou hast said.”

 

            She led them, in leisurely manner, across the grass. Other Alphans edged closer. They seemed particularly interested in the clothing of the newcomers. Trevize removed his light jacket, and handed it to a man who had sidled toward him and had laid a questing finger upon it.

 

            “Here,” he said, “look it over, but return it.” Then he said to Hiroko. “See that I get it back, Miss Hiroko.”

 

            “Of a surety, it will be backhanded, respected sir.” She nodded her head gravely.

 

            Trevize smiled and walked on. He was more comfortable without the jacket in the light, mild breeze.

 

            He had detected no visible weapons on the persons of any of those about him, and he found it interesting that no one seemed to show any fear or discomfort over Trevize’s. They did not even show curiosity concerning them. It might well be that they were not aware of the objects as weapons at all. From what Trevize had so far seen, Alpha might well be a world utterly without violence.

 

            A woman, having moved rapidly forward, so as to be a little ahead of Bliss, turned to examine her blouse minutely, then said, “Hast thou breasts, respected madam?”

 

            And, as though unable to wait for an answer, she placed her hand lightly on Bliss’s chest.

 

            Bliss smiled and said, “As thou hast discovered, I have. They are perhaps not as shapely as thine, but I hide them not for that reason. On my world, it is not fitting that they be uncovered.”

 

            She whispered in an aside to Pelorat, “How do you like the way I’m getting the hang of Classical Galactic?”

 

            “You did that very well, Bliss,” said Pelorat.

 

            The dining room was a large one with long tables to which were attached long benches on either side. Clearly, the Alphans ate community-fashion.

 

            Trevize felt a pang of conscience. Bliss’s request for privacy had reserved this space for five people and forced the Alphans generally to remain in exile outside. A number, however, placed themselves at a respectful distance from the windows (which were no more than gaps in the wall, unfilled even by screens), presumably so that they might watch the strangers eat.

 

            Involuntarily, he wondered what would happen if it were to rain. Surely, the rain would come only when it was needed, light and mild, continuing without significant wind till enough had fallen. Moreover, it would always come at known times so that the Alphans would be ready for it, Trevize imagined.

 

            The window he was facing looked out to sea, and far out at the horizon it seemed to Trevize that he could make out a bank of clouds similar to those that so nearly filled the skies everywhere but over this little spot of Eden.

 

            There were advantages to weather control.

 

            Eventually, they were served by a young woman on tiptoeing feet. They were not asked for their choice, but were merely served. There was a small glass of milk, a larger of grape juice, a still larger of water. Each diner received two large poached eggs, with slivers of white cheese on the side. Each also had a large platter of broiled fish and small roasted potatoes, resting on cool, green lettuce leaves.

 

            Bliss looked with dismay at the quantity of food before her and was clearly at a loss where to begin. Fallom had no such trouble. She drank the grape juice thirstily and with clear evidence of approval, then chewed away at the fish and potatoes. She was about to use her fingers for the purpose, but Bliss held up a large spoon with tined ends that could serve as a fork as well, and Fallom accepted it.

 

            Pelorat smiled his satisfaction and cut into the eggs at once.

 

            Trevize, saying, “Now to be reminded what real eggs taste like,” followed suit.

 

            Hiroko, forgetting to eat her own breakfast in her delight at the manner in which the others ate (for even Bliss finally began, with obvious relish), said, at last, “Is it well?”

 

            “It is well,” said Trevize, his voice somewhat muffled. “This island has no shortage of food, apparently.-Or do you serve us more than you should, out of politeness?”

 

            Hiroko listened with intent eyes, and seemed to grasp the meaning, for she said, “No, no, respected sir. Our land is bountiful, our sea even more so. Our ducks give eggs, our goats both cheese and milk. And there are our grains. Above all, our sea is filled with countless varieties of fish in numberless quantity. The whole Empire could eat at our tables and consume not the fish of our sea.”

 

            Trevize smiled discreetly. Clearly, the young Alphan had not the smallest idea of the true size of the Galaxy.

 

            He said, “You call this island New Earth, Hiroko. Where, then, might Old Earth be?”

 

            She looked at him in bewilderment. “OldEarth, say you? I crave pardon, respected sir. I take not thy meaning.”

 

            Trevize said, “Before there was a New Earth, your people must have lived elsewhere. Where was this elsewhere from which they came?”

 

            “I know naught of that, respected sir,” she said, with troubled gravity. “This land has been mine all my life, and my mother’s and grandmother’s before me; and, I doubt not, their grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s before them. Of any other land, I know naught.”

 

            “But,” said Trevize, descending to gentle argumentation, “you speak of this land as New Earth. Why do you call it that?”

 

            “Because, respected sir,” she replied, equally gentle, “that is what it is called by all since the mind of woman goeth not to the contrary.”

 

            “But it isNew Earth, and therefore, a later Earth. There must be anOld Earth, a former one, for which it was named. Each morning there is a new day, and that implies that earlier there had existed an old day. Don’t you see that this must be so?”

 

            “Nay, respected sir. I know only what this land is called. I know of naught else, nor do I follow this reasoning of thine which sounds very much like what we call here chop-logic. I mean no offense.”

 

            And Trevize shook his head and felt defeated.

 

  

 

 77.

 

  

 

            TREVIZE leaned toward Pelorat, and whispered, “Wherever we go, whatever we do, we get no information.”

 

            “We know where Earth is, so what does it matter?” said Pelorat, doing little more than move his lips.

 

            “I want to know something about it.”

 

            “She’s very young. Scarcely a repository of information.”

 

            Trevize thought about that, then nodded. “Right, Janov.”

 

            He turned to Hiroko and said, “Miss Hiroko, you haven’t asked us why we are here in your land?”

 

            Hiroko’s eyes fell, and she said, “That would be but scant courtesy until you have all eaten and rested, respected sir.”

 

            “But we have eaten, or almost so, and we have recently rested, so I shall tell you why we are here. My friend, Dr. Pelorat, is a scholar on our world, a learned man. He is a mythologist. Do you know what that means?”

 

            “Nay, respected sir, I do not.”

 

            “He studies old tales as they are told on different worlds. Old tales are known as myths or legends and they interest Dr. Pelorat. Are there learned ones on New Earth who know the old tales of this world?”

 

            Hiroko’s forehead creased slightly into a frown of thought. She said, “This is not a matter in which I am myself skilled. We have an old man in these parts who loves to talk of ancient days. Where he may have learned these things, I know not, and methinks he may have spun his notions out of air, or heard them from others who did so spin. This is perhaps the material which thy learned companion would hear, yet I would not mislead thee. It is in my mind,” she looked to right and left as though unwilling to be overheard, “that the old man is but a prater, though many listen willingly to him.”

 

            Trevize nodded. “Such prating is what we wish. Would it be possible for you to take my friend to this old man-”

 

            “Monolee he calls himself.”

 

            “-to Monolee, then. And do you think Monolee would be willing to speak to my friend?”

 

            “He? Willing to speak?” said Hiroko scornfully. “Thou must ask, rather, if he be ever ready to cease from speaking. He is but a man, and will therefore speak, if allowed, till a fortnight hence, with no pause. I mean no offense, respected sir.”

 

            “No offense taken. Would you lead my friend to Monolee now?”

 

            “That may anyone do at any time. The ancient is ever home and ever ready to greet an ear.”

 

            Trevize said, “And perhaps an older woman would be willing to come and sit with Madam Bliss. She has the child to care for and cannot move about too much. It would please her to have company, for women, as you know, are fond of-”

 

            “Prating?” said Hiroko, clearly amused. “Why, so men say, although I have observed that men are always the greater babblers. Let the men return from their fishing, and one will vie with another in telling greater flights of fancy concerning their catches. None will mark them nor believe, but this will not stop them, either. But enough of my prating, too.-I will have a friend of my mother’s, one whom I can see through the window, stay with Madam Bliss and the child, and before that she will guide your friend, the respected doctor, to the aged Monolee. If your friend will hear as avidly as Monolee will prate, thou wilt scarcely part them in this life. Wilt thou pardon my absence a moment?”

 

            When she had left, Trevize turned to Pelorat and said, “Listen, get what you can out of the old man, and Bliss, you find out what you can from whoever stays with you. What you want is anything about Earth.”

 

            “And you?” said Bliss. “What will you do?”

 

            “I will remain with Hiroko, and try to find a third source.”

 

            Bliss smiled. “Ah yes. Pel will be with this old man; I with an old woman. You will force yourself to remain with this fetchingly unclad young woman. It seems a reasonable division of labor.”

 

            “As it happens, Bliss, itis reasonable.”

 

            “But you don’t find it depressing that the reasonable division of labor should work out so, I suppose.”

 

            “No, I don’t. Why should I?”

 

            “Why should you, indeed?”

 

            Hiroko was back, and sat down again. “It is all arranged. The respected Dr. Pelorat will be taken to Monolee; and the respected Madam Bliss, together with her child, will have company. May I be granted, then, respected Sir Trevize, the boon of further conversation with thee, mayhap of this Old Earth of which thou-”

 

            “Pratest?” asked Trevize.

 

            “Nay,” said Hiroko, laughing. “But thou dost well to mock me. I showed thee but discourtesy ere now in answering thy question on this matter. I would fain make amends.”

 

            Trevize turned to Pelorat. “Fain?”

 

            “Be eager,” said Pelorat softly.

 

            Trevize said, “Miss Hiroko, I felt no discourtesy, but if it will make you feel better, I will gladly speak with you.”

 

            “Kindly spoken. I thank thee,” said Hiroko, rising.

 

            Trevize rose, too. “Bliss,” he said, “make sure Janov remains safe.”

 

            “Leave that to me. As for you, you have your-” She nodded toward his holsters.

 

            “I don’t think I’ll need them,” said Trevize uncomfortably.

 

            He followed Hiroko out of the dining room. The sun was higher in the sky now and the temperature was still warmer. There was an otherworldly smell as always. Trevize remembered it had been faint on Comporellon, a little musty on Aurora, and rather delightful on Solaria. (On Melpomenia, they were in space suits where one is only aware of the smell of one’s own body.) In every case, it disappeared in a matter of hours as the osmic centers of the nose grew saturated.

 

            Here, on Alpha, the odor was a pleasant grassy fragrance under the warming effect of the sun, and Trevize felt a bit annoyed, knowing that this, too, would soon disappear.

 

            They were approaching a small structure that seemed to be built of a pale pink plaster.

 

            “This,” said Hiroko, “is my home. It used to belong to my mother’s younger sister.”

 

            She walked in and motioned Trevize to follow. The door was open or, Trevize noticed as he passed through, it would be more accurate to say there was no door.

 

            Trevize said, “What do you do when it rains?”

 

            “We are ready. It will rain two days hence, for three hours ere dawn, when it is coolest, and when it will moisten the soil most powerfully. Then I have but to draw this curtain, both heavy and water-repellent, across the door.”

 

            She did so as she spoke. It seemed made of a strong canvas-like material.

 

            “I will leave it in place now,” she went on. “All will then know I am within but not available, for I sleep or am occupied in matters of importance.”

 

            “It doesn’t seem much of a guardian of privacy.”

 

            “Why should it not be? See, the entrance is covered.”

 

            “But anyone could shove it aside.”

 

            “With disregard of the wishes of the occupant?” Hiroko looked shocked. “Are such things done on thy world? It would be barbarous.”

 

            Trevize grinned. “I only asked.”

 

            She led him into the second of two rooms, and, at her invitation, he seated himself in a padded chair. There was something claustrophobic about the blockish smallness and emptiness of the rooms, but the house seemed designed for little more than seclusion and rest. The window openings were small and near the ceiling, but there were dull mirror strips in a careful pattern along the walls, which reflected light diffusely. There were slits in the floor from which a gentle, cool breeze uplifted. Trevize saw no signs of artificial lighting and wondered if Alphans had to wake at sunrise and go to bed at sunset.

 

            He was about to ask, but Hiroko spoke first, saying, “Is Madam Bliss thy woman companion?”

 

            Trevize said cautiously, “Do you mean by that, is she my sexual partner?”

 

            Hiroko colored. “I pray thee, have regard for the decencies of polite conversation, but Ido mean private pleasantry.”

 

            “No, she is the woman companion of my learned friend.”

 

            “But thou art the younger, and the more goodly.”

 

            “Well, thank you for your opinion, but it is not Bliss’s opinion. She likes Dr. Pelorat much more than she does me.”

 

            “That much surprises me. Will he not share?”

 

            “I have not asked him whether he would, but I’m sure he wouldn’t. Nor would I want him to.”

 

            Hiroko nodded her head wisely. “I know. It is her fundament.”

 

            “Her fundament?”

 

            “Thou knowest. This.” And she slapped her own dainty rear end.

 

            “Oh, that! I understand you. Yes, Bliss is generously proportioned in her pelvic anatomy.” He made a curving gesture with his hands and winked. (And Hiroko laughed.)

 

            Trevize said, “Nevertheless, a great many men enjoy that kind of generosity of figure.”

 

            “I cannot believe so. Surely it would be a sort of gluttony to wish excess of that which is pleasant in moderation. Wouldst thou think more of me if my breasts were massive and dangling, with nipples pointing to toes? I have, in good sooth, seen such, yet have I not seen men flock to them. The poor women so afflicted must needs cover their monstrosities-as Madam Bliss does.”

 

            “Such oversize wouldn’t attract me, either, though I am sure that Bliss doesn’t cover her breasts for any imperfection they may have.”

 

            “Thou dost not, then, disapprove of my visage or form?”

 

            “I would be a madman to do so. You are beautiful.”

 

            “And what dost thou for pleasantries on this ship of thine, as thou flittest from one world to the next-Madam Bliss being denied thee?”

 

            “Nothing, Hiroko. There’s nothing to do. I think of pleasantries on occasion and that has its discomforts, but we who travel through space know well that there are times when we must do without. We make up for it at other times.”

 

            “If it be a discomfort, how may that be removed?”

 

            “I experience considerably more discomfort since you’ve brought up the subject. I don’t think it would be polite to suggest how I might be comforted.”

 

            “Would it be discourtesy, were I to suggest a way?”

 

            “It would depend entirely on the nature of the suggestion.”

 

            “I would suggest that we be pleasant with each other.”

 

            “Did you bring me here, Hiroko, that it might come to this?”

 

            Hiroko said, with a pleased smile, “Yes. It would be both my hostess-duty of courtesy, and it would be my wish, too.”

 

            “If that’s the case, I will admit it is my wish, too. In fact, I would like very much to oblige you in this. I would be-uh-fainto do thee pleasure.”

 

  

 

 18. The Music Festival

 

  

 

 78.

 

  

 

      LUNCH was in the same dining room in which they had had breakfast. It was full of Alphans, and with them were Trevize and Pelorat, made thoroughly welcome. Bliss and Fallom ate separately, and more or less privately, in a small annex.

 

            There were several varieties of fish, together with soup in which there were strips of what might well have been boiled kid. Loaves of bread were there for the slicing, butter and jam for the spreading. A salad, large and diffuse, came afterward, and there was a notable absence of any dessert, although fruit juices were passed about in apparently inexhaustible pitchers. Both Foundationers were forced to be abstemious after their heavy breakfast, but everyone else seemed to eat freely.

 

            “How do they keep from getting fat?” wondered Pelorat in a low voice.

 

            Trevize shrugged. “Lots of physical labor, perhaps.”

 

            It was clearly a society in which decorum at meals was not greatly valued. There was a miscellaneous hubbub of shouting, laughing, and thumping on the table with thick, obviously unbreakable, cups. Women were as loud and raucous as men, albeit in higher pitch.

 

            Pelorat winced, but Trevize, who now (temporarily, at least) felt no trace of the discomfort he had spoken of to Hiroko, felt both relaxed and good-natured.

 

            He said, “Actually, it has its pleasant side. These are people who appear to enjoy life and who have few, if any, cares. Weather is what they make it and food is unimaginably plentiful. This is a golden age for them that simply continues and continues.”

 

            He had to shout to make himself heard, and Pelorat shouted back, “But it’s so noisy.”

 

            “They’re used to it.”

 

            “I don’t see how they can understand each other in this riot.”

 

            Certainly, it was all lost on the two Foundationers. The queer pronunciation and the archaic grammar and word order of the Alphan language made it impossible to understand at the intense sound levels. To the Foundationers, it was like listening to the sounds of a zoo in fright.

 

            It was not till after lunch that they rejoined Bliss in a small structure, which Trevize found to be rather inconsiderably different from Hiroko’s quarters, and which had been assigned them as their own temporary living quarters. Fallom was in the second room, enormously relieved to be alone, according to Bliss, and attempting to nap.

 

            Pelorat looked at the door-gap in the wall and said uncertainly, “There’s very little privacy here. How can we speak freely?”

 

            “I assure you,” said Trevize, “that once we pull the canvas barrier across the door, we won’t be disturbed. The canvas makes it impenetrable by all the force of social custom.”

 

            Pelorat glanced at the high, open windows. “We can be overheard.”

 

            “We need not shout. The Alphans won’t eavesdrop. Even when they stood outside the windows of the dining room at breakfast, they remained at a respectful distance.”

 

            Bliss smiled. “You’ve learned so much about Alphan customs in the time you spent alone with gentle little Hiroko, and you’ve gained such confidence in their respect for privacy. What happened?”

 

            Trevize said, “If you’re aware that the tendrils of my mind have undergone a change for the better and can guess the reason, I can only ask you to leave my mind alone.”

 

            “You know very well that Gaia will not touch your mind under any circumstances short of life-crisis, and you know why. Still, I’m not mentally blind. I could sense what happened a kilometer away. Is this your invariable custom on space voyages, my erotomaniac friend?”

 

            “Erotomaniac? Come, Bliss. Twice on this entire trip. Twice!”

 

            “We were only on two worlds that had functioning human females on them. Two out of two, and we had only been a few hours on each.”

 

            “You are well aware I had no choice on Comporellon.”

 

            “That makes sense. I remember what she looked like.” For a few moments, Bliss dissolved in laughter. Then she said, “Yet I don’t think Hiroko held you helpless in her mighty grip, or inflicted her irresistible will on your cringing body.”

 

            “Of course not. I was perfectly willing. But it was her suggestion, just the same.”

 

            Pelorat said, with just a tinge of envy in his voice, “Does this happen to you all the time, Golan?”

 

            “Of course it must, Pel,” said Bliss. “Women are helplessly drawn to him.”

 

            “I wish that were so,” said Trevize, “but it isn’t. And I’m glad it isn’t-I do have other things I want to do in life. Just the same, in this case Iwas irresistible. After all,-we were the first people from another world that Hiroko had ever seen or, apparently, that anyone now alive on Alpha had ever seen: I gathered from things she let slip, casual remarks, that she had the rather exciting notion that I might be different from Alphans, either anatomically or in my technique. Poor thing. I’m-afraid she was disappointed.”

 

            “Oh?” said Bliss. “Were you?”

 

            “No,” said Trevize. “I have been on a number of worlds and I have had my experiences. And what I had discovered is that people are people and sex is sex, wherever one goes. If there are noticeable differences, they are usually both trivial and unpleasant. The perfumes I’ve encountered in my time! I remember when a young woman simply couldn’t manage unless there was music loudly played, music that consisted of a desperate screeching sound. So she played the music and thenI couldn’t manage. I assure you-if it’s the same old thing, then I’m satisfied.”

 

            “Speaking of music,” said Bliss, “we are invited to a musicale after dinner. A very formal thing, apparently, that is being held in our honor. I gather the Alphans are very proud of their music.”

 

            Trevize grimaced. “Their pride will in no way make the music sound better to our ears.”

 

            “Hear me out,” said Bliss. “I gather that their pride is that they play expertly on very archaic instruments.Very archaic. We may get some information about Earth by way of them.”

 

            Trevize’s eyebrows shot up. “An interesting thought. And that reminds me that both of you may already have information. Janov, did you see this Monolee that Hiroko told us about?”

 

            “Indeed I did,” said Pelorat. “I was with him for three hours and Hiroko did not exaggerate. It was a virtual monologue on his part and when I left to come to lunch, he clung to me and would not let me go until I promised to return whenever I could in order that I might listen to him some more.”

 

            “And did he say anything of interest?”

 

            “Well, he, too-like everybody else-insisted that Earth was thoroughly and murderously radioactive; that the ancestors of the Alphans were the last to leave and that if they hadn’t, they would have died.-And, Golan, he was so emphatic that I couldn’t help believing him. I’m convinced that Earthis dead, and that our entire search is, after all, useless.”

 

  

 

 79.

 

  

 

            TREVIZE sat back in his chair, staring at Pelorat, who was sitting on a narrow cot. Bliss, having risen from where she had been sitting next to Pelorat, looked from one to the other.

 

            Finally, Trevize said, “Let me be the judge as to whether our search is useless or not, Janov. Tell me what the garrulous old man had to say to you-in brief, of course.”

 

            Pelorat said, “I took notes as Monolee spoke. It helped reinforce my role a scholar, but I don’t have to refer to them. He was quite stream-of-consciousness in his speaking. Each thing he said would remind him of something else, but, of course, I have spent my life trying to organize information in the search of the relevant and significant, so that it’s second nature for me now to be able to condense a long and incoherent discourse-”

 

            Trevize said gently, “Into something just as long and incoherent? To the point, dear Janov.”

 

            Pelorat cleared his throat uneasily. “Yes, certainly, old chap. I’ll try to make a connected and chronological tale out of it. Earth was the original home of humanity and of millions of species of plants and animals. It continued so for countless years until hyperspatial travel was invented. Then the Spacer worlds were founded. They broke away from Earth, developed their own cultures, and came to despise and oppress the mother planet.

 

            “After a couple of centuries of this, Earth managed to regain its freedom, though Monolee did not explain the exact manner in which this was done, and I dared not ask questions, even if he had given me a chance to interrupt, which he did not, for that might merely have sent him into new byways. He did mention a culture-hero named Elijah Baley, but the references were so characteristic of the habit of attributing to one figure the accomplishments of generations that there was little value in attempting to-”

 

            Bliss said, “Yes, Pel dear, we understand that part.”

 

            Again, Pelorat paused in midstream and reconsidered. “Of course. My apologies. Earth initiated a second wave of settlements, founding many new worlds in a new fashion. The new group of Settlers proved more vigorous than the Spacers, outpaced them, defeated them, outlasted them, and, eventually, established the Galactic Empire. During the course of the wars between the Settlers and the Spacers-no, not wars, for he used the word ‘conflict,’ being very careful about that-the Earth became radioactive.”

 

            Trevize said, with clear annoyance, “That’s ridiculous, Janov. How can a worldbecome radioactive? Every world is very slightly radioactive to one degree or another from the moment of formation, and that radioactivity slowly decays. It doesn’tbecome radioactive.”

 

            Pelorat shrugged. “I’m only telling you what he said. And he was only telling me what he had heard-from someone who only told him whathe had heard-and so on. It’s folk-history, told and retold over the generations, with who knows what distortions creeping in at each retelling.”

 

            “I understand that, but are there no books, documents, ancient histories which have frozen the story at an early time and which could give us something more accurate than the present tale?”

 

            “Actually, I managed to ask that question, and the answer is no. He said vaguely that there were books about it in ancient times and that they had long ago been lost, but that what he was telling us was what had been in those books.”

 

            “Yes, well distorted. It’s the same story. In every world we go to, the records of Earth have, in one way or another, disappeared.-Well, how did he say the radioactivity began on Earth?”

 

            “He didn’t, in any detail. The closest he came to saying so was that the Spacers were responsible, but then I gathered that the Spacers were the demons on whom the people of Earth blamed all misfortune. The radioactivity-”

 

            A clear voice overrode him here. “Bliss, am I a Spacer?”

 

            Fallom was standing in the narrow doorway between the two rooms, hair tousled and the nightgown she was wearing (designed to fit Bliss’s more ample proportions) having slid off one shoulder to reveal an undeveloped breast.

 

            Bliss said, “We worry about eavesdroppers outside and we forget the one inside.-Now, Fallom, why do you say that?” She rose and walked toward the youngster.

 

            Fallom said, “I don’t have what they have,” she pointed at the two men, “or what you have, Bliss. I’m different. Is that because I’m a Spacer?”

 

            “You are, Fallom,” said Bliss soothingly, “but little differences don’t matter. Come back to bed.”

 

            Fallom became submissive as she always did when Bliss willed her to be so. She turned and said, “Am I a demon? What is a demon?”

 

            Bliss said over her shoulder, “Wait one moment for me. I’ll be right back.”

 

            She was, within five minutes. She was shaking her head. “She’ll be sleeping now till I wake her. I should have done that before, I suppose, but any modification of the mind must be the result of necessity.” She added defensively, “I can’t have her brood on the differences between her genital equipment and ours.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Someday she’ll have to know she’s hermaphroditic.”

 

            “Someday,” said Bliss, “but not now. Go on with the story, Pel.”

 

            “Yes,” said Trevize, “before something else interrupts us.”

 

            “Well, Earth became radioactive, or at least its crust did. At that time, Earth had had an enormous population that was centered in huge cities that existed for the most part underground-”

 

            “Now, that,” put in Trevize, “is surely not so. “It must be local patriotism glorifying the golden age of a planet, and the details were simply a distortion of Trantor inits golden age, when it was the Imperial capital of a Galaxy-wide system of worlds.”

 

            Pelorat paused, then said, “Really, Golan, you mustn’t teach me my business. We mythologists know very well that myths and legends contain borrowings, moral lessons, nature cycles, and a hundred other distorting influences, and we labor to cut them away and get to what might be a kernel of truth. In fact, these same techniques must be applied to the most sober histories, for no one writes the clear and apparent truth-if such a thing can even be said to exist. For now, I’m telling you more or less what Monolee told me, though I suppose I am adding distortions of my own, try as I might not to do so.”

 

            “Well, well,” said Trevize. “Go on, Janov. I meant no offense.”

 

            “And I’ve taken none. The huge cities, assuming they existed, crumbled and shrank as the radioactivity slowly grew more intense until the population was but a remnant of what it had been, clinging precariously to regions that were relatively radiation-free. The population was kept down by rigid birth control and by the euthanasia of people over sixty.”

 

            “Horrible,” said Bliss indignantly.

 

            “Undoubtedly,” said Pelorat, “but that is what they did, according to Monolee, and that might be true, for it is certainly not complimentary to the Earthpeople and it is not likely that an uncomplimentary lie would be made up. The Earthpeople, having been despised and oppressed by the Spacers, were now despised and oppressed by the Empire, though here we may have exaggeration there out of self-pity, which is a very seductive emotion. There is the case-”

 

            “Yes, yes, Pelorat, another time. Please go on with Earth.”

 

            “I beg your pardon. The Empire, in a fit of benevolence, agreed to substitute imported radiation-free soil and to cart away the contaminated soil. Needless to say, that was an enormous task which the Empire soon tired of, especially as this period (if my guess is right) coincided with the fall of Kandar V, after which the Empire had many more things to worry about than Earth.

 

            “The radioactivity continued to grow more intense, the population continued to fall, and finally the Empire, in another fit of benevolence, offered to transplant the remnant of the population to a new world of their own-tothis world, in short.

 

            “At an earlier period, it seems an expedition had stocked the ocean so that by the time ‘the plans for the transplantation of Earthpeople were being developed, there was a full oxygen atmosphere and an ample supply of food on Alpha. Nor did any of the worlds of the Galactic Empire covet this world because there is a certain natural antipathy to planets that circle stars of a binary system. There are so few suitable planets in such a system, I suppose, that even suitable ones are rejected because of the assumption that there must be something wrong with them. This is a common thought-fashion. There is the well-known case, for instance, of-”

 

            “Later with the well-known case, Janov,” said Trevize. “On with the transplantation.”

 

            “What remained,” said Pelorat, hurrying his words a little, “was to prepare a land-base. The shallowest part of the ocean was found and sediment was raised from deeper parts to add to the shallow sea-bottom and, finally, to produce the island of New Earth. Boulders and coral were dredged up and added to the island. Land plants were seeded so that root systems might help make the new land firm. Again, the Empire had set itself an enormous task. Perhaps continents were planned at first, but by the time this one island was produced, the Empire’s moment of benevolence had passed.

 

            “What was left of Earth’s population was brought here. The Empire’s fleets carried off its men and machinery, and they never returned. The Earthpeople, living on New Earth, found themselves in complete isolation.”

 

            Trevize said, “Complete? Did Monolee say that no one from elsewhere in the Galaxy has ever come here till we did?”

 

            “Almost complete,” said Pelorat. “There is nothing to come here for, I suppose, even if we set aside the superstitious distaste for binary systems. Occasionally, at long intervals, a ship would come, as ours did, but it would eventually leave and there has never been a follow-up. And that’s it.”

 

            Trevize said, “Did you ask Monolee where Earth was located?”

 

            “Of course I asked that. He didn’t know.”

 

            “How can he know so much about Earth’s history without knowing where it is located?”

 

            “I asked him specifically, Golan, if the star that was only a parsec or so distant from Alpha might be the sun about which Earth revolved. He didn’t know what a parsec was, and I said it was a short distance, astronomically speaking. He said, short or long, he did not know where Earth was located and he didn’t know anyone who knew, and, in his opinion, it was wrong to try to find it. It should be allowed, he said, to move endlessly through space in peace.”

 

            Trevize said, “Do you agree with him?”

 

            Pelorat shook his head sorrowfully. “Not really. But he said that at the rate the radioactivity continued to increase, the planet must have become totally uninhabitable not long after the transplantation took place and that by now it must be burning intensely so that no one can approach.”

 

            “Nonsense,” said Trevize firmly. “A planet cannot become radioactive and, having done so, continuously increase in radioactivity. Radioactivity can only decrease.”

 

            “But Monolee is so sure of it. So many people we’ve talked to on various worlds unite in this-that Earth is radioactive. Surely, it is useless to go on.”

 

  

 

 80.

 

  

 

            TREVIZE drew a deep breath, then said, in a carefully controlled voice, “Nonsense, Janov. That’s not true.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Well, now, old chap, you mustn’t believe something just because you want to believe it.”

 

            “My wants have nothing to do with it. In world after world we find all records of Earth wiped out. Why should they be. wiped out if there is nothing to hide; if Earth is a dead, radioactive world that cannot be approached?”

 

            “I don’t know, Golan.”

 

            “Yes, you do. When we were approaching Melpomenia, you said that the radioactivity might be the other side of the coin. Destroy records to remove accurate information; supply the tale of radioactivity to insert inaccurate information. Both would discourage any attempt to find Earth, and we mustn’t be deluded into discouragement.”

 

            Bliss said, “Actually, you seem to think the nearby star is Earth’s sun. Why, then, continue to argue the question of radioactivity? What does it matter? Why not simply go to the nearby star and see if it is Earth, and, if so, what it is like?”

 

            Trevize said, “Because those on Earth must be, in their way, extraordinarily powerful, and I would prefer to approach with some knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. As it is, since I continue to remain ignorant of Earth, approaching it is dangerous. It is my notion that I leave the rest of you here on Alpha and that I proceed to Earth by myself. One life is quite enough to risk.”

 

            “No, Golan,” said Pelorat earnestly. “Bliss and the child might wait here, but I must go with you. I have been searching for Earth since before you were born and I cannot stay behind when the goal is so close, whatever dangers might threaten.”

 

            “Bliss and the child willnot wait here,” said Bliss. “I am Gaia, and Gaia can protect us even against Earth.”

 

            “I hope you’re right,” said Trevize gloomily, “but Gaia could not prevent the elimination of all early memories of Earth’s role in its founding.”

 

            “That was done in Gaia’s early history when it was not yet well organized, not yet advanced. Matters are different now.”

 

            “I hope that is so.-Or is it that you have gained information about Earth this morning that we don’t have? I did ask that you speak to some of the older women that might be available here.”

 

            “And so I did.”

 

            Trevize said, “And what did you find out?”

 

            “Nothing about Earth. There is a total blank there.”

 

            “Ah.”

 

            “But they are advanced biotechnologists.” ,

 

            “Oh?”

 

            “On this small island, they have grown and tested innumerable strains of plants and animals and designed a suitable ecological balance, stable and self. supporting, despite the few species with which they began. They have improved on the ocean life that they found when they arrived here a few thousand years ago, increasing their nutritive value and improving their taste. It is their biotechnology that has made this world such a cornucopia of plenty. They have plans for themselves, too.”

 

            “What kind of plans?”

 

            Bliss said, “They know perfectly well they cannot reasonably expect to expand their range under present circumstances, confined as they are to the one small patch of land that exists on their world, but they dream of becoming amphibious.”

 

            “Of becomingwhat? ”

 

            “Amphibious. They plan to develop gills in addition to lungs. They dream of being able to spend substantial periods of time underwater; of finding shallow regions and building structures on the ocean bottom. My informant was quite glowing about it but she admitted that this had been a goal of the Alphans for some centuries now and that little, if any, progress has been made.”

 

            Trevize said, “That’s two fields in which they might be more advanced than we are; weather control and biotechnology. I wonder what their techniques are.”

 

            “We’d have to find specialists,” said Bliss, “and they might not be willing to talk about it.”

 

            Trevize said, “It’s notour primary concern here, but it would clearly pay the Foundation to attempt to learn from this miniature world.”

 

            Pelorat said, “We manage to control the weather fairly well on Terminus, as it is.”

 

            “Control is good on many worlds,” said Trevize, “but always it’s a matter of the world as a whole. Here the Alphans control the weather of a small portion of the world and they must have techniques we don’t have.-Anything else, Bliss?”

 

            “Social invitations. These appear to be a holiday-making people, in whatever time they can take from farming and fishing. After dinner, tonight there’ll be a music festival. I told you about that already. Tomorrow, during the day, there will be a beach festival. Apparently, all around the rim of the island there will be a congregation of everyone who can get away from the fields in order that they might enjoy the water and celebrate the sun, since it will be raining the next day. In the morning, the fishing fleet will come back, beating the rain, and by evening there will be a food festival, sampling the catch.”

 

            Pelorat groaned. “The meals are ample enough as it is. What would a food festival be like?”

 

            “I gather that it will feature not quantity, but variety. In any case, all four of us are invited to participate in all the festivals, especially the music festival tonight.”

 

            “On the antique instruments?” asked Trevize.

 

            “That’s right.”

 

            “What makes them antique, by the way? Primitive computers?”

 

            “No, no. That’s the point. It isn’t electronic music at all, but mechanical. They described it to me. They scrape strings, blow in tubes, and bang on surfaces.”

 

            “I hope you’re making that up,” said Trevize, appalled.

 

            “No, I’m not. And I understand that your Hiroko will be blowing on one of the tubes-I forget its name-and you ought to be able to endure that.”

 

            “As for myself,” said Pelorat, “I would love to go. I know very little about primitive music and I would like to hear it.”

 

            “She is not ‘my Hiroko,’ “ said Trevize coldly. “But are the instruments of the type once used on Earth, do you suppose?”

 

            “So I gathered,” said Bliss. “At least the Alphan women said they were designed long before their ancestors came here.”

 

            “In that case,” said Trevize, “it may be worth listening to all that scraping, tootling, and banging, for whatever information it might conceivably yield concerning Earth.”

 

  

 

 81.

 

  

 

            ODDLY enough, it was Fallom who was most excited at the prospect of a musical evening. She and Bliss had bathed in the small outhouse behind their quarters. It had a bath with running water, hot and cold (or, rather, warm and cool), a washbowl, and a commode. It was totally clean and usable and, in the late afternoon sun, it was even well lit and cheerful.

 

            As always, Fallom was fascinated with Bliss’s breasts and Bliss was reduced to saying (now that Fallom understood Galactic) that on her world that was the way people were. To which Fallom said, inevitably, “Why?” and Bliss, after some thought, deciding there was no sensible way of answering, returned the universal reply, “Because!”

 

            When they were done, Bliss helped Fallom put on the undergarment supplied them by the Alphans and worked out the system whereby the skirt went on over it. Leaving Fallom unclothed from the waist up seemed reasonable enough. She herself, while making use of Alphan garments below the waist (rather tight about the hips), put on her own blouse. It seemed silly to be too inhibited to expose breasts in a society where all women did, especially since her own were not large and were as shapely as any she had seen but-there it was.

 

            The two men took their turn at the outhouse next, Trevize muttering the usual male complaint concerning the time the women had taken.

 

            Bliss turned Fallom about to make sure the skirt would hold in place over her boyish hips and buttocks. She said, “It’s a very pretty skirt, Fallom. Do you like it?”

 

            Fallom stared at it in a mirror and said, “Yes, I do. Won’t I be cold with nothing on, though?” and she ran her hands down her bare chest.

 

            “I don’t think so, Fallom. It’s quite warm on this world.”

 

            “Youhave something on.”

 

            “Yes, I do. That’s how it is on my world. Now, Fallom, we’re going to be with a great many Alphans during dinner and afterward. Do you think you can bear that?”

 

            Fallom looked distressed, and Bliss went on, “I will sit on your right side and I will hold you. Pel will sit on the other side, and Trevize will sit across the table from you. We won’t let anyone talk to you, and you won’t have to talk to anyone.”

 

            “I’ll try, Bliss,” Fallom piped in her highest tones.

 

            “Then afterward,” said Bliss, “some Alphans will make music for us in their own special way. Do you know what music is?” She hummed in the best imitation of electronic harmony that she could.

 

            Fallom’s face lit up. “You mean-“ The last word was in her own language, and she burst into song.

 

            Bliss’s eyes widened. It was a beautiful tune, even though it was wild, and rich in trills. “That’s right. Music,” she said.

 

            Fallom said excitedly, “Jemby made”-she hesitated, then decided to use the Galactic word-”music all the time. It made music on a “ Again a word in her own language.

 

            Bliss repeated the word doubtfully, “On a feeful?”

 

            Fallom laughed. “Not feeful, -“

 

            With both words juxtaposed like that, Bliss could hear the difference, but she despaired of reproducing the second. She said, “What does it look like?”

 

            Fallom’s as yet limited vocabulary in Galactic did not suffice for an accurate description, and her gestures did not produce any shape clearly in Bliss’s mind.

 

            “He showed me how to use the“ Fallom said proudly. “I used my fingers just the way Jemby did, but it said that soon I wouldn’t have to.”

 

            “That’s wonderful, dear,” said Bliss. “After dinner, we’ll see if the Alphans are as good as your Jemby was.”

 

            Fallom’s eyes sparkled and pleasant thoughts of what was to follow carried her through a lavish dinner despite the crowds and laughter and noise all about her. Only once, when a dish was accidentally upset, setting off shrieks of excitement fairly close to them, did Fallom look frightened, and Bliss promptly held her close in a warm and protective hug.

 

            “I wonder if we can arrange to eat by ourselves,” she muttered to Pelorat. “Otherwise, we’ll have to get off this world. It’s bad enough eating all this Isolate animal protein, but Imust be able to do it in peace.”

 

            “It’s only high spirits,” said Pelorat, who would have endured anything within reason that he felt came under the heading of primitive behavior and beliefs.

 

            -And then the dinner was over, and the announcement came that the music festival would soon begin.

 

  

 

 82.

 

  

 

            THE HALL in which the music festival was to be held was about as large as the dining room, and there were folding seats (rather uncomfortable, Trevize found out) for about a hundred fifty people. As honored guests, the visitors were led to the front row, and various Alphans commented politely and favorably on their clothes.

 

            Both men were bare above the waist and Trevize tightened his abdominal muscles whenever he thought of it and stared down, on occasion, with complacent self-admiration at his dark-haired chest. Pelorat, in his ardent observation of everything about him, was indifferent to his own appearance. Bliss’s blouse drew covert stares of puzzlement but nothing was said concerning it.

 

            Trevize noted that the hall was only about half-full and that the large majority of the audience were women, since, presumably, so many men were out to sea.

 

            Pelorat nudged Trevize and whispered, “They have electricity.”

 

            Trevize looked at the vertical tubes on the walls, and at others on the ceiling. They were softly luminous.

 

            “Fluorescence,” he said. “Quite primitive.”

 

            “Yes, but they do the job, and we’ve got those things in our rooms and in the outhouse. I thought they were just decorative. If we can find out how to work them, we won’t have to stay in the dark.”

 

            Bliss said irritably, “They might have told us.”

 

            Pelorat said, “They thought we’d know; that anyone would know.”

 

            Four women now emerged from behind screens and seated themselves in a group in the space at the front. Each held an instrument of varnished wood of a similar shape, but one that was not easily describable. The instruments were chiefly different in size. One was quite small, two somewhat larger, and the fourth considerably larger. Each woman also held a long rod in the other hand.

 

            The audience whistled softly as they came in, in response to which the four women bowed. Each had a strip of gauze bound fairly tightly across the breasts as though to keep them from interfering with the instrument.

 

            Trevize, interpreting the whistles as signs of approval, or of pleased anticipation, felt it only polite to add his own. At that, Fallom added a trill that was far more than a whistle and that was beginning to attract attention when pressure from Bliss’s hand stopped her.

 

            Three of the women, without preparation, put their instruments under their chins, while the largest of the instruments remained between the legs of the fourth woman and rested on the floor. The long rod in the right hand of each was sawed across the strings stretching nearly the length of the instrument, while the fingers of the left hand shifted rapidly along the upper ends of those strings.

 

            This, thought Trevize, was the “scraping” he had expected, but it didn’t sound like scraping at all. There was a soft and melodious succession of notes; each instrument doing something of its own and the whole fusing pleasantly.

 

            It lacked the infinite complexity of electronic music (“real music,” as Trevize could not help but think of it) and there was a distinct sameness to it. Still, as time passed, and his ear grew accustomed to this odd system of sound, he began to pick out subtleties. It was wearisome to have to do so, and he thought, longingly, of the clamor and mathematical precision and purity of the real thing, but it occurred to him that if he listened to the music of these simple wooden devices long enough he might well grow to like it.

 

            It was not till the concert was some forty-five minutes old that Hiroko stepped out. She noticed Trevize in the front row at once and smiled at him. He joined the audience in the soft whistle of approval with a whole heart. She looked beautiful in a long and most elaborate skirt, a large flower in her hair, and nothing at all over her breasts since (apparently) there was no danger of their interference with the instrument.

 

            Her instrument proved to be a dark wooden tube about two thirds of a meter long and nearly two centimeters thick. She lifted the instrument to her lips and blew across an opening near one end, producing a thin, sweet note that wavered in pitch as her fingers manipulated metal objects along the length of the tube.

 

            At the first sound, Fallom clutched at Bliss’s arm and said, “Bliss, that’s a “ and the word sounded like “feeful” to Bliss.

 

            Bliss shook her head firmly at Fallom, who said, in a lower voice, “But it is!”

 

            Others were looking in Fallom’s direction. Bliss put her hand firmly over Fallom’s mouth, and leaned down to mutter an almost subliminally forceful “Quiet!” into her ear.

 

            Fallom listened to Hiroko’s playing quietly thereafter, but her fingers moved spasmodically, as though they were operating the objects along the length of the instrument.

 

            The final player in the concert was an elderly man who had an instrument with fluted sides suspended over his shoulders. He pulled it in and out while one hand flashed across a succession of white and dark objects at one end, pressing them down in groups.

 

            Trevize found this sound particularly wearing, rather barbaric, and unpleasantly like the memory of the barking of the dogs on Aurora-not that the sound was like barking, but the emotions it gave rise to were similar. Bliss looked as though she would like to place her hands over her ears, and Pelorat had a frown on his face. Only Fallom seemed to enjoy it, for she was tapping her foot lightly, and Trevize, when he noticed that, realized, to his own surprise, that there was a beat to the music that matched Fallom’s footfall.

 

            It came to an end at last and there was a perfect storm of whistling, with Fallom’s trill clearly heard above it all.

 

            Then the audience broke up into small conversational groups and became as loud and raucous as Alphans seemed to be on all public occasions. The various individuals who had played in the concert stood about in front of the room and spoke to those people who came up to congratulate them.

 

            Fallom evaded Bliss’s grasp and ran up to Hiroko.

 

            “Hiroko,” she cried out, gaspingly. “Let me see the-“

 

            “The what, dear one?” said Hiroko.

 

            “The thing you made the music with.”

 

            “Oh.” Hiroko laughed. “That’s a flute, little one.”

 

            “May I see it?”

 

            “Well.” Hiroko opened a case and took out the instrument. It was in three parts, but she put it together quickly, held it toward Fallom with the mouthpiece near her lips, and said, “There, blow thou thy breath across this.”

 

            “I know. I know,” said Fallom eagerly, and reached for the flute.

 

            Automatically, Hiroko snatched it away and held it high. “Blow, child, but touch not.”

 

            Fallom seemed disappointed. “May I just look at it, then? I won’t touch it.”

 

            “Certainly, dear one.”

 

            She held out the flute again and Fallom stared at it earnestly.

 

            And then, the fluorescent lighting in the room dimmed very slightly, and the sound of a flute’s note, a little uncertain and wavering, made itself heard.

 

            Hiroko, in surprise, nearly dropped the flute, and Fallom cried out, “I did it. I did it. Jemby said someday I could do it.”

 

            Hiroko said, “Was it thou that made the sound?”

 

            “Yes, I did. I did.”

 

            “But how didst thou do so, child?”

 

            Bliss said, red with embarrassment, “I’m sorry, Hiroko. I’ll take her away.”

 

            “No,” said Hiroko. “I wish her to do it again.”  -

 

            A few of the nearest Alphans had gathered to watch. Fallom furrowed her brow as though trying hard. The fluorescents dimmed rather more than before, and again there was the note of the flute, this time pure and steady. Then it became erratic as the metal objects along the length of the flute moved of their own accord.

 

            “It’s a little different from the    “ Fallom said, a little breathlessly, as though the breath that had been activating the flute had been her own instead of power-driven air.

 

            Pelorat said to Trevize, “She must be getting the energy from the electric current that feeds the fluorescents.”

 

            “Try again,” said Hiroko in a choked voice.

 

            Fallom closed her eyes. The note was softer now and under firmer control. The flute played by itself, maneuvered by no fingers, but moved by distant energy, transduced through the still immature lobes of Fallom’s brain. The notes which began as almost random settled into a musical succession and now everyone in the hall had gathered around Hiroko and Fallom, as Hiroko held the flute gently with thumb and forefinger at either end, and Fallom, eyes closed, directed the current of air and the movement of the keys.

 

            “It’s the piece I played,” whispered Hiroko.

 

            “I remember it,” said Fallom, nodding her head slightly, trying not to break her concentration.

 

            “Thou didst not miss a note,” said Hiroko, when it was done.

 

            “But it’s not right, Hiroko. You didn’t do it right.”

 

            Bliss said, “Fallom! That’s not polite. You mustn’t-”

 

            “Please,” said Hiroko peremptorily, “do not interfere. Why is it not right, child?”

 

            “Because I would play it differently.”

 

            “Show me, then.”

 

            Again the flute played, but in more complicated fashion, for the forces that pushed the keys did so more quickly, in more rapid succession and in more elaborate combinations than before. The music was more complex, and infinitely more emotional and moving. Hiroko stood rigid and there was not a sound to be heard anywhere in the room.

 

            Even after Fallom had finished playing, there was not a sound until Hiroko drew a deep breath and said, “Little one, hast thou ever played that before?”

 

            “No,” said Fallom, “before this I could only use my fingers, and I can’t do my fingers like that.” Then, simply and with no trace of vaunting, “No one can.”

 

            “Canst thou play anything else?”

 

            “I can make something up.”

 

            “Dost thou mean-improvise?”

 

            Fallom frowned at the word and looked toward Bliss. Bliss nodded and Fallom said, “Yes.”

 

            “Please do so, then,” said Hiroko.

 

            Fallom paused and thought for a minute or two, then began slowly, in a very simple succession of notes, the whole being rather dreamy. The fluorescent lights dimmed and brightened as the amount of power exerted intensified and faded. No one seemed to notice, for it seemed to be the effect of the music rather than the cause, as though a ghostly electrical spirit were obeying the dictates of the sound waves.

 

            The combination of notes then repeated itself a bit more loudly, then a bit more complexly, then in variations that, without ever losing the clearly heard basic combination, became more stirring and more exciting until it was almost impossible to breathe. And finally, it descended much more rapidly than it had ascended and did so with the effect of a swooping dive that brought the listeners to ground level even while they still retained the feeling that they were high in the air.

 

            There followed sheer pandemonium that split the air, and even Trevize, who was used to a totally different kind of music, thought sadly, “And now 17’11 never hear that again.”

 

            When a most reluctant quiet had returned, Hiroko held out her flute. “Here, Fallom, this is thine!”

 

            Fallom reached for it eagerly, but Bliss caught hold of the child’s outstretched arm and said, “We can’t take it, Hiroko. It’s a valuable instrument.”

 

            “I have another, Bliss. Not quite as good, but that is how it should be. This instrument belongeth to the person who playeth it best. Never have I heard such music and it would be wrong for me to own an instrument I cannot use to full potential. Would that I knew how the instrument could be made to play without being touched.”

 

            Fallom took the flute and, with an expression of deep content, held it tightly to her chest.

 

  

 

 83.

 

  

 

            EACH OF the two rooms of their quarters were lit by one fluorescent light. The outhouse had a third. The lights were dim, and were uncomfortable to read by, but at least the rooms were no longer dark.

 

            Yet they now lingered outside. The sky was full of stars, something that was always fascinating to a native of Terminus, where the night sky was all but starless and in which only the faint foreshortened cloud of the Galaxy was prominent.

 

            Hiroko had accompanied them back to their chambers for fear they would get lost in the dark, or that they would stumble. All the way back, she held Fallom’s hand, and then, after lighting the fluorescents for them, remained outside with them, still clutching at the youngster.

 

            Bliss tried again, for it was clear to her that Hiroko was in a state of a difficult conflict of emotions. “Really, Hiroko, we cannot take your flute.”

 

            “No, Fallom must have it.” But she seemed on edge just the same.

 

            Trevize continued to look at the sky. The night was truly dark, a darkness that was scarcely affected by the trickle of light from their own chambers; and much less so by the tiny sparks of other houses farther off.

 

            He said, “Hiroko, do you see that star that is so bright? What is it called?” Hiroko looked up casually and said, with no great appearance of interest, “That’s the Companion.”

 

            “Why is it called that?”

 

            “It circleth our sun every eighty Standard Years. It is an evening star at this time of year. Thou canst see it in daytime, too, when it lieth above the horizon.”

 

            Good, thought Trevize. She’s not totally ignorant of astronomy. He said, “Do you know that Alpha has another companion, a very small, dim one that’s much much farther away than that bright star. You can’t see it without a telescope.” (He hadn’t seen it himself, hadn’t bothered to search for it, but the ship’s computer had the information in its memory banks.)

 

            She said indifferently, “We were told that in school.”

 

            “But now what about that one? You see those six stars in a zigzag line?”

 

            Hiroko said, “That is Cassiopeia.”

 

            “Really?” said Trevize, startled. “Which star?”

 

            “All of them. The whole zigzag. It is Cassiopeia.”

 

            “Why is it called that?”

 

            “I lack the knowledge. I know nothing of astronomy, respected Trevize.”

 

            “Do you see the lowermost star in the zigzag, the one that’s brighter than the other stars? What is that?”

 

            “It is a star. I know not its name.”

 

            “But except for the two companion stars, it’s the closest of all the stars to Alpha. It is only a parsec away.”

 

            Hiroko said, “Sayest thou so? I know that not.”

 

            “Might it not be the star about which Earth revolves?”

 

            Hiroko looked at the star with a faint flash of interest. “I know not. I have never heard any person say so.”

 

            “Don’t you think it might be?”

 

            “How can I say? None knoweth where Earth might be. I-I must leave thee, now. I will be taking my shift in the fields tomorrow morning before the beach festival. I’ll see you all there, right after lunch. Yes? Yes?”

 

            “Certainly, Hiroko.”

 

            She left suddenly, half-running in the dark. Trevize looked after her, then followed the others into the dimly lit cottage.

 

            He said, “Can you tell whether she was lying about Earth, Bliss?”

 

            Bliss shook her head. “I don’t think she was. She is under enormous tension, something I was not aware of until after the concert. It existed before you asked her about the stars.”

 

            “Because she gave away her flute, then?”

 

            “Perhaps. I can’t tell.” She turned to Fallom. “Now, Fallom, I want you to go into your room. When you’re ready for bed, go to the outhouse, use the potty, then wash your hands, your face, and your teeth.”

 

            “I would like to play the flute, Bliss.”

 

            “Just for a little while, andvery quietly. Do you understand, Fallom? And you must stop when I tell you to.”

 

            “Yes, Bliss.”

 

            The three were now alone; Bliss in the one chair and the men sitting each on his cot.

 

            Bliss said, “Is there any point in staying on this planet any longer?”

 

            Trevize shrugged. “We never did get to discuss Earth in connection with the ancient instruments, and we might find something there. It might also pay to wait for the fishing fleet to return. The men might know something the stay-at-homes don’t.”

 

            “Veryunlikely, I think,” said Bliss. “Are you sure it’s not Hiroko’s dark eyes that hold you?”

 

            Trevize said impatiently, “I don’t understand, Bliss. What have you to do with what I choose to do? Why do you seem to arrogate to yourself the right of sitting in moral judgment on me?”

 

            “I’m not concerned with your morals. The matter affects our expedition. You want to find Earth so that you can finally decide whether you are right in choosing Galaxia over Isolate worlds. I want you to so decide. You say you need to visit Earth to make the decision and you seem to be convinced that Earth revolves about that bright star in the sky. Let us go there, then. I admit it would be useful to have some information about it before we go, but it is clear to me that the information is not forthcoming here. I do not wish to remain simply because you enjoy Hiroko.”

 

            “Perhaps we’ll leave,” said Trevize. “Let me think about it, and Hiroko will play no part in my decision, I assure you.”

 

            Pelorat said, “I feel we ought to move on to Earth, if only to see whether it is radioactive or not. I see no point in waiting longer.”

 

            “Are you sure it’s not Bliss’s dark eyes that drive you?” said Trevize, a bit spitefully. Then, almost at once, “No, I take that back, Janov. I was just being childish. Still-this is a charming world, quite apart from Hiroko, and I must say that under other circumstances, I would be tempted to remain indefinitely.-Don’t you think, Bliss, that Alpha destroys your theory about Isolates?”

 

            “In what way?” asked Bliss.

 

            “You’ve been maintaining that every truly isolated world turns dangerous and hostile.”

 

            “Even Comporellon,” said Bliss evenly, “which is rather out of the main current of Galactic activity for all that it is, in theory, an Associated Power of the Foundation Federation.”

 

            “Butnot Alpha. This world is totally isolated, but can you complain of their friendliness and hospitality? They feed us, clothe us, shelter us, put on festivals in our honor, urge us to stay on. What fault is there to find with them?”

 

            “None, apparently. Hiroko even gives you her body.”

 

            Trevize said angrily, “Bliss, what bothers you about that? She didn’t give me her body. We gave each other our bodies. It was entirely mutual, entirely pleasurable. Nor can you say that you hesitate to give your body as it suits you.”

 

            “Please, Bliss,” said Pelorat. “Golan is entirely right. There is no reason to object to his private pleasures.”

 

            “As long as they don’t affect us,” said Bliss obdurately.

 

            “They do not affect us,” said Trevize. “We will leave, I assure you. A delay to search further for information will not be long.”

 

            “Yet I don’t trust Isolates,” said Bliss, “even when they come bearing gifts.”

 

            Trevize flung up his arms. “Reach a conclusion, then twist the evidence to fit. How like a-”

 

            “Don’t say it,” said Bliss dangerously. “I am not a woman. I am Gaia. It is Gaia, not I, who is uneasy.”

 

            “There is no reason to-” And at that point there was a scratching at the door.

 

            Trevize froze. “What’s that?” he said, in a low voice.

 

            Bliss shrugged lightly. “Open the door and see. You tell us this is a kindly world that offers no danger.”

 

            Nevertheless, Trevize hesitated, until a soft voice from the other side of the door called out softly, “Please. It is P”

 

            It was Hiroko’s voice. Trevize threw the door open.

 

            Hiroko entered quickly. Her cheeks were wet.

 

            “Close the door,” she gasped.

 

            “What is it?” asked Bliss.

 

            Hiroko clutched at Trevize. “I could not stay away. I tried, but I endured it not. Go thou, and all of you. Take the youngster with you quickly. Take the ship away-away from Alpha-while it is yet dark.”

 

            “But why?” asked Trevize.

 

            “Because else wilt thou die; and all of you.”

 

  

 

 84.

 

  

 

            THE THREE Outworlders stared frozenly at Hiroko for a long moment. Then Trevize said, “Are you saying your people will kill us?”

 

            Hiroko said, as the tears rolled down her cheeks, “Thou art already on the road to death, respected Trevize. And the others with you.-Long ago, those of learning devised a virus, harmless to us, but deadly to Outworlders. We have been made immune.” She shook Trevize’s arm in distraction. “Thou art infected.”

 

            “How?”

 

            “When we had our pleasure. It is one way.”

 

            Trevize said, “But I feel entirely well.”

 

            “The virus is as yet inactive. It will be made active when the fishing fleet returns. By our laws, all must decide on such a thing-even the men. All will surely decide it must be done, and we keep you here till that time, two mornings hence. Leave now while it is yet dark and none suspects.”

 

            Bliss said sharply, “Why do your people do this?”

 

            “For our safety. We are few and have much. We do not wish Outworlders to intrude. If one cometh and then reporteth our lot, others will come, and so when, once in a long while, a ship arriveth, we must make certain it leaveth not.”

 

            “But then,” said Trevize, “why do you warn us away?”

 

            “Ask not the reason.-Nay, but I will tell you, since I hear it again. Listen-”

 

            From the next room, they could hear Fallom playing softly-and infinitely sweetly.

 

            Hiroko said, “I cannot bear the destruction of that music, for the young one will also die.”

 

            Trevize said sternly, “Is that why you gave the flute to Fallom? Because you knew you would have it once again when she was dead?”

 

            Hiroko looked horrified. “Nay, that was not in my mind. And when it came to mind at length, I knew it must not be done. Leave with the child, and with her, take the flute that I may never see it more. Thou wilt be safe back in space and, left inactive, the virus now in thy body will die after a time. In return, I ask that none of you ever speak of this world, that none else may know of it.”

 

            “We will not speak of it,” said Trevize.

 

            Hiroko looked up. In a lower voice, she said, “May I not kiss thee once ere thou leavest?”

 

            Trevize said, “No. I have been infected once and surely that is enough.” And then, a little less roughly, he added, “Don’t cry. People will ask why you are crying and you’ll be unable to reply.-I’ll forgive what you did to me in view of your present effort to save us.”

 

            Hiroko straightened, carefully wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands, took a deep breath, and said, “I thank thee for that,” and left quickly.

 

            Trevize said, “We will put out the light, and we will wait awhile, and then we will leave.-Bliss, tell Fallom to stop playing her instrument. Remember to take the flute, of course.-Then we will make our way to the ship, if we can find it in the dark.”

 

            “I will find it,” said Bliss. “Clothing of mine is on board and, however dimly, that, too, is Gaia. Gaia will have no trouble finding Gaia.” And she vanished into her room to collect Fallom.

 

            Pelorat said, “Do you suppose that they’ve managed to damage our ship in order to keep us on the planet?”

 

            “They lack the technology to do it,” said Trevize grimly. When Bliss emerged, holding Fallom by the hand, Trevize put out the lights.

 

            They sat quietly in the dark for what seemed half the night, and might have been half an hour. Then Trevize slowly and silently opened the door. The sky seemed a bit more cloudy, but stars shone. High in the sky now was Cassiopeia, with what might be Earth’s sun burning brightly at its lower tip. The air was still and there was no sound.

 

            Carefully, Trevize stepped out, motioning the others to follow. One of his hands dropped, almost automatically, to the butt of his neuronic whip. He was sure he would not have to use it, but-

 

            Bliss took the lead, holding Pelorat’s hand, who held Trevize’s. Bliss’s other hand held Fallom, and Fallom’s other hand held the flute. Feeling gently with her feet in the nearly total darkness, Bliss guided the others toward where she felt, very weakly, the Gaia-ness of her clothing on board theFar Star .

 

  

 

 PART VII

EARTH

 

  

 

 19. Radioactive?

 

  

 

 85.

 

  

 

      THEFar Star took off quietly, rising slowly through the atmosphere, leaving the dark island below. The few faint dots of light beneath them dimmed and vanished, and as the atmosphere grew thinner with height, the ship’s speed grew greater, and the dots of light in the sky above them grew more numerous and brighter.

 

            Eventually, they looked down upon the planet, Alpha, with only a crescent illuminated and that crescent largely wreathed in clouds.

 

            Pelorat said, “I suppose they don’t have an active space technology. They can’t follow us.”

 

            “I’m not sure that that cheers me up much,” said Trevize, his face dour, his voice disheartened. “I’m infected.”

 

            “But with an inactive strain,” said Bliss.

 

            “Still, it can be made active. They had a method. What is the method?”

 

            Bliss shrugged. “Hiroko said the virus, left inactive, would eventually die in a body unadapted to it-as yours is.”

 

            “Yes?” said Trevize angrily. “How does she know that? For that matter, how do I know that Hiroko’s statement wasn’t a self-consoling lie? And isn’t it possible that the method of activation, whatever it is, might not be duplicated naturally? A particular chemical, a type of radiation, a-a-who knows what? I may sicken suddenly, and then the three of you would die, too. Or if it happens after we have reached a populated world, there may be a vicious pandemic which fleeing refugees would carry to other worlds.”

 

            He looked at Bliss. “Is there something you can do about it?”

 

            Slowly, Bliss shook her head. “Not easily. There are parasites making up Gaia-microorganisms, worms. They are a benign part of the ecological balance. They live and contribute to the world consciousness, but never overgrow. They live without doing noticeable harm. The trouble is, Trevize, the virus that affects you is not part of Gaia.”

 

            “You say ‘not easily,”‘ said Trevize, frowning. “Under the circumstances, can you take the trouble to do it even though it might be difficult? Can you locate the virus in me and destroy it? Can you, failing that, at least strengthen my defenses?”

 

            “Do you realize what you ask, Trevize? I am not acquainted with the microscopic flora of your body. I might not easily tell a virus in the cells of your body from the normal genes inhabiting them. It would be even more difficult to distinguish between viruses your body is accustomed to and those with which Hiroko infected you. I will try to do it, Trevize, but it will take time and I may not succeed.”

 

            “Take time,” said Trevize. “Try.”

 

            “Certainly,” said Bliss.

 

            Pelorat said, “If Hiroko told the truth, Bliss, you might be able to find viruses that seem to be already diminishing in vitality, and you could accelerate their decline.”

 

            “I could do that,” said Bliss. “It is a good thought.”

 

            “You won’t weaken?” said Trevize. “You will have to destroy precious bits of life when you kill those viruses, you know.”

 

            “You are being sardonic, Trevize,” said Bliss coolly, “but, sardonic or not, you are pointing out a true difficulty. Still, I can scarcely fail to put you ahead of the virus. I will kill them if I have the chance, never fear. After all, even if I fail to consider you”-and her mouth twitched as though she were repressing a smile-”then certainly Pelorat and Fallom are also at risk, and you might feel more confidence in my feeling for them than in my feeling for you. You might even remember that I myself am at risk.”

 

            “I have no faith in your self-love,” muttered Trevize. “You’re perfectly ready to give up your life for some high motive. I’ll accept your concern for Pelorat, however.” Then, he said, “I don’t hear Fallom’s flute. Is anything wrong with her?”

 

            “No,” said Bliss. “She’s asleep. A perfectly natural sleep that I had nothing to do with. And I would suggest that, after you work out the Jump to the star we think is Earth’s sun, we all do likewise. I need it badly and I suspect you do, too, Trevize.”

 

            “Yes, if I can manage.-You were right, you know, Bliss.”

 

            “About what, Trevize?”

 

            “About Isolates. New Earth was not a paradise, however much it might have seemed like one. That hospitality-all that outgoing friendliness at first-was to put us off our guard, so that one of us might be easily infected. And all the hospitality afterward, the festivals of this and that, were designed to keep us there till the fishing fleet returned and the activation could be carried through. And it would have worked but for Fallom and her music. It might be you were right there, too.”