“About Fallom?”

 

            “Yes. I didn’t want to take her along, and I’ve never been happy with her being on the ship. It was your doing, Bliss, that we have her here and it was she who, unwittingly, saved us. And yet-”

 

            “And yet what?”

 

            “Despite that, I’mstill uneasy at Fallom’s presence. I don’t know why.”

 

            “If it will make you feel better, Trevize, I don’t know that we can lay all the credit at Fallom’s feet. Hiroko advanced Fallom’s music as her excuse for committing what the other Alphans would surely consider to be an act of treason. She may even have believed this, but there was something in her mind in addition, something that I vaguely detected but could not surely identify, something that perhaps she was ashamed to let emerge into her conscious mind. I am under the impression that she felt a warmth for you, and would not willingly see you die, regardless of Fallom and her music.”

 

            “Do you really think so?” said Trevize, smiling slightly for the first time since they had left Alpha.

 

            “I think so. You must have a certain proficiency at dealing with women. You persuaded Minister Lizalor to allow us to take our ship and leave Comporellon, and you helped influence Hiroko to save our lives. Credit where it’s due.”

 

            Trevize smiled more broadly. “Well, if you say so.-On to Earth, then.” He disappeared into the pilot-room with a step that was almost jaunty.

 

            Pelorat, lingering behind, said, “You soothed him after all, didn’t you, Bliss?”

 

            “No, Pelorat, I never touched his mind.”

 

            “You certainly did when you pampered his male vanity so outrageously.”

 

            “Entirely indirect,” said Bliss, smiling.

 

            “Even so, thank you, Bliss.”

 

  

 

 86.

 

  

 

            AFTER THE Jump, the star that might well be Earth’s sun was still a tenth of a parsec away. It was the brightest object in the sky by far, but it was still no more than a star.

 

            Trevize kept its light filtered for ease of viewing, and studied it somberly.

 

            He said, “There seems no doubt that it is the virtual twin of Alpha, the star that New Earth circles. Yet Alpha is in the computer map and this star is not. We don’t have a name for this star, we aren’t given its statistics, we lack any information concerning its planetary system, if it has one.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Isn’t that what we would expect if Earth circles this sun? Such a blackout of information would fit with the fact that all information about Earth seems to have been eliminated.”

 

            “Yes, but it could also mean that it’s a Spacer world that just happened not to be on the list on the wall of the Melpomenian building. We can’t be altogether sure that that list was complete. Or this star could be without planets and therefore perhaps not worth listing on a computer map which is primarily used for military and commercial purposes.-Janov, is there any legend that tells of Earth’s sun being a mere parsec or so from a twin of itself.”

 

            Pelorat shook his head. “I’m sorry, Golan, but no such legend occurs to me. There may be one, though. My memory isn’t perfect. I’ll search for it.”

 

            “It’s not important. Is there any name given to Earth’s sun?”

 

            “Some different names are given. I imagine there must be a name in each of the different languages.”

 

            “I keep forgetting that Earth had many languages.”

 

            “It must have had. It’s the only way of making sense out of many of the legends.”

 

            Trevize said peevishly, “Well, then, what do we do? We can’t tell anything about the planetary system from this distance, and we have to move closer. I would like to be cautious, but there’s such a thing as excessive and unreasoning caution, and I see no evidence of possible danger. Presumably anything powerful enough to wipe the Galaxy clean of information about Earth may be powerful enough to wipe us out even at this distance if they seriously did not wish to be located, but nothing’s happened. It isn’t rational to stay here forever on the mere possibility that something might happen if we move closer, is it?”

 

            Bliss said, “I take it the computer detects nothing that might be interpreted as dangerous.”

 

            “When I say I see no evidence of possible danger, it’s the computer I’m relying on. I certainly can’t see anything with the unaided eye. I wouldn’t expect to.”

 

            “Then I take it you’re just looking for support in making what you consider a risky decision. All right, then. I’m with you. We haven’t come this far in order to turn back for no reason, have we?”

 

            “No,” said Trevize. “What do you say, Pelorat?”

 

            Pelorat said, “I’m willing to move on, if only out of curiosity. It would be unbearable to go back without knowing if we have found Earth.”

 

            “Well, then,” said Trevize, “we’re all agreed.”

 

            “Not all,” said Pelorat. “There’s Fallom.”

 

            Trevize looked astonished. “Are you suggesting we consult the child? Of what value would her opinion be even if she had one? Besides, all she would want would be to get back to her own world.”

 

            “Can you blame her for that?” asked Bliss warmly.

 

            And because the matter of Fallom had arisen, Trevize became aware of her flute, which was sounding in a rather stirring march rhythm.

 

            “Listen to her,” he said. “Where has she ever heard anything in march rhythm?”

 

            “Perhaps Jemby played marches on the flute for her.”

 

            Trevize shook his head. “I doubt it. Dance rhythms, I should think, lullabies.-Listen, Fallom makes me uneasy. She learns too quickly.”

 

            “Ihelp her,” said Bliss. “Remember that. And she’svery intelligent and she has been extraordinarily stimulated in the time she’s been with us. New sensations have flooded her mind. She’s seen space, different worlds, many people, all for the first time.”

 

            Fallom’s march music grew wilder and more richly barbaric.

 

            Trevize sighed and said, “Well, she’s here, and she’s producing music that seems to breathe optimism, and delight in adventure. I’ll take that as her vote in favor of moving in more closely. Let us do so cautiously, then, and check this sun’s planetary system.”

 

            “If any,” said Bliss.

 

            Trevize smiled thinly. “There’s a planetary system. It’s a bet. Choose your sum.”

 

  

 

 87.

 

  

 

            “You lose,” said Trevize abstractedly. “How much money did you decide to bet?”

 

            “None. I never accepted the wager,” said Bliss.

 

            “Just as well. I wouldn’t like to accept the money, anyway.”

 

            They were some 10 billion kilometers from the sun. It was still star-like, but it was nearly 1/4,000 as bright as the average sun would have been when viewed from the surface of a habitable planet.

 

            “We can see two planets under magnification, right now,” said Trevize. “From their measured diameters and from the spectrum of the reflected light, they are clearly gas giants.”

 

            The ship was well outside the planetary plane, and Bliss and Pelorat, staring over Trevize’s shoulder at the viewscreen, found themselves looking at two tiny crescents of greenish light. The smaller was in the somewhat thicker phase of the two.

 

            Trevize said, “Janov! It is correct, isn’t it, that Earth’s sun is suppose to have four gas giants.”

 

            “According to the legends. Yes,” said Pelorat.

 

            “The nearest of the four to the sun is the largest, and the second nearest has rings. Right?”

 

            “Large prominent rings, Golan. Yes. Just the same, old chap, you have to allow for exaggeration in the telling and retelling of a legend. If we should not find a planet with an extraordinary ring system, I don’t think we ought to let that count seriously against this being Earth’s star.”

 

            “Nevertheless, the two we see may be the farthest, and the two nearer ones may well be on the other side of the sun and too far .to be easily located against the background of stars. We’ll have to move still closer-and beyond the sun to the other side.”

 

            “Can that be done in the presence of the star’s nearby mass?”

 

            “With reasonable caution, the computer can do it, I’m sure. If it judges the danger to be too great, however, it will refuse to budge us, and we can then move in cautious, smaller steps.”

 

            His mind directed the computer-and the starfield on the viewscreen changed. The star brightened sharply and then moved off the viewscreen as the computer, following directions, scanned the sky for another gas giant. It did so successfully.

 

            All three onlookers stiffened and stared, while Trevize’s mind, almost helpless with astonishment, fumbled at the computer to direct further magnification.

 

            “Incredible,” gasped Bliss.

 

  

 

 88.

 

  

 

            A GAS giant was in view, seen at an angle that allowed most of it to be sunlit. About it, there curved a broad and brilliant ring of material, tipped so as to catch the sunlight on the side being viewed. It was brighter than the planet itself and along it, one third of the way in toward the planet, was a narrow, dividing line.

 

            Trevize threw in a request for maximum enhancement and the ring became ringlets, narrow and concentric, glittering in the sunlight. Only a portion of the ring system was visible on the viewscreen and the planet itself had moved off. A further direction from Trevize and one corner of the screen marked itself off and showed, within itself, a miniature of the planet and rings under lesser magnification.

 

            “Is that sort of thing common?” asked Bliss, awed.

 

            “No,” said Trevize. “Almost every gas giant has rings of debris, but they tend to be faint and narrow. I once saw one in which the rings were narrow, but quite bright. But I never saw anything like this; or heard of it, either.”

 

            Pelorat said, “That’s clearly the ringed giant the legends speak of. If this is really unique-”

 

            “Really unique, as far as I know, or as far as the computer knows,” said Trevize.

 

            “Then thismust be the planetary system containing Earth. Surely, no one could invent such a planet. It would have had to have been seen to be described.”

 

            Trevize said, “I’m prepared to believe just about anything your legends say now. This is the sixth planet and Earth would be the third?”

 

            “Right, Golan.”

 

            “Then I would say we were less than 1.5 billion kilometers from Earth, and we haven’t been stopped. Gaia stopped us when we approached.”

 

            Bliss said, “You were closer to Gaia when you were stopped.”

 

            “Ah,” said Trevize, “but it’s my opinion Earth is more powerful than Gaia, and I take this to be a good sign. If we are not stopped, it may be that Earth does not object to our approach.”

 

            “Or that there is no Earth,” said Bliss.

 

            “Do you care to bet this time?” asked Trevize grimly.

 

            “What I think Bliss means,” put in Pelorat, “is that Earth may be radioactive as everyone seems to think, and that no one stops us because there is no life on the Earth.”

 

            “No,” said Trevize violently. “I’ll believe everything that’s said about Earth,but that. We’ll just close in on Earth and see for ourselves. And I have the feeling we won’t be stopped.”

 

  

 

 89.

 

  

 

            THE GAS giants were well behind. An asteroid belt lay just inside the gas giant nearest the sun. (That gas giant was the largest and most massive, just as the legends said.)

 

            Inside the asteroid belt were four planets.

 

            Trevize studied them carefully. “The third is the largest. The size is appropriate .and the distance from the sun is appropriate. It could be habitable.”

 

            Pelorat caught what seemed to be a note of uncertainty in Trevize’s words.

 

            He said, “Does it have an atmosphere?”

 

            “Oh yes,” said Trevize. “The second, third, and fourth planets all have atmospheres. And, as in the old children’s tale, the second’s is too dense, the fourth’s is not dense enough, but the third’s is just right.”

 

            “Do you think it might be Earth, then?”

 

            “Think?” said Trevize almost explosively. “I don’t have to think. Itis Earth. It has the giant satellite you told me of.”

 

            “It has?” And Pelorat’s face broke into a wider smile than any that Trevize had ever seen upon it.

 

            “Absolutely! Here, look at it under maximum magnification.”

 

            Pelorat saw two crescents, one distinctly larger and brighter than the other.

 

            “Is that smaller one the satellite?” he asked.

 

            “Yes. It’s rather farther from the planet than one might expect but it’s definitely revolving about it. It’s only the size of a small planet; in fact, it’s smaller than any of the four inner planets circling the sun. Still, it’s large for a satellite. It’s at least two thousand kilometers in diameter, which makes it in the size range of the large satellites that revolve about gas giants.”

 

            “No larger?” Pelorat seemed disappointed. “Then it’s not a giant satellite?”

 

            “Yes, it is. A satellite with a diameter of two to three thousand kilometers that is circling an enormous gas giant is one thing. That same satellite circling a small, rocky habitable planet is quite another. That satellite has a diameter over a quarter that of Earth. Where have you heard of such near-parity involving a habitable planet?”

 

            Pelorat said timidly, “I know very little of such things.”

 

            Trevize said, “Then take my word for it, Janov. It’s unique. We’re looking at something that is practically a double planet, and there are few habitable planets that have anything more than pebbles orbiting them. -Janov, if you consider that gas giant with its enormous ring system in sixth place, and this planet with its enormous satellite in third-both of which your legends told you about, against all credibility, before you ever saw them-then that world you’re looking atmust be Earth. It cannot conceivably be anything else. We’ve found it, Janov; we’ve found it.”

 

  

 

 90.

 

  

 

            THEY WERE on the second day of their coasting progress toward Earth, and Bliss yawned over the dinner meal. She said, “It seems to me we’ve spent more time coasting toward and away from planets than anything else. We’ve spent weeks at it, literally.”

 

            “Partly,” said Trevize, “that’s because Jumps are dangeroustoo close to a star. And inthis case, we’re moving very slowly because I do not wish to advance into possible danger too quickly.”

 

            “I thought you said you had the feeling we would not be stopped.”

 

            “So I do, but I don’t want to stake everything on a feeling.” Trevize looked at the contents of the spoon before putting it into his mouth and said, “You know, I miss the fish we had on Alpha. We only had three meals there.”

 

            “A pity,” agreed Pelorat.

 

            “Well,” said Bliss, “we visited five worlds and had to leave each one of them so hurriedly that we never had time to add to our food supplies and introduce variety. Even when the world had food to offer, as did Comporellon and Alpha, and, presumably-”

 

            She did not complete the sentence, for Fallom, looking up quickly, finished it for her. “Solaria? Could you get no food there? There is plenty of food there. As much as on Alpha. And better, too.”

 

            “I know that, Fallom,” said Bliss. “There was just no time.”

 

            Fallom stared at her solemnly. “Will I ever see Jemby again, Bliss? Tell me the truth.”

 

            Bliss said, “You may, if we return to Solaria.”

 

            “Will we ever return to Solaria?”

 

            Bliss hesitated. “I cannot say.”

 

            “Now we go to Earth, is that right? Isn’t that the planet where you say we all originate?”

 

            “Where ourforebears originated,” said Bliss.

 

            “I can say ‘ancestors,”‘ said Fallom.

 

            “Yes, we are going to Earth.”

 

            “Why?”

 

            Bliss said lightly, “Wouldn’t anyone wish to see the world of their ancestors?”

 

            “I think there’s more to it. You all seem so concerned.”

 

            “But we’ve never been there before. We don’t know what to expect.”

 

            “I think it is more than that.”

 

            Bliss smiled. “You’ve finished eating, Fallom dear, so why not go to the room and let us have a little serenade on your flute. You’re playing it more beautifully all the time. Come, come.” She gave Fallom an accelerating pat on the rear end, and off Fallom went, turning only once to give Trevize a thoughtful look.

 

            Trevize looked after her with clear distaste. “Does that thing read minds?”

 

            “Don’t call her a ‘thing,’ Trevize,” said Bliss sharply.

 

            “Does she read minds? You ought to be able to tell.”

 

            “No, she doesn’t. Nor can Gaia. Nor can the Second Foundationers. Reading minds in the sense of overhearing a conversation, or making out precise ideas is not something that can be done now, or in the foreseeable future. We can detect, interpret, and, to some extent, manipulate emotions, but that is not the same thing at all.”

 

            “How do you know she can’t do this thing that supposedly can’t be done?”

 

            “Because as you have just said, I ought to be able to tell.”

 

            “Perhaps she is manipulating you so that you remain ignorant of the fact that she can.”

 

            Bliss rolled her eyes upward. “Be reasonable, Trevize. Even if she had unusual abilities, she could do nothing with me for I am not Bliss, I am Gaia. You keep forgetting. Do you know the mental inertia represented by an entire planet? Do you think one Isolate, however talented, can overcome that?”

 

            “You don’t know everything, Bliss, so don’t be overconfident,” said Trevize sullenly. “That th-Shehas been with us not very long. I couldn’t learn anything but the rudiments of a language in that time, yet she already speaks Galactic perfectly and with virtually a full vocabulary. Yes, I know you’ve been helping her, but I wish you would stop.”

 

            “I told you I was helping her, but I also told you she’s fearfully intelligent. Intelligent enough so that I would like to have her part of Gaia. If we can gather her in; if she’s still young enough; we might learn enough about the Solarians to absorb that entire world eventually. It might well be useful to us.”

 

            “Does it occur to you that the Solarians are pathological Isolates even bymy standards?”

 

            “They wouldn’t stay so as part of Gaia.”

 

            “I think you’re wrong, Bliss. I think that Solarian child is dangerous and that we should get rid of her.”

 

            “How? Dump her through the airlock? Kill her, chop her up, and add her to our food supply?”

 

            Pelorat said, “Oh, Bliss.”

 

            And Trevize said, “That’s disgusting, and completely uncalled for.” He listened for a moment. The flute was sounding without flaw or waver, and they had been talking in half-whispers. “When this is all over, we’ve got to return her to Solaria, and make sure that Solaria is forever cut off from the Galaxy. My own feeling is that it should be destroyed. I distrust and fear it.”

 

            Bliss thought awhile and said, “Trevize, I know that you have the knack of coming to a right decision, but I also know you have been antipathetic to Fallom from the start. I suspect that may just be because you were humiliated on Solaria and have taken a violent hatred to the planet and its inhabitants as a result. Since I must not tamper with your mind, I can’t tell that for sure. Please remember that if we had not taken Fallom with us, we would be on Alpha right now-dead and, I presume, buried.”

 

            “I know that, Bliss, but even so-”

 

            “And her intelligence is to be admired, not envied.”

 

            “I do not envy her. I fear her.”

 

            “Her intelligence?”

 

            Trevize licked his lips thoughtfully. “No, not quite.”

 

            “What, then?”

 

            “I don’t know. Bliss, if I knew what I feared, I might not have to fear it. It’s something I don’t quite understand.” His voice lowered, as though he were speaking to himself. “The Galaxy seems to be crowded with things I don’t understand. Why did I choose Gaia? Why must I find Earth? Is there a missing assumption in psychohistory? If there is, what is it? And on top of all that, why does Fallom make me uneasy?”

 

            Bliss said, “Unfortunately, I can’t answer those questions.” She rose, and left the room.

 

            Pelorat looked after her, then said, “Surely things aren’t totally black, Golan. We’re getting closer and closer to Earth and once we reach it all mysteries may be solved. And so far nothing seems to be making any effort to stop us from reaching it.”

 

            Trevize’s eyes flickered toward Pelorat and he said in a low voice, “I wish something would.”

 

            Pelorat said, “You do? Why should you want that?”

 

            “Frankly, I’d welcome a sign of life.”

 

            Pelorat’s eyes opened wide. “Have you found that Earth is radioactive after all?”

 

            “Not quite. But it is warm. A bit warmer than I would have expected.”

 

            “Is that bad?”

 

            “Not necessarily. It may be rather warm but that wouldn’t make it necessarily uninhabitable. The cloud cover is thick and it is definitely water vapor, so that those clouds, together with a copious water ocean, could tend to keep things livable despite the temperature we calculated from microwave emission. I can’t be sure, yet. It’s just that-”

 

            “Yes, Golan?”

 

            “Well, if Earthwere radioactive, that might well account for its being warmer than expected.”

 

            “But that doesn’t argue the reverse, does it? If it’s warmer than expected, that doesn’t mean itmust be radioactive.”

 

            “No. No, it doesn’t.” Trevize managed to force a smile. “No use brooding, Janov. In a day or two, I’ll be able to tell more about it and we’ll know for sure.”

 

  

 

 91.

 

  

 

            FALLOM was sitting on the cot in deep thought when Bliss came into the room. Fallom looked up briefly, then down again.

 

            Bliss said quietly, “What’s the matter, Fallom?”

 

            Fallom said, “Why does Trevize dislike me so much, Bliss?”

 

            “What makes you think he dislikes you.”

 

            “He looks at me impatiently-Is that the word?”

 

            “It might be the word.”

 

            “He looks at me impatiently when I am near him. His face always twists a little.”

 

            “Trevize is having a hard time, Fallom.”

 

            “Because he’s looking for Earth?”

 

            “Yes.”

 

            Fallom thought awhile, then said, “He is particularly impatient when I think something into moving.”

 

            Bliss’s lips tightened. “Now, Fallom, didn’t I tell you you must not do that, especially when Trevize is present?”

 

            “Well, it was yesterday, right here in this room, and he was in the doorway and I didn’t notice. I didn’t know he was watching. It was just one of Pel’s book-films, anyway, and I was trying to make it stand on one tip. I wasn’t doing any harm.”

 

            “It makes him nervous, Fallom, and I want you not to do it, whether he’s watching or not.”

 

            “Does it make him nervous because he can’t do it?”

 

            “Perhaps.”

 

            “Can you do it?”

 

            Bliss shook her head slowly. “No, I can’t.”

 

            “It doesn’t makeyou nervous when I do it. It doesn’t make Pel nervous, either.”

 

            “People are different.”

 

            “I know,” said Fallom, with a sudden hardness that surprised Bliss and caused her to frown.

 

            “What do you know, Fallom?”

 

            “I’mdifferent.”

 

            “Of course, I just said so. People are different.”

 

            “My shape is different. I can move things.”

 

            “That’s true.”

 

            Fallom said, with a shade of rebelliousness, “Imust move things. Trevize should not be angry with me for that, and you should not stop me.”

 

            “But why must you move things?”

 

            “It is practice. Exerceez.-Is that the right word?”

 

            “Not quite. Exercise.”

 

            “Yes. Jemby always said I must train my-my-”

 

            “Transducer-lobes?”

 

            “Yes. And make them strong. Then, when I was grown up, I could power all the robots. Even Jemby.”

 

            “Fallom, who did power all the robots if you did not?”

 

            “Bander.” Fallom said it very matter-of-factly.

 

            “Did you know Bander?”

 

            “Of course. I viewed him many times. I was to be the next estate-head. The Bander estate would become the Fallom estate. Jemby told me so.”

 

            “You mean Bander came to your-”

 

            Fallom’s mouth made a perfect O of shock. She said in a choked voice, “Bander would never come to-” The youngster ran out of breath and panted a bit, then said, “Iviewed Bander’s image.”

 

            Bliss asked hesitantly, “How did Bander treat you?”

 

            Fallom looked at Bliss with a faintly puzzled eye. “Bander would ask me if I needed anything; if I was comfortable. But Jemby was always near me so I never needed anything and I was always comfortable.”

 

            Her head bent and she stared at the floor. Then she placed her hands over her eyes and said, “But Jemby stopped. I think it was because Bander-stopped, too.”

 

            Bliss said, “Why do you say that?”

 

            “I’ve been thinking about it. Bander powered all the robots, and if Jemby stopped, and all the other robots, too, it must be that Bander stopped. Isn’t that so?”

 

            Bliss was silent.

 

            Fallom said, “But when you take me back to Solaria I will power Jemby and all the rest of the robots, and I will be happy again.”

 

            She was sobbing.

 

            Bliss said, “Aren’t you happy with us, Fallom? Just a little? Sometimes?”

 

            Fallom lifted her tear-stained face to Bliss and her voice trembled as she shook her head and said, “I want Jemby.”

 

            In an agony of sympathy, Bliss threw her arms about the youngster. “Oh, Fallom, how I wish I could bring you and Jemby together again,” and was suddenly aware that she was weeping, too.

 

  

 

 92.

 

  

 

            PELORAT entered and found them so. He halted in mid-step and said, “What’s the matter?”

 

            Bliss detached herself and fumbled for a small tissue so that she might wipe her eyes. She shook her head, and Pelorat at once said, with heightened concern, “But what’s thematter ?”

 

            Bliss said, “Fallom, just rest a little. I’ll think of something to make things a little better for you. Remember-I love you just the same way that Jemby did.”

 

            She seized Pelorat’s elbow and rushed him out into the living room, saying, “It’s nothing, Pel.-Nothing.”

 

            “It’s Fallom, though, isn’t it? She still misses Jemby.”

 

            “Terribly. And there’s nothing we can do about it. I can tell her that I love her-and, truthfully, I do. How can you help loving a child so intelligent and gentle?-Fearfully intelligent. Trevize thinkstoo intelligent. She’s seen Bander in her time, you know-or viewed it, rather, as a holographic image. She’s not moved by that memory, however; she’s very cold and matter-of-fact about it, and I can understand why. There was only the fact that Bander was owner of the estate and that Fallom would be the next owner that bound them. No other relationship at all.”

 

            “Does Fallom understand that Bander is her father?”

 

            “Hermother . If we agree that Fallom is to be regarded as feminine, so is Bander.”

 

            “Either way, Bliss dear. Is Fallom aware of the parental relationship?”

 

            “I don’t know that she would understand what that is. She may, of course, but she gave no hint. However, Pel, she has reasoned out that Bander is dead, for it’s dawned on her that Jemby’s inactivation must be the result of power loss and since Bander supplied the power-That frightens me.”

 

            Pelorat said thoughtfully, “Why should it, Bliss? It’s only a logical inference, after all.”

 

            “Another logical inference can be drawn from that death. Deaths must be few and far distant on Solaria with its long-lived and isolated Spacers. Experience of natural death must be a limited one for any of them, and probably absent altogether for a Solarian child of Fallom’s age. If Fallom continues to think of Bander’s death, she’s going to begin to wonderwhy Bander died, and the fact that it happened when we strangers were on the planet will surely lead her to the obvious cause and effect.”

 

            “That we killed Bander?”

 

            “It wasn’t we who killed Bander, Pel. It was I. “

 

            “She couldn’t guess that.”

 

            “But I would have to tell her that. She is annoyed with Trevize as it is, and he is clearly the leader of the expedition. She would take it for granted that it would be he who would have brought about the death of Bander, and how could I allow Trevize to bear the blame unjustly?”

 

            “What would it matter, Bliss? The child feels nothing for her fath-mother. Only for her robot, Jemby.”

 

            “But the death of the mother meant the death of her robot, too. I almost did own up to my responsibility. I was strongly tempted.”

 

            “Why?”

 

            “So I could explain it my way. So I could soothe her, forestall her own discovery of the fact in a reasoning process that would work it out in a way that would offer no justification for it.”

 

            “But therewas justification. It was self-defense. In a moment, we all would have been dead, if you had not acted.”

 

            “It’s what I would have said, but I could not bring myself to explain. I was afraid she wouldn’t believe me.”

 

            Pelorat shook his head. He said, sighing, “Do you suppose it might have been better if we had not brought her? The situation makes you so unhappy.”

 

            “No,” said Bliss angrily, “don’t say that. It would have made me infinitely more unhappy to have to sit here right now and remember that we had left an innocent child behind to be slaughtered mercilessly because of whatwe had done.”

 

            “It’s the way of Fallom’s world.”

 

            “Now, Pel, don’t fall into Trevize’s way of thinking. Isolates find it possible to accept such things and think no more about it. The way of Gaia is to save life, however, not destroy it-or to sit idly by while it is destroyed. Life of all kinds must, we all know, constantly be coming to an end in order that other life might endure, but never uselessly, never to no end. Bander’s death, though unavoidable, is hard enough to bear; Fallom’s would have been past all bounds.”

 

            “Ah well,” said Pelorat, “I suppose you’re right.-And in any case, it is not the problem of Fallom concerning which I’ve come to see you. It’s Trevize.”

 

            “What about Trevize?”

 

            “Bliss, I’m worried about him. He’s waiting to determine the facts about Earth, and I’m not sure he can withstand the strain.”

 

            “I don’t fear for him. I suspect he has a sturdy and stable mind.”

 

            “We all have our limits. Listen, the planet Earth is warmer than he expected it to be; he told me so. I suspect that he thinks it may be too warm for life, though he’s clearly trying to talk himself into believing that’s not so.”

 

            “Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’snot too warm for life.”

 

            “Also, he admits it’s possible that the warmth might possibly arise from a radioactive crust, but he is refusing to believe that also.-In a day or two, we’ll be close enough so that the truth of the matter will be unmistakable. What if Earth is radioactive?”

 

            “Then he’ll have to accept the fact.”

 

            “But-I don’t know how to say this, or how to put it in mental terms. What if his mind-”

 

            Bliss waited, then said wryly, “Blows a fuse?”

 

            “Yes. Blows a fuse. Shouldn’t you do something now to strengthen him? Keep him level and under control, so to speak?”

 

            “No, Pel. I can’t believe he’s that fragile, and there is a firm Gaian decision that his mind must not be tampered with.”

 

            “But that’s the very point. He has this unusual ‘rightness,’ or whatever you want to call it. The shock of his entire project falling to nothingness at the moment when it seems successfully concluded may not destroy his brain, but it may destroy his ‘rightness.’ It’s a very unusual property he has. Might it not be unusually fragile, too?”

 

            Bliss remained for a moment in thought. Then she shrugged. “Well, perhaps I’ll keep an eye on him.”

 

  

 

 93.

 

  

 

            FOR THE next thirty-six hours, Trevize was vaguely aware that Bliss and, to a lesser degree, Pelorat, tended to dog his footsteps. Still, that was not utterly unusual in a ship as compact as theirs, and he had other things on his mind.

 

            Now, as he sat at the computer, he was aware of them standing just inside the doorway. He looked up at them, his face blank.

 

            “Well?” he said, in a very quiet voice.

 

            Pelorat said, rather awkwardly, “How are you, Golan?”

 

            Trevize said, “Ask Bliss. She’s been staring at me intently for hours. She must be poking through my mind.-Aren’t you, Bliss?”

 

            “No, I am not,” said Bliss evenly, “but if you feel the need for my help, I can try.-Do you want my help?”

 

            “No, why should I? Leave me alone. Both of you.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Please tell us what’s going on.”

 

            “Guess!”

 

            “Is Earth-”

 

            “Yes, it is. What everyone insisted on telling us is perfectly true.” Trevize gestured at the viewscreen, where Earth presented its nightside and was eclipsing the sun. It was a solid circle of black against the starry sky, its circumference outlined by a broken orange curve.

 

            Pelorat said, “Is that orange the radioactivity?”

 

            “No. Just refracted sunlight through the atmosphere. It would be a solid orange circle if the atmosphere weren’t so cloudy. We can’t see the radioactivity. The various radiations, even the gamma rays, are absorbed by the atmosphere. However, they do set up secondary radiations, comparatively feeble ones, but the computer can detect them. They’re still invisible to the eye, but the computer can produce a photon of visible light for each particle or wave of radiation it receives and put Earth into false color. Look.”

 

            And the black circle glowed with a faint, blotchy blue.

 

            “How much radioactivity is there?” asked Bliss, in a low voice. “Enough to signify that no human life can exist there?”

 

            “No life of any kind,” said Trevize. “The planet is uninhabitable. The last bacterium, the last virus, is long gone.”

 

            “Can we explore it?” said Pelorat. “I mean, in space suits.”

 

            “For a few hours-before we come down with irreversible radiation sickness.”

 

            “Then what do we do, Golan?”

 

            “Do?” Trevize looked at Pelorat with that same expressionless face. “Do you know what I would like to do? I would like to take you and Bliss-and the child-back to Gaia and leave you all there forever. Then I would like to go back to Terminus and hand back the ship. Then I would like to resign from the Council, which ought to make Mayor Branno very happy. Then I would like to live on my pension and let the Galaxy go as it will. I won’t care about the Seldon Plan, or about the Foundation, or about the Second Foundation, or about Gaia. The Galaxy can choose its own path. It will last my time and why should I care a snap as to what happens afterward?”

 

            “Surely, you don’t mean it, Golan,” said Pelorat urgently.

 

            Trevize stared at him for a while, and then he drew a long breath. “No, I don’t, but, oh, how I wish I could do exactly what I have just outlined to you.”

 

            “Never mind that. Whatwill you do?”

 

            “Keep the ship in orbit about the Earth, rest, get over the shock of all this, and think of what to do next. Except that-”

 

            “Yes?”

 

            And Trevize blurted out, “Whatcan I do next? What is there further to look for? What is there further to find?”

 

  

 

 20. The Nearby World

 

  

 

 94.

 

  

 

      FOR Four successive meals, Pelorat and Bliss had seen Trevize onlyat meals. During the rest of the time, he was either in the pilot-room or in his bedroom. At mealtimes, he was silent. His lips remained pressed together and he ate little.

 

            At the fourth meal, however, it seemed to Pelorat that some of the unusual gravity had lifted from Trevize’s countenance. Pelorat cleared his throat twice, as though preparing to say something and then retreating.

 

            Finally, Trevize looked up at him and said, “Well?”

 

            “Have you-have you thought it out, Golan?”

 

            “Why do you ask?”

 

            “You seem less gloomy.”

 

            “I’m not less gloomy, but Ihave been thinking. Heavily.”

 

            “May we know what?” asked Pelorat.

 

            Trevize glanced briefly in Bliss’s direction. She was looking firmly at her plate, maintaining a careful silence, as though certain that Pelorat would get further than she at this sensitive moment.

 

            Trevize said, “Are you also curious, Bliss?”

 

            She raised her eyes for a moment. “Yes. Certainly.”

 

            Fallom kicked a leg of the table moodily, and said, “Have we found Earth?”

 

            Bliss squeezed the youngster’s shoulder. Trevize paid no attention.

 

            He said, “What we must start with is a basic fact. All information concerning Earth has been removed on various worlds. That is bound to bring us to an inescapable conclusion. Something on Earth is being hidden. And yet, by observation, we see that Earth is radioactively deadly, so that anything on it is automatically hidden. No one can land on it, and from this distance, when we are quite near the outer edge of the magnetosphere and would not care to approach Earth any more closely, there is nothing for us to find.”

 

            “Can you be sure of that?” asked Bliss softly.

 

            “I have spent my time at the computer, analyzing Earth in every way it and I can. There is nothing. What’s more, Ifeel there is nothing. Why, then, has data concerning the Earth been wiped out? Surely, whatever must be hidden is more effectively hidden now than anyone can easily imagine, and there need be no human gilding of this particular piece of gold.”

 

            “It may be,” said Pelorat, “that there was indeed something hidden on Earth at a time when it had not yet grown so severely radioactive as to preclude visitors. People on Earth may then have feared that someone might land and find this whatever-it-is. It wasthen that Earth tried to remove information concerning itself. What we have now is a vestigial remnant of that insecure time.”

 

            “No, I don’t think so,” said Trevize. “The removal of information from the Imperial Library at Trantor seems to have taken place very recently.” He turned suddenly to Bliss, “Am I right?”

 

            Bliss said evenly, “I/we/Gaia gathered that much from the troubled mind of the Second Foundationer Gendibal, when he, you, and I had the meeting with the Mayor of Terminus.”

 

            Trevize said, “So whatever must have had to be hidden because there existed the chance of finding it must still be in hidingnow , and there must be danger of finding itnow despite the fact that Earth is radioactive.”

 

            “How is that possible?” asked Pelorat anxiously.

 

            “Consider,” said Trevize. “What if what was on Earth is no longer on Earth, but was removed when the radioactive danger grew greater? Yet though the secret is no longer on Earth, it may be that if we can find Earth, we would be able to reason out the place where the secret has been taken. If that were so, Earth’s whereabouts would still have to be hidden.”

 

            Fallom’s voice piped up again. “Because if we can’t find Earth, Bliss says you’ll take me back to Jemby.”

 

            Trevize turned toward Fallom and glared-and Bliss said, in a low voice, “I told you wemight , Fallom. We’ll talk about it later. Right now, go to your room and read, or play the flute, or anything else you want to do. Go-go.”

 

            Fallom, frowning sulkily, left the table.

 

            Pelorat said, “But how can you say that, Golan? Here we are. We’ve located Earth. Can we now deduce where whatever it is might be if it isn’t on Earth?”

 

            It took a moment for Trevize to get over the moment of ill humor Fallom had induced. Then, he said, “Why not? Imagine the radioactivity of Earth’s crust growing steadily worse. The population would be decreasing steadily through death and emigration, and the secret, whatever it is, would be in increasing danger. Who would remain to protect it? Eventually, it would have to be shifted to another world, or the use of-whatever it was-would be lost to Earth. I suspect there would be reluctance to move it and it is likely that it would be done more or less at the last minute. Now, then, Janov, remember the old man on New Earth who filled your ears with his version of Earth’s history?”

 

            “Monolee?”

 

            “Yes. He. Did he not say in reference to the establishment of New Earth that what was left of Earth’s population was brought to the planet?”

 

            Pelorat said, “Do you mean, old chap, that what we’re searching for is now on New Earth? Brought there by the last of Earth’s population to leave?”

 

            Trevize said, “Might that not be so? New Earth is scarcely better known to the Galaxy in general than Earth is, and the inhabitants are suspiciously eager to keep all Outworlders away.”

 

            “We were there,” put in Bliss. “We didn’t find anything.”

 

            “We weren’t looking for anything but the whereabouts of Earth.”

 

            Pelorat said, in a puzzled way, “But we’re looking for something with a high technology; something that can remove information from under the nose of the Second Foundation itself, and even from under the nose-excuse me, Bliss-of Gaia. Those people on New Earth may be able to control their patch of weather and may have some techniques of biotechnology at their disposal, but I think you’ll admit that their level of technology is, on the whole, quite low.”

 

            Bliss nodded. “I agree with Pel.”

 

            Trevize said, “We’re judging from very little. We never did see the men of the fishing fleet. We never saw any part of the island but the small patch we landed on. What might we have found if we had explored more thoroughly? After all, we didn’t recognize the fluorescent lights till we saw them in action, and if it appeared that the technology was low,appeared , I say-”

 

            “Yes?” said Bliss, clearly unconvinced.

 

            “That could be part of the veil intended to obscure the truth.”

 

            “Impossible,” said Bliss.

 

            “Impossible? It was you who told me, back on Gaia, that at Trantor, the larger civilization was deliberately held at a level of low technology in order to hide the small kernel of Second Foundationers. Why might not the same strategy be used on New Earth?”

 

            “Do you suggest, then, that we return to New Earth and face infection again-this time to have it activated? Sexual intercourse is undoubtedly a particularly pleasant mode of infection, but it may not be the only one.”

 

            Trevize shrugged. “I am not eager to return to New Earth, but we may have to.”

 

            “May?”

 

            “May! After all, there is another possibility.”

 

            “What is that?”

 

            “New Earth circles the star the people call Alpha. But Alpha is part of a binary system. Might there not be a habitable planet circling Alpha’s companion as well?”

 

            “Too dim, I should think,” said Bliss, shaking her head. “The companion is only a quarter as bright as Alpha is.”

 

            “Dim, but not too dim. If there is a planet fairly close to the star, it might do.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Does the computer say anything about any planets for the companion?”

 

            Trevize smiled grimly. “I checked that. There are five planets of moderate size. No gas giants.”

 

            “And are any of the five planets habitable?”

 

            “The computer gives no information at all about the planets, other than their number, and the fact that they aren’t large.”

 

            “Oh,” said Pelorat deflated.

 

            Trevize said, “That’s nothing to be disappointed about. None of the Spacer worlds are to be found in the computer at all. The information on Alpha itself is minimal. These things are hidden deliberately and if almost nothing is known about Alpha’s companion, that might almost be regarded as a good sign.”

 

            “Then,” said Bliss, in a business-like manner, “what you are planning to do is this-visit the companion and, if that draws a blank, return to Alpha itself.”

 

            “Yes. And this time when we reach the island of New Earth, we will be prepared. We will examine the entire island meticulously before landing and, Bliss, I expect you to use your mental abilities to shield-”

 

            And at that moment, theFar Star lurched slightly, as though it had undergone a ship-sized hiccup, and Trevize cried out, halfway between anger and perplexity, “Who’s at the controls?”

 

            And even as he asked, he knew very well who was.

 

  

 

 95.

 

  

 

            FALLOM, at the computer console, was completely absorbed. Her small, long-fingered hands were stretched wide in order to fit the faintly gleaming handmarks on the desk. Fallom’s hands seemed to sink into the material of the desk, even though it was clearly felt to be hard and slippery.

 

            She had seen Trevize hold his hands so on a number of occasions, and she hadn’t seen him do more than that, though it was quite plain to her that in so doing he controlled the ship.

 

            On occasion, Fallom had seen Trevize close his eyes, and she closed hers now. After a moment or two, it was almost as though she heard a faint, far-off voice-far off, but sounding in her own head, through (she dimly realized) her transducer-lobes. They were even more important than her hands. She strained to make out the words.

 

            Instructions, it said, almost pleadingly.What are your instructions?

 

      Fallom didn’t say anything. She had never witnessed Trevize saying anything to the computer-but she knew what it was that she wanted with all her heart. She wanted to go back to Solaria, to the comforting endlessness of the mansion, to Jemby-Jemby-Jemby-

 

            She wanted to go there and, as she thought of the world she loved, she imagined it visible on the viewscreen as she had seen other worlds she didn’t want. She opened her eyes and stared at the viewscreen willing some other world there than this hateful Earth, then staring at what she saw, imagining it to be Solaria. She hated the empty Galaxy to which she had been introduced against her will. Tears came to her eyes, and the ship trembled.

 

            She could feel that tremble, and she swayed a little in response.

 

            And then she heard loud steps in the corridor outside and, when she opened her eyes, Trevize’s face, distorted, filled her vision, blocking out the viewscreen, which held all she wanted. He was shouting something, but she paid no attention. It was he who had taken her from Solaria by killing Bander, and it was he who was preventing her from returning by thinking only of Earth, and she was not going to listen to him.

 

            She was going to take the ship to Solaria, and, with the intensity of her resolve, it trembled again.

 

  

 

 96.

 

  

 

            BLISS clutched wildly at Trevize’s arm. “Don’t! Don’t!”

 

            She clung strongly, holding him back, while Pelorat stood, confused and frozen, in the background.

 

            Trevize was shouting, “Take your hands off the computer!-Bliss, don’t get in my way. I don’t want to hurt you.”

 

            Bliss said, in a tone that seemed almost exhausted, “Don’t offer violence to the child. I’d have to hurtyou -against all instructions.”

 

            Trevize’s eyes darted wildly from Fallom to Bliss. He said, “Then you get her off, Bliss. Now!”

 

            Bliss pushed him away with surprising strength (drawing it, Trevize thought afterward, from Gaia, perhaps).

 

            “Fallom,” she said, “lift your hands.”

 

            “No,” shrieked Fallom. “I want the ship to go to Solaria. I want it to go there. There.” She nodded toward the viewscreen with her head, unwilling to let even one hand release its pressure on the desk for the purpose.

 

            But Bliss reached for the child’s shoulders and, as her hands touched Fallom, the youngster began to tremble.

 

            Bliss’s voice grew soft. “Now, Fallom, tell the computer to be as it was and come with me. Come with me.” Her hands stroked the child, who collapsed in an agony of weeping.

 

            Fallom’s hands left the desk, and Bliss, catching her under the armpits, lifted her into a standing position. She turned her, held her firmly against her breast, and allowed the child to smother her wrenching sobs there.

 

            Bliss said to Trevize, who was now standing dumbly in the doorway, “Step out of the way, Trevize, and don’t touch either of us as we pass.”

 

            Trevize stepped quickly to one side.

 

            Bliss paused a moment, saying in a low voice to Trevize, “I had to get into her mind for a moment. If I’ve caused any damage, I won’t forgive you easily.”

 

            It was Trevize’s impulse to tell her he didn’t care a cubic millimeter of vacuum for Fallom’s mind; that it was the computer for which he feared. Against the concentrated glare of Gaia, however (surely it wasn’t only Bliss whose sole expression could inspire the moment of cold terror he felt), he kept silent.

 

            He remained silent for a perceptible period, and motionless as well, after Bliss and Fallom had disappeared into their room. He remained so, in fact, until Pelorat said softly, “Golan, are you all right? She didn’t hurt you, did she?”

 

            Trevize shook his head vigorously, as though to shake off the touch of paralysis that had afflicted him. “I’m all right. The real question is whetherthat’s all right.” He sat down at the computer console, his hands resting on the two handmarks which Fallom’s hands had so recently covered.

 

            “Well?” said Pelorat anxiously.

 

            Trevize shrugged. “It seems to respond normally. I might conceivably find something wrong later on, but there’s nothing that seems off now.” Then, more angrily, “The computer should not combine effectively with any hands other than mine, but in that hermaphrodite’s case, it wasn’t the hands alone. It was the transducer-lobes, I’m sure-”

 

            “But what made the ship shake? It shouldn’t do that, should it?”

 

            “No. It’s a gravitic ship and we shouldn’t have these inertial effects. But that she-monster-” He paused, looking angry again.

 

            “Yes?”

 

            “I suspect she faced the computer with two self-contradictory demands, and each with such force that the computer had no choice but to attempt to do both things at once. In the attempt to do the impossible, the computer must have released the inertia-free condition of the ship momentarily. At least that’s what I think happened.”

 

            And then, somehow, his face smoothed out. “And that might be a good thing, too, for it occurs to me now that all my talk about Alpha Centauri and its companion was flapdoodle. I know now where Earth must have transferred its secret.”

 

  

 

 97.

 

  

 

            PELORAT stared, then ignored the final remark and went back to an earlier puzzle. “In what way did Fallom ask for two self-contradictory things?”

 

            “Well, she said she wanted the ship to go to Solaria.”

 

            “Yes. Of course, she would.”

 

            “But what did she mean by Solaria? She can’t recognize Solaria from space. She’s never really seen it from space. She was asleep when we left that world in a hurry. And despite her readings in your library, together with whatever Bliss has told her, I imagine she can’t really grasp the truth of a Galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars and millions of populated planets. Brought up, as she was, underground and alone, it is all she can do to grasp the bare concept that there are different worlds-but how many? Two? Three? Four? To her any world she sees is likely to be Solaria, and given the strength of her wishful thinking,is Solaria. And since I presume Bliss has tried to quiet her by hinting that if we don’t find Earth, we’ll take her back to Solaria, she may even have worked up the notion that Solaria is close to Earth.”

 

            “But how can you tell this, Golan? What makes you think it’s so?”

 

            “She as much as told us so, Janov, when we burst in upon her. She cried out that she wanted to go to Solaria and then added ‘there-there,’ nodding her head at the viewscreen. And what is on the viewscreen? Earth’s satellite. It wasn’t there when I left the machine before dinner; Earth was. But Fallom must have pictured the satellite in her mind when she asked for Solaria, and the computer, in response, must therefore have focused on the satellite. Believe me, Janov, I know how this computer works. Who would know better?”

 

            Pelorat looked at the thick crescent of light on the viewscreen and said thoughtfully, “It was called ‘moon’ in at least one of Earth’s languages; ‘Luna,’ in another language. Probably many other names, too.-Imagine the confusion, old chap, on a world with numerous languages-the misunderstandings, the complications, the-”

 

            “Moon?” said Trevize. “Well, that’s simple enough.-Then, too, come to think of it, it may be that the child tried, instinctively, to move the ship by means of its transducer-lobes, using the ship’s own energy-source, and that may have helped produce the momentary inertial confusion.-But none of that matters, Janov. What does matter is that all this has brought this moon-yes, I like the name-to the screen and magnified it, and there it still is. I’m looking at it now, and wondering.”

 

            “Wondering what, Golan?”

 

            “At the size of it. We tend to ignore satellites, Janov. They’re such little things, when they exist at all. This one is different, though. It’s aworld . It has a diameter of about thirty-five hundred kilometers.”

 

            “A world? Surely you wouldn’t call it a world. It can’t be habitable. Even a thirty-five-hundred-kilometer diameter is too small. It has no atmosphere. I can tell that just looking at it. No clouds. The circular curve against space is sharp, so is the inner curve that bounds the light and dark hemisphere.”

 

            Trevize nodded, “You’re getting to be a seasoned space traveler, Janov. You’re right. No air. No water. But that only means the moon’s not habitable on its unprotected surface. What about underground?”

 

            “Underground?” said Pelorat doubtfully.

 

            “Yes. Underground. Why not? Earth’s cities were underground, you tell me. We know that Trantor was underground. Comporellon has much of its capital city underground. The Solarian mansions were almost entirely underground. It’s a very common state of affairs.”

 

            “But, Golan, in every one of these cases, people were living on a habitable planet. The surface was habitable, too, with an atmosphere and with an ocean. Is it possible to live underground when the surface is uninhabitable?”

 

            “Come, Janov, think! Where are we living right now? TheFar Star is a tiny world that has an uninhabitable surface. There’s no air or water on the outside. Yet we live inside in perfect comfort. The Galaxy is full of space stations and space settlements of infinite variety, to say nothing of spaceships, and they’re all uninhabitable except for the interior. Consider the moon a gigantic spaceship.”

 

            “With a crew inside?”

 

            “Yes. Millions of people, for all we. know; and plants and animals; and an advanced technology.-Look, Janov, doesn’t it make sense? If Earth, in its last days, could send out a party of Settlers to a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri; and if, possibly with Imperial help, they could attempt to terraform it, seed its oceans, build dry land where there was none; could Earth not also send a party to its satellite and terraform its interior?”

 

            Pelorat said reluctantly, “I suppose so.”

 

            “Itwould be done. If Earth has something to hide, why send it over a parsec away, when it could be hidden on a world less than a hundred millionth the distance to Alpha. And the moon would be a more efficient hiding place from the psychological standpoint. No one would think of satellites in connection with life. For that matter I didn’t. With the moon an inch before my nose, my thoughts went haring off to Alpha. If it hadn’t been for Fallom-” His lips tightened, and he shook his head. “I suppose I’ll have to credit her for that. Bliss surely will if I don’t.”

 

            Pelorat said, “But see here, old man, if there’s something hiding under the surface of the moon, how do we find it? There must be millions of square kilometers of surface-”

 

            “Roughly forty million.”

 

            “And we would have to inspect all of that, looking for what? An opening? Some sort of airlock?”

 

            Trevize said, “Put that way, it would seem rather a task, but we’re not just looking for objects, we’re looking for life; and for intelligent life at that. And we’ve got Bliss, and detecting intelligence is her talent, isn’t it?”

 

  

 

 98.

 

  

 

            BLISS looked at Trevize accusingly. “I’ve finally got her to sleep. I had the hardest time. She was wild. Fortunately, I don’t think I’ve damaged her.”

 

            Trevize said coldly, “You might try removing her fixation on Jemby, you know, since I certainly have no intention of ever going back to Solaria.”

 

            “Just remove her fixation, is that it? What do you know about such things, Trevize? You’ve never sensed a mind. You haven’t the faintest idea of its complexity. If you knew anything at all about it, you wouldn’t talk about removing a fixation as though it were just a matter of scooping jam out of a jar.”

 

            “Well, weaken it at least.”

 

            “I might weaken it a bit, after a month of careful dethreading.”

 

            “What do you mean, dethreading?”

 

            “To someone who doesn’t know, it can’t be explained.”

 

            “What are you going to do with the child, then?”

 

            “I don’t know yet; it will take a lot of consideration.”

 

            “In that case,” said Trevize, “let me tell you what we’re going to do with the ship.”

 

            “I know what you’re going to do. It’s back to New Earth and another try at the lovely Hiroko, if she’ll promise not to infect you this time.”

 

            Trevize kept his face expressionless. He said, “No, as a matter of fact. I’ve changed my mind. We’re going to the moon-which is the name of the satellite, according to Janov.”

 

            “The satellite? Because it’s the nearest world at hand? I hadn’t thought of that.”

 

            “Nor I. Nor would anyone have thought of it. Nowhere in the Galaxy is there a satellite worth thinking about-but this satellite, in being large, is unique. What’s more, Earth’s anonymity covers it as well. Anyone who can’t find the Earth can’t find the moon, either.”

 

            “Is it habitable?”

 

            “Not on the surface, but it is not radioactive, not at all, so it isn’t absolutely uninhabitable. It may have life-it may be teeming with life, in fact-under the surface. And, of course, you’ll be able to tell if that’s so, once we get close enough.”

 

            Bliss shrugged. “I’ll try.-But, then, what made you suddenly think of trying the satellite?”

 

            Trevize said quietly, “Something Fallom did when she was at the controls.”

 

            Bliss waited, as though expecting more, then shrugged again. “Whatever it was, I suspect you wouldn’t have gotten the inspiration if you had followed your own impulse and killed her.”

 

            “I had no intention of killing her, Bliss.”

 

            Bliss waved her hand. “All right. Let it be. Are we moving toward the moon now?”

 

            “Yes. As a matter of caution, I’m not going too fast, but if all goes well, we’ll be in its vicinity in thirty hours.”

 

  

 

 99.

 

  

 

            THE MOON was a wasteland. Trevize watched the bright daylit portion drifting past them below. It was a monotonous panorama of crater rings and mountainous areas, and of shadows black against the sunlight. There were subtle color changes in the soil and occasional sizable stretches of flatness, broken by small craters.

 

            As they approached the nightside, the shadows grew longer and finally fused together. For a while, behind them, peaks glittered in the sun, like fat stars, far outshining their brethren in the sky. Then they disappeared and below was only the fainter light of the Earth in the sky, a large bluish-white sphere, a little more than half full. The ship finally outran the Earth, too, which sank beneath the horizon so that under them was unrelieved blackness, and above only the faint powdering of stars, which, to Trevize, who had been brought up on the starless world of Terminus, was always miracle enough.

 

            Then, new bright stars appeared ahead, first just one or two, then others, expanding and thickening and finally coalescing. And at once they passed the terminator into the daylit side. The sun rose with infernal splendor, while the viewscreen shifted away from it at once and polarized the glare of the ground beneath.

 

            Trevize could see quite well that it was useless to hope to find any way into the inhabited interior (if that existed) by mere eye inspection of this perfectly enormous world.

 

            He turned to look at Bliss, who sat beside him. She did not look at the viewscreen; indeed, she kept her eyes closed. She seemed to have collapsed into the chair rather than to be sitting in it.

 

            Trevize, wondering if she were asleep, said softly, “Do-you detect anything else?”

 

            Bliss shook her head very slightly. “No,” she whispered. “There was just that faint whiff. You’d better take me back there. Do you know where that region was?”

 

            “The computer knows.”

 

            It was like zeroing in on a target, shifting this way and that and then finding it. The area in question was still deep in the nightside and, except that the Earth shone fairly low in the sky and gave the surface a ghostly ashen glow between the shadows, there was nothing to make out, even though the light in the pilot-room had been blacked out for better viewing.

 

            Pelorat had approached and was standing anxiously in the doorway. “Have we found anything?” he asked, in a husky whisper.

 

            Trevize held up his hand for silence. He was watching Bliss. He knew it would be days before sunlight would return to this spot on the moon, but he also knew that for what Bliss was trying to sense, light of any kind was irrelevant.

 

            She said, “It’s there.”

 

            “Are you sure?”

 

            “Yes.”

 

            “And it’s the only spot?”

 

            “It’s the only spot I’ve detected. Have you been over every part of the moon’s surface?”

 

            “We’ve been over a respectable fraction of it.”

 

            “Well, then, in that respectable fraction, this is all I have detected. It’s stronger now, as thoughit has detectedus and it doesn’t seem dangerous. The feeling I get is a welcoming one.”

 

            “Are you sure?”

 

            “It’s the feeling I get.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Could it be faking the feeling?”

 

            Bliss said, with a trace of hauteur, “I would detect a fake, I assure you.”

 

            Trevize muttered something about overconfidence, then said, “What you detect is intelligence, I hope.”

 

            “I detect strong intelligence. Except-” And an odd note entered her voice.

 

            “Except what?”

 

            “Ssh. Don’t disturb me. Let me concentrate.” The last word was a mere motion of her lips.

 

            Then she said, in faint elated surprise, “It’s not human.”

 

            “Not human,” said Trevize, in much stronger surprise. “Are we dealing with robots again? As on Solaria?”

 

            “No.” Bliss was smiling. “It’s not quite robotic, either.”

 

            “It has to be one or the other.”

 

            “Neither.” She actually chuckled. “It’s not human, and yet it’s not like any robot I’ve detected before.”

 

            Pelorat said, “I would like to see that.” He nodded his head vigorously, his eyes wide with pleasure. “It would be exciting. Something new.”

 

            “Something new,” muttered Trevize with a sudden lift of his own spirits-and a flash of unexpected insight seemed to illuminate the interior of his skull.

 

  

 

 100.

 

  

 

            DOWN THEY sank to the moon’s surface, in what was almost jubilation. Even Fallom had joined them now and, with the abandonment of a youngster, was hugging herself with unbearable joy as though she were truly returning to Solaria.

 

            As for Trevize, he felt within himself a touch of sanity telling him that it was strange that Earth-or whatever of Earth was on the moon-which had taken such measures to keep off all others, should now be taking measures to draw them in. Could the purpose be the same in either way? Was it a case of “If you can’t make them avoid you, draw them in and destroy them?” Either way, would not Earth’s secret remain untouched?

 

            But that thought faded and drowned in the flood of joy that deepened steadily as they came closer to the moon’s surface. Yet over and beyond that, he managed to cling to the moment of illumination that had reached him just before they had begun their gliding dive to the surface of the Earth’s satellite.

 

            He seemed to have no doubt as to where the ship was going. They were just above the tops of the rolling hills now, and Trevize, at the computer, felt no need to do anything. It was as though he and the computer, both, were being guided, and he felt only an enormous euphoria at having the weight of responsibility taken away from him.

 

            They were sliding parallel to the ground, toward a cliff that raised its menacing height as a barrier against them; a barrier glistening faintly in Earth-shine and in the light-beam of theFar Star . The approach of certain collision seemed to mean nothing to Trevize, and it was with no surprise whatever that he became aware that the section of cliff directly ahead had fallen away and that a corridor, gleaming in artificial light, had opened before them.

 

            The ship slowed to a crawl, apparently of its own accord, and fitted neatly into the opening-entering-sliding along-The opening closed behind it, and another then opened before it. Through the second opening went the ship, into a gigantic hall that seemed the hollowed interior of a mountain.

 

            The ship halted and all aboard rushed to the airlock eagerly. It occurred to none of them, not even to Trevize, to check. whether there might be a breathable atmosphere outside or any atmosphere at all.

 

            Therewas air, however. It was breathable and it was comfortable. They looked about themselves with the pleased air of people who had somehow come home and it was only after a while that they became aware of a man who was waiting politely for them to approach.

 

            He was tall, and his expression was grave. His hair was bronze in color, and cut short. His cheekbones were broad, his eyes were bright, and his clothing was rather after the fashion one saw in ancient history books. Although he seemed sturdy and vigorous there was, just the same, an air of weariness about him not in anything that one could see, but rather in something appealing to no recognizable sense.

 

            It was Fallom who reacted first. With a loud, whistling scream, she ran toward the man, waving her arms and crying, “Jemby! Jemby!” in a breathless fashion.

 

            She never slackened her pace, and when she was close enough, the man stooped and lifted her high in the air. She threw her arms about his neck, sobbing, and still gasping, “Jemby!”

 

            The others approached more soberly and Trevize said, slowly and distinctly (could this man understand Galactic?), “We ask pardon, sir. This child has lost her protector and is searching for it desperately. How it came to fasten on you is a puzzle to us, since it is seeking a robot; a mechanical-”

 

            The man spoke for the first time. His voice was utilitarian rather than musical, and there was a faint air of archaism clinging to it, but he spoke Galactic with perfect ease.

 

            “I greet you all in friendship,” he said and he seemed unmistakably friendly, even though his face continued to remain fixed in its expression of gravity. “As for this child,” he went on, “she shows perhaps a greater perceptivity than you think, for I am a robot. My name is Daneel Olivaw.”

 

  

 

 21. The Search Ends

 

  

 

 101.

 

  

 

      TREVIZE found himself in a complete state of disbelief. He had recovered from the odd euphoria he had felt just before and after the landing on the moon-a euphoria, he now suspected, that had been imposed on him by this self-styled robot who now stood before him.

 

            Trevize was still staring, and in his now perfectly sane and untouched mind, he remained lost in astonishment. He had talked in astonishment, made conversation in astonishment, scarcely understood what he said or heard as he searched for something in the appearance of this apparent man, in his behavior, in his manner of speaking, that bespoke the robot.

 

            No wonder, thought Trevize, that Bliss had detected something that was neither human nor robot, but, that was, in Pelorat’s words, “something new.” Just as well, of course, for it had turned Trevize’s thoughts into another and more enlightening channel but even that was now crowded into the back of his mind.

 

            Bliss and Fallom had wandered off to explore the grounds. It had been Bliss’s suggestion, but it seemed to Trevize that it came after a lightning-quick glance had been exchanged between herself and Daneel. When Fallom refused and asked to stay with the being she persisted in calling Jemby, a grave word from Daneel and a lift of the finger was enough to cause her to trot off at once. Trevize and Pelorat remained.

 

            “They are not Foundationers, sirs,” said the robot, as though that explained it all. “One is Gaia and one is a Spacer.”

 

            Trevize remained silent while they were led to simply designed chairs under a tree. They seated themselves, at a gesture from the robot, and when he sat down, too, in a perfectly human movement, Trevize said, “Are you truly a robot?”

 

            “Truly, sir,” said Daneel.

 

            Pelorat’s face seemed to shine with joy. He said, “There are references to a robot named Daneel in the old legends. Are you named in his honor?”

 

            “I am that robot,” said Daneel. “It is not a legend.”

 

            “Oh no,” said Pelorat. “If you are that robot, you would have to be thousands of years old.”

 

            “Twenty thousand,” said Daneel quietly.

 

            Pelorat seemed abashed at that, and glanced at Trevize, who said, with a touch of anger, “If you are a robot, I order you to speak truthfully.”

 

            “I do not need to be told to speak truthfully, sir. Imust do so. You are faced then, sir, with three alternatives. Either I am a man who is lying to you; or I am a robot who has been programmed to believe that it is twenty thousand years old but, in fact, is not; or I am a robot who is twenty thousand years old. You must decide which alternative to accept.”

 

            “The matter may decide itself with continued conversation,” said Trevize dryly. “For that matter, it is hard to believe that this is the interior of the moon. Neither the light”-he looked up as he said that, for the light was precisely that of soft, diffuse sunlight, though no sun was in the sky, and, for that matter, no sky was clearly visible-”nor the gravity seems credible. This world should have a surface gravity of less than 0.2g.”

 

            “The normal surface gravity would be 0.16g actually, sir. It is built up, however, by the same forces that give you, on your ship, the sensation of normal gravity, even when you are in free fall, or under acceleration. Other energy needs, including the light, are also met gravitically, though we use solar energy where that is convenient. Our material needs are all supplied by the moon’s soil, except for the light elements-hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen which the moon does not possess. We obtain those by capturing an occasional comet. One such capture a century is more than enough to supply our needs.”

 

            “I take it Earth is useless as a source of supply.”

 

            “Unfortunately, that is so, sir. Our positronic brains are as sensitive to radioactivity as human proteins are.”

 

            “You use the plural, and this mansion before us seems, large, beautiful, and elaborate at least as seen from the outside. There are then other beings on the moon. Humans? Robots?”

 

            “Yes, sir. We have a complete ecology on the moon and a vast and complex hollow within which that ecology exists. The intelligent beings are all robots, however, more or less like myself. You will see none of them, however. As for this mansion, it is used by myself only and it is an establishment that is modeled exactly on one I used to live in twenty thousand years ago.”

 

            “Which you remember in detail, do you?” .

 

            “Perfectly, sir. I was manufactured, and existed for a time-how brief a time it seems to me, now-on the Spacer world of Aurora.”

 

            “The one with the-” Trevize paused.

 

            “Yes, sir. The one with the dogs.”

 

            “You know about that?”

 

            “Yes, sir.”

 

            “How do you come to be here, then, if you lived at first on Aurora?”

 

            “Sir, it was to prevent the creation of a radioactive Earth that I came here in the very beginnings of the settlement of the Galaxy. There was another robot with me, named Giskard, who could sense and adjust minds.”

 

            “As Bliss can?”

 

            “Yes, sir. We failed, in a way, and Giskard ceased to operate. Before the cessation, however, he made it possible for me to have his talent and left it to me to care for the Galaxy; for Earth, particularly.”

 

            “Why Earth, particularly?”

 

            “In part because of a man named Elijah Baley, an Earthman.”

 

            Pelorat put in excitedly, “He is the culture-hero I mentioned some time ago, Golan.”

 

            “A culture-hero, sir?”

 

            “What Dr. Pelorat means,” said Trevize, “is that he is a person to whom much was attributed, and who may have been an amalgamation of many men in actual history, or who may be an invented person altogether.”

 

            Daneel considered for a moment, and then said, quite calmly, “That is not so, sirs. Elijah Baley was a real man and he was one man. I do not know what your legends say of him, but in actual history, the Galaxy might never have been settled without him. In his honor, I did my best to salvage what I could of Earth after it began to turn radioactive. My fellow-robots were distributed over the Galaxy in an effort to influence a person here a person there. At one time I maneuvered a beginning to the recycling of Earth’s soil. At another much later time, I maneuvered a beginning to the terraforming of a world circling the nearby star, now called Alpha. In neither case was I truly successful. I could never adjust human minds entirely as I wished, for there was always the chance that I might do harm to the various humans who were adjusted. I was bound, you see-and am bound to this day-by the Laws of Robotics.”

 

            “Yes?”

 

            It did not necessarily take a being with Daneel’s mental power to detect uncertainty in that monosyllable.

 

            “The First Law,” he said, “is this, sir: ‘A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.’ The Second Law: ‘A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.’ The Third Law: ‘A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.’-Naturally, I give you these laws in the approximation of language. In actual fact they represent complicated mathematical configurations of our positronic brain-paths.”

 

            “Do you find it difficult to deal with those Laws?”

 

            “I must, sir. The First Law is an absolute that almost forbids the use of my mental talents altogether. When dealing with the Galaxy it is not likely that any course of action will prevent harm altogether. Always, some people, perhaps many people, will suffer so that a robot must choose minimum harm. Yet, the complexity of possibilities is such that it takes time to make that choice and one is, even then, never certain.”

 

            “I see that,” said Trevize.

 

            “All through Galactic history,” said Daneel, “I tried to ameliorate the worst aspects of the strife and disaster that perpetually made itself felt in the Galaxy. I may have succeeded, on occasion, and to some extent, but if you know your Galactic history, you will know that I did not succeed often, or by much.”

 

            “That much I know,” said Trevize, with a wry smile.

 

            “Just before Giskard’s end, he conceived of a robotic law that superseded even the first. We called it the ‘Zeroth Law’ out of an inability to think of any other name that made sense. The Zeroth Law is: ‘A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.’ This automatically means that the First Law must be modified to be: ‘A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the Zeroth Law.’ And similar modifications must be made in the Second and Third Laws.”

 

            Trevize frowned. “How do you decide what is injurious, or not injurious, to humanity as a whole?”

 

            “Precisely, sir,” said Daneel. “In theory, the Zeroth Law was the answer to our problems. In practice, we could never decide. A human being is a concrete object. Injury to a person can be estimated and judged. Humanity is an abstraction. How do we deal with it?”

 

            “I don’t know,” said Trevize.

 

            “Wait,” said Pelorat. “You could convert humanity into a single organism. Gaia.”

 

            “That is what I tried to do, sir. I engineered the founding of Gaia. If humanity could be made a single organism, it would become a concrete object, and it could be dealt with. It was, however, not as easy to create a superorganism as I had hoped. In the first place, it could not be done unless human beings valued the superorganism more than their individuality, and I had to find a mind-cast that would allow that. It was a long time before I thought of the Laws of Robotics.”

 

            “Ah, then, the Gaiansare robots. I had suspected that from the start.”

 

            “In that case, you suspected incorrectly, sir. They are human beings, but they have brains firmly inculcated with the equivalent of the Laws of Robotics. They have to value life,really value it.-And even after that was done, there remained a serious flaw. A superorganism consisting of human beings only is unstable. It cannot be set up. Other animals must be added-then plants-then the inorganic world. The smallest superorganism that is truly stable is an entire world, and a world large enough and complex enough to have a stable ecology. It took a long time to understand this, and it is only in this last century that Gaia wasfully established and that it became ready to move on toward Galaxia and, even so, that will take a long time, too. Perhaps not as long as the road already traveled, however, since we now know the rules.”

 

            “But you needed me to make the decision for you. Is that it, Daneel?”

 

            “Yes, sir. The Laws of Robotics would not allow me, nor Gaia, to make the decision and chance harm to humanity. And meanwhile, five centuries ago, when it seemed that I would never work out methods for getting round all the difficulties that stood in the way of establishing Gaia, I turned to the second-best and helped bring about the development of the science of psychohistory.”

 

            “I might have guessed that,” mumbled Trevize. “You know, Daneel, I’m beginning to believe youare twenty thousand years old.”

 

            “Thank you, sir.”

 

            Pelorat said, “Wait a while. I think I see something. Are you part of Gaia yourself, Daneel? Would that be how you knew about the dogs on Aurora? Through Bliss?”

 

            Daneel said, “In a way, sir, you are correct. I am associated with Gaia, though I am not part of it.”

 

            Trevize’s eyebrows went up. “That sounds like Comporellon, the world we visited immediately after leaving Gaia. It insists it is not part of the Foundation Confederation, but is only associated with it.”

 

            Slowly, Daneel nodded. “I suppose that analogy is apt, sir. I can, as an associate of Gaia, make myself aware of what Gaia is aware of-in the person of the woman, Bliss, for instance. Gaia, however, cannot make itself aware of what I am aware of, so that I maintain my freedom of action. That freedom of action is necessary until Galaxia is well established.”

 

            Trevize looked steadily at the robot for a moment, then said, “And did you use your awareness through Bliss in order to interfere with events on our journey to mold them to your better liking?”

 

            Daneel sighed in a curiously human fashion. “I could not do much, sir. The Laws of Robotics always hold me back.-And yet, I lightened the load on Bliss’s mind, taking a small amount of added responsibility on myself, so that she might deal with the wolves of Aurora and the Spacer on Solaria with greater dispatch and with less harm to herself. In addition, I influenced the woman on Comporellon and the one on New Earth, through Bliss, in order to have them look with favor on you, so that you might continue on your journey.”

 

            Trevize smiled, half-sadly. “I ought to have known it wasn’t I”

 

            Daneel accepted the statement without its rueful self-deprecation. “On the contrary, sir,” he said, “it was you in considerable part. Each of the two women looked with favor upon you from the start. I merely strengthened the impulse already present-about all one can safely do under the strictures of the Laws of Robotics. Because of those strictures-and for other reasons as well-it was only with great difficulty that I brought you here, and only indirectly. I was in great danger at several points of losing you.”

 

            “And now Iam here,” said Trevize. “What is it you want of me? To confirm my decision in favor of Galaxia?”

 

            Daneel’s face, always expressionless, somehow managed to seem despairing. “No, sir. The mere decision is no longer enough. I brought you here, as best I could in my present condition, for something far more desperate. I am dying.”

 

  

 

 102.

 

  

 

            PERHAPS it was because of the matter-of-fact way in which Daneel said it; or perhaps because a lifetime of twenty thousand years made death seem no tragedy to one doomed to live less than half a percent of that period; but, in any case, Trevize felt no stir of sympathy.

 

            “Die? Can a machine die?”

 

            “I can cease to exist, sir. Call it by whatever word you wish. I am old. Not one sentient being in the Galaxy that was alive when I was first given consciousness is still alive today; nothing organic; nothing robotic. Even I myself lack continuity.”

 

            “In what way?”

 

            “There is no physical part of my body, sir, that has escaped replacement, not only once but many times. Even my positronic brain has been replaced on five different occasions. Each time the contents of my earlier brain were etched into the newer one to the last positron. Each time, the new brain had a greater capacity and complexity than the old, so that there was room for more memories, and for faster decision and action. But-”

 

            “But?”

 

            “The more advanced and complex the brain, the more unstable it is, and the more quickly it deteriorates. My present brain is a hundred thousand times as sensitive as my first, and has ten million times the capacity; but whereas my first brain endured for over ten thousand years, the present one is but six hundred years old and is unmistakably senescent. With every memory of twenty thousand years perfectly recorded and with a perfect recall mechanism in place, the brain is filled. There is a rapidly declining ability to reach decisions; an even more rapidly declining ability to test and influence minds at hyperspatial distances. Nor can I design a sixth brain. Further miniaturization will run against the blank wall of the uncertainty principle, and further complexity will but assure decay almost at once.”

 

            Pelorat seemed desperately troubled. “But surely, Daneel, Gaia can carry on without you. Now that Trevize has judged and selected Galaxia-”

 

            “The process simply took too long, sir,” said Daneel, as always betraying no emotion. “I had to wait for Gaia to be fully established, despite the unanticipated difficulties that arose. By the time a human being-Mr. Trevize-was located who was capable of making the key decision, it was too late. Do not think, however, that I took no measure to lengthen my life span. Little by little I have reduced my activities, in order to conserve what I could for emergencies. When I could no longer rely on active measures to preserve the-isolation of the Earth/moon system, I adopted passive ones. Over a period of years, the humaniform robots that have been working with me have been, one by one, called home. Their last tasks have been to remove all references to Earth in the planetary archives. And without myself and my fellow-robots in full play, Gaia will lack the essential tools to carry through the development of Galaxia in less than an inordinate period of time.”

 

            “And you knew all this,” said Trevize, “when I made my decision?”

 

            “A substantial time before, sir,” said Daneel. “Gaia, of course, did not know.”

 

            “But then,” said Trevize angrily, “what was the use of carrying through the charade? What good has it been? Ever since my decision, I have scoured the Galaxy, searching for Earth and what I thought of as its ‘secret’-not knowing the secret wasyou -in order that I might confirm the decision. Well, Ihave confirmed it. I know now that Galaxia is absolutely essential-and it appears to be all for nothing. Why could you not have left the Galaxy to itself-and me to myself?”

 

            Daneel said, “Because, sir, I have been searching for a way out, and I have been carrying on in the hope that I might find one. I think I have. Instead of replacing my brain with yet another positronic one, which is impractical, I might merge it with a human brain instead; a human brain that is not affected by the Three Laws, and will not only add capacity to my brain, but add a whole new level of abilities as well. That is why I have brought you here.”

 

            Trevize looked appalled. “You mean you plan to merge a human brain into yours? Have the human brain lose its individuality so that you can achieve a two-brain Gaia?”

 

            “Yes, sir. It would not make me immortal, but it might enable me to live long enough to establish Galaxia.”

 

            “And you broughtme here for that? You want my independence of the Three Laws and my sense of judgment made part of you at the price of my individuality?-No!”

 

            Daneel said, “Yet you said a moment ago that Galaxia is essential for the welfare of the human-”

 

            “Even if it is, it would take a long time to establish, and I would remain an individual in my lifetime. On the other hand, if it were established rapidly, there would be a Galactic loss of individuality and my own loss would be part of an unimaginably greater whole. I would, however, certainly never consent to lose my individuality while the rest of the Galaxy retains theirs.”

 

            Daneel said, “It is, then, as I thought. Your brain would not merge well and, in any case, it would serve a better purpose if you retained an independent judgmental ability.”

 

            “When did you change your mind? You said that it was for merging that you brought me here.”

 

            “Yes, and only by using the fullest extent of my greatly diminished powers. Still, when I said, ‘That is why I have brought you here,’ please remember that in Galactic Standard, the word ‘you’ represents the plural as well as the singular. I was referring to all of you.”

 

            Pelorat stiffened in his seat. “Indeed? Tell me then, Daneel, would a human brain that was merged with your brain share in all your memories-all twenty thousand years of it, back to legendary times?”

 

            “Certainly, sir.”

 

            Pelorat drew a long breath. “That would fulfill a lifetime search, and it is something I would gladly give up my individuality for. Please let me have the privilege of sharing your brain.”

 

            Trevize asked softly, “And Bliss? What about her?”

 

            Pelorat hesitated for no more than a moment. “Bliss will understand,” he said. “She will, in any case, be better off without me-after a while.”

 

            Daneel shook his head. “Your offer, Dr. Pelorat, is a generous one, but I cannot accept it. Your brain is an old one and it cannot survive for more than two or three decades at best, even in a merger with my own. I need something else.-See!” He pointed and said, “I’ve called her back.”

 

            Bliss was returning, walking happily, with a bounce to her steps.

 

            Pelorat rose convulsively to his feet. “Bliss! Oh no!”

 

            “Do not be alarmed, Dr. Pelorat,” said Daneel. “I cannot use Bliss. That would merge me with Gaia, and I must remain independent of Gaia, as I have already explained.”

 

            “But in that case,” said Pelorat, “who-”

 

            And Trevize, looking at the slim figure running after Bliss, said, “The robot has wanted Fallom all along, Janov.”

 

  

 

 103.

 

  

 

            Bliss returned, smiling, clearly in a state of great pleasure.

 

            “We couldn’t pass beyond the bounds of the estate,” she said, “but it all reminded me very much of Solaria. Fallom, of course, is convinced itis Solaria. I asked her if she didn’t think that Daneel had an appearance different from that of Jemby-after all, Jemby was metallic-and Fallom said, ‘No, not really.’ I don’t know what she meant by ‘not really.”‘

 

            She looked across to the middle distance where Fallom was now playing her flute for a grave Daneel, whose head nodded in time. The sound reached them, thin, clear, and lovely.

 

            “Did you know she took the flute with her when we left the ship?” asked Bliss. “I suspect we won’t be able to get her away from Daneel for quite a while.”

 

            The remark was met with a heavy silence, and Bliss looked at the two men in quick alarm. “What’s the matter?”

 

            Trevize gestured gently in Pelorat’s direction. It was up to him, the gesture seemed to say.

 

            Pelorat cleared his throat and said, “Actually, Bliss, I think that Fallom will be staying with Daneel permanently.”

 

            “Indeed?” Bliss, frowning, made as though to walk in Daneel’s direction, but Pelorat caught her arm. “Bliss dear, you can’t. He’s more powerful than Gaia even now, and Fallom must stay with him if Galaxia is to come into existence. Let me explain-and, Golan, please correct me if I get anything wrong.”

 

            Bliss listened to the account, her expression sinking into something close to despair.

 

            Trevize said, in an attempt at cool reason, “You see how it is, Bliss. The child is a Spacer and Daneel was designed and put together by Spacers. The child was brought up by a robot and knew nothing else on an estate as empty as this one. The child has transductive powers which Daneel will need, and she will live for three or four centuries, which may be what is required for the construction of Galaxia.”

 

            Bliss said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes moist, “I suppose that the robot maneuvered our trip to Earth in such a way as to make us pass through Solaria in order to pick up a child for his use.”

 

            Trevize shrugged. “He may simply have taken advantage of the opportunity. I don’t think his powers are strong enough at the moment to make complete puppets of us at hyperspatial distances.”

 

            “No. It was purposeful. He made certain that I would feel strongly attracted to the child so that I would take her with me, rather than leave her to be killed; that I would protect her even against you when you showed nothing but resentment and annoyance at her being with us.”

 

            Trevize said, “That might just as easily have been your Gaian ethics, which Daneel could have strengthened a bit, I suppose. Come, Bliss, there’s nothing to be gained. Suppose youcould take Fallom away. Where could you then take her that would make her as happy as she is here? Would you take her back to Solaria where she would be killed quite pitilessly; to some crowded world where she would sicken and die; to Gaia, where she would wear her heart out longing for Jemby; on an endless voyage through the Galaxy, where she would think that every world we came across was her Solaria? And would you find a substitute for Daneel’s use so that Galaxia could be constructed?”

 

            Bliss was sadly silent.

 

            Pelorat held out his hand to her, a bit timidly. “Bliss,” he said, “I volunteered to have my brain fused with Daneel’s. He wouldn’t take it because he said I was too old. I wish he had, if that would have saved Fallom for you.”

 

            Bliss took his hand and kissed it. “Thank you, Pel, but the price would be too high, even for Fallom.” She took a deep breath, and tried to smile. “Perhaps, when we get back to Gaia, room will be found in the global organism for a child for me-and I will place Fallom in the syllables of its name.”

 

            And now Daneel, as though aware that the matter was settled, was walking toward them, with Fallom skipping along at his side.

 

            The youngster broke into a run and reached them first. She said to Bliss, “Thank you, Bliss, for taking me home to Jemby again and for taking care of me while we were on the ship. I shall always remember you.” Then she flung herself at Bliss and the two held each other tightly.

 

            “I hope you will always be happy,” said Bliss. “I will remember you, too, Fallom dear,” and released her with reluctance.

 

            Fallom turned to Pelorat, and said, “Thank you, too, Pel, for letting me read your book-films.” Then, without an additional word, and after a trace of hesitation, the thin, girlish hand was extended to Trevize. He took it for a moment, then let it go.

 

            “Good luck, Fallom,” he muttered.

 

            Daneel said, “I thank you all, sirs and madam, for what you have done, each in your own way. You are free to go now, for your search is ended. As for my own work, it will be ended, too, soon enough, and successfully now.”

 

            But Bliss said, “Wait, we are not quite through. We don’t know yet whether Trevize is still of the mind that the proper future for humanity is Galaxia, as opposed to a vast conglomeration of Isolates.”

 

            Daneel said, “He has already made that clear a while ago, madam. He has decided in favor of Galaxia.”

 

            Bliss’s lips tightened. “I’d rather hear that from him.-Which is it to be, Trevize?”

 

            Trevize said calmly, “Which do you want it to be, Bliss? If I decide against Galaxia, you may get Fallom back.”

 

            Bliss said, “I am Gaia. I must know your decision, and its reason, for the sake of the truth and nothing else.”

 

            Daneel said, “Tell her, sir. Your mind, as Gaia is aware, is untouched.”

 

            And Trevize said, “The decision is for Galaxia. There is no further doubt in my mind on that point.”

 

  

 

 104.

 

  

 

            Bliss remained motionless for the time one might take to count to fifty at a moderate rate, as though she were allowing the information to reach all parts of Gaia, and then she said, “Why?”

 

            Trevize said, “Listen to me. I knew from the start that there were two possible futures for humanity-Galaxia, or else the Second Empire of Seldon’s Plan. And it seemed to me that those two possible futures were mutually exclusive. We couldn’t have Galaxia unless, for some reason, Seldon’s Plan had some fundamental flaw in it.

 

            “Unfortunately, I knew nothing about Seldon’s Plan except for the two axioms on which it is based: one, that there be involved a large enough number of human beings to allow humanity to be treated statistically as a group of individuals interacting randomly; and second, that humanity not know the results of psychohistorical conclusions before the results are achieved.

 

            “Since I had already decided in favor of Galaxia, I felt I must be subliminally aware of flaws in Seldon’s Plan, and those flaws could only be in the axioms, which were all I knew of the plan. Yet I could see nothing wrong with the axioms. I strove, then, to find Earth, feeling that Earth could not be so thoroughly hidden for no purpose. I had to find out what that purpose was.

 

            “I had no real reason to expect to find a solution once I found Earth, but I was desperate and could think of nothing else to do.-And perhaps Daneel’s desire for a Solarian child helped drive me.

 

            “In any case, we finally reached Earth, and then the moon, and Bliss detected Daneel’s mind, which he, of course, was deliberately reaching out to her. She described that mind as neither quite human nor quite robotic. In hindsight, that proved to make sense, for Daneel’s brain is far advanced beyond any robot that ever existed, and would not be sensed as simply robotic. Neither would it be sensed as human, however. Pelorat referred to it as ‘something new’ and that served as a trigger for ‘something new’ of my own; a new thought.

 

            “Just as, long ago, Daneel and his colleague worked out a fourth law of robotics that was more fundamental than the other three, so I could suddenly see a third basic axiom of psychohistory that was more fundamental than the other two; a third axiom so fundamental that no one ever bothered to mention it.

 

            “Here it is. The two known axioms deal with human beings, and they are based on the unspoken axiom that human beings are theonly intelligent species in the Galaxy, and therefore the only organisms whose actions are significant in the development of society and history. That is the unstated axiom: that there is only one species of intelligence in the Galaxy and that it isHomo Sapiens . If there were ‘something, new:’ if there were other species of intelligence widely different in nature, then their behavior would not be described accurately by the mathematics of psychohistory and Seldon’s Plan would have no meaning. Do you see?”

 

            Trevize was almost shaking with the earnest desire to make himself understood. “Do you see?” he repeated.

 

            Pelorat said, “Yes, I see, but as devil’s advocate, old chap-”

 

            “Yes? Go on.”

 

            “Human beingsare the only intelligences in the Galaxy.”

 

            “Robots?” said Bliss. “Gain?”

 

            Pelorat thought awhile, then said hesitantly-, “Robots have played no significant role in human history since the disappearance of the Spacers. Gaia has played no significant role until very recently. Robots are the creation of human beings, and Gaia is the creation of robots-and both robots and Gala, insofar as they must be bound by the Three Laws, have no choice but to yield to human will. Despite the twenty thousand years Daneel has labored, and the long development of Gaia, a single word from Golan Trevize, a human being, would put an end to both those labors and that development. It follows, then, that humanity is the only significant species of intelligence in the Galaxy, and psychohistory-remains valid.”

 

            “The only form of intelligence in the Galaxy,” repeated Trevize slowly. “I agree. Yet we speak so much and so often of the Galaxy that it is all but impossible for us to see that this is not enough. The Galaxy is not the universe. There are other galaxies.”

 

            Pelorat and Bliss stirred uneasily. Daneel listened with benign gravity, his hand slowly stroking Fallom’s hair.

 

            Trevize said, “Listen to me again. Just outside the Galaxy are the Magellanic Clouds, where no human ship has ever penetrated. Beyond that are other small galaxies, and not very far away is the giant Andromeda Galaxy, larger than our own. Beyond that are galaxies by the billions.

 

            “Our own Galaxy has developed only one species of an intelligence great enough to develop a technological society, but what do we know of the other galaxies? Ours may be atypical. In some of the others-perhaps even in all-there may be many competing intelligent species, struggling with each other, and each incomprehensible to us. Perhaps it is their mutual struggle that preoccupies them, but what if, in some galaxy, one species gains domination over the rest and then has time to consider the possibility of penetrating other galaxies.

 

            “Hyperspatially, the Galaxy is a point-and so is all the Universe. We have not visited any other galaxy, and, as far as we know, no intelligent species from another galaxy has ever visited us-but that state of affairs may end someday. And if the invaders come, they are bound to find ways of turning some human beings against other human beings. We have so long had only ourselves to fight that we are used to such internecine quarrels. An invader that finds us divided against ourselves will dominate us all, or destroy us all. The only true defense is to produce Galaxia, which cannot be turned against itself and which can meet invaders with maximum power.”

 

            Bliss said, “The picture you paint is a frightening one. Will we have time to form Galaxia?”

 

            Trevize looked up, as though to penetrate the thick layer of moonrock that separated him from the surface and from space; as though to force himself to see those far distant galaxies, moving slowly through unimaginable vistas of space.

 

            He said, “In all human history, no other intelligence has impinged on us, to our knowledge. This need only continue a few more centuries, perhaps little more than one ten thousandth of the time civilization has already existed, and we will be safe. After all,” and here Trevize felt a sudden twinge of trouble, which he forced himself to disregard, “it is not as though we had the enemy already here and among us.”

 

            And he did not look down to meet the brooding eyes of Fallom-hermaphroditic, transductive, different-as they rested, unfathomably, on him.

 

  

 

  

 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

  

 

            Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union to his great surprise. He moved quickly to correct the situation. When his parents emigrated to the United States, Isaac (three years old at the time) stowed away in their baggage. He has been an American citizen since the age of eight.

 

            Brought up in Brooklyn, and educated in its public schools, he eventually found his way to Columbia University and, over the protests of the school administration, managed to annex a series of degrees in chemistry, up to and including a Ph.D. He then infiltrated Boston University and climbed the academic ladder, ignoring all cries of outrage, until he found himself Professor of Biochemistry.

 

            Meanwhile, at the age of nine, he found the love of his life (in the inanimate sense) when he discovered his first science-fiction magazine. By the time he was eleven, he began to write stories, and at eighteen, he actually worked up the nerve to submit one. It was rejected. After four long months of tribulation and suffering, he sold his first story and, thereafter, he never looked back.

 

            In 1941, when he was twenty-one years old, he wrote the classic short story “Nightfall” and his future was assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his robot stories, and shortly after that he had begun his Foundation series.

 

            What was left except quantity? At the present time, he has published over 340 books, distributed through every major division of the Dewey system of library classification, and shows no signs of slowing up. He remains as youthful, as lively, and as lovable as ever, and grows more handsome with each year. You can be sure that this is so since he has written this little essay himself and his devotion to absolute objectivity is notorious.

 

            He is married to Janet Jeppson, psychiatrist and writer, has two children by a previous marriage, and lives in New York City.