by Isaac Asimov
“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.”
“I help her,” said Bliss. “Remember that. And she’s very 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 this must 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.
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. It is 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 at must 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 dangerous too close to a star. And in this 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 our forebears 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—She has 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 by my 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—�
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“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 Earth were 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 it must 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.”
