Asimov’s Future History Volume 19

by Isaac Asimov

  He said, “The dark side seems dark, but if our eyes were sensitive to the range just a little beyond the usual long-wave limit, we would see it as a dull, deep, angry red. The planet is pouring infrared radiation out into space in great quantities because it is massive enough to be almost red-hot. It’s more than a gas giant; it’s a sub-star.”

  He waited a little longer and then said, “And now let’s put that object out of our mind and look for the habitable planet that may exist.”

  “Perhaps it does,” said Pelorat, smiling. “Don’t give up, old fellow.”

  “I haven’t given up,” said Trevize, without true conviction. “The formation of planets is too complicated a matter for rules to be hard and fast. We speak only of probabilities. With that monster out in space, the probabilities decrease, but not to zero.”

  Bliss said, “Why don’t you think of it this way? Since the first two sets of co-ordinates each gave you a habitable planet of the Spacers, then this third set, which has already given you an appropriate star, should give you a habitable planet as well. Why speak of probabilities?”

  “I certainly hope you’re right,” said Trevize, who did not feel at all consoled. “Now we will shoot out of the planetary plane and in toward the star.”

  The computer took care of that almost as soon as he had spoken his intention. He sat back in his pilot’s chair and decided, once again, that the one evil of piloting a gravitic ship with a computer so advanced was that one could never-never-pilot any other type of ship again.

  Could he ever again bear to do the calculations himself? Could he bear to have to take acceleration into account, and limit it to a reasonable level?-In all likelihood, he would forget and pour on the energy till he and everyone on board were smashed against one interior wall or another.

  Well, then, he would continue to pilot this one ship-or another exactly like it, if he could even bear to make so much of a change-always.

  And because he wanted to keep his mind off the question of the habitable planet, yes or no, he mused on the fact that he had directed the ship to move above the plane, rather than below. Barring any definite reason to go below a plane, pilots almost always chose to go above. Why?

  For that matter, why be so intent on considering one direction above and the other below? In the symmetry of space that was pure convention.

  Just the same, he was always aware of the direction in which any planet under observation rotated about its axis and revolved about its star. When both were counterclockwise, then the direction of one’s raised arm was north, and the direction of one’s feet was south. And throughout the Galaxy, north was pictured as above and south as below.

  It was pure convention, dating back into the primeval mists, and it was followed slavishly. If one looked at a familiar map with south above, one didn’t recognize it. It had to be turned about to make sense. And all things being equal, one turned north-and “above.”

  Trevize thought of a battle fought by Bel Riose, the Imperial general of three centuries before, who had veered his squadron below the planetary plane at a crucial moment, and caught a squadron of vessels, waiting and unprepared. There were complaints that it had been an unfair maneuver-by the losers, of course.

  A convention, so powerful and so primordially old, must have started on Earth-and that brought Trevize’s mind, with a jerk, back to the question of the habitable planet.

  Pelorat and Bliss continued to watch the gas giant as it slowly turned on the viewscreen in a slow, slow back-somersault. The sunlit portion spread and, as Trevize kept its spectrum fixed in the orange-red wavelengths, the storm-writhing of its surface became ever madder and more hypnotic.

  Then Fallom came wandering in and Bliss decided it must take a nap and that so must she.

  Trevize said to Pelorat, who remained, “I have to let go of the gas giant, Janov. I want to have the computer concentrate on the search for a gravitational blip of the right size.”

  “Of course, old fellow,” said Pelorat.

  But it was more complicated than that. It was not just a blip of the right size that the computer had to search for, it was one of the right size and at the right distance. It would still be several days before he could be sure.

  61.

  TREVIZE WALKED INTO his room, grave, solemn-indeed somber-and started perceptibly.

  Bliss was waiting for him and immediately next to her was Fallom, with its loincloth and robe bearing the unmistakable fresh odor of steaming and vacupressing. The youngster looked better in that than in one of Bliss’s foreshortened nightgowns.

  Bliss said, “I didn’t want to disturb you at the computer, but now listen.-Go on, Fallom.”

  Fallom said, in its high-pitched musical voice, “I greet you, Protector Trevize. It is with great pleasure that I am ap-ad-accompanying you on this ship through space. I am happy, too, for the kindness of my friends, Bliss and Pel.”

  Fallom finished and smiled prettily, and once again Trevize thought to himself: Do I think of it as a boy or as a girl or as both or as neither?

  He nodded his head. “Very well memorized. Almost perfectly pronounced.”

  “Not at all memorized,” said Bliss warmly. “Fallom composed this itself and asked if it would be possible to recite it to you. I didn’t even know what Fallom would say till I heard it said.”

  Trevize forced a smile, “In that case, very good indeed.” He noticed Bliss avoided pronouns when she could.

  Bliss turned to Fallom and said, “I told you Trevize would like it.-Now go to Pel and you can have some more reading if you wish.”

  Fallom ran off, and Bliss said, “It’s really astonishing how quickly Fallom is picking up Galactic. The Solarians must have a special aptitude for languages. Think how Bander spoke Galactic merely from hearing it on hyperspatial communications. Those brains may be remarkable in ways other than energy transduction.”

  Trevize grunted.

  Bliss said, “Don’t tell me you still don’t like Fallom.”

  “I neither like nor dislike. The creature simply makes me uneasy. For one thing, it’s a grisly feeling to be dealing with a hermaphrodite.”

  Bliss said, “Come, Trevize, that’s ridiculous. Fallom is a perfectly acceptable living creature. To a society of hermaphrodites, think how disgusting you and I must seem-males and females generally. Each is half of a whole and, in order to reproduce, there must be a temporary and clumsy union.”

  “Do you object to that, Bliss?”

  “Don’t pretend to misunderstand. I am trying to view us from the hermaphroditic standpoint. To them, it must seem repellent in the extreme; to us, it seems natural. So Fallom seems repellent to you, but that’s just a shortsighted parochial reaction.”

  “Frankly,” said Trevize, “it’s annoying not to know the pronoun to use in connection with the creature. It impedes thought and conversation to hesitate forever at the pronoun.”

  “But that’s the fault of our language,” said Bliss, “and not of Fallom. No human language has been devised with hermaphroditism in mind. And I’m glad you brought it up, because I’ve been thinking about it myself.-Saying ‘it,’ as Bander itself insisted on doing, is no solution. That is a pronoun intended for objects to which sex is irrelevant, and there is no pronoun at all for objects that are sexually active in both senses. Why not just pick one of the pronouns arbitrarily, then? I think of Fallom as a girl. She has the high voice of one, for one thing, and she has the capacity of producing young, which is the vital definition of femininity. Pelorat has agreed; why don’t you do so, too? Let it be ‘she’ and ‘her.” ‘

  Trevize shrugged. “Very well. It will sound peculiar to point out that she has testicles, but very well.”

  Bliss sighed. “You do have this annoying habit of trying to turn everything into a joke, but I know you are under tension and I’ll make allowance for that. Just use the feminine pronoun for Fallom, please.”

  “I will.” Trevize hesitated, then, unable to resist, said, “Fallom seems more yo
ur surrogate-child every time I see you together. Is it that you want a child and don’t think Janov can give you one?”

  Bliss’s eyes opened wide. “He’s not there for children! Do you think I use him as a handy device to help me have a child? It is not time for me to have a child, in any case. And when it is time, it will have to be a Gaian child, something for which Pel doesn’t qualify.”

  “You mean Janov will have to be discarded?”

  “Not at all. A temporary diversion, only. It might even be brought about by artificial insemination.”

  “I presume you can only have a child when Gaia’s decision is that one is’ necessary; when there is a gap produced by the death of an already-existing Gaian human fragment.”

  “That is an unfeeling way of putting it, but it is true enough. Gaia must be well proportioned in all its parts and relationships.”

  “As in the case of the Solarians.”

  Bliss’s lips pressed together and her face grew a little white. “Not at all. ‘‘The Solarians produce more than they need and destroy the excess. We produce just what we need and there is never a necessity of destroying-as you replace the dying outer layers of your skin by just enough new growth for renewal and by not one cell more.”

  “I see what you mean,” said Trevize. “I hope, by the way, that you are considering Janov’s feelings.”

  “In connection with a possible child for me? That has never come up for discussion; nor will it.”

  “No, I don’t mean that.-It strikes me you are becoming more and more interested in Fallom. Janov may feel neglected.”

  “He’s not neglected, and he is as interested in Fallom as I am. She is another point of mutual involvement that draws us even closer together. Can it be that you are the one who feels neglected?”

  “I?” He was genuinely surprised.

  “Yes, you. I don’t understand Isolates any more than you understand Gaia, but I have a feeling that you enjoy being the central point of attention on this ship, and you may feel cut out by Fallom.”

  “That’s foolish.”

  “No more foolish than your suggestion that I am’ neglecting Pel.”

  “Then let’s declare a truce and stop. I’ll try to view Fallom as a girl, and I shall not worry excessively about you being inconsiderate of Janov’s feelings.”

  Bliss smiled. “Thank you. All is well, then.”

  Trevize turned away, and Bliss then said, “Wait!”

  Trevize turned back and said, just a bit wearily, “Yes?”

  “It’s quite clear to me, Trevize, that you’re sad and depressed. I am not going to probe your mind, but you might be willing to tell me what’s wrong. Yesterday, you said there was an appropriate planet in this system and you seemed quite pleased.-It’s still there, I hope. The finding hasn’t turned out to be mistaken, has it?”

  “There’s an appropriate planet in the system, and it’s still there,” said Trevize.

  “Is it the right size?”

  Trevize nodded. “Since it’s appropriate, it’s of the right size. And it’s at the right distance from the star as well.”

  “Well, then, what’s wrong?”

  “We’re close enough now to analyze the atmosphere. It turns out that it has none to speak of.”

  “No atmosphere?”

  “None to speak of. It’s a nonhabitable planet, and there is no other circling the sun that has even the remotest capacity for habitability. We have come up with zero on this third attempt.”

  62.

  PELORAT, LOOKING GRAVE, was clearly unwilling to intrude on Trevize’s unhappy silence. He watched from the door of the pilot-room, apparently hoping that Trevize would initiate a conversation.

  Trevize did not. If ever a silence seemed stubborn, his did.

  And finally, Pelorat could stand it no longer, and said, in a rather timid way, “What are we doing?”

  Trevize looked up, stared at Pelorat for a moment, turned away, and then said, “We’re zeroing in on the planet.”

  “But since there’s no atmosphere-”

  “The computer says there’s no atmosphere. Till now, it’s always told me what I’ve wanted to hear and I’ve accepted it. Now it has told me something I don’t want to hear, and I’m going to check it. If the computer is ever going to be wrong, this is the time I want it to be wrong.”

  “Do you think it’s wrong?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Can you think of any reason that might make it wrong?”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Then why are you bothering, Golan?”

  And Trevize finally wheeled in his seat to face Pelorat, his face twisted in near-despair, and said, “Don’t you see, Janov, that I can’t think of anything else to do? We drew blanks on the first two worlds as far as Earth’s location is concerned, and now this world is a blank. What do I do now? Wander from world to world, and peer about and say, ‘Pardon me. Where’s Earth?’ Earth has covered its tracks too well. Nowhere has it left any hint. I’m beginning to think that it will see to it that we’re incapable of picking up a hint even if one exists.”

  Pelorat nodded, and said, “I’ve been thinking along those lines myself. Do you mind if we discuss it? I know you’re unhappy, old chap, and don’t want to talk, so if you want me to leave you alone, I will.”

  “Go ahead, discuss it,” said Trevize, with something that was remarkably like a groan. “What have I got better to do than listen?”

  Pelorat said, “That doesn’t sound as though you really want me to talk, but perhaps it will do us good. Please stop me at any time if you decide you can stand it no longer.-It seems to me, Golan, that Earth need not take only passive and negative measures to hide itself. It need not merely wipe out references to itself. Might it not plant false evidence and work actively for obscurity in that fashion?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, we’ve heard of Earth’s radioactivity in several places, and that sort of thing would be designed to make anyone break off any attempt to locate it. If it were truly radioactive, it would be totally unapproachable. In all likelihood, we would not even be able to set foot on it. Even robot explorers, if we had any, might not survive the radiation. So why look? And if it is not radioactive, it remains inviolate, except for accidental approach, and even then it might have other means of masking itself.”

  Trevize managed a smile. “Oddly enough, Janov, that thought has occurred to me. It has even occurred to me that that improbable giant satellite has been invented and planted in the world’s legends. As for the gas giant with the monstrous ring system, that is equally improbable and may be equally planted. It is all designed, perhaps, to have us look for something that doesn’t exist, so that we go right through the correct planetary system, staring at Earth and dismissing it because, in actual fact, it lacks a large satellite or a triple-ringed cousin or a radioactive crust. We don’t recognize it, therefore, and don’t dream we are looking at it.-I imagine worse, too.”

  Pelorat looked downcast. “How can there be worse?”

  “Easily-when your mind gets sick in the middle of the night and begins searching the vast realm of fantasy for anything that can deepen despair. What if Earth’s ability to hide is ultimate? What if our minds can be clouded? What if we can move right past Earth, with its giant satellite and with its distant ringed gas giant, and never see any of it? What if we have already done so?”

  “But if you believe that, why are we-?”

  “I don’t say I believe that. I’m talking about mad fancies. We’ll keep on looking.”

  Pelorat hesitated, then said, “For how long, Trevize? At some point, surely, we’ll have to give up.”

  “Never,” said Trevize fiercely. “If I have to spend the rest of my life going from planet to planet and peering about and saying, ‘Please, sir, where’s Earth?’ then that’s what I’ll do. At any time, I can take you and Bliss and even Fallom, if you wish, back to Gaia and then take of on my own.”

  “Oh
no. You know I won’t leave you, Golan, and neither will Bliss. We’ll go planet-hopping with you, if we must. But why?”

  “Because I must find Earth, and because I will. I don’t know how, but I will.-Now, look, I’m trying to reach a position where I can study the sunlit aide of the planet Without its suit being too close, so just let me be for a while.”

  Pelorat fell silent, but did not leave. He continued to watch while Trevize studied the planetary image, more than half in daylight, on the screen. To Pelorat, it seemed featureless, but he knew that Trevize, bound to the computer, saw it under enhanced circumstances.

  Trevize whispered, “There’s a haze.”

  “Then there must be an atmosphere,” blurted out Pelorat.

  “Not necessarily much of one. Not enough to support life, but enough to support a thin wind that will raise dust. It’s a well-known characteristic of planets with thin atmospheres. There may even be small polar ice caps. A little water-ice condensed at the poles, you know. This world is too warm for solid carbon dioxide.-I’ll have to switch to radar-mapping. And if I do that I can work more easily on the nightside.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I should have tried it first, but with a virtually airless and, therefore, cloudless planet, the attempt. with visible light seems so natural.”

  Trevize was silent for a long time, while the viewscreen grew fuzzy with radar-reflections that produced almost the abstraction of a planet, something that an artist of the Cleonian period might have produced. Then he said, “Well-” emphatically, holding the sound for a while, and was silent again.

  Pelorat said, at last, “What’s the ‘well’ about?”

  Trevize looked at him briefly. “No craters that I can see.”

  “No craters? Is that good?”

  “Totally unexpected,” said Trevize. His face broke into a grin, “And very good. In fact, possibly magnificent.”