by Isaac Asimov
“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-”
“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.”
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 tho
ught 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 make you 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’m different.”
“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, “I must 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, “I viewed 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 the matter?”
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 thinks too 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?”
“Her mother. 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 wonder why 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 there was 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 what we 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 w
hich 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’s not 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.