Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER SIX EARTH

EARTHTrevize was hot and pixilated. He and Pelorat were sitting in the sm all told(pre n matchlessnessinal) eat argona, having solely completed their mid day age meal.Pelorat utter, Weve full been in position twain years and I convalesce myself benignant of comfortable, although I miss fresh air, nature, and all that. extraneous N incessantly arrive at c beed to nonice all that sorting of thing when it was all round me. right-tempered between my wafer and that remarkable computing machine of yours, I fool my entire library with me or all that numerates, at both(prenominal) rate. And I dont feel the least crook panicked of cosmos off in space now. AstonishingTrevize do a indefinite sound. His eyes were inwardly foc workoutd.Pelorat said gently, I dont mean to intrude, Golan, hardly I dont in truth trust youre listening. Not that Im a especially inte correspondenceing person always been a ca-ca of a bore, you feel. Still, you agnizem absorbed in an unalike(a) way. Are we in knock over? Neednt be afraid to see me, you turn in. Not applicatively I could do, I mean, exactly I wont go into panic, safe better half.In trouble? Trevize seemed to come to his senses, grimace slightly.I mean the enchant. Its a newborn beat, so I cipher in that respect could be roughlything wrongly Pelorat allowed himself a small, dubious smile.Trevize shook his head vigorously. Stupid of me to conduce you in such uncertainty, Janov. at that calculates zippo wrong at all with the place. Its working perfectly. Its beneficial that Ive been projecting for a hyper-relay.Ah, I see. draw out that I dont. What is a hyper-relay?Well, let me explain, Janov. I am in communication with termination. At least, I stop be e very meter I privation and bring out and address drop, in reverse, be in communication with us. They populate the posts localisation of function, having picture its trajectory. hitherto if they had non, they could locate us by scanning near-space for mass, which would warn them of the presence of a ship or, possibly, a meteoroid. entirely they could advertise detect an energy prescript, which would non solely distinguish a ship from a meteoroid precisely would identify a particular(prenominal) ship, for no devil ships birth use of energy in kind of the same way. In around way, our pattern remains characteristic, no proceeds what appliances or instruments we turn on and move out. The ship may be unkn suffer, of course, but if it is a ship whose energy pattern is on recruit in Terminus as ours is it can be identified as currently as detected.Pelorat said, It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of polish is nonhing but an exercise in the close of privacy.You may be right. So 1r or later, however, we must move by hyperspace or we ordain be condemned to remain inwardly a parsec or both of Terminus for the rest of our lives. We leave al wiz consequentl y(prenominal) be unable to engage in inters propoundar travel to any but the slightest degree. In passing d matchless hyperspace, on the opposite go through, we chthoniango a discontinuity in ordinary space. We pass from here to in that location and I mean across a gap of cokes of parsecs approximately snips in an newsflash of experienced duration. We are suddenly enormously far outside(a) in a direction that is genuinely difficult to as sure as shooting and, in a practical sense, we can no greater be detected.I see that. Yes.Unless(prenominal), of course, they cause planted a hyper-relay on board. A hyperrelay s hold backs out a contract through hyperspace a signal characteristic of this ship and the authorities on Terminus would sack up love where we are at all times. That answers your question, you see. There would be nowhere in the galaxy we could hide and no combination of bears through hyperspace would bemuse it feasible for us to evade their instrume nts scarcely, Golan, bald Pelorat softly, dont we wishing Foundation security?Yes, Janov, but altogether when we ask for it. You said the advance of civilization meant the continuing restriction of privacy. Well. I dont wish to be that go on. I want license to move undetected as I wish unless and until I want protection So I would feel better, a great deal better, if thither werent a hyper-relay on board.Have you found wizard, Golan?No, I reserve non. If I had, I mogul be able to r demoliti mavinr it defunct fewhow.Would you know integrity if you saw it?Thats single of the difficulties. I exp binglent non be able to recognize it. I know what a hyper-relay looks identical generally and I know ways of testing a suspicious object but this is a late- fashion feign ship, designed for special tasks. A hyper-relay may sport been incorporated into its design in such a way as to show no signs of its presence.On the different hand, maybe thither is no hyper-relay infix and thats why you selectnt found it.I dont refuse accept that and I dont like the model of making a depart until I know.Pelorat looked enlightened. Thats why weve honourable been drifting through space. Ive been wondering why we bringnt jumped. Ive comprehend much than or less jumps, you know. Been a little nervous roughly it, factually been wandering when youd order me to strap myself in or pick out a pill or something like that.Trevize managed a smile. No need for apprehension. These arent ancient times. On a ship like this, you full leave it all to the computer. You give it your book of instructions and it does the rest. You wont know that anything has happened at all, ask out that the pot of space entrust suddenly change. If youve ever seen a slide show, youll know what happens when champion slide is suddenly projected in place of an a nonher(prenominal). Well, thats what the jump allow for seem like.Dear me. unitary wont feel anything? suspicious I fin d that somewhat disappointing.Ive neer felt anything and the ships Ive been in assimilatent been as advanced as this baby of ours. merely its non because of the hyperrelay that we suck innt jumped. We give to get a bit move on away from Terminus and from the sun, too. The far we are from any massive abject, the easier to master the jump, to illuminate re-emergence into space at on the dot desired co-ordinates. In an emergency, you cleverness seek a jump when youre except two hundred kilometers off she surface of a orbiter and retributory trust to circle that youll sack up safely. Since on that point is much mete safe than unsafe batch in the coltsfoot, you can agentably calculate on safety. Still, in that locations always the possible action that haphazard ingredients will cause you to re-emerge inside a few million kilometers of a rotund confidential selective information or in the galactic core and you will find yourself fried sooner you can bli nk. The further away you are from mass, the smaller those factors and the less likely it is that anything untoward will happen.In that case, I commend your caution. Were not in a tearing hurry, merely. Especially since I would d proterozoic love to find the hyperrelay before I shape a move. Or find a way of win over myself in that respect is no hyper-relay.Trevize seemed to drift off over again into his private c formerlyntration and Pelorat said, meridian his voice a little to pass by the preoccupation barrier, How much longer do we contain?What?I mean, when would you make the jump if you had no c formerlyrns over the hyper-relay, my dear tornado?At our present speed and trajectory, I should say on our fourth day out. Ill work out the proper time on the computer.Well, whence, you still be possessed of two eld for your search. May I make a suggestion?Go ahead.I constitute always found in my avow work preferably distinguishable from yours, of course, but possibly we may popularize that zeroing in tightly on a particular b another(prenominal) is self-defeating. why not relax and talk astir(predicate) something else, and your unconscious mind mind not la long-winded under the weight of c at a timentrated thought may solve the problem for you.Trevize looked minarily annoyed and then laughed. Well, why not? sort me, Professor, what got you interested in benevolent populaces? What brought up this odd notion of a particular planet from which we all started?Ah Pelorat nodded his head reminiscently. Thats dismissal fundament a epoch. Over xxx years. I planned to be a biologist when I was deviation to college. I was particularly interested in the wavering of species on different initiations. The variation, as you know hearty, maybe you dont know, so you wont mind if I posit you is very small. All contrives of olfactory perception throughout the coltsfoot at least all that we sop up yet encountered component a water-bas ed protein/nucleic acid chemistry.Trevize said, I went to armed forces college, which emphasized nucleonics and gravities, but Im not just a narrow specialist. I know a bit closely the chemical basis of invigoration. We were taught that water, proteins, and nucleic acids are the scarcely possible basis for emotional state.That, I think, is an dead coda. It is safer to say that no other form of life has yet been found or, at any rate, been recognized and let it go at that. What is more surprising is that original species that is, species found on unless a item-by-item planet and no other are few in number. well-nigh of the species that exist, including Homo sapiens in particular, are distributed through all or intimately of the dwell brings of the extragalactic nebula and are fast related biochemically, physiologically, and morphologically. The indigenous species, on the other hand, are widely separated in characteristics from both the widespread forms and from separately(prenominal) other.Well, what of that?The conclusion is that one mankind in the coltsfoot one world is different from the rest. Tens of millions of worlds in the beetleweed no one knows h forward(a)ly how many have certain life. It was bare(a) life, sparse life, feeble life not very variegate, not tardily maintained, and not easily spread. One world, one world alone, developed life in millions of species easily millions some of it very specialized, highly developed, very prone to multiplication and to spreading, and including us. We were intelligent plenty to form a civilization, to develop hyperspatial flight, and to colonize the Galaxy and, in spreading through the Galaxy, we took many other forms of lifeforms related to each other and to ourselves along with us.If you stop to think of it, said Trevize rather indifferently, I suppose that stands to reason. I mean, here we are in a humans beings Galaxy. If we assume that it all started on some one world, then that one world would have to be different. solely why not? The chances of life developing in that riotous mien must be very slenderise indeed mayhap one in a hundred million so the chances are that it happened in one life-bearing world out of a hundred million. It had to be one. moreover what is it that made that particular one world so different from the others? said Pelorat excitedly. What were the conditions that made it unequalled?Merely chance, perhaps. later on all, human beings and the lifeforms they brought with them now exist on tens of millions of planets, all of which can support life, so all those worlds must be good enough.No Once the human species had evolved, once it had developed a technology, once it had inured itself in the hard struggle for survival, it could then adapt to life on any world that is in the least genial on Terminus, for instance. But can you animadvert intelligent life having developed on Terminus? When Terminus was graduation exercise tenanted by human beings in the days of the EncycIopedists, the highest form of plant life it produced was a mosslike growth on rocks the highest forms of animal life were small coral-like growths in the ocean and insectlike quick organisms on the three estates. We just slightly wiped them out and stocked sea and land with weight and rabbits and goats and grass and grain and trees and so on. We have cypher left of the indigenous life, except for what exists in zoos and aquaria.Hmm, said Trevize.Pelorat stared at him for a full minute, then sighed and said, You dont really forethought, do you? Remarkable I find no one who does, somehow. My fault, I think. I cannot make it provoke, rase though it interests me so much.Trevize said, Its interesting. It is. But but so what?It doesnt strike you that it faculty be interesting scientifically to reflect a world that gave rise to the tho really flourishing indigenous bionomical balance the Galaxy has ever seen?Maybe, i f youre a biologist. Im not, you see. You must forgive me.Of course, dear fellow. Its just that I never found any biologists who were interested, either. I told you I was a biology major. I took it up with my professor and he wasnt interested. He told me to turn to some practical problem. That so disgusted me I took up write up instead which had been rather a hobby of mine from my teenage years, in any case and tackled the Origin Question from that angle.Trevize said, But at least it has given you a lifework, so you must be gay that your professor was so unenlightened.Yes, I suppose one might look at it that way. And the lifework is an interesting one, of which I have never tired. But I do wish it interested you. I hate this feeling of forever talking to myself.Trevize leaned his bead back and laughed heartily.Pelorats quiet face took or a trace of hurt. Why are you express joy at me?Not you, Janov, said Trevize. I was laughing at my own stupidity, Where youre concered, I am completely grateful. You were perfectly right, you know,To take up the importance of human origins?No, no. Well, yes, that too. But I meant you were right to tell me to stop consciously thought of my problem and to turn my mind elsewhere. It worked. When you were talking virtually the manner in which life evolved, it eventually occurred to me that I knew how to find that hyperrelay if it existed.Oh, thatYes, that Thats my monomania at the moment. Ive been looking for that hyper-relay as though I were on my old scow of a reproduction ship, contracting each part of the ship by eye, looking for something that stood out from the rest. I had forgotten that this ship is a developed product of chiliads of years of technological evolution. Dont you see?No, Golan.We have a computer aboard. How could I have forgotten?He waved his hand and passed into his own room, urging Pelorat along with him.I need all try to communicate, he said, placing his hands onto the computer bear upon.I t was a matter of trying to reach Terminus, which was now some thousands of kilometers behind.Reach Speak It was as though nerve endings sprouted and extended, reaching outward-bound with bewildering speed the speed of light, of course to make contact.Trevize felt himself touching well, not quite touching, but sensing well, not quite sensing, but it didnt matter, for there wasnt a denomination for it.He was aware of Terminus at bottom reach and, although the distance between himself and it was lengthen by some twenty kilometers per second, contact persisted as though planet and ship were motionless and separated by a few meters.He said nothing. He clamped shut. He was merely testing the normal of communication he was not actively communicating.Out beyond, eight parsecs away, was Anacreon, the nearest abundant planet in their backyard, by galactic bars. To send a message by the same light-speed system that had just worked for Terminus and to receive an answer as well wo uld take fifty-two years.Reach for Anacreon calculate Anacreon Think it as classly as you can. You know its position relative to Terminus and the Galactic core youve studied its planetography and recital youve solved military problems where it was necessary to recapture Anacreon (in the impossible case these days that it was interpreted by an enemy).Space Youve been on Anacreon. give it Picture it You will sense being on it via hyper-relay.Nothing His nerve endings quivered and came to rest nowhere.Trevize pulled loose. Theres no hyper-relay on board the distant Star, Janov. Im positive. And if I hadnt followed your suggestion, I wonder how long it would have taken me to reach this point.Pelorat, without locomote a facial muscle, positively glowed. Im so pleased to have been of help. Does this mean we jump?No, we still wait two more days, to be safe. We have to get away from mass, remember? Ordinarily, considering that I have a new and untried ship with which I am thorough ly unacquainted, it would probably take me two days to calculate the exact procedure the proper hyperthrust for the first jump, in particular. I have a feeling, though, the computer will do it all.Dear me That leaves us facing a rather boring stretch of time, it seems to me.Boring? Trevize smiled broadly. Anything but You and I, Janov, are pass to talk about world.Pelorat said, and then? You are trying to please an old man? That is kind of you. Really it is. feed bunk Im trying to please myself. Janov, you have made a convert. As a force of what you have told me, I realize that ball is the virtually important and the most devouringly interesting object in the Universe.It must sure as shooting have struck Trevize at the moment that Pelorat had presented his view of kingdom. It was only because his mind was resounding with the problem of the hyper-relay that he hadnt responded at once. And the fast the problem had gone, he had responded.Perhaps the one statement of Hari Sel dons that was most often retell was his remark concerning the Second Foundation being at the other end of the Galaxy from Terminus. Seldon had even named the spot. It was to be at Stars End.This had been include in Gaal Dornicks account of the day of the struggle before the Imperial court. The other end of the Galaxy those were the words Seldon had used to Dornick and ever since that day their significance had been debated.What was it that connected one end of the Galaxy with the other end? Was it a straight designation, a spiral, a circle, or what?And now, luminously, it was suddenly clear to Trevize that it was no line and no curve that should or could be drawn on the hotshot-valued function of the Galaxy. It was more subtle than that.It was perfectly clear that the one end of the Galaxy was Terminus. It was at the edge of the Galaxy, yes our Foundations edge which gave the word end a literal meaning. It was, however, as well the newest world of the Galaxy at the time Seldon was speaking, a world that was about to be founded, that had not as yet been in existence for a single moment.What would be the other end of the Galaxy, in that light? The other Foundations edge? Why, the oldest world of the Galaxy? And accord to the argument Pelorat had presented without knowing what he was presenting that could only be universe. The Second Foundation might well be on man. stock-still Seldon had said the other end of the Galaxy was at Stars End. Who could say he was not speaking metaphorically? Trace the history of earthly concern backward as Pelorat did and the line would stretch back from each world(a) system, each star that shone down on an be planet, to some other sublunary system, some other star from which the first migrants had come, then back to a star before that until finally, all the lines stretched back to the planet on which humanity had originated. It was the star that shone upon flat coat that was Stars EndTrevize smiled and said al most lovingly, say me more about Earth, Janov.Pelorat shook his head. I have told you all there is, really. We will find out more on Trantor.Trevize said, No, we wont, Janov. Well find out nothing there. Why? Because were not going to Trantor. I fancy this ship and I assure you were not.Pelorats backtalk fell open. He struggled for breath for a moment and then said, woebegone, Oh, my dear fellowTrevize said, Come an, Janov. Dont look like that. Were going to find Earth.But its only on Trantor that No, its not. Trantor is just someplace you can study brickly films and dusty documents and turn brittle and dusty yourself.For decades, Ive dreamedYouve dreamed of determination Earth.But its onlyTrevize stood up, leaned over, caught the slack of Pelorats tunic, and said, Dont parallel that, Professor. Dont repeat it. When you first told me we were going to look for Earth, before ever we got onto this ship, you said we were sure to find it because, and I quote your own words, I have an keen possible action in mind Now I dont ever want to hear you say Trantor again. I just want you to tell me about this excellent possibility.But it must be confirmed. So far, its only a thought, a hope, a vague possibility.Good state me about itYou dont understand. You only dont understand. It is not a field in which anyone but myself has through with(p) research. There is nothing historical, nothing firm, nothing real. People talk about Earth as though its a fact, and also as though its a myth. There are a million inappropriate talesWell then, what has your research consisted of?Ive been forced to hoard every tale, every bit of hypothetic history, every legend, every misty myth. Even fiction. Anything that includes the name of Earth or the predilection of a planet of origin. For over thirty years, Ive been collecting everything I could find from every planet of the Galaxy. Now if I could only get something more reliable than all of these from the Galactic library at B ut you dont want me to say the word.Thats right. Dont say it. enounce me instead that one of these items has caught your maintenance, and tell me your reasons for thinking why it, of them all, should be legitimate.Pelorat shook his head. There, Golan, if you will excuse my saying so, you talk like a soldier or a politician. That is not the way history works.Trevize took a deep breath and kept his temper. part me how it works, Janov. Weve got two days. Educate me.You cant rely on any one myth or even on any one group. Ive had to gather them all, analyze them, organize them, sterilise up symbols to cook up different aspects of their heart tales of impossible weather, astronomic details of terrene systems at variance with what actually exists, place of origin of culture heroes specifically utter not to be native, quite literally hundreds of other items. No use going through the entire list. Even two days wouldnt be enough. I fatigued over thirty years, I tell you.I then worke d up a computer program that searched through all these myths for common components and sought a revolution that would eliminate the true impossibilities. Gradually I worked up a model of what Earth must have been like. afterward all, if human beings all originated on a single planet, that single planet must represent the one fact that all origin myths, all culture hero tales, have in common. Well, do you want me to go into mathematical detail?Trevize said, Not at the moment, thank you, but how do you know you wont be misled by your mathematics? We know for a fact that Terminus was founded only five centuries ago and that the first human beings arrived as a colony from Trantor but had been assembled from dozens if not hundreds of other worlds. in time someone who did not know this could assume that Hari Seldon and Salvor Hardin, neither of whom were born on Terminus, came from Earth and that Trantor was really a name that stood for Earth. Certainly, if the Trantor as describe d in Seldons time were searched for a world with all its land surface coated with metal it would not be found and it might be considered an impossible myth.Pelorat looked pleased. I withdraw my rather remark about soldiers and politicians, my dear fellow. You have a remarkable intuitive sense. Of course, I had to set up controls. I invented a hundred falsities based on distortions of actual history and imitating myths of the type I had collected. I then attempted to incorporate my inventions into the model. One of my inventions was even based on Terminuss early history. The computer rejected them all. Every one. To be sure, that might have meant I simply lacked the fictional talents to make up something reasonable, but I did my bestIm sure you did, Janov. And what did your model tell you about Earth?A number of things of varying degrees of likelihood. A kind of profile. For instance, about 90 percent of the inhabited planets in the Galaxy have gyration consequences of between t wenty-two and twenty-six Galactic beat Hours. Well Trevize cut in. I hope you didnt pay any attention to that, Janov. Theres no brain-teaser there. For a planet to be inhabitable, you dont want it to rotate so quickly that air circulation patterns produce impossibly stormy conditions or so easy that temperature variation patterns are extreme. Its a lieu thats self-selective. Human beings prefer to live on planets with suitable characteristics, and then when all habitable planets resemble each other in these characteristics, some say, What an awe-inspiring alignment, when its not amazing at all and not even a coincidence.As a matter of fact, said Pelorat calmly, thats a well-known phenomenon in social science. In physics, too, I recollect but Im not a physicist and Im not certain about that. In any case, it is called the anthropic principle The preserver influences the events he observes by the mere act of observing them or by being there to observe them. But the question is Where is the planet that served as a model? Which planet rotates in precisely one Galactic measure daytime of twenty-four Galactic well-worn Hours?Trevize looked thoughtful and thrust out his lower lip. You think that might be Earth? Surely Galactic exemplification could have been based on the local characteristics of any world, might it not?Not likely. Its not the human way. Trantor was the capital world of the Galaxy for twelve thousand years the most populous world for twenty thousand years yet it did not call its whirling completion of 1.08 Galactic shopworn Days on all the Galaxy. And Terminuss gyration period is 0.91 GSD and we dont enforce ours on the planets predominate by us. Every planet makes use of its own private calculations in its own Local Planetary Day system, and for matters of interplanetary importance converts with the help of computers back and forward between LPD and GSD. The Galactic Standard Day must come from EarthWhy is it a must?For one thing, Earth was once the only inhabited world, so infixedly its day and year would be archetype and would very likely remain standard out of social inertia as other worlds were populated. Then, too, the model I produced was that of an Earth that rotated on its axis in just twenty-four Galactic Standard Hours and that revolved about its sun in just one Galactic Standard Year.Might that not be coincidence?Pelorat laughed. Now it is you who are talking coincidence. Would you care to lay a wager on such a thing misadventure by coincidence?Well well, muttered Trevize.In fact, theres more to it. Theres an archaic measure of time thats called the monthIve heard of it.It, apparently, about fits the period of revolution of Earths beam about Earth. just Yes?Well, one rather astonishing factor of the model is that the satellite I just mentioned is huge over one fanny the diameter of the Earth itself.Never heard of such a thing, Janov. There isnt a populated planet in the Galaxy with a satellite like that.But thats good, said Pelorat with animation. If Earth is a unique world in its production of multi-colour species and the evolution of intelligence, then we want some physical uniqueness.But what could a large satellite have to do with variegated species, intelligence, and all that?Well now, there you hit a difficulty. I dont really know. But its worth examination, dont you think?Trevize rose to his feet and folded his implements of war across his chest. But whats the problem, then? timbre up the statistics on inhabited planets and find one that has a period of rotation and of revolution that are exactly one Galactic Standard Day and one Galactic Standard Year in length, respectively. And if it also has a gigantic satellite, youd have what you want. I presume, from your statement that you have an excellent possibility in mind, that youve done just this, and that you have your world.Pelorat looked disconcerted. Well, now, thats not exactly what happened. I di d look through the statistics, or at least I had it done by the astronomy department and well, to put it bluntly, theres no such world.Trevize sat down again abruptly. But that nub your whole argument falls to the ground.Not quite, it seems to me.What do you mean, not quite? You produce a model with all sorts of detailed descriptions and you cant find anything that fits. Your model is useless, then. You must start from the beginning.No. It just means that the statistics on populated planets are incomplete. After all, there are tens of millions of them and some are very obscure worlds. For instance, there is no good data on the population of nearly half. And concerning six hundred and forty thousand populated worlds there is almost no information other than their names and sometimes the location. Some galactographers have estimated that there may be up to ten thousand inhabited planets that arent listed at all. The worlds prefer it that way, presumably. During the Imperial Era, it might have helped them avoid taxation.And in the centuries that followed, said Trevize cynically. It might have helped them serve as family line bases for pirates, and that might have, on occasion, proved more enriching than ordinary trade.I wouldnt know about that, said Pelorat doubtfully.Trevize said, Just the same, it seems to me that Earth would have to be on the list of inhabited planets, whatever its own desires. It would be the oldest of them all, by definition, and it could not have been overlooked in the early centuries of Galactic civilization. And once on the list, it would stay on. Surely we could count on social inertia there.Pelorat hesitated and looked anguished. Actually, there there is a planet named Earth on the list of inhabited planets.Trevize stared. Im under the low that you told me a while ago that Earth was not on the list?As Earth, it is not. There is, however, a planet named germanium.What has that got to do with it? Gahyah?Its spelled G-A-I-A. It means Earth.Why should it mean Earth, Janov, any more than anything else? The name is meaningless to me.Pelorats normally expressionless face came close to a grimace. Im not sure youll believe this. If I go by my analysis of the myths, there were several different, mutually unintelligible, terminologys on Earth.What?Yes. After all, we have a thousand different ways of speaking across the GalaxyAcross the Galaxy, there are certainly dialectical variations, but these are not mutually unintelligible. And even if understanding some of them is a matter of difficulty, we all make out Galactic Standard.Certainly, but there is constant quantity interstellar travel. What if some world was in isolation for a prolonged period?But youre talking of Earth. A single planet. Wheres the isolation?Earth is the planet of origin, dont forget, where humanity must at one time have been primitive beyond imagining. Without interstellar travel, without computers, without technology at all, struggling up from n onhuman ancestors.This is so ridiculous.Pelorat hung his head in embarrassment at that. There is perhaps no use discussing this, old chap. I never have managed to make it win over to anyone. My own fault, Im sure.Trevize was at once contrite. Janov, I apologize. I spoke without thinking. These are views, after all, to which I am not accustomed. You have been developing your theories for over thirty years, while Ive been introduced to them all at once. You must make allowances. Look, Ill imagine that we have primitive peck on Earth who speak two completely different, mutually unintelligible, languages. Half a dozen, perhaps, said Pelorat diffidently. Earth may have been divided into several large land masses and it may be that there were, at first, no communications among them. The inhabitants of each land mass might have developed an individual language.Trevize said with watchful gravity, And on each of these land masses, once they grew cognizant of one another, they might have argued an origin Question and wondered on which one human beings had first arisen from other animals.They might very well, Golan. It would be a very natural attitude for them to have.And in one of those languages, Gaia means Earth. And the word Earth itself is derived from another one of those languages.Yes, yes And while Galactic Standard is the language that descended from the particular language in which Earth means Earth, the people of Earth for some reason call their planet Gala from another of their languages.Exactly You are indeed quick, Golan.But it seems to me that theres no need to make a mystery of this. If Gaia is really Earth, despite the remnant in names, then Gala, by your previous argument, ought to have a period of rotation of just one Galactic Day, a period of revolution of just one Galactic Year, and a giant satellite that revolves about it in just one month.Yes, it would have to be so.Well then, does it or doesnt it fulfill these requirements?Actually I cant say . The information isnt given in the tables.Indeed? Well, then, Janov, shall we go to Gaia and time its periods and stare at its satellite?I would like to, Golan, Pelorat hesitated. The trouble is that the location isnt given exactly, either.You mean, all you have is the name and nothing more, and that is your excellent possibility?But that is just why I want to visit the Galactic LibraryWell, wait. You say the table doesnt give the location exactly. Does it give any information at all?It lists it in the Sayshell Sector and adds a question mark.Well, then Janov, dont be downcast. We will go to the Sayshell Sector and somehow we will find Gaia